Punk Justice for iPhone review

Punk Justice offers a few nice touches to the genre but the novelity wears off quickly.

I’m a huge fan of fighting games so when I came across Punk Justice for the iPhone I was anxious to see what people were trying to do with the genre on the platform. Punk Justice is more like Punch Out!! than the 2D or 3D fighters I’ve come to know and love. It has a static camera placed behind the character you control with your opponent facing you, and has two buttons on either side of the screen that allow you to punch or dodge in that direction. You have a stamina bar that allows you to continue punching and a power bar that when depleted you predictably get knocked out and lose. There are combos and hitting the punch button while dodging will result in a stronger punch being thrown. There are also challenges thrown into the fights like having to KO your opponent within a certain time limit or only giving you the ability to dodge for a certain amount of time before you can throw a punch.

Unlike Punch Out!! the characters are all pretty much on the same note. The skins for the characters changes, but other than tweaks to their speed or power they throw the exact same punch. Also there is no telegraphing what is to come. They’ll go into a punch animation and you have a split second to guess which direction to dodge before the hit lands. Quite often you’ll eat a few punishing hit strings from a mistimed dodge. There are a few different backgrounds, but after 5-10 minutes you’ve basically seen all the game has to offer. The game is fun for a few minutes but it’s not the sort of app you’ll be in a rush to return to.

Grade D+
Meta Grade 40