VanillaBeast: Retro Knock-Out! is a parody adult-themed boxing game that follows the boxing career of Vanilla as he fights his way up to champion status against a ton of parody names, cross-boxing pop-culture, and actual boxers with cameo appearances from horror movies and TV shows.

The story starts with Vanilla enjoying his night in a strip club, eventually getting into a fight with another man that was blocking his view. After making short work of the man, he is approached by another known as UK, and he wants to help Vanilla train to become the best boxer out there and earn lots of money. As we know, with money comes power and everything you may want in life, but in Vanilla’s mind, he just wants more women.

As you start on the road to becoming a boxer, your first punching bag is a parody of an individual that has been making waves in the sport in real life thanks to his odd picking of opponents, Fake Jaul, and I am sure you can guess who this is meant to be. After learning the basics, you are thrown straight into prize fights to try and rank up, going for the Champion’s belt in each division and facing off in parody fights and the likes of the Rocky franchise, and oddly enough, Mason, the Masked Killer, who very much resembles Jason from Friday the 13th, who offers quite the challenge, and you may even be cheered on by other ring-side cameos, such as Skeletor.

While in the ring, the game looks and plays exactly like the retro title, Punch-Out. When I first saw this, I was more than happy to jump into the ring and bring back some old-time feelings of the classic boxing game.

Boxers will have a tell before they throw a punch which, is usually a facial expression, such as sticking their tongue out, twitching a mustache, or giving their junk a bit of a wiggle… Yeah… I am not proud of having to keep an eye on some guy’s junk to avoid getting punched in the face.

Outside of fights, you can walk around Vanilla’s apartment which used a low render pixel art. There isn’t much to do here, but you can view past story moments, partake in past fights, or take a look at the trading cards that are rather NSFW.

The audio is an amazing addition to the title, especially the main menu theme song. I could listen to that for ages. While in the ring, you’ll hear your coach shout out if you are in danger, helping you to avoid shots, or he’ll let you know when there’s a good opportunity to attack and go for a knockout. The voice acting during the cutscenes was very well done, and they have some rather funny interactions between the characters.

The difficulty can vary during fights, with some opponents being fast and landing a bunch of combos, while others have a power-house hit to throw out to you. It features full controller support, and when you first start the game, it will have a helpful breakdown of each controller layout, as well as a detailed description of the keyboard inputs if you’d rather use that.

They’re fairly easy to learn, and before each match, you have a few options when it comes to training; the Punching Bag to get warmed up for combos, Chicken Chasing that will restore health for the next match, and Hell, why not go fight a great white shark for training. What could go wrong there?

VanillaBeast: Retro Knock-Out! has some great humor and the parody naming is amazing. While the gameplay is that of Punch-Out, it is still very fun, as that is a timeless classic when it comes to the game’s style. The developers do have another Vanilla game in the works, taking other older game styles and bringing them back with the adult humor that makes these titles such a joy to play.

It can get repetitive if you’re playing for a large block of time, but when broken up, it is so much fun. If you are looking for a serious boxing experience, this is not it, but for a parody experience to get some laughs out of, this is the title for you.

Written by: Shane Walsh