Victory Road

Punch Club with way more depth and strategy. Actively being able to influence your boxer takes this simulator to a whole new level. The visceral combat is quite good for pixel art, give it a look!

If you love primarily menu-based management games like Game Dev Tycoon, you're going to love this. Victory Road is an incredibly detailed simulation/management game that allows the player to get as in-depth or as straight-forward as they want. It rewards players who learn the more nuanced systems and strategies while still being accessible to players who don't necessarily want to wrap their head around the more nitty-gritty aspects of management. The gameplay is incredibly varied and addicting, and changes as your boxer progresses enough to make it feel like there's always something new happening, especially as you slowly learn how to play the game more efficiently. I think what impresses me most is that unlike most games in this genre, it goes so far beyond just menu interaction; almost everything you do is animated and the fact that the actual boxing matches allow for so much direct input really elevates it beyond so many similar games that I've played. There is so much content in this game I can't even begin to wrap my head around how much time was spent making all of it. It's really good.

Bought this game two years ago. I understand the developer works solo but there has been no update. I can’t see this changing in the future. Therefore I wouldn’t recommend this game unless you’re happy with a game that most likely have no new content adding to it. 6/10

Dead game.

this is a abandoned game. It is also a dead game. A, dead, abandoned, game.

Holy crap, I did NOT expect to love this game as much as I did. Managing nutrition is tedious enough for my own gym routine, but Victory Road managed to get me so engrossed in my first session with it that I didn't notice I had been playing for nine hour straight through! The key to this game is that isn't not just a regular management simulator where you organize meals, make training routines, and manage fight scheduling. It's that you also get to watch your fighter wreck faces and even trigger certain moves yourself at opportune moments. I personally found myself yelling at the screen like I was watching Hajime no Ippo many years ago! The devs certainly have captured that level of feeling in the game. One of the best of those moments for me was when my fighter took two skeletal injuries in one fight and ended up walking off with a Sayonara KO while teetering on the edge of being knocked out himself. I felt like I was watching the Takamura vs Hawk fight all over again! Of course, the game could use some improvements. It's Early Access, after all. It would be nice to be able to have multiple fighter save files at once. Also, it's kind of frustrating that I have to design a menu without being able to see the workout requirements. I really don't want to have to memorize each of their numerical requirements for each different time of day (because they change between morning, afternoon, and night) while I'm trying to design a tight plan for meal prep. It'd be nice to have a reference to work with for that while I'm designing the meal ahead of the workout. It's also HELLA frustrating that if I get a good opening rush in a fight, the AI will INSTANTLY throw out a sushi healing item to completely nullify it and waste my potential while making sure they have an almost completely full Hyper meter. It happens 9/10 times. But, overall I would give this game two golden gloves held high in victory. It's a hella good way to spend your time!

A good base, but never finished :(

Got this game so long ago and it never got finished I enjoyed what I played but so sad that after so long not seeing a single update to the game. People beware only get this game if your OK with the fact it it will never be finished.

You only have two hours to decide if you want to play a game, so here's my two cents. It's fun and to the point; there's a lot of customization and development options, although the balance of the game makes it hard to min-max. The pace is gradual, and I imagine it will get more challenging over time. Right now my Russian Hajime no Ippo feels fairly generic, and the difficulty is very low; I'm offered cheap items that guarantee a win for a fraction of the cash I gain. I've never had to do any of the money gaining actions. I don't feel any time pressures for my boxer, outside sponsor goals, so there's no incentive to take risky fights even if I couldn't bring enough items to guarantee victory. After 2 hours, my character is repeatedly shattering jaws and breaking people. I've just barely scratched the surface of things, and I'll see if the difficulty scales or it stays easy. I like the automated fight with the ability to coach. It's a great feature that makes it more involved then a lot of AI fighting management games like the gladiator ones, which allow you direct control or nothing. Kudos to that. Two annoyances: - The first fighter I ever hobeat, at the bottom rank, keeps challenging me every day. WTF? He's like almost a third my stats now and is just a free beatdown. I dunno what his beef is, but he shouldn't be able to challenge me when I'm way higher rank. I just put on gold boxing gloves and wail on him for a ton of money. Update: After the amateur league it gets a good bit harder. My chubby heavyweight is not doing well out the gate. - I was not aware of how to check out the nutrition cost of exercise beforehand; it exists, and is quite handy. It's not nearly as tiresome as I expected. I do wish there was more feedback on certain things. You have 3 options on how to talk to your boxer on the end of the day. Does it do anything but affect mood? I'll keep at it though. It passed the refund check. I like me some management games, especially long ones, I just hope it gets harder.

This game fills a niche. We really need more boxing exclusive games on steam that are actually good.