F.I.S.T.: Forged In Shadow Torch arrived in 2021 as a metroidvania from a studio most players had never heard of, published by a company better known for streaming video than for video games. TiGames built it, Bilibili put it out, and the thing worked. It landed on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 on September 7, 2021, then on Windows that October, the Nintendo Switch in July 2022, and Xbox Series X/S in June 2023. Reviews were positive, and the praise settled on three things: the graphics, the world, and the gameplay.
Trailer, via F.I.S.T.: Forged In Shadow Torch.
Rayton and the Mechanical Fist
You play as Rayton, an anthropomorphic rabbit living in Torch City, a dieselpunk metropolis that once belonged to peaceful animal folk. After a devastating war, the invading Machine Legion rules the place with an iron hand. Rayton flew combat missions in that lost conflict. He has spent the years since lying low, trying to forget. Events drag him back, and he straps on a massive mechanical fist forged from the remains of his damaged battle armor.
The setup is lean and it does its job. A former pilot who wants no part of the fight gets pulled into one anyway, and the city he walks back into is occupied. TiGames does not waste time on lore dumps. The premise is a frame for the fist, and the fist is the point.
A Dieselpunk City Worth Crossing Twice
The world is the strongest argument F.I.S.T. makes for itself. Torch City is rendered in a vivid dieselpunk register — machinery, grime, occupied streets — and the map is vast enough to reward the wandering that metroidvania demands. You meet friendly NPCs, run into the Legion’s robot army, and pick up items and weapons along the way. Answers about what sits beneath the city come slowly, which is the correct pace for this genre.
Exploration here is not filler between fights. It is the substance. The side-view perspective keeps every room readable, and the genre’s loop of finding a tool that opens a door you passed an hour ago is intact and satisfying.
The Arm Does the Work
Combat runs through the big mech-arm on Rayton’s back, and the game is smart enough to let that single idea carry the action. The genres listed for F.I.S.T. sprawl — platform, role-playing, simulator, adventure, indie — but the actual play is tighter than that list suggests. It is a side-scrolling metroidvania with a heavy weapon and a map to fill in. Single player, no compromises.
It is a metroidvania game that the player will play as a rabbit who can manipulate the big mech-arm on his back, exploring in a vivid diesel punk world and fighting against the evil robot army.
That is the game’s own pitch, and it delivers on it without padding.
Where the Praise Came From
Positive reviews cited the graphics, the world and the gameplay, and those three are not separate achievements. The art style gives the city its character. The world design gives the art somewhere to live. The gameplay gives both a reason to exist. Take any one away and the other two collapse.
The score sits at 8.7 out of 10, an IGDB critic aggregate drawn from six outlets. That is a strong number for a small team, and it is earned rather than generous.
Zoopunk Is the Thing to Watch
A prequel, Zoopunk, is set for 2027 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and Microsoft Windows. That announcement is the most interesting fact attached to F.I.S.T. right now. A studio that got this world right is going back to build it earlier. If TiGames learned anything from the first game, the prequel is where we find out what.
The case for F.I.S.T. does not rest on novelty. Metroidvanias are crowded, and a rabbit with a robot arm is not a genre reinvention. What separates this one is execution: a city with a real sense of place, a combat hook that stays interesting, and a map that respects the player’s time. The dieselpunk setting could have been decoration. TiGames made it the foundation instead.
The weak spot is the one the genre always has. Backtracking wears thin if the world does not justify it, and Torch City mostly does.
F.I.S.T.: Forged In Shadow Torch is the rare first effort that knows exactly what it is. It is a metroidvania about a rabbit, a fist, and an occupied city, and it does not pretend otherwise. Five years after release, that clarity is why it still holds up.
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