Pulling No Punches similar games & best alternatives

Pulling No Punches - pulling-no-punches_1.avif
Pulling No Punches - pulling-no-punches_2.avif
Pulling No Punches - pulling-no-punches_3.avif
Pulling No Punches - pulling-no-punches_4.avif
Pulling No Punches - pulling-no-punches_5.avif
Pulling No Punches - pulling-no-punches_6.avif

Pulling No Punches

Linux, PC (Microsoft Windows), Nintendo Switch • 2022

Should you play it?

A classic 2D arcade action game animated frame by frame. Survive a fictional pandemic in a city filled with madness and denial.

What works

  • Unique hand-drawn art style and animations
  • Engaging and skill-based beat 'em up gameplay
  • Strong satirical narrative with cultural references
  • Local and remote cooperative multiplayer
  • Affordable price with replayability

Things to keep in mind

  • Short campaign length
  • Some control and hitbox frustrations
  • Occasional bugs and technical issues
  • Limited character customization
  • Political themes may be divisive

What to play next

Top picks

Games that feel the closest overall

  • Streets of Rage 4

  • Jitsu Squad

  • Shing!

  • Megabyte Punch

  • Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition

  • River City Girls 2

  • Young Souls

  • LIZARDS MUST DIE 2

  • Guacamelee! 2

Search more ->

Hidden Gems

Less popular games with surprisingly high similarity

  • Tallowmere 2: Curse of the Kittens

  • CyberCorp

  • Super Cane Magic ZERO - Legend of the Cane Cane

If you liked…

Recommendations by what you enjoyed most

  • Competence

    Fate/EXTELLA LINK
  • Cooperation

    Streets of Red : Devil's Dare Deluxe
  • Creativity

    Neofeud

Similarity map

Explore nearby similar games and see why they’re close.

How to use the graph

Similarity map

Each dot is a game. They are arranged from the game’s motivation profile. Closer dots usually mean more similar reasons to play (exploration, competition, relaxation, etc.)—not that one game is “better” than another.

  • Purple star: this page’s game — everything on the map is relative to it.
  • Coloured chips: click to highlight games that mainly differ on that motivation; click again to reset.
  • Dotted line: link between this page’s game and the one selected for comparison.
  • Hover a dot to preview that game in the panel on the right; click to keep that comparison.
  • Scroll or double-click the chart to zoom out and see more games.

Why don’t the axes read like a score? This view uses t-SNE: it only keeps who is close to whom. The scales are not “good to bad” or hours played—they separate groups on the map. Read distance between dots, not the axis numbers (hidden on purpose).

Pulling No Punches: Broadly representative of its motivational profile, with a few distinct shifts. Motivations that often define this kind of title include Cooperation, Fellowship, Intimacy, Leadership. Here, the score leans higher than usual among comparable games on Competition, Violence. It leans lower than usual among comparable games on Continuation.

Last update: 26/07/2026