Every year has its fads and while 2017 is under a month old, it already has a few, namely either being an alt-right neo-Nazi or, alternately, punching an alt-right neo-Nazi in the face. Not many times in our history has one single punch been so popular and with so many memes as the one that landed beautifully on Richard Spencer’s face during the Women’s March after the inauguration of not my president Donald Trump.
Obviously, not everyone has the ‘luxury’ of having a Nazi to clock in the head in real life, but thankfully there have been many great videogames that allow you the safe, virtual means to do so. Here’s our list of 10 games that let you punch a Nazi.
10. Wolfenstein
This one’s pretty obvious so let’s get it out of the way. The Wolfenstein series has spanned over 36 years across 10 games and their various ports in genres ranging from first-person shooters to RPGs; rest assured most people can find at least one of these games an enjoyable Nazi-punching experience. I personally suggest the critically acclaimed Wolfenstein: The New Order which is one of the best FPS games to come out so far this decade. For a modern shooter, it is easy on the eyes, and the virtual Nazi punching, easy on the fists.
9. Bionic Commando
Is it still considered punching if you’re using a bionic arm? I’d argue that it is, but then, I don’t discriminate when it comes to punching Nazis.
If you, like me, grew up in the early ‘90s this arm swinging shoot-em-up was probably the first time you’d ever gotten to virtually punch a Nazi. I highly recommend playing the original NES version or the modern day remaster of it called Bionic Commando: Rearmed over the hotdog-armed remake pictured above. In the original you get to see Hitler’s face explode, and what could be better than that?
8. Medal of Honor: Allied Assault
Remember Medal of Honor? Hard to believe it has been five years since one of these bad boys came out.
While you could pick up most any of the Medal of Honor series to satisfy your fascist face crushing cravings, the best in the series is probably still Medal of Honor: Allied Assault. The movie director Steven Spielberg actually created the story for the first three games in the series, of which Allied Assault was the third and best-reviewed game in the series.
Fans of Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan may recognize some nearly identical locales in the game included Omaha Beach. Let’s be honest, who hasn’t fantasized about laying the smack down on a Nazi at the beach?
7. Call of Duty 2
You can’t have a list about Nazis without Call of Duty 2, the first game in the series to release on consoles, sparking the rabid nationalistic fandom we know today.
I remember Call of Duty 2 fondly for its historical accuracy and, specifically, watching interviews with soldiers that had served in World War II, which the developers then used to craft the story and setting of the game in an authentic way. Fans of modern Call of Duty might find this old gem a bit dry and slow for their tastes, considering the latest game takes place in space. But in space, there are zero Nazis to punch.
6. Singularity
Never heard of Singularity? You’re in the majority there, but this is one of those cult classics that is worth picking up to play even today.
Get this: in this first person shooter, not only could you bend time at will, but there were Nazis with two faces on their singular body (sorry, I had to). That means you can get two punches in for the price of one.
Honestly, a great little game developed by the creators of HeXen and Heretic. It’s a shame it didn’t do well enough to warrant a sequel, but maybe the renewed interest in laying the smackdown on some Nazis will help give it some of the limelight it deserves.
5. The Saboteur
I honestly don’t remember much of The Saboteur aside from its Sin City-like art style and that pre-order DLC that unlocked extra brothels.
Turns out this third-person action-adventure title is a revenge story set in World War II where you play as a boozy race car driver in France. Who are you looking to extract some revenge on? Well, a Nazi, of course. While The Saboteur is a bit problematic at times, it’s one of the prettiest games to ever let a person cave in some Nazi face.
4. Captain America and The Avengers
This old-school beat ‘em up features one of the most recognized Nazi punchers himself, Captain America. Seemingly forgotten by time, this 16-bit button masher had tons of recognizable faces from the Marvel universe including Iron Man, Hawkeye, Quicksilver, The Juggernaut and, of course, Hitler’s buddy Red Skull.
In it, not only does the player get to toss the Captain’s shield, but they can also shoot laser beams and arrows as Iron Man and Hawkeye, respectively. This came in handy during the side-scrolling shooter levels that acted as a roadblock in your quest to punch a red Nazi skeleton in his bony face.
3. Bloodrayne
Before Bayonetta, there was another queen of bashing baddies with ridiculous weaponry and looking stylish doing so. Her name was Rayne, the heroine of the Bloodrayne series.
In this action-horror game, originally released on Xbox, Gamecube, and PlayStation 2, not only do you get to throw some punches at the Third Reich, you get to suck their blood too, because you’re a vampire. Remember those? Vampires used to be all the rage, as was Bloodrayne’s clearly Matrix-inspired jumping. IGN put it best when they said that “kills are bloodily satisfying” in Bloodrayne. I mean, you’re killing Nazis, how could you not be satisfied?
2. Freedom Force vs the Third Reich
This zany tactical role-playing game features a group of patriotic superheroes, such as Minute Man, who travel back in time to beat down the Nazis.
I’ll be honest, never played this one, but any game that has a superhero in a Minutemen costume punching a Nazi on the cover clearly deserves to be on this list. Plus it was developed by Irrational Games just two years before it released BioShock as part of 2K Games, so how could it be bad aside from its clearly dated graphics?
1. Punch-Out!!
The greatest boxing game of all time is also one of the best games to sock some fascists.
Wait, you may be thinking, I don’t remember any fascists in Punch-Out!!, but hear me out: Von Kaiser is a Nazi. His ring entrance music is Ride of the Valkyries, a grand, imposing Nazi-esque tune that was actually written by Richard Wagner, a German composer who harbored anti-Semitic tendencies. He also wears military-style clothing, and he has a suspicious looking mustache. And where I come from, we don’t take kindly to suspicious-looking mustaches. Or Nazis, either, so personally, I’m inclined to box Von Kaiser’s fascist snot mop right off his face.
It’s all the rage these days, and soon, hopefully everyone will be doing it.
Jed Whitaker is a freelance games journalist hailing from Columbus, Ohio. He has written for Destructoid, CG Magazine, GameRevolution, Zam and recently launched SteamShovelers.cool where he is attempting to review every Steam game released in 2017. Agree with him on Twitter.