Zoopunk was one of the few games at the Xbox Partner Preview that grabbed my attention. Developed by TiGames, it’s a dieselpunk action-RPG set in the same universe as F.I.S.T.: Forged in Shadow Torch.
Usually a game with talking animals tends to look stylized or cartoonish. Instead, you get a photorealistic rabbit riding a motorcycle, with a rhino and a chipmunk as his teammates.
That dissonance is the point.
What We Know About the Story
Zoopunk is set decades before F.I.S.T. during the turbulent early days of Torch City.
Everything spirals out of control when the Fire Seed is discovered. It’s a powerful but unstable energy source that jump starts technological growth while throwing the world off-balance. That conflict turns into the First Torch War, a war marked by ideology and rapid industrial expansion. It eventually becomes a mechanical uprising led by machines that turn their backs on their animal creators.
The heroes at the center of this chaos are Rayton the rabbit, Braton the rhino, and Trixie the chipmunk. Each one plays like a fully realized character. Rayton fights with fast, close-range precision. Braton hits like a tank, while Trixie darts in and out with acrobatics. They are tied together by a mission revolving around a mysterious Spark, something powerful enough to change the fate of the entire city.
What Is Animal Punk?
Animal punk (also called anthropunk or furpunk), is part of the same family as cyberpunk and dieselpunk.
The difference is that the world is built around anthropomorphic animals rather than humans. The themes remain grounded in rebellion, resistance, and social collapse.
It might feel a little strange at first because we rarely see animal characters in serious, grounded stories like Zoopunk. Our brains default to cartoons or mascots. Animal punk breaks that association. It uses animal characters to disarm you, all while replacing the expected playfulness with mature themes.
Zoopunk pushes this idea further with its photorealistic art style. The story isn’t softened because the characters are animals. The visuals are not stylized to make the premise easier to digest.
Everything is treated with the same seriousness you would expect from a game of human protagonists. The world feels familiar yet it still feels fresh in how it’s executed. It challenges the idea that stories with animal characters should be told in a lighter tone.
The Rise of Animal Punk
Animal Punk is an obscure subgenre, but maybe Zoopunk can change that.
The photorealistic animal heroes can be a little distracting. I’m hoping the story can shine through despite that. Its dieselpunk-inspired visuals are gorgeous. The plot is interesting. If it delivers on its promise, Zoopunk could be the game that pushes animal punk into the mainstream. All while proving that these stories can be as serious as any other punk-like game.
