If you think the title is little more than a healthy pun, think again; Pulling No Punches means what it says. Politically charged, littered with incendiary themes, and crammed with expletives, this Brazilian indie title is quite the surprise, combining combat with combative opinion.
A scrolling beat ’em up in a retro style, its 2D styling is a wonderful combination of Ren & Stimpy and the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers. Its cutscenes are purposely, brilliantly crude, and the handful of painted introduction stills are so beautiful we can’t understand why they opted for such a blasé title screen.
The top-notch design work extends in-game, featuring a series of visually superb stages that exude effort. One to four players can utilise one of four squat characters to beat up on equally squat, well-animated adversaries. The fighting isn’t bad either, and while initially sluggish and short-ranged, it’s easy to employ mix-ups and smackdown techniques once you become accustomed. Each character has a broad arsenal of attacks, and their repertoire expands as you acquire scattered tomes and earn new moves. What we don’t like is the basic combo denying you a quick turn during its animation process. While the game is solid enough, things like this could have been improved. After the first stage, you reach a linear map overworld where you can purchase items that refill health and super bars with your collected purse of coins.
What stands out most, though, is the game’s overarching narrative. Pulling No Punches is about citizens taking a stand against pandemic deniers not wearing masks, and it’s brutal in its statement. Medical mask-wearing bystanders look on as you go about beating the hell out of caricatured louts: smoking, drinking, flag-waving, vomiting individuals who have been brilliantly rendered but also aggressively stereotyped. Elsewhere, you infiltrate a church, bashing bible-flinging congregates and a minister in need of an exorcism, and later, save vaccination scientists from Nazi flag-emblazoned mutations. The game’s satirising of the reaction to the COVID outbreak and its hard left leanings are obviously divisive, especially now many a question has been raised over government and big pharma’s handling of the pandemic. But, whether the game’s partisan approach makes you feel justified or indignant, there’s no denying the developer’s hard work.
There’s plenty of humour involved, and it’s darkly violent stuff. Breaking out of clinches by mashing “f***ing buttons” and clearing the area of “***holes”; grabbing masks for 1UPs and initiating super moves that call for “essential workers” or “social distancing” is both summarily unusual and intriguing. There’s also a Trans brawler character whose hulking male physique and dainty hair bows may not sit well with certain groups.
There’s something weirdly wonderful about Pulling No Punches, though. Its four chapters comprise just over an hour end-to-end, but there’s so much to see that one can’t help but be absorbed by it. Whether the awesome character designs, the blazing f-bombs, the untranslated onomatopoeia of its fisticuffs, or the divisive theme itself, Pulling No Punches is not only a competent scrolling beat ’em up, but has a power of intrigue like few others. Frankly, we’re not sure Nintendo’s board of approval paid much attention to it, and in a world littered with a host of sanitised indie retro-themed games, its daring, politicised demeanour is a breath of fresh air.