Punch the monkey, an adorable macaque born last July in Japan, captured the world’s attention recently. He was abandoned by his mother and rejected by his community, only to find solace and comfort in a $20 orangutan plush toy from IKEA. His story tugged on the heartstrings of people worldwide who felt bad for the little guy and wanted him to find companionship.
He eventually did, and Punch’s prospects are seemingly better now. But Punch still lives in a zoo–the Ichikawa City Zoo–and that’s not sitting well with everyone. A new video game, Zoo Fighter, has players taking on the role of Punch and … punching bullies away with his fist or a swift kick. Knock out 100 and Punch gets to go to a sanctuary, instead of a zoo. And that’s the point of the video game.
“This game is a love letter to all animals doing a bid at the zoo. Animal sanctuaries are often better for primates than zoos because they put the animals’ well-being first instead of public display,” reads a line from the game’s description. “They offer larger, more natural spaces and rescue animals from neglect or captivity rather than breeding them,” the description goes on. “The focus is on lifelong care and less human interferecne, giving primates a safer, less stressful place to live.”
Zoo Fighter also includes a button that players can press to find and support a sanctuary near where they live. Through March 6, Zoo Fighter reached more than 1.1 million unique players who have played the game more than 3 million times.
The game hails from FanArcade and developer Richie Branson. FanArcade is a company that helps brands and celebrities reach their audiences through video games. The company’s biggest success is Not Like Us, the free game inspired by Kendrick Lamar’s popular diss track.
GameSpot caught up with Branson to discuss not only Zoo Fighter, but also his ambitions for FanArcade to create games based on anything and everything, lessons he learned working on Fortnite, and how many people feel games today can feel “soulless.” Check out the full interview below.
Before we get into the viral “Punch the monkey” story and Zoo Fighter, I’d like to ask about your history and hear about why you left Epic to start FanArcade?
I got my start in game design after being a musician for a number of years. I was a lifelong gamer, but after getting the opportunity to compose music for Marvel Heroes, it piqued my interest in the game development process. I eventually learned C# and Javascript via Youtube tutorials and started making games in Unity. I got the attention of Harmonix Music Systems after releasing a trailer for a rap-themed game, and ultimately got my first game design job with them.
After they were acquired by Epic Games, I was placed on the Fortnite team and worked on Festival mode, among other things. My time at Epic was very educational in terms of personal growth. When I parted ways with Epic, it presented an opportunity for me to rediscover what my purpose was in terms of game design. I took a long hiatus and moved overseas to find that new purpose. I created the “Not Like Us” game during that hiatus and its success gave me insight on how games can serve as an incredible tool for fan engagement. That epiphany laid the foundation of FanArcade.
I understand FanArcade’s mission is to help brands and celebrities reach their audiences via gaming and other forms of multimedia. You say you want to help them create “authentic” content that helps deepen connections. What does that mean in practice?
Working in this industry has made one thing clear to me: Our culture drives real economic value. Brands and celebrities are constantly trying to tap into it, often borrowing the language or tone they see resonating online. You can see it in the way major global companies now adopt phrases born from our communities in their social captions, hoping to feel relevant.
What makes FanArcade different is that we are not imitating culture from the outside looking in. We are building from within it and working closely with talent to make sure our games feel natural, not forced, and that authenticity is what audiences respond to. Our commercial success is rooted in that truth. We do not water culture down to make it palatable for brands. We safeguard it, honor it and translate it into interactive experiences that perform because they are real.
What did you take from your experiences working on rhythm games at Harmonix and Fortnite with you to FanArcade? Both of those franchises had, and still have, very passionate fandoms, so I imagine your experience with superfans left a mark on you.
Harmonix definitely showed me that novel gameplay design can create strong loyalty among consumers. Superfans are created when you give them an experience they can’t easily find anywhere else. Grabbing a plastic guitar and rocking out with your friends is an experience that immortalized Harmonix in the gaming zeitgeist.
Fortnite planted the seeds for my obsession with mashing up gaming and pop culture. It was interesting to have a front-row seat into the process of integrating pop culture characters and IP into a gaming platform. Seeing the process for answering questions like, “How can we balance Goku’s kamehameha wave into our existing gameplay loop?” gave me a lot of insight into how to creatively integrate non-gaming IP into a video game.
FanArcade differs from other gaming companies in that your games don’t require expensive hardware and are more casual in nature. Why did you want to go with no-download, browser-based games as opposed to games for, say, console or PC? What does that allow for?
What really clicked for me was seeing how quickly Not Like Us: The Game spread. It proved that when you remove barriers and let people jump straight into the experience, they are much more likely to engage and share it. If someone can tap a link and be playing within seconds, that is powerful.
Traditional platforms like Fortnite are incredible, but they require a console or app download, account setup and time to get started. That kind of friction makes it harder to move at the speed of culture. We are focused on making games that meet the moment instantly, without asking players to jump through hoops.
Do you have any plans to eventually release FanArcade games on console platforms?
Yes! Although our core business model focuses on low-barrier-to-entry experiences that can be enjoyed quickly on any device, we are working on a few game concepts that are targeted for a proper console release. I’m a heavy PC and console gamer, and I can’t seem to shake the nagging desire to create the next Baldur’s Gate 3.
I read a previous interview of yours where you said you want to help find a way to create meaningful, gamified experiences to help people with addiction treatment and mental health. Those are delicate, complicated matters, so how are you going about building respectful and educational gamified experiences around those topics?
Yes, they are definitely subjects that must be treated with care and respect. As someone who’s suffered from both depression and addiction at points in my life, I understand the darkness that can surround a person in the midst of those kinds of journeys. Much in the same way that music and other artforms can become a meaningful reflection of some of the darker moments in a person’s life, I hope to do the same with video games as an art form.
I think it takes honest sincerity and authenticity to make something in that vein. I don’t want such an experience to feel like I’m at the top of the hill yelling down advice on how to climb up. I want these experiences to meet people where they are and hold their hand on the way up.
What are FanArcade’s goals in 2026 and beyond? Anything coming up in the future you can tease?
In 2026 and beyond, the vision for FanArcade is simple but ambitious: There is a game in everything, and we want to find it. We proved that interactive experiences rooted in music and culture can move at the speed of the internet. Now we are asking a bigger question: Where else can gamification create real impact? We are exploring how interactive mechanics can be applied to areas people do not traditionally associate with gaming, from mental health to addiction recovery to other parts of everyday life where engagement and motivation matter.
The goal is to build experiences that are not just entertaining, but meaningful. At the same time, FanArcade continues to stand for access and ownership. I came into tech from music without a traditional path, and that journey shapes how we build. We want to show the next generation of Black innovators that you do not need a specific degree or pedigree to lead in this space. As we scale, you will see bigger concepts, broader partnerships, and more culturally grounded games designed to move culture forward while proving that impact and commercial success can coexist.
For Zoo Fighter, can you talk about how this came together and the overall ambition of the project?
During my time overseas, I spent a lot of time in various countries in Africa. Some of the most profound experiences I’ve had were in places like Kenya’s Masai Mara reserve, where you’d see lions hunting, elephants strolling through their natural habitat, and seeing wildlife exist in its true intended nature. Ever since, I’ve never had the desire to see animals in a zoo again.
Punch’s story served as a reminder of how zoo animals have unnatural stresses forced upon them as a result of the conditions of their captivity. Ever since Oregon Trail taught me that the wheels might break if you move at a grueling pace, I’ve understood the power video games have when it comes to education and awareness. That’s the spirit that led me to create Zoo Fighter.
Beyond the gameplay experience, the game directs people to learn more about animals in captivity. How do you go about balancing giving people something fun to play, while also trying to communicate a message?
I live by the age-old adage “You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.” Today we are bombarded with information from all angles, and it’s becoming more and more difficult to capture attention and deliver messaging to audiences. It’s not enough to simply drop a PSA that says “Zoos Bad, Sanctuaries Good” in the world we live in today. If nothing else, I wanted to use video games to solve that problem.
People are still very satisfied with the dopamine release they get from being in a state of play, and so I used a simple, fun gameplay loop to sweeten the deal (no pun intended). Even if they don’t click the “learn more” button, the message is baked in as a plot device (Punch fighting his way out of the zoo and into a sanctuary). So far over 1 million people have played Zoo Fighter; I’m hoping some of them got the message.
It’s still early days for Zoo Fighter, so maybe you don’t have the data yet for this game specifically, but what have you seen from previous releases about how the kind of “culturally reactive games” that you make can mobilize communities? What data do you have that shows this is working and having the intended effect?
To date, all of FanArcades games and experiences have generated 7.6M unique players (including 1.1M from Zoo Fighter). When it comes to cultural and timely games, these generate a lot of buzz and excitement. We just launched a meme generator tied to Young Thug and NAV’s newest track, Trimski, and have seen over 50 thousand people participate. We are releasing an interactive album cover for Anitta’s newest single release “Pinterest.” Our most viral game to date was “Not Like Us” with over 2M unique plays.
This year we will have a big game in GTA 6 that is going to capture lots of time and attention, and make lots of money. We don’t know all that much about it, but it’s a safe bet the game will include a lot of what made previous installments controversial. Your studio appears to have a different ambition. What is it about making socially conscious, and culturally fluent, as you call them, games that speaks to you?
Unlike a lot of studios, we’re looking at games as more than just entertainment. We see a lot of ways that video games can be used to solve problems and spread awareness. Video games already have the power to create moments that become core memories (FF7 end of disc 1 still haunts me to this day), and so we look to create those experiences in a way that can be beneficial in ways outside of the game. Cultural authenticity is key to our business philosophy, because one of the chief complaints in today’s gaming industry is how soulless games have become. We want anyone who experiences our products to be able to feel the genuine love with which they were made.
Anything else you want to share about FanArcade?
We’re continuing to find fun, innovative ways to build interactive experiences that captivate people. There’s a game in everything, and we will build it.
Image credit: Anadolu/ Contributor / Getty Images
