Panda Punch (PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, X/S, PC)

A red panda’s home is rampaged by robots, but he escapes.  Unfortunately, his arm is wounded, but his father is a mechanic red panda and fashions his son a mechanical arm.  Now with a powerful metal punching fist, the red panda sets off to pummel the robots in this 2-D platformer.  Panda Punch is available on all current game consoles and PC, but reviewed on PS4 here.

Gameplay is pretty straightforward.  Your red panda can jump and punch.  You’ll travel through forests and ruins and other areas, defeating robots and solving button switch puzzles along the way.  Collect little square coins to upgrade your powers back at your father’s house, although I could never figure out if they were doing anything unless you have to fill the upgrade meters all the way.  And if that’s the case, it would take FOREVER to upgrade anything.  There are also hidden circles with 1P on them you can search and find, but I have no idea what they do.  Take three hits and you must start over at the beginning of the level or last checkpoint flag you touched.  And that’s pretty much it.  I do like how it reminds me of something I would’ve rented on the SNES back in the day, but my main problem with this one is that it’s just too generic.  Too many blind jumps as well.  And the first boss is a damage sponge and takes way too many hits and is just too hard.  But if you can’t get enough 2-D platformers, here’s another one for ya.

Kid Factor:

Panda Punch is rated E-10 with ESRB descriptors of Fantasy Violence and Mild Blood.  I didn’t notice any blood, but you can punch all sorts of robots and turrets that just break apart and disappear when defeated.  Your character just falls over when you run out of hearts.  Reading skill is helpful for the text but not necessary just to play, and younger gamers may find it too difficult.

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