Review: Knuckle Sandwich

destructoid.com:

It’s kind of amazing how much influence Mother 3 has had on game design in the West, despite never being released here. It’s a bit hard to describe the difference between Earthbound influence and Mother 3 influence, but it’s there. Knuckle Sandwich seems to be in the Mother 3 camp.

Actually, Knuckle Sandwich is a bit of a mash-up of Mother 3, Undertale (which was also inspired by Mother 3), and WarioWare. At times, it seems to push the concept to the extremes. Other times, it wallows in it.

Knuckle Sandwich is mixed. How much you enjoy it is going to depend on your tolerance for its pacing, and if its weirdness and humor are enough for you to overlook some glaring flaws.

Knuckle Sandwich (PC)
Developer: Andy Brophy
Publisher: Superhot Presents
Released: November 22, 2023
MSRP: $19.99

You’re a hapless loser. You can’t hold down a job, you screw up everything you do, and people just keep taking advantage of your naivety.

Sorry, I’m talking about the protagonist of Knuckle Sandwich. I’m sure you’re lovely.

After moving to Bright City, the protagonist sets out to find a job and winds up with no end of bad luck. One thing leads to another, and a blue-skinned vampire is asking you to help figure out what keeps causing corruption in the city. Then it generally meanders about pointlessly.

Let me tell you, Knuckle Sandwich has one hell of an opening. For the first hour or so, you’re kicked around through a varied bunch of events, each one more subversive than the last. I don’t want to spoil it for you, but for a while there, I was thinking that this could be a late contender for some sort of Game of the Year award. I would say I was “grinning the whole way through” if I was still capable of feeling any sort of joy.

You might say that