Baki Hanma: Blood Arena Review

You remember Nintendo's boxing classic, Punch-Out!! (originally known as Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!) Right? I certainly do. While the Punch-Out!! ship has seemingly hoisted its last sail, the little guy has not forgotten about the bone-crunching experience beloved by fans of the NES staple. Punch-Out!! is one of the most unique releases of Nintendo's first-party offerings of the 80s.

A scrappy New York boxer from the Bronx rises above his much larger, more intimidating foes (most of them anyway) to secure the championship belt. An underdog tale as old as time. Ever since the release of Punch-Out!!, we haven't seen many other games of the boxing genre, not even the combat sports genre, that integrate the same gameplay mechanics.

It is a shame because it expertly combines an action-packed boxing experience with puzzle elements in such fun and rewarding ways. While Nintendo has all but left the series in the rearview mirror, indie developers have decided to keep the spirit of Punch-Out!! alive by throwing their hat in the ring with their own spiritual successors.

Enter Baki Hanma: Blood Arena, based on the wildly successful anime, Baki Hanma (Hanma Baki: Son of Ogre), which in turn is based on the manga series Baki the Grappler. Baki Hanma follows our titular fighter as he only has one goal in mind: to surpass and defeat the strongest man in the world—his own father, Yujiro Hanma.

Baki Hanma: Blood Arena was developed and published by Purple Tree S L R. According to their website, they are a small group of developers located in the United States with the purpose of elevating Latin American-produced indie games to "the next level".

Not much else is known about them aside from the fact that they seem to specialize in arcade sports titles such as Pets No More and Golazo! 2, among a handful of other games with differing genres. One release before Baki stands out among the rest—2023's Thunder Ray.

It takes all of one glance at a gameplay screenshot to tell where its influence lies—Punch-Out!!. Purple Tree S L R garnered a level of success with Thunder Ray that it is not hard to see why they wouldn't use the tried and true formula once more with an established property like Baki.

Baki is a popular franchise ripe for the picking for a game adaptation. As Thunder Ray before it, with its gorgeous hand-drawn art direction and flashy colors, Baki Hanma: Blood Arena adopts a high level of polish in its art direction.

The anime is known for its incredible art direction, and that was not lost in translation with Baki Hanma: Blood Arena either. In fact, that is Baki Hanma: Blood Arena's strongest attribute. Fans of the anime series can expect crisp, beautifully hand-drawn depictions of Baki and his greatest adversaries in jaw-dropping detail that is ripped straight out of your favorite episode.

From classic opponents like Oliva Biscuit to the vampiric nightmare, Pickle, each character looks absolutely stunning. There is high attention to detail as well, such as when you strike your opponent enough, their blood is spilt in the background behind them, eventually amassing in bigger amounts as the fight progresses. As you knock them down, their body matches the extreme punishment inflicted upon them.

We will come back to more of those details later. While Baki Hanma: Blood Arena follows Thunder Ray in the art department, gameplay looks to be much of the same. Essentially, Baki Hanma: Blood Arena is a Punch-Out!! clone through and through, but that doesn't necessarily make it a bad thing either.

In fact, it was a superb choice for the Baki franchise as Baki's motivations and stature are similar enough to those of Little Mac, with obvious degrees of differences. Baki Hanma: Blood Arena comes with only two modes and another one that is locked for now until new details develop post-launch.

For now, Underground Tournament and Survival Arena are your only options. To be quite frank, the content offered is incredibly light for the price point. Baki Hanma: Blood Arena should have taken pointers from Thunder Ray's friendlier price tag of $14.99, as Baki costs $29.99 with hardly any content.

The options section is abysmal, as you can't change the intensity of noise for both the sound effects and the music. Thankfully, you can turn each off if you so choose, but you could have stood to offer options to dial it down from a value like 0-10.

The sound effects are one of the shining stars of Baki Hanma: Blood Arena. Each thunderous punch crashes down with bone-shattering force, carrying a devastating weight that your foes visibly exude. This is a detail that Purple Tree S L R absolutely had to nail in Baki Hanma: Blood Arena, and they did not disappoint in that department.

The music is serviceable throughout your matches, but isn't anything to write home about either. Generic rock riffs fill the background to serve as extra noise more than anything. It complements the tone of the brutal world of Baki and nothing more. You will surely forget about it soon after a completed gameplay session.

The Survival Arena is a gauntlet with no continues and no saves, as is your secondary option to the Underground Tournament mode. The Underground Tournament serves as Baki Hanma: Blood Arena's star attraction as you fight a series of opponents from the Baki Hanma anime with little to no fanfare.

Purple Tree S L R could have opted to use clips from the anime between fights to tell the story, as opposed to the still images and text they went with in-game. There is hardly any build-up to the next opponent, either.

This is where a deviation from Punch-Out!! would have been welcome. As soon as you finish an opponent, you are immediately taken to a menu for the next fight, where you can choose between two difficulties—Beast and Demon.

Assumedly, Beast serves as the normal option, with Demon being the hard one. The Beast difficulty is as masochistic as they come, so choose Demon at your own discretion. Much like the aforementioned Nintendo classic, you have four main attack buttons and two shoulder buttons for charged attacks.

Two body blows, two face punches, a chargeable high kick, and a chargeable gut punch. Your defensive maneuvers are what you would expect, as you can block high, block neutral, dodge left, right, and down. While Baki Hanma: Blood Arena is touted as an action game, it is just as much a puzzle game as any other, because you can't just ham-fist your way to glory, as you will surely be punished by the grueling gauntlet of foes.

You have two bars above your special meter, which, when both are filled by timing a well-executed charged attack, you can stun your opponent for a few moments to wail on them with some crushing attacks. As you mercilessly beat the snot out of your opponent, your special meter will charge up.

Depending on your placement in the story, it allows for bone-crunching special attacks with varying degrees of damage output. You will unlock level two and three maneuvers as you make your way to Yujiro Hanma. So far, there are twelve opponents to take down, including Yujiro.

Baki Hanma: Blood Arena is punishingly difficult if you don't take the time to learn your opponent's patterns. Difficulty comes down to player skill as it is fairly balanced, although it personally took me many hours and attempts to beat the main game, but it was possible with patience.

It is actually quite on brand for a Baki game to be as difficult as this was, as his opponents are no slouches in the source material. These fighters are capable of such inhuman feats that the whole experience felt lore-accurate. I felt a sense of accomplishment by the time the credits rolled around.

Speaking of which, by the time you defeat the final boss, Baki Hanma: Blood Arena abruptly ends with no real ending sequence. For a game that took me ten hours to complete, I felt devastated that there was no real meat to the ending. It just resolves itself, and it's back to the main menu. I was certainly hoping for a bit more, considering the premium price point for an indie game of this caliber.

Thankfully, players will receive post-game content that was teased on the main menu, but it needs to be a free update to keep players engaged. For the staggering $29.99 price point, there is not enough content to keep you engaged after the credits roll.

While Hollow Knight: Silksong may be an exception to the rule, it's launching at ten dollars less, packed with way more content, and as a fellow September release, your money is better spent there. It is a shame, as the art direction and gameplay featured in Baki Hanma: Blood Arena is superb; it just does not justify the price point for what feels like a glorified flash game from the early 2010s.

For hardcore fans of the show, a fun time can be had, but it is best to wait for a deep discount to get your Baki mojo on. Baki Hanma: Blood Arena captures the fighting spirit that made the anime so special, but that energy quickly fades once you realize how little content there is.