Play Animal Boxing Online

Game Overview

Animal Boxing is one of those weird Nintendo DS gems where you hold the console upside down like a little book and punch the screen to fight. At first it feels ridiculous—you’re swiping and tapping at cartoon animals while tilting the system sideways—but after a match or two, it clicks. Swipe left for hooks, tap fast for jabs, and hold to charge up a big hit. The controls are simple, but timing your dodges with the D-pad while avoiding counterattacks gets surprisingly intense.

What I didn’t expect was how much personality the animals have. You start as this awkward outsider trying to fit in, and suddenly everyone’s obsessed with boxing. The angrier you get, the harder you hit, but the same goes for your opponents—so when that rage meter fills up, fights turn into chaotic slapfests. Win enough matches, and you unlock goofy costumes and new animal rivals, like a kangaroo that won’t stop hopping or a gorilla with a mean right hook.

It’s silly, a little janky, and way more fun than it has any right to be. Just don’t play it in public unless you want strangers staring at you while you furiously poke an upside-down DS.