Pato Box – Switch review

Review by Nicola Warren

Pato box the Boxing/Adventure game that is heavily inspired by the classic game Punch-Out! Is given to us by developers Bromio and 2Think design studio in Mexico. In this 2D black and white comic book style game you are a boxer trying to get revenge on Deathflock, the company you used to work for after they stabbed you in the back and left you for dead in an alley after losing your belt to the number one contender… Oh and did I mention that the main character is a 6ft muscle man/duck hybrid? Yes, a very muscle covered man’s torso clad with a duck’s head!

Throughout the game you encounter many different enemies each with their own crazy and profound personalities. Each match that you take part in are very different, you can go from having a normal boxing match to boxing a DJ where you have to punch to the beat of his music, a chef which you have to use different foods to attack him with or even a prosthetic leg yielded digital loving woman. You’ll notice also that most of the fights don’t necessarily take place in a boxing ring but in the areas that you are most likely to see the enemy residing within the game.

All the fights generally follow a three-stage set up which are easy, hard and difficult, the pattern usually tends to be fight, puzzle, fight, puzzle, fight, puzzle. Even though each fight is split into stages each fighting pattern is completely different and from playing the game I came to conclusion that the best way to beat each enemy is to learn their fighting pattern so you can attack and dodge your way to victory, so be prepared for a lot of failures as it is not as simple as aimlessly punch and win and expect a lot of loud cheering as you are doing so!

Pato Box isn’t just your typical boxing game, between the matches you will get to explore your old company leaving all kinds of damage and destruction as you get the chance to solve an array of different puzzles and mazes to unlock different rooms and floors within the building which will help you on your way to revenge. Also, if you are the type of person who likes a bit of a challenge there is also a side quest in the game where you need to find and collect Patotokens that are hidden all throughout the rooms to give yourself a bit more of a challenge than the game already does.

One of the main things which I really liked about Pato Box was how simple the controls are. The developers use the good old left right back dodge controls which are often seen in many of the retro games from the 80s and 90s. It is simple, effective and gets the job done, why over complicate things when you have a tried and tested formula. The only niggle about the controls though are that you need to hit them at exactly the right time! Otherwise you will fail… badly, but that is down to the player and their speed of responses to what’s happening in game at the time. Timing is key in this game! Also, the soundtrack is a genius mix of all different electro tunes, I loved it!

Yet as with most games it does have its downsides. The timing seems to be slightly off and there is a slight delay between your button pushes and the movements happening within the game causing you to have to work out timings sometimes. If you are a skimmer of text within a game the next pointer won’t really bother you but if not, you are indeed in for a ride! The narrative in the game even though good and amusing at times it seems to be riddled with grammatical errors and spelling mistakes, but this could simply be due to the translation from Mexican to English when the game was being developed.

I found the game to be a difficult game right from the start. It holds high standards right from the offset making the fights quite hard to win without having to have several tries at doing so, but don’t worry too much! You never run out of lives you just get knocked out and restart the game back at your last auto save. The game saves regularly at the beginning but as you get further it saves not as often so be prepared to replay some of the puzzles over again.

Pato Box is what I like to call a Marmite game… you either love it or hate it…. and I LOVED it. I went into the game with an open mind as I really wasn’t sure what to expect after seeing you play as a man duck, yet I was pleasantly surprised. The more I played the game the more I found I grew to love it and I feel that it is a great game. Yes, it has a few negative pointers but for the positive outweigh the negative by miles. The weird story plot, unique characters and the awesome soundtrack are all winners to me! The only let down was the difficulty of the game but you’ve just got to roll with the punches…

Overall, I give Pato Box 8/10