I love difficult games and physics based games, so this seemed right up my alley. Furthermore, I have no idea who Pontypants is, though they made A Difficult Game About Climbing, which is another game I like. Because of this, I had high hopes for this game. However, this game becomes unbearable near the end of the game.

To start, I'm going to be talking about the game WITHOUT punch assist. If you need to turn on an afterthought setting which removes one of the main gimmicks of the game, I don't think it's a good use of my time. The tutorial was fine, and so was the first two circuits (though some outstanding enemies were harder than others)

The main issue is the world circuit. The main issue rears its head the second you fight Hurrican: the stun mechanics. Stun is an imperative mechanic that needs to be used in later circuits, and for how important it is, it is wildly inconsistent. Sometimes enemies stun extremely quickly, and sometimes they just will not stun. Furthermore, enemies at the world circuit do a frankly unfair amount of stun, and with their increased attack speed, you can see 40-50% of your healthbar gone because you got hit by a very quick attack one time. Mix this with abilities that can re-stun you in your stun, and you can lose 70-90% of your healthbar in one hit. And not only is this an issue of the second world circuit boss, but it rears its head in the third and the secret final boss.

The biggest complaint has to do with a secret, so I'll spoiler it. The final boss, being the secret fight, is complete overkill. As previously mentioned, the last 3 fights before it were absolutely miserable, as far as the puppet needing nerfs over time to make it somewhat reasonable. However, this final boss spits in the face of balance. There have been runs where I will lose near instantly due to one instant punch landing. Maybe if you won the circuit THEN could challenge him on his own (you know, seeing as you ALREADY BEAT THE WORLD CHAMPION), but as it stands, it is not worth trying to beat this game

Combine all this with the fact that to 100% the game, you need to fight just about every enemy without getting hit once, and you have a frustrating, inconsistent mess of a game that spits in the face of the idea of a difficulty curve. This game is so close to greatness, but falls just short...