Honey Badger – Slayer of Memes

Some XBLIGs should probably only exist as free browser-based flash games.  Honey Badger – Slayer of Memes is such a game.  It’s a fairly low-quality Punch-Out!! clone with the gimmick of being able to beat-up a handful of internet running gags.  This leads to problem #1: none of the jokes in here are funny anymore.  You can usually tell when something stops being funny because they make an episode of South Park about it.  This leaves Honey Badger to stand on its own as a game, which it simply can’t do.  Problems #2 through #891 are easy to figure out during the first fight: the game sucks.

Wow, it's the Leave Britney Alone thing. That NEVER gets old.

I’m a huge Punch-Out!! fan.  I would assume anyone who would attempt to clone it must be a fan too, but Honey Badger completely misses the point of the series.  Punch-Out!! is all about pattern recognition and quick reaction times.  Your opponent telegraphs a move in a variety of different ways.  You dodge it, then lay into your stun-locked opponent.  Honey Badger has none of that.  Your opponents don’t really telegraph moves, they’re not stun-locked when you dodge a punch, and there really is no method to the madness.  Just mash buttons, hope something lands, and pray like hell the game doesn’t get unfair later on.  Which it does.  I beat the Leave Britney Alone and Tron dudes pretty easily.  Then I ended up against a parody of the Star Wars Light Saber kid.  He just spins around, randomly jabbing at you.  If there was any pattern to it or hint of when he would stop spinning and swing at you, I couldn’t catch it.  He blocked nearly every punch I threw, and I couldn’t block his because it’s impossible to see them coming.

I didn’t really care to keep trying either.  The graphics are okayish and some of the sound effects are mildly amusing, but otherwise this game is horrible.  The controls are unresponsive, especially dodging.  There’s a noticeable delay in it, which would have been annoying if it was useful.  Since you can’t predict when a punch is coming, what use is it?  Then again, why bother blocking?  It doesn’t work either.  I went to block punches, held my gloves up, and the opponent’s punch would still seem to cause as much damage.  Ultimately, this feels like a joke game that would be free on Adult Swim’s website.  And not a very good one.  If you want to talk about memes, you might as well call this One Cup: The Game, because all it will do is feed you shit.

Honey Badger – Slayer of Memes was developed by Dream Wagon

80 Microsoft Points actually wouldn’t mind playing a GOOD clone of Punch-Out!! given that Nintendo only releases a new one every 10 years in the making of this review.