The Daily Backlog 64
I take a look at the quacktastic duck filled ode to Punch-Out, Pato Box by Bromio!!
A Good Day to be a Duck
Good afternoon backloggin’ people! Unless you’re up to date on all the games you own. And currently have nothing on your backlog. Makes me kinda wonder what kind of gamer you really are? I mean, buying games and actually playing them? Getting your “money’s” worth?? *pssshhh* Come on, stop being logical and budget conscientious, there are games out there to buy!!
Speaking of games to buy, I’ve been playing a little gem from our friends over at Bromio called Pato Box!! And they were kind enough to send me over a review code for the Switch edition!! So, instead of my typical daily update, I thought I’d dedicate today’s post to my initial impressions of the game in lue of sinking a whole bunch more time into it over the next week or so! And believe you me, I’ll definitely be putting more time into it!
Duck Punching Shenanigans
Once upon a time, a studio name Bromio had a dream. They dreamed of bringing the classic trappings of the beloved Punch-Out to the modern age! So, wanting to realize that dream, they launched a successful Kickstarter campaign and by 2018 Bromio released what we now know as Pato Box on the PlayStation 4/Vita, Nintendo Switch and Steam!
If you haven’t heard of Punch-Out, first of all - where have you been all these years?! Secondly, it’s an action/puzzle game where you play as an underdog boxer pitted against brutish heavy weights and it’s your job to take them down! And you do that by memorizing your opponents tells and exploiting their weaknesses until you achieve victory! It’s no easy task either. But Bromio wanted to give us something a little more than just a Punch-Out homage. No, they wanted to add a twist to make it more interesting! They wanted to adventurize it! And they did that by adding in a full fledged story mode complete with quests, dialog choices, exploration, death, conspiracies, plot twists and puzzle solving!! This is actually the part that surprised me the most. Oh and they also made your character some sort of duck/man hybrid! So weird! But so good!
All that Punch-Out goodness is there too. Except Bromio once again spiced it up and made the fights much more interesting! Pato Box, still has fun and interesting characters to fight with unique patterns, (sometime maddening!) but they also stirred in more over the top mechanics to throw you for a loop! Like, a cyborg lady that can summon turret robots or electrified beams! It really makes these sequences fun and all I want to do is keep playing so I can see what they come up with next!
Dip, Dive and Duck
I’ve only defeated one of the characters so far, but as of right now everything gameplay-wise has been spot on. I’ve been weaving around jabs and hooks and laying the smackdown. Except when I’m not of course. Because I’ve determined I’m not very good at reading my opponent! But that’s only in the fights. I’m also able to use my brain too by solving the puzzles found throughout Pato Box’s story/adventure mode. Or completing the quests for random citizens and collecting their patokens! Yay for collectibles!
I especially enjoy exploring the Deathflock headquarters, talking to people and unraveling the deep dark secrets of the evil megacorporation behind my recent streak of back luck! I mean, you punch things to interact with them. That, in and of itself, speaks volumes. Only topped with the fact that my head is shaped like a duck. You’ll be rewarded too for you exploration because you can find notes scattered around and hidden in corners that’ll help and prepare you for your upcoming fights. Like how to deal with a character’s specific moveset.
And all this greatness is tied together with a fantastic and upbeat soundtrack with a graphic novel art style! The icing on top really.
Think Outside the Duck
Honestly, I was quite pleasantly surprised by Pato Box. I have never had much nostalgia for Punch-Out, but now after playing this game I can definitely see what all the praise was all about! The whole “learning your opponent’s patterns” thing and executing them perfectly really strikes a chord with me and I’m definitely looking forward to playing more! Because I’m sure there’s much more goofiness and duck punching to be had!
Bromio also included motion controls in the Switch version so that should be interesting. I’m personally not the biggest fan of those gimmicks myself, but for the sake of posterity I’ll be sure to try it out and report back in the next few days. And if it works well I can see it being pretty dang fun. What with swinging my arms around to take out these Deathflock baddies! I should probably warn my wife to move to another room while I’m playing it though. Because JoyCons will be a-flyin!
If you’re interested in checking out Pato Box and would like to play along with me you can find it on the PS4, Switch and Steam for $14.99! I’ll leave some links below so you don’t have to use your internet powers to try and find them yourself!
Oh! And before I forget! For all those tangible goods collectors out there, Eastasiasoft will be releasing a physical limited edition of the Switch version on Play Asia for $29.99!
64, The Nintendo of Numbers
Well my friends, I think that’ll do it for today! I really am having a blast with Pato Box and it came at just the right time because Devil May Cry 5 and Xenon Valkyrie+ have been complete! Well, technically I’ve only finished DMC5, but I think I’ve had my fill of Xenon. That game is unbeatable I tell you!! That’s probably not true, and I may pick at it here and there, but for now I'm considering it done. And of course I’ll be playing a whole bunch more of Pato Box. That is, if I can get this Kilpatrick character to stop roasting my peking duck!
I’ve also been thinking a whole bunch about what my next theme is going to be for the backlog Twitter poll so look forward to seeing something soon. And if you have any ideas, shoot me a tweet! It could be fun to not only get a random selection of games from my backlog, but also a random theme.
Until Monday, have a great weekend!
Currently Playing
Mario + Rabbids (Switch) - The Trio
Pato Box (Switch) - Me
Graveyard Keeper (Steam) - The Wife
Total Backlogged Games: 733 …What the flock was that all about?!
Total Completed Games: 16 …Duck! 16 incoming!
Want to contribute to the website or the podcast? You can send your written or audio submissions to the below emails!
Written: [email protected]
Audio: [email protected]
Want to know what other shenanigans I’ve been up to? Then follow me on Twitter @BacklogOdyssey
And you can keep tabs on my backlog by checking out the Backlog Odyssey Backloggery game list!
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : https://www.backlogodyssey.com/the-daily-backlog-64/
QUACKS HARD! Don't mind me, I am just QUACK-ing on through life. Just going to- QUACK! Well, yah got me Chief, I truly am a QUACK but I ain't CRACK!!!!~ (Nobody likes the pun? Well I won't SHONE my WAYNE out now~) c: But let's look at some quack-games that might be wacky as wacky tabaccy! c:
Hey! I take pride in the fact that I can actually check reviews and gameplay online to see if it would be something to buy. On an animal related rampage, Ape Out seems really fun to play; especially jazzy. But that ain't no QUACKING Duck game now, is it?~ Anywho, nice of them to brave the unknown and get some exposure for their games. Definitely a big risk for a very big World out there, especially for the World Wide Web...
On Duck Punching Shenanigans: Well we start with a dream that secretly disguised history! How DARE THEE! Because it's so written well that little blurb, and I wanna check it out after this post. Anywho to move on: seeing your explanation of punch out and what Bromio did, definitely makes me wanna see if my friends still have Punch-Out in their attics to play with them sometime. Of which why? To get my mind trained for a fighter game in this vein, can't unnecesarily walk in feeling like a weapons expert (BRUTAL DOOM MOD) who went through a Spooky Mansion (Spooky's Jumpscare Mansion) and did some exploring in a bug-infested World later (Hollow Knight) to now just wonder into a figher's ring now, can I?... Eh, let's see if I can detect patterns and learn how to dance with them.
On Dip, Dive and Duck: Well, that's interesting - love me a good few puzzles. Especially when it ties to an area and gives an impression/clue to the area, atmosphere and antangonists the character faces. But I thought adventuring was just simply getting to the next area, guess I was wrong and it feels like the Simpson's game released in the PS3 era (at least in the fighting, exploring and talking aspects, don't quote me on anything else).
On Think Outside the Duck: Firstly, that title is just genius. Secondly, self-humility and self-crit lessons are very well placed here. Thirldy, in spite of making an ordered list out of nowhere, I like that you touch on the gimmicks and controls (well without spoiling that much of what can be spoiled). Fourthly, well deserved advertisement of them - especially since this review probably did justice to a great game. Also LINKS!
On 64: Interesting the games you are playing and the games you've done (especially with 733 games backlogged, might need to complete a good chunk of the games worth completing). Anywho, congratulations on the @curie upvote!
Thanks so much for reading! I really do appreciate it!
Going into Pato Box, I was prepared to be apathetic toward what Bromio was trying to do. Like I said I didn't really have much nostalgia for the game they were trying to pay homage to. But after playing it and interacting with the devs you can really tell they put their heart into Pato Box.
That and they made it really easy to write a positive review!
Welcome for the comment! ~^^~
Yeah, I can notice because it was bleeding through review! :p
Thanks for sharing the post with us again!~
Hi pixelbites,
Visit curiesteem.com or join the Curie Discord community to learn more.
Thanks so much!
Heyy @pixelbites, thanks for sharing this nice review!
The way they have implemented the game sounds very fun :) Do you know anything about a possible Xbox One release of this game?
And how long are the quests? Is it for example possible to start the game, play half an hour or so, and quit? Or do you have to play a little bit longer to complete a quest?
Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it! 😁
I've not heard if Bromio will be porting the game to the Xbox One but it wouldn't surprise me if it eventually did.
The quests aren't very long at all and most don't last more than a few minutes. It also autosaves frequently so it's very easy to pick up and play for short periods of time. That is, if you can put it down haha
The actual boxing matches can take a bit longer but thats only because you'll be reattempting them multiple times trying to figure out your opponents patterns. 😆
I'll keep my eyes and ears open in case they release it to Xbox ;)
Ah, that's good. Time is an issue here that's why :)
Clear on that, thanks!
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