A satire version of the old Punchout game, but with some neat new mechanics to keep it fresh. The story is quite fun, opponents are hilariously written and you can customize your fighter's appearance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8mWEOMLPuQ

The Awesome Duo

It's difficult to combine politics with video games. Election Year Knockout manages to do that in a comedy laden boxing game that's a lot of fun. A play through will take you about an hour to complete the campaign, at which point you can attempt to complete challenges and wrack up votes to unlock wardrobe items.

There are two difficulties, one easy and the other a bit more on the normal side of things. Guided by the ghost of John McCain(probably), you set out to become president of the United States through boxing matches. Your political rivals are comedic representations of themselves. Bernie Sanders has a hilarious bird that boxes for him, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a spunky dancer, and Mike Pence was fittingly "pios."

Combat is pretty straight forward. You can punch the gut or you can punch their face. Build up enough juice and you're going for a haymaker which causes a good amount of damage. You can block, dodge, as well as punch a punch. Figuring out the right timing to attack/block/dodge isn't difficult.

If you're a fan of the classic games like Punch Out and enjoy something you can pick up and play within minutes, it's very likely you'll have a lot of fun with this.

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Upon starting the game you’ll be given the choice of two game difficulty options, Casual, for those who are new to boxing games, with simplified controls and easier fights. The other option is Classic, the way the game is supposed to be played, using full controls and harder fights. You can change the difficulty should you wish to at any time from the settings menu.

It’s election time and the Election Year Knockout has begun. Policies, problems and everything else is now solved through boxing matches. You begin your election campaign in the Deep South where you’ve been challenged by Jab Bush, he’s meek, he’s weak, but he’s no pipsqueak. Jab Bush wants to debate in the ring with you about whether cereal is a soup. The pollsters say that the young folks prefer their cereal punched into a fine paste. To settle the matter, you don your gloves and step into the ring.

Each boxing match is scheduled for five rounds, with each round lasting one minute and fifteen seconds. Each of your opponents each have their own unique tactics, strategies and special moves. In the bottom centre of the screen is your health and your special attack bars. Your special is the Haymaker which you can deploy once your special bar is filled. You fill your Haymaker by landing punches or from blocking punches.

If you manage to knock your opponent down three times in a round you will win by Technical Knock Out (TKO). If they fail to get up before the count of ten then you’ll be the winner. If though you find yourself on the canvas being counted out you will have to get back up. While on the floor a Get Back Up! Bar will appear, in the centre of this bar is a green area, below that is a boxing glove. The glove will move left and right and you will have to punch the green area five times in order to get back on your feet. Depending on current position will depend on how fast the glove moves and how big the green area is, slower and a larger area are easier to return to the fold. Keep an eye on your stamina, wildly throwing punches will leave you vulnerable and winded

If you find yourself struggling you can get some hints from your corner in between rounds. Maverick is a ghost and will help you try and figure out the opponent's weaknesses. After beating your opponent you’ll gain some voters, how many voters you currently have following you are displayed on the Election Year Knockout: 2020 map screen. Also, after winning a match you will be able to give your political party a name, “The ______ Party”. There is a list of words you can add to your party name after each victory and if there’s nothing that takes your fancy then you can use Custom and add what you want. At the end of a bout there’s some Breaking News from the crew at TKO News where they’ll keep up with how your party is doing with some random news.

As you gain more voters you will also unlock new shorts, gloves and trainers. You don’t gain any bonuses with the new gear but are for aesthetic looks. You find new gear in the Wardrobe on the main menu screen, while you’re in the wardrobe you can customise your characters appearance, Male, Female, Hair, Facial Hair, Bald, Body and Hair Colour.

Playing the game with the Classic difficulty will allow you to try and complete Challenges. These cannot be completed on Casual difficulty. Each opponent has ten challenges to complete, however, the first five of them must be completed before you can unlock the next five challenges and the EX Fight mode.

In the Settings there’s options for Audio: Music, Sound Effects and Crowd Ambience Volume Sliders. Graphics Quality: Low and High, Resolution, V-Sync, MSAA and FPS. Miscellaneous: Tutorials On/Off, Touch On/Off, Reset Game and Full Screen. Difficulty: Casual and Classic.

Election Year Knockout is a fun game, the graphics are good and the characters and chat are great. There is quite a bit to keep you busy but it can be a little frustrating at times. Timing is key to overcoming the opponents and I must admit I’ve struggle against Birdie Sanders and his bloody bird with Russian boxing gloves on. Still I’ve had fun playing the game so far.

Positives
+ Fun game
+ Crazy characters
+ Nice graphics

Negatives
- Can be frustrating at times
- No achievements currently
- No cards currently

Dodge, weave and punch your way through to the White House and the Presidency in Election Year Knockout!

7/10

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A really fun Punch-Out style game, featuring funny parodies of US politicians (Crenshaw being one of my favourites and you'll see why). Each opponent has their own gimmick that's fun to figure out, and are all satisfying to beat up. There's no deep political commentary or anything, just parodies mocking US politicians, much like how the Punch-Out games mocked stereotypes of different nationalities and cultures. The EX boxers are all fun, souped-up rematches against the fighters, serving as a really nice bonus newgame+ for after you've done everything else. Much like the Title Defence fights in Punch-Out Wii, these are much harder than the original fights and offer a huge variety of newer, more devastating attacks for each rematch that the player will have to learn and adapt to. The challenges in each fight help boost the game's replayability, there's 10 for every fighter in the game (5 for normal and 5 for EX) and they can be tough to figure out, but extremely satisfying once you've got them all. The roster is quite limited, however the devs have considered adding more boxers if the game gets enough traction (personally I'm hoping for Bojo to get in). I'd definitely recommend if you're a fan of Punch-Out or if you just like taking the piss out of US politics.

This is a great game. The mechanics are reminiscent of classic retro console fighting games but with a great new art style. The story/dialogue is funny and doesn't take itself too seriously. In a time of great political turmoil its nice to find a game that just wants to be fun. Many hours can be enjoyed as well as the possibility of speed running. As someone who helped beta test I can tell you the developers are very open to feedback and are improving this game constantly.

A surprisingly good boxing game full of delightful puns and political gags. Just as you think it's about to get repetitive, the fights get really zany. Highly polished and entertaining.

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Its a good game and its fun but it gets hard as hell

This game rocks. If you're a Punch Out!! veteran, it might be a little easy for you at the start, but trust me, the difficulty ramps up significantly after you get through Donald Thump. The EX fights are no joke, except for Jab Bush, since he's still practically Glass Joe. Still, a great game, and it made me laugh quite a few times. Gets a recommendation from me!

realy fun and not so easy good for people who like a challenge!

I do highly recommend this game it so much fun and hours of game play if you love Punch Out this is the game for you with great characters and fun animation there's not much to not love