Review for Penny Punching Princess. Game for Nintendo Switch and PlayStation Vita, the video game was released on 24/11/2016 The version for Nintendo Switch came out on 30/03/2018
Capitalism: that socio-economic system that has incorporated the Western world, which praises the privatization of the means of production and social stratification. Marx, Smith and Weber are just a few of the names of the excellent thinkers who have devoted extensive analyzes and dissertations to the subject. In reverse it is quite unusual to speak of capitalism within the videogame mediumlet alone in a beat 'em up.
Nippon Ichi Software intervened to propose this mix of genres with Penny Punching Princess: a beat 'em up in isometric view which offers a series of levels to be tackled as a hard-hearted princess as a stone who wields a calculator, ready to pay the price for the corruption of her enemies and bestow on anyone who dares to get in her way.
Once upon a time, in a distant distant kingdom, there was a perfidious tyrant of simple vices and lacking in virtue. From his gloomy fortress he ruled with an iron fist, lording it over the lands adjacent to the gloomy manor. One bad day oppressions and abuses lost their effectiveness: capitalism had arrived unexpectedly in those lands and the sovereignty of gold ousted the poor tyrant, who was devoured by debts and died in disgrace. His daughter, Princess, it is now ready to recapture the lost lands and restore luster to the dynasty. Having assimilated the mechanisms of the world of capital, she is armed with a calculator and ready to corrupt and massacre her enemies.
After a short tutorial on the basic commands we will unlock the Game Hub, from which you can decide whether to leave for a mission, spend skill points, equip new armor and so on. The game controls are simple: by pressing the various keys we will be able to beat the enemies, perform a somersault during which we will be briefly invulnerable, carry out a heavy attack, use the armor skill, summon an ally and use the calculator.
It 'just around the calculator the unique mechanics of Penny Punching Princess. By pressing the left backbone (we tried the Nintendo Switch version), we will be able to interact with the interface of the computation tool and enter the appropriate digit via the touch screen or the left Joy-Con keys (depending on the preferred control system) to the corruption of an enemy to make him pass over to our side and use him a limited number of times as a "summon".
Everything revolves around the vile money: beating enemies until they stun them will allow us to shake them to steal their money; the numerous chests present in the various maps are overflowing with precious and every occasion is good to bribe someone. The Taken will be recruited for later use as crafting material. In Penny Punching Princess crafting plays a primary role in the gaming experience: crafting armor and statues that guarantee additional skill points will require a large number of enemies and traps to collect, forcing us to retrace our steps and repeat levels already faced several times to corrupt the elements necessary for our recipes.
The character growth system revolves around skill points that can be spent to increase the parameters that regulate the effectiveness in battle of our princess such as maximum life, attack and defense. Skill Points are obtained exclusively from one-time obtainable chests and from crafting through statue crafting. It will be useless to kill throngs of enemies, if not to free us the way to the goal.
Although the format of corruption of enemies and traps is ingenious and fun, the level design is unfortunately flat and challenges are never interesting or demanding enough to be praised: the game experience sees us defeat hordes of enemies by dodging or using traps to our advantage, and then repeat the same level several times in search of all the ingredients we will need to continue. The audio sector is convincing, however the lack of variety of jingles will mean that initially appreciated melodies can be boring in the long run, creating an atmosphere of hypnotic grinding not too bright.
The irony that permeates Penny Punching Princess and the idea behind the gameplay are certainly interesting elements, which unfortunately are nullified by a flat level design and a repetition that does not provide further stimuli to the player. The title is particularly suitable for short, lighthearted sessions and to enjoy some on-screen action without too many pretensions.
► Penny Punching Princess is a scrolling Arcade-Action-Beat 'em up game developed and published by NIS America for Nintendo Switch and PlayStation Vita, the video game was released on 24/11/2016 The version for Nintendo Switch came out on 30/03/2018
