Ready to get punch drunk with Sumo Digital? Pass The Punch is on its way and it’ll be hitting Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PS4 and PC in the coming months.

Due to land in late 2019, Pass The Punch is the latest title to come out of the brilliant Sumo Digital team – they behind the stunning Snake Pass. An in-house owned IP, the 2D beat ’em up is being developed by Sumo’s Nottingham and Pune studios, with the game set in a world influenced by ’80s and ’90s Saturday morning cartoons.

Pass The Punch follows the story of Rush, a resident of New Atlas, as she fights the dastardly villains King Crab and Red Velvet – two guys who are hell-bent on turning Rush’s favourite hangouts into lifeless, corporate franchises. It’s up to Rush, her three friends, and of course you, to claim back their city for the people!

Thankfully, in Pass The Punch, the residents of New Atlas can transform into powerful beings with abilities based on their everyday lives. Rush is a gym owner who can morph into a lightspeed boxing champion and her buddy Claud is a LARPer whose foam sword grants the ability to turn into a badass berserker. Players can choose to fight as Rush, Claud, Beetle or Wizard as they attempt to battle and overcome hyper-aggressive hot sauce bottles, disco-dancing mirror balls and over-affectionate ice-cream cones to name but a few of King Crab and Red Velvet’s minions.

By spending time learning the moves and combos of each fighter, playing things out alone with an AI sidekick, or in two-player local co-op, Pass The Punch will allow you to go deep with the ways you wish to attack, with each character’s attacks complimenting the others, and “passing the punch” to create a unique ultimate attack, which changes based on which characters combine their powers. With so many punches to pass, high scores to hit, hoops to shoot, secrets to discover and extra content to unlock, Pass The Punch will keep players busy until they are TKO’d.

“Pass The Punch started off as my submission to a Sumo game jam,” said creator David Dino, “It calls back to some of my favourite beat ‘em ups, fighting games and animated series. I’m thrilled that Sumo decided to make it into a full game!”

“We have an enormous amount of creative talent in each of our seven studios and encourage every member of staff to take part in our game jams,” added Gary Dunn, Sumo Digital’s Managing Director. “David’s submission stood out for its ‘easy to learn, hard to master’ gameplay and follows in the footsteps of Snake Pass as a game jam concept that became a published product. It’s exciting and rewarding to see our teams’ imaginations deliver unique IP like this!”

We’ll keep you updated with the progress of Sumo Digital’s Pass The Punch in the weeks ahead.