Posted in: Games, Indie Games, Video Games | Tagged: Bare Butt Boxing, indie games, Tuatara Games

We Tried Out Bare Butt Boxing Ahead Of Its Release

We got a chance to have a preview session of Bare Butt Boxing, and here's our takeaway from the fun and silly experience.

Published Sun, 23 Apr 2023 21:12:10 -0500

by Gavin Sheehan

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Probably one of the silliest games on the way this year is Bare Butt Boxing, a game that we got to see back at PAX West 2022 and had a hell of a time playing. Last week we got to hang out with some of the developers of the game for a special preview session where we basically just downloaded the game and played several rounds for fun. So this is our thoughts on the game as a limited preview, not a full review.

We Tried Out Bare Butt Boxing Ahead Of Its Release — Credit: Tuatara Games

First off, this game is just silly, and we love every minute of it. Without getting into any story elements, you get to choose a boxer from a few different models, but the things they all have in common are that they are squishy and have a jiggly buttox. All of them have the same controls, so there's no confusion over how to operate any of them. As you can see from the image below, you use the top L & R buttons to throw punches with each hand, so if you prefer to fight one-handed, you can, or you can throw a fury of blows. You also have the ability o dash and jump for offense and defense. As you land blows, you build up a power meter that you can use against your opponents by holding down one of the hands and releasing it at just the right time. However, if you get hit while charging, you lose it.

The games of Bare Butt Boxing we played were super frantic. We were put into a couple dozen matches with two of the game's developers, as well as a handful of fellow game journalists, media people, and content creators, as they joined us for matches during a livestream of the game on their Twitch channel. When we first started, it took us some time to get the hang of the mechanics as it is very trying on the hands to get the punching down correctly and still be able to fend off people. We ended up relying a lot on the stages, as each of them comes with its own challenges and perils. A lot of the game relies on punching the ever-living crap out of people and getting them to fly into specific zones on the map that suck them in and reward you points based on how well you did. We were able to run around and smack a good many people in at the last moment for a point or two, then challenge someone for more points to get them in at the end.

We got ourselves a crown a couple of times as the victor, which impressed many of the people who were in the Discord channel with us. But as time went on, others were able to grasp the mechanics and scored points quickly to earn themselves a victory. Some of them with the goal of hunting down whoever had a crown over their heads, signifying they were the leader, which earned you a hefty amount of points, knocking them into a hole. Overall, we had a lot of fun playing this preview of Bare Butt Boxing, as it is just dumb fun that you can have with friends or strangers online. We look forward to seeing what the main game will be like when it's released on May 4th, 2023.