Other animals hate him for these three simple moves | Punch Kick Duck - Full Review

Punch Kick Duck is a mobile beat’ em up game with a simple no frills gameplay and a straightforward goal, to reach the top of the tower and escape.

🟩Pros

+Fun and satisfying combat mechanics

+Challenging variety of enemies

+Controller support

+Play in landscape or vertical

🟥Cons

-Too short

You are imprisoned at the bottom of a tower and have escaped. Your fellow animals are out to stop you from going up and escaping. As luck would have it, you can do three simple moves; Punch, Kick, and Duck. That’s all you need really, to stop them from stopping you.

Gameplay Analysis:

Punch Kick Duck is playable in either landscape or portrait mode, with controller support as well, Whatever works best for you. The game itself is easy to learn; just three types of attack. But it’s hard to master, because each enemy has their own attack-type that you need to counter in a rock-paper-scissors format. Punch beats Kick, Kick beats Duck, and Duck beats Punch.

For example, all bunnies use a kick attack, so you have to punch them in order to knock them out. Using kicks will just negate both of your attacks, while using duck will cause you to get hit. It gets confusing at first but given practice, it becomes just second nature and you will instinctively choose the right move as soon as you see the enemy type.

Punch Kick Duck will throw all sorts of enemy types at the same time, and they can come from both sides. It’s becomes highly skill-based game that will test your reaction time, reflexes, and memory. It features three difficulty levels. so if you are having difficulties you can just play at the easiest setting.

The combat flow is oddly rhythmic and hitting combos gives off a satisfying feeling that will surely keep you playing for more levels, although it gets a bit hard starting at the third level, especially when you are swarmed with different types of enemies and you have to react in a timely manner in order to beat them.

It's free to play, but with slight ads or microtransactions.

One free revive is all you got, after that, it's game over when you get damaged again. Fortunately you can replenish this free revive (if used already) by just continuing to beat down enemies, giving you an extra life again. Game over means the level will just get restarted.

You gain coins during runs, which you can also use to force buy a revive — if you don’t want to watch an ad.

You can also buy and unlock various anthropomorphic characters, so it's not just a Duck that’s available, we also have other fan favorite animals like a dog, a cat, and a chicken, among others. However, most of the characters are only unlockable via real money. Fortunately, this is a free to play game that is beatable without ever spending a dime, so the in-game purchases are just optional.

Simple, but hard to master

In the later levels, some enemy types will have multiple types of attacks depending on their stances, so you have to pay extra attention so you can use the appropriate move to beat them. Some enemies will also take more than a single hit to knock out. Some will also throw objects at you like bottles and food carts.

There is a one minute timer before a bear comes out from behind to try and chase you down, requiring you to clear the levels in a hurry. If he catches up, it's an instant fail.

Even though the game auto-moves, you can still hold the screen to run, and the game encourages you to clear the levels in a fast way. Running more often and leaving enemies behind will give you more points as you are scored at the end of each level, not to mention the chances of the bear catching you gets lower.

Punch Kick Duck is a very short game, only spanning 10 visually distinct levels, with the final level being a boss fight. It’s beatable in under 30 minutes especially once you’ve mastered the combat system. Despite the short length, it’s still highly replayable especially if you find the combat very satisfying.

Conclusion:

The 2.5D visuals of Punch Kick Duck are lovely and the upbeat music perfectly fits the gameplay, to the point that it almost plays like a rhythm game. This results in a simple but fun challenging game, and it’s free-to-play too, just with minor ads and optional microtransactions.