Pulling No Punches

Pulling No Punches is built on the structure of arcade beat-em-ups — Final Fight, Streets of Rage — and overlays it on a satirical fictional pandemic. Four ordinary citizens, properly masked and gloved, walk through a city of pandemic-denying fanatics who refuse to believe the disease is real, and the game's question is whether punches will change their minds.

Four-player local co-op carries the whole campaign, with each playable character carrying unique unlockables and movesets. The full beat-em-up vocabulary is intact: punches, kicks, grabs, headbutts, throwable objects scavenged from the environment, and the usual escalating boss fights at the end of each stage.

The art is hand-drawn and animated frame by frame, with modern resolution but the texture of classic 2D animation. The satire is openly didactic — the developer isn't hiding what the fanatics represent — and the tone reflects that. Sessions are short, the combat is satisfying, and the political commentary is built into the genre's natural structure rather than awkwardly grafted on.