Thunder Ray Review

Thunder Ray is an arcade style boxing game akin to the classic Mike Tyson Punch-Out!! on the good ol’ NES or Super Punch Out! for the Super NES…except with plenty of blood, gore and guts. Players, as Thunder Ray, will need to punch his way through a handful of intergalatic threats from across the galaxy in order to become the GOAT of boxing throughout the universe.

Unlike its obvious inspirations, Thunder Ray has four different punches: left body blow, right body blow, left jab and right jab. Players can also add a bit more punch to their attack. By holding LB or RB before pressing a punch button will charge up the attack so it packs a bit more punch (pun intended) and more damage to the opponent.

As you punch your way through the battle, a special meter fills up progressively and can reach up to level 3. Once you have a full bar (or two or three), pressing both RB and LB simultaneously will unleash a powerful attack that will cause a decent chunk of damage to your opponent (except the last one… super punch or regular punch, its lifebar barely budges either way).

And yes, while you have a varied offensive, you can also get on defense as well by either dodging left or right, ducking and blocking. Mastering and familiarizing yourself with the opponents’ attack patterns will save your butt. The game also offers three difficulty settings if you’re looking to add a new layer of challenge.

Thunder Ray looks great. Colorful and uniquely designed opponent. Each enemy has a vastly different style and attack patterns for challenging fights (except the tutorial enemy and second to last one). The arena is the same and doesn’t change much. Also two of your opponents are so huge that you can’t see behind them. On the audio side of thing, forgettable soundtrack and the announcer does a decent (loud) job announcing your opponent and your trainer has a robotic, monotone voice.

The first issue is obviously the paper thing gameplay. While there are 3 difficulty modes and patterns to memorize, there will be a bit of replay, once you’re done, you’re done. No reason to replay the game unless you aim to master every battle. The other issue which is quite vital is the controls. They aren’t fully responsive causing some frustration. I’ve lost count on how many times I’ve pressed a punch button once, yet my character threw 2-3 hits leaving me open and unable to dodge/defend. Some fighters have have unblockable attack patterns because your movement/controller won’t be as quick.

When I saw Thunder Ray, I looking forward to a new Punch-Out! like experience but unfortunately, mostly because of the unresponsive/problematic controls, it bugs down the fun and experience altogether. While the opposition is quite diverse and unique from one fighter to another with their own styles and patterns, the problematic control, shortness and zero replay value make this game an easy pass. It’s unfortunate because if the controls were tighter and the overall experience better balanced, this could’ve been a suprise hit of the year. If you insist on playing this, wait for a deep sale.