History VideoGame / PunchClub

* DenserAndWackier: The core game doesn't take itself too seriously, but its plot is still generally in the boxing and martial arts genres and most of the supernatural elements (like the medallion) fit into the latter (aside from [[spoiler: TimeTravel]]). The Dark Fist plotline is a superhero plot that goes into full-on parody. The sequel takes a lot of further steps by setting it in a {{Cyberpunk}} setting.

* TheDogWasTheMastermind: The Dark Fist quest line, in which you become a superhero, ends with the revelation that the evil Mastermind is [[spoiler:your cat Fluffy, making this a near-literal example. After becoming empowered by your father's medallion, and resentful of the player for never feeding him properly, he set up a world-conquering scheme, even faking his own death when you started interfering. You stop him by telling him off, rubbing his nose in his weapon of mass destruction, telling him not to try taking over the world, and then taking him home]].
** By the time the sequel happens, Fluffy is revealed as the BigBad of the story, responsible for kidnapping the hero, implanting chips into everyone including Adrian, starting a nuclear holocaust and creating a dystopian city over the course of twenty years.

* TacticalRockPaperScissors: ZigZagged. The main martial art paths in Punch Club 2 have different strengths and weaknesses that make them stronger against other Paths but each Path has two specializations that are useful against specific Paths.

*** [[spoiler:The first phase has it emulate the [[StoneWall Path of the Angry Tortoise]], boasting an enormous energy pool and nearly-impassable blocks. [[ArmorPiercingAttack You can bypass it by using modifiers that ignore some of the block's damage reduction]], dealing damage directly to its comparatively less impressive health pool.]]

* UnintentionallyUnwinnable: It's possible to lock yourself into a situation where you have no money, energy or food, and you've already used up Mick's free meals, so you can't sleep or get a job to feed yourself. If you do this before you unlock the bar, you can't dumpster dive for a free burger, so restarting is your only option.

** The sequel's version has an ancient shaman play a musical pipe to help treat a neurologically overloaded brain from the player using the extreme neurotraining program in Silver's Gym. Additionally, the shaman also makes green tea to lower the toxic side effects of drinking the star boosters.

** The sequel's version has an ancient shaman play a musical pipe to help treat a neurologically overloaded brain from the player using the extreme neurotraining program in Silver's Gym.

* AwesomeButImpractical: Watching tapes in the sequel will provide you with a wide array of improvements but only a few of them will remain useful by the end of the game, with most of them either being rendered obsolete by newer things such as equipment or having such insignificant improvements that they are barely worth taking in the first place.

* HelloInsertNameHere: You choose the name of the protagonist at the start of a run.

* LevelScaling: Hard difficulty adds this to your opponents.

* MindControlDevice: PlayedForLaughs with the holochips in the sequel, which the cops barely make any attempt to sugarcoat when they implant the protagonist with one near the beginning of the game. [[spoiler:It's PlayedForDrama afterwards as it really is used for sinister mind control from time to time, including Adrian's illness in the game, and the holographic people created out of their memory banks are loyal to the Corporations regardless of their previous affiliations.]]

** By the time the sequel happens, [[spoiler:Fluffy]] is revealed as the BigBad of the story, responsible for kidnapping the hero, implanting chips into everyone including Adrian, starting a nuclear holocaust and creating a dystopian city over the course of twenty years.

** The sequel's version has an ancient shaman play a musical pipe to help treat a neurologically overloaded brain from the player uses the neurotraining program from Silver's Gym.

** In the second game's final fighting league, an ordinary fighter dies from TheFoodPoisoningIncident when the player is matched with him.
* ChekhovsGunman: In Punch Club 2 some characters turn out to have far bigger roles in the plot than previously assumed such as [[spoiler: [TheDanza]K, who is more than just a [[Film/BladeRunner2049 Blade Runner]] reference and shares the same name as sci-fi novelist Creator/PhilipKDick]].

* EleventhHourSuperpower: In Punch Club 2, [[spoiler:getting into Upper City not only allows you to use any unlockable combat skill in the game without any torus costs but also allows you to freely redistribute your stats.]]

** In the second fighting league, a random fighter dies from TheFoodPoisoningIncident when the player is matched with him.
* ChekhovsGunman: In Punch Club 2 some characters turn out to have far bigger roles in the plot than previously assumed such as [[spoiler:K, who is more than just a [[Film/BladeRunner2049 Blade Runner]] reference]].

* MindControlDevice: PlayedForLaughs with the holochips, which the cops barely make any attempt to sugarcoat when they implant the protagonist with one near the beginning of the game. [[spoiler:It's PlayedForDrama afterwards as it really is used for sinister mind control from time to time, and the holographic people created out of their memory banks are loyal to the Corporations regardless of their previous affiliations.]]

* BoringButPractical: In Punch Club 2 Double Inhale and Qi Concentration are this, being unimpressive attack skills that recover extra stamina instead of doing any real attacks, but they allow you to avoid '''a lot''' of trouble that stems from lack of stamina, keeping the character far longer in the ring.

*** Every classic movie on a tape is an {{Expy}} of a real movie

** In the second fighting league, a random fighter dies from TheFoodPoisoningIncident when the player is matched with him

** In the second game, Mick suffers this fate during the twenty year gap between games and is forced to become a digital hologram.

** In the second fighting league, a random fighter dies from TheFoodPoisoning when the player is matched with him.

** In the events of the sequel, the leader of LaResistance turns out to be the hero's brother (in this case, the player character's uncle), revealing himself to the player towards the end of the game.

* TheDogWasTheMastermind: The Dark Fist quest line, in which you become a superhero, ends with the revelation that the evil Mastermind is [[spoiler:your cat Fluffy, making this a near-literal example. After becoming empowered by your father's medallion, and resentful of the player for never feeding him properly, he set up a world-conquering scheme, even faking his own death when you started interfering. You stop him by telling him off, rubbing his nose in his weapon of mass destruction, telling him not to try taking over the world, and then taking him home]]. By the time the sequel happens, [[spoiler:Fluffy]] is revealed as the BigBad of the story, responsible for kidnapping the hero, implanting chips into everyone including Adrian, starting a nuclear holocaust and creating a dystopian city over the course of twenty years.

* TheDogWasTheMastermind: The Dark Fist quest line, in which you become a superhero, ends with the revelation that the evil Mastermind is [[spoiler:your cat Fluffy, making this a near-literal example. After becoming empowered by your father's medallion, and resentful of the player for never feeding him properly, he set up a world-conquering scheme, even faking his own death when you started interfering. You stop him by telling him off, rubbing his nose in his weapon of mass destruction, telling him not to try taking over the world, and then taking him home]]. By the time the sequel happens, Fluffy is revealed as the BigBad of the story, responsible for kidnapping the hero, implanting chips into everyone including Adrian, starting a nuclear holocaust and creating a dystopian city over the course of twenty years.

* GainaxEnding: After hard training and fighting your way to the top (either professionally or illegally), you head to a secret island for [[BigBad the Man in Black's tournament]]. The result of this tournament has no effect on anything but two lines of dialogue, and then you confront the Man in Black, who reveals that [[spoiler:he is your father. Yep your father's killer is your father; he traveled back in time, killed his past self, and stole the medallion so he could destroy it. This is because, in the original timeline, splitting the medallion in half so both his sons could use its power led to one piece becoming cursed, driving one of you insane (he doesn't tell you which), and then the insane one killed the other one and became a crime lord who somehow turned the city into an apocalyptic wasteland]]. Nothing else is explained, no one reacts, asks questions or says anything else. You merely get to walk around for a few more seconds before the credits roll.
** The sequel carries on with this tradition. The hero's son defeats Fluffy and attempts to free his father, but doing so triggers a self-destruct countdown. A group of aliens resembling ''Film/ETTheExtraTerrestrial'' arrived in Earth's orbit to gather Earth's champion for an intergalactic tournament only to beam everyone aboard their ship after learning what has transpired.

* GenerationXerox: In the first Punch Club game, the player character wants to avenge his father's murder and goes through a series of fights to solve the mystery. By the time the sequel comes along, the player controls the character's SON, who wants to investigate his father's disappearance.

* InevitableTournament: The rookie league, underground ultimate fighting, the bar parking lot brawls, the pro league, this game has quite a few.

* LimitedWardrobe: You only wear a yellow T-shirt with an indistinct pattern and red gym shorts. Unless you [[WalkingShirtlessScene shuck your shirt while at the gym or at home]]. In some cutscenes, though, you have other clothes. In the sequel, you carry a similar tradition, with your character wearing a blue-green t-shirt with the [[MeaningfulName Roman Numeral II]] on it.
* LukeIAmYourFather: [[spoiler:Red Eye is actually your dad, but from a different timeline than your dead dad]].

* ShoutOut: The game is filled with references to other media, such as [[spoiler:the protagonist's friend]] suffering a fatal wound from [[Film/RockyIV Ivan]][[VideoGame/StreetFighter gief]], or the local pizza place making special deliveries to [[Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles Mutant Ninja Alligators and their Raccoon Master]].

* TheDogWasTheMastermind: The Dark Fist quest line, in which you become a superhero, ends with the revelation that the evil Mastermind is [[spoiler:your cat Fluffy, making this a near-literal example. After becoming empowered by your father's medallion, and resentful of the player for never feeding him properly, he set up a world-conquering scheme, even faking his own death when you started interfering. You stop him by telling him off, rubbing his nose in his weapon of mass destruction, telling him not to try taking over the world, and then taking him home]]. By the time the sequel happens, Fluffy is revealed as the BigBad of the story

* EarlyGameHell: The time and money management is hardest in the beginning, when you have no stats to speak of and barely any money, and have to balance work, training, eating and sleeping, dealing with severe money sinks and stat decay. As you advance, you get more tools for making money and keeping your stats and meters up, allowing you to focus on kicking ass. The fights do get harder, but you'll be harder too unless you're playing Hardcore Mode.

* GainaxEnding: After hard training and fighting your way to to the top (either professionally or illegally), you head to a secret island for [[BigBad the Man in Black's tournament]]. The result of this tournament has no effect on anything but two lines of dialogue, and then you confront the Man in Black, who reveals that [[spoiler:he is your father. Yep your father's killer is your father; he traveled back in time, killed his past self, and stole the medallion so he could destroy it. This is because, in the original timeline, splitting the medallion in half so both his sons could use its power led to one piece becoming cursed, driving one of you insane (he doesn't tell you which), and then the insane one killed the other one and became a crime lord who somehow turned the city into an apocalyptic wasteland]]. Nothing else is explained, no one reacts, asks questions or says anything else. You merely get to walk around for a few more seconds before the credits roll.

* RichesToRags: Played straight in the sequel. During the time gap, Adrian becomes pregnant with the hero's son, and is forced to raise him alone. By the time the sequel starts, they are living back in the hero's old house.

* TimedMission: Three achievements require you to reach the ending in under three hundred, two hundred, or one hundred in-game days.

* ToBeContinued: Stated at the very end of the credits, after the GainaxEnding.

* TheDogWasTheMastermind: The Dark Fist quest line, in which you become a superhero, ends with the revelation that the evil Mastermind is [[spoiler:your cat Fluffy, making this a near-literal example. After becoming empowered by your father's medallion, and resentful of the player for never feeding him properly, he set up a world-conquering scheme, even faking his own death when you started interfering. You stop him by telling him off, rubbing his nose in his weapon of mass destruction, telling him not to try taking over the world, and then taking him home]].

''Punch Club'' is a boxing tycoon [[ConstructionAndManagementGames management game]] with multiple branching story lines. The game was released on 8 Jan, 2016, developed by Lazy Bear Games, and published by Creator/TinyBuild. A sequel, ''Punch Club 2: Fast Forward'' was announced with a July 20, 2023 release date.

* DenserAndWackier: The core game doesn't take itself too seriously, but its plot is still generally in the boxing and martial arts genres and most of the supernatural elements (like the medallion) fit into the latter (aside from [[spoiler: TimeTravel]]). The Dark Fist plotline is a superhero plot that goes into full-on parody. The sequel takes a lot of further steps by setting it in a [cyberpunk] setting.