 I had a childhood friend that lived right down the road from me. He was a big reason I got into video games as a kid because he had an NES and I did not. In addition, his dad had a Game Boy, and this guy did not seem like the gaming type. He was your typical midwester, no-nonsense, blue-collar type. But the guy really played the heck out of Tetris and Golf. I remember 9-year-old me asking him, hey, why don't you have any more games? He said, I don't need any more games. I only play this when I'm taking a shit. I think of my friend's dad any time I come across a decent portable game that was clearly meant to be a pick-up-and-play-and-put-down portable game. That's exactly what Punch King is. It's a boxing game where you have three continues to take down 12 opponents in the story or career mode. There's also a survival mode where you can try and beat as many as 12 opponents on one health bar. And there's a 12th player versus mode, which would be kinda awkward if you were just gonna play this on the toilet. The controls are pretty intuitive. B throws a left, and A throws a right, and you hold a direction on the D-pad to dictate how you want the punch to be thrown. Like for instance, pressing B while holding left will throw a left hook, or pressing up with a punch-mountain will do a huge uppercut with either the left or right hand. The thing is though, this game has a refresh meter. You can only throw a few punches before you have to hang back for a bit and regain your strength. And that's where you use the L and R buttons to dodge, so the game does a nice job preventing you from just button-mashing. You gotta knock your opponent down three different times, and it can be any three times during the fight, not necessarily three times in one round, like in punch-out. There's also a KO meter, which you can see on the left, hit your opponent with a successful string of punches, and if you fill it up, your refresh meter goes away. It's almost like you have to work to be able to unlock button-mashing. I will say, this game can be pretty frustrating at first. It's one of those where there's a bit of a delay when you press a button, and when your character does something. Because you gotta wait for the animation sequence to catch up. So as a result of that, it's easy to get the crap kicked out of you right away. But like most other boxing games, once you get the timing down, this one is pretty fun. The immediate comparison with a game like this is another boxing game on the Game Boy Advance, which I looked at a while back, Wade Hickston's Counter Punch. And that game has a lot more meat on the bone, so to speak. I mean, Wade Hickston's almost felt like you were playing through an early 2000's Cartoon Network show, since there was a story that took you to different locations in an overworld where you could unlock new techniques. Punch King is a lot more bare bones, especially as a boxing game. The strategy here is as simple as, if your opponent has their gloves up, give him a body blow. If the gloves are down, hit him in the face. Save your big attacks for when you've got your opponent staggered, and make sure to conserve your energy so you can still block any Wade when you need to. It sounds really simple, but hey, so does Mike Tyson's punch out on the surface, and that game has some notoriously difficult fighters. So too does Punch King. It's definitely got its share of tricky fighters. And the final boss is ridiculously hard, because he's like 10 times quicker than anyone else you face to this point. What helps Punch King really shine are all the bells and whistles. This game looks awesome, the punch animations are great, the music is good, and really the character portraits here are great. And you gotta love how the Sumo Wrestler guy takes up the entire screen. So yeah, just wanted a quick video here on a solid portable game that was made to be portable, and I appreciate that. If you want a better overall game, and Wade Hickston's is the way to go. But if you're just looking for a game where you want something to do while you take a crap, then check out Punch King. All right, I want to thank you for watching, and I hope you have a great rest of your day.