Fist Puncher Now Beating The Pants Off Of XBLIG

Since the beginning of time, a fist’s most sacred duty has always been to punch the daylights out of something. Retro brawler Fist Puncher believes strongly in these ideals, and now its bringing its own brand of punchy awesomeness to Xbox Live Indie Games.

Originally released earlier this summer on Steam, Fist Puncher comes from the guys at Team2Bit, comprised of brothers Jake and Matt Lewandowski. Their goal with Fist Puncher was simple: Create a rad sendup to beat-em-up games of old while putting its own spin on the well-known genre. Retro aesthetics and music are a must, however, which is exactly what Fist Puncher offers.

The brothers Lewandowski have promised that the XBLIG version of the game “boasts the same wealth of content” as the PC version, complete with 50 levels to pummel your way through, 15 characters to choose from, as well as an extensive RPG and leveling system to dive into. There’s also four-player local co-op for those of you who have a few likeminded punch friends.

While the PC version of Fist Puncher was published by Adult Swim Games, the Lewandowskis said that the publisher gave them free reign to go full indie on other platforms, which is why they will be publishing the game themselves this time around. You can grab it starting today for 400 MSP, or $5 in normal human money.

Microsoft’s Xbox consoles have been in the spotlight when it comes to indie games as of late, specifically the Xbox One’s initial stance that, put quite bluntly, indie games were not going to be a big part of their equation. Originally not allowed on the upcoming next gen console, Microsoft has since announced that self-publishing will now be a part of the Xbox One ecosystem and, eventually, every One console could be utilized as a dev kit, too.

That’s quite a 180 on the part of Microsoft, going from an almost anti-indie standpoint to one that falls more in line with the upcoming competition, the PlayStation 4, which has had a strong emphasis on the indie scene since the consoles announcement.

Bringing Kick Puncher to the 360, the Lewandowski’s chimed in on the topic.

“People think we’re backwards porting a Steam game to XBLIG,” said Jake. “But despite the Xbox One controversy and the questions on where Microsoft will stand with indies in the next gen, they are the ones that truly democratized video game consoles with XBLIG and XNA.”

Matt agreed.

“We hope Microsoft recognizes their position as a leader and follows up with another indie-friendly console,” he added. “As much maligned as the indie channel is, it still stands for something important. True, some of the shittiest games ever made are up there, but that’s what makes finding the hidden gems so much more magical.”

Whether or not Kick Puncher is one of those gems remains to be seen, but you can investigate the matter for yourself starting today by heading to the XBLIG page and picking up a copy.