Pay attention Nintendo. This is what Punch Out could have become with a bit of love and creativity.

Of Nintendo’s numerous questionable practices (limited releases, anti-competition, pricing policies etc.), the treatment of less popular (read: profitable) franchises is one of the more egregious. Sooner or later that void would be filled by someone else: enter Bromio and their duck-based substitute.

Pato Box is an audiovisual treat. The aesthetic is unlike anything I’ve seen before: a cell-shaded black and white comic-book. The story, load screens, dialogue are all framed as a graphic novel and it suited the tone of the game perfectly. The music throughout hits all the right notes too: it is catchy, intriguing and bizarre.

You play as the silent, but deadly (and potentially mind-reading?) bird-faced Pato Box who walks around punching people to start a conversation, punching switches to turn them on and punching items to pick them up. You’ve yet to find a problem that can’t be solved with a punch.

During a championship match you are drugged, defeated and left for dead in an alley. With some help to get stitched back together, it’s time to head to Deathflock headquarters seeking revenge on those responsible. What starts as a simple premise steadily evolves into a growing corporate conspiracy.

The game suggests making use of motion controls. Playing on switch I opted to try it out and quickly got stumped by the tutorial and failed to hit even a stationary punching bag. After working out I needed to hold the joy cons in an ever-so slightly different alignment for my punches to register I finally saw off the dreaded punching bag of death. However, the first real fight proved too much. I tried 5 or 6 times, but I just couldn’t get the hang of it. Maybe it was me, but the control inputs seemed laggy and I couldn’t consistently dodge or land my punches. After turning motion controls off though, I was able to get through that fight at the first time of asking. You’re better off skipping the motion controls entirely to go with the more traditional control scheme.

The other defining feature is the difficulty. Make no mistake this is a seriously challenging game, but one that never felt unfair. The elation of triumphing at the thirtieth attempt is difficult to find in most games. These bosses will kick your ass and demand you meet their standards: no easy mode, no free passes. It’s time to get good or go home.

The total 8 boss fights each evolve through 3 phases getting steadily faster and tougher. This is an obvious and natural way to structure a boss yet it doesn’t avoid that frustration of being able to defeat the first phase perfectly only to get utterly destroyed quickly into the second. To the game’s credit though, defeats never seemed unfair. I just wasn’t good enough yet.

In between boxing matches, is where the oddity surfaces. Pato Box turns into an adventure-lite game wherein you must solve basic puzzles in order to reach your next opponent. The change in pace between bosses is welcome. However, I can’t help but feel that these sections are under-cooked. One particularly disappointing section merely requires you to play casino games long enough to turn your 20 chips into 300, the entry fee for the fight. Really? As a side-mission sure, as a requirement to continue with the main game, no thanks.

Pato Box truly is something different. Even if the combat leans heavily on Punch Out, the aesthetics, bizarre story and challenge really make it stand out from the crowd. If the adventure part of the game were of an equal standard, this would undoubtedly be looked upon as one of the outstanding indie titles of its time. I can't hold the adventure against it too much: you do have the option to play in arcade mode if you just want to focus on the boss fights.

As it is, Pato Box gets a hearty recommendation. Just prepare to get your ass kicked. A lot.