Skip to main content

Paw Paw Paw

Simple and silly, Paw Paw Paw is a fun little action RPG with a solid co-op offering and a fair variety of options to suit different play styles.
Paw Paw Paw Game Cover
54%Game Brain Score
Most mentioned positive aspects:story, graphics
Most mentioned negative aspects:gameplay, music
48% User Score Based on 201 reviews
Critic Score 66%Based on 4 reviews

Platforms

Nintendo SwitchPCMac OSPlaystation 4Xbox OneXboxSteam DeckWindowsPlayStation
Paw Paw Paw Game Cover

About Paw Paw Paw

Paw Paw Paw is a single player and multiplayer arcade hack and slash game with fantasy and comedy themes. It was developed by Simpleton and was released on November 13, 2020. It received mostly positive reviews from critics and neutral reviews from players.

Paw Paw Paw was a peaceful and prosperous kingdom. Until one day, when the King had decided to enforce everyone to wear pants. We are the resistance. We are the Antipants.

Skip Games Like Paw Paw Paw

Games Like Paw Paw Paw

Looking for games like Paw Paw Paw? Here are top arcade hack and slash recommendations with a fantasy and comedy focus, selected from player-similarity data — start with Sacred Citadel, Lost Castle / 失落城堡 or River City Girls.

Skip User Reviews

Reviews

48%Audience ScoreBased on 201 reviews
story13 positive mentions
gameplay19 negative mentions

  • Fun and charming side-scrolling beat 'em up with cute anthropomorphic animal characters and colorful cartoon art style.
  • Offers satisfying combat with RPG elements like multiple character classes, skill trees, weapon upgrades, and a steady sense of progression.
  • Best enjoyed in local or couch co-op multiplayer mode, where teamwork mitigates difficulty spikes and enhances the chaotic fun.
  • Poor solo play experience due to extremely unbalanced difficulty, rampant enemy stun locks, and punishing combat mechanics that require excessive grinding.
  • Clunky and sometimes unresponsive controls, wonky hitboxes, awkward enemy targeting, and frustrating AI companions degrade gameplay quality.
  • Repetitive music, shallow story, technical glitches, and a grind-heavy progression system with limited weapon drops and slow leveling detract from overall enjoyment.
  • story

    66 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    20% positive mentions, 71% neutral mentions, 9% negative mentions

    The story is generally viewed as silly and simplistic, centered around a humorous conflict involving the mandatory wearing of pants in a kingdom of anthropomorphic animals. While some praise its fun, quirky tone and cutscenes, many find the writing shallow, repetitive, and lacking depth, with the narrative primarily serving to advance gameplay rather than provide a meaningful experience. Overall, it suits the game's lighthearted style but may feel pointless or underdeveloped to players seeking a richer story.

    • “Set in a kingdom populated entirely by anthropomorphic animals, the story begins when the king, under the influence of a mysterious object that falls from the sky, decrees that every citizen must start wearing pants.”
    • “Usually the story in beat 'em up games isn't something the player follows but here, it's constructed in a fun way that makes it easier for the player to get engaged, and I like that.”
    • “The story is funny, simple, and yet unique.”
    • “The story is basically just 'something about pants' and feels completely pointless.”
    • “The plot involves a king driven mad requiring all the furries to wear pants, which they don't like, making one wonder about the developer's mental state when creating this and subsequently buying fake reviews.”
    • “Basic elements are not done right here, even though the developer paid for artists and voiceover for the badly written story parts (which most gamers will quickly skip).”
  • gameplay

    61 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    25% positive mentions, 44% neutral mentions, 31% negative mentions

    The gameplay in this beat ’em up title is praised for its RPG elements, character builds, and an initially engaging combat loop, but it is frequently criticized for clunky controls, poor hitboxes, repetitive mechanics, unbalanced enemies, and overall lack of polish. While some find it charming and moderately fun, many players feel the combat is unsatisfying, frustratingly unfair, and heavily reliant on spamming attacks, diminishing long-term engagement and enjoyment.

    • “These mechanics help create a satisfying gameplay loop where each victory feels meaningful, and every failure encourages you to improve your loadout or adjust your tactics.”
    • “In the end, paw paw paw is a charming, energetic, and surprisingly deep beat ’em up that combines humor, style, and solid mechanics into a cohesive package.”
    • “What makes this game really fun are the RPG mechanics that are present which allow you to level up your character of choice, acquire new items and pretty much create a build of your liking with its small but direct skill tree.”
    • “It's janky and unsatisfying to play... and any experienced gamer will tell you, the handling, responsiveness and general gameplay feel of the control scheme must be well polished for this kind of game to succeed.”
    • “Unfortunately, the gameplay feels super clunky and it just isn't that much fun.”
    • “The art is ok, but unresponsive combat, repetitive gameplay and music that gets annoying in 5 minutes (it's only one song) are all horrible.”
  • music

    48 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    19% positive mentions, 39% neutral mentions, 42% negative mentions

    The music in the game is generally described as repetitive, often looping short tracks that become annoying quickly and feel out of place with the game's setting and tone. While a few reviews praise the soundtrack as catchy, upbeat, or even one of their favorites, most criticize its lack of variety and poor fit with gameplay, detracting from the overall experience.

    • “Accompanied by an upbeat, percussion-driven soundtrack, each stage feels vibrant and energetic, even during moments of chaos.”
    • “Everything is perfect in it: from gorgeous soundtracks, to excellent battles with enemies and bosses.”
    • “Soundtrack-wise, the main menu and map menu's soundtrack is one of my favourite in-game.”
    • “The soundtrack is god awful - you will hear the same 10 seconds on loop over and over again.”
    • “First 10 seconds were me spamming start to get the menu before giving up and ripping off my headset in a panic because the background music was cranked to some god awful foreground volume.”
    • “The longer you play, the stiffness, lack of polish, bad music and dull gameplay will wear you down.”
  • graphics

    41 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    20% positive mentions, 73% neutral mentions, 7% negative mentions

    The game's graphics feature a cute, cartoon-inspired 2D art style with vibrant, colorful visuals and fluid animations that enhance the lively combat, though some find the graphics simplistic or lacking technical polish expected from PC games. While the charming art complements the game's quirky and absurd world, many reviewers note the graphics are basic and not highly customizable, reflecting an indie-level quality that may not satisfy players seeking more detailed or advanced visuals. Overall, the visuals are appreciated for their style and atmosphere but are seen as modest rather than impressive.

    • “The cartoon-inspired art style complements the absurdity of its world, while the fluid animations make combat feel lively.”
    • “The game's graphics are charming and colorful, with cute animal characters and vibrant backgrounds.”
    • “Great game with a gorgeous graphic style.”
    • “While there are options to change the resolution for the game, all this does is scale up the simplistic 2D art assets used to make the game, which makes little or no difference to the graphics quality.”
    • “Without any other substantial graphics tweaks, it's not possible for gamers to improve the lacklustre 2D visuals.”
    • “The game features simple, cartoony 2D graphics, of the type you normally expect to see in low effort mobile apps.”
  • grinding

    27 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    7% positive mentions, 4% neutral mentions, 89% negative mentions

    The game is widely criticized for being excessively grindy, especially in solo play, with numerous grind-heavy achievements and repetitive leveling that feel tedious and unbalanced. While some players find potential enjoyment in multiplayer, the grind significantly detracts from the overall experience and progression pace.

    • “You'll need a second life for grinding.”
    • “A lot of grinding.”
    • “This game is way too grindy in several ways: there's an achievement involving farming 500,000 food which takes something like 10-30 hours of uninteresting grinding on its own.”
    • “Additionally, achievement hunters might want to dodge this game since the achievements with the lowest completion rates require collecting or using something excessively during playthrough, meaning grinding until you get them.”
    • “Most of the game is played grinding against mediocre characters waiting to get enough upgrades to finally make the game progress at a bearable speed.”
  • humor

    22 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    100% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions

    The humor in the game is widely appreciated for its absurd, silly, and self-aware narrative centered around a quirky premise of fighting for the right not to wear pants. Many find the story charming, funny, and reminiscent of classic beat 'em ups like Castle Crashers, though some note the dialogue writing and repetition could be improved. Overall, the humor effectively complements the cute visuals and solid gameplay, creating a lighthearted and enjoyable experience despite occasional wonkiness.

    • “It takes the classic formula of old-school brawlers and infuses it with a humorous and absurd narrative about rebellion, freedom, and pants.”
    • “It’s a ridiculous premise that immediately sets the tone for the rest of the game—silly, self-aware, and full of charm—but beneath the humor lies a well-crafted brawler that delivers both satisfying combat and a steady sense of progression.”
    • “It's worth paying attention to some of the dialogue, it's hilarious.”
  • replayability

    5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    60% positive mentions, 40% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions

    The game offers notable replayability through numerous playable characters, hidden details, and skill trees, though some find the leveling process grindy and less rewarding. While it may not appeal to everyone for repeated play, many recognize its potential for multiple playthroughs.

    • “The number of playable characters, hidden details, and skill trees gives the impression it would be fun and replayable.”
    • “I have Castle Crashers on two platforms with over 300 hours in it due to its fun and replayability.”
    • “There's replayability in it for sure, as I can already see that even before finishing the actual game.”
  • monetization

    3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    0% positive mentions, 33% neutral mentions, 67% negative mentions

    The monetization aspect is criticized for suspicious, possibly fake reviews linked to cash grabs, and the game appears to be a mobile port with microtransactions removed, suggesting a lack of genuine value or effort in its presentation.

    • “I'm pretty sure this is a mobile port with the microtransactions ripped out, but honestly I don't even care enough to research it.”
  • atmosphere

    3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    33% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 67% negative mentions

    The game's atmosphere is a mix of well-drawn art and cutscenes that create a pleasing visual style, but it is sometimes undermined by mismatched music and frequent stunlocks that disrupt immersion. Overall, it has a semi-cheap, inconsistent ambiance.

    • “The art in this game, especially in the cutscenes, is drawn quite well and creates a nice atmosphere.”
    • “Stunlocks all over the place and music that doesn't fit the atmosphere at all.”
    • “It has a semi-cheap atmosphere.”
  • stability

    2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    0% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 100% negative mentions

    The game's stability is frequently compromised by glitches, including character clipping and getting stuck during revival animations, leading to occasional disruptions in gameplay.

    • “Lots of glitches.”
    • “The game also suffers from occasional glitches, such as characters clipping into the environment or becoming stuck during revival animations.”
  • optimization

    1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    0% positive mentions, 100% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions

    The game "paw paw paw" appears to be better optimized for cooperative play, offering smoother performance during co-op runs.

  • emotional

    1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    100% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions

    The emotional impact of the game is largely negative, with users feeling frustrated and as if their time was wasted. It fails to evoke meaningful or positive emotions during gameplay.

  • character development

    1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    0% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 100% negative mentions

    Character development is criticized for being uninspired, with users finding the art and character design dull and lacking creativity.

Skip Critic Reviews
Skip Game Offers

Buy Paw Paw Paw

Some of these are affiliate links — if you buy through them, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.

Play Times

30h Median play time
24h Average play time
11-36h Spent by most gamers
*Based on 2 analyzed playthroughs
Skip Videos

Videos

Skip FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions

Paw Paw Paw is a arcade hack and slash game with fantasy and comedy themes. Common tags for Paw Paw Paw include indie, 2d, class-based, action rpg, cartoony and others.

Paw Paw Paw is available on Nintendo Switch, PC, Mac OS, PlayStation 4 and others.

On average players spend around 24 hours playing Paw Paw Paw.

Paw Paw Paw was released on November 13, 2020.

Paw Paw Paw was developed by Simpleton.

Paw Paw Paw has received mostly positive reviews from players and mostly positive reviews from critics. Most players liked Paw Paw Paw for its story but disliked it for its gameplay.

Paw Paw Paw is a single player game with multiplayer and local co-op support.

Similar games include Sacred Citadel, Lost Castle / 失落城堡, River City Girls, Final Exam, Nobody Saves the World and others.