This review contains spoilers
As a longtime fan of the Punch-Out series, I'm a little ashamed to say that this is the first time I've actually completed the Wii game. I've played it hundreds of times before, but always stopped either after beating Contender Mode or hitting a roadblock fight in Title Defense that I didn't have the patience to master. I've always loved everything about this game to death, so frankly I'm surprised it took me this long to try beating it, but I'm so glad I did. It's given me even more appreciation for the game. I vote with full bias giving this a 5 star but I really don't care, there is literally nothing I would change about this game.
Punch-Out Wii takes all the best aspects of its predecessors and puts them together, yet it still feels like its own distinct package. It takes the most inspiration from the NES Punch-Out, but it adds in fighters from both Super Punch-Outs (confusing, I know, but there's one on arcade and one on SNES). The way they translated the NES fighters for the regular fights is just so awesome; there are people out there that have articulated this better than I can, but they somehow managed to make it feel just like the original, from the charmingly goofy animations to the sound effects. Punch-Out Wii is absolute perfection of the series formula, if you ask me. Each fighter's pattern feels very satisfying to master - even the easy ones - and it just feels so fun to dodge, block, counter, and beat up your foes. Landing a Star Punch is very satisfying, too. In the later (harder) fights, you REALLY value your stars. That's partially because there's a great sense of risk and reward with stars: typically, the game encourages you to dodge then attack, but if you can intercept an enemy's attack with the right kind of punch at the right time you can get a star. So, whenever you're fighting, you have to decide whether you want to risk trying for a star or playing it safe to just dodge for the guaranteed damage. From what I found, each fighter has at least 4 unique ways to earn stars, and that's just really cool. Another cool thing about the game in my opinion is that each fighter has unique quirks that can add so much flavor to a fight, from the fact that Aran Ryan's punches need to be interrupted for you to be able to hurt him at all to Glass Joe taking a second to praise France. Some fighters also have cool exploits for ending a fight quick, typically in the form of one hit KOs, like how you can Star Punch ol' Glass Joe in the previously mentioned taunt he does for an instant KO. I found out the instant KO trick for the Great Tiger fight in Title Defense by complete accident and felt so accomplished when I did, especially since he was giving me a hard time. Punch-Out Wii is an excellent case of easy to learn but hard to master; aside from a few standout fights, chances are Contender Mode won't be too hard for you, but Title Defense makes even the easiest fighters from Contender a decent challenge. Some people might say that reusing the same boxers is a little lazy, and I can kind of see where they're coming from, but I think it was a great idea to make a new and much more difficult spin on the same fighters. They feel like evolutions of the previous fights while still adding at least one new trick up their sleeve. I noticed that a big theme with Title Defense fighters is attempting to throw off your sense of timing by alternating between speedy attacks and slow ones, which really messed with me many times, but the pattern is far from random so it never feels impossible to predict. The whole World Circuit and some of the Major Circuit fights in Title Defense mode are very tough, but that made it feel all the more satisfying once I figured it out and beat them.
Punch-Out Wii doesn't really have much of a story to speak of, so I'll make this paragraph for both story and characters. Basically, Little Mac is a young up-and-coming boxer coached by the lovable Doc Louis. Mac wants to rise up to the top of the WVBA boxing food chain, going from the Minor Circuit to the World Circuit. As his name implies, Mac is very short in comparison to the other boxers, which adds an extra layer of logic with the way the game is played (dodging is encouraged so heavily because you're so small to these hulking beasts). Once Mac braves through adversity and becomes the champ, Title Defense is unlocked. All the previous boxers come back for revenge and Mac has to beat them all to keep his title. Finally, once you do that, Mac's Last Stand is unlocked. Mac decides that he's going to go out with a bang, engaging in a gauntlet of fights against the same opponents yet again (aside from the surprise guest character Donkey Kong) that will only stop once he loses three times. By the end, we see Doc Louis standing in a museum with a photo of Little Mac training with him in honor of Mac's retirement, making for a bittersweet ending. So, yea, it's a very simple story, but is effective and honestly I wouldn't ask for anything more. Plus, there are some cool lore bits you learn through dialogue in the game, like how Doc Louis invented the Star Punch (learned through the "Doc Louis's Punch-Out" download only game which I really wish I owned). For the most part, though, that synopsis I gave is all you get for story. The characters are the real meat of the game if you ask me, they are so charming and goofy. Unfortunately they come with uncomfortable implications since they are all based on cultural or racial stereotypes, but I can't really say anything about that as someone who isn't part of any of the groups that might be impacted by this. I will say that I think its awesome that they all speak the main language of their home country, I've never seen a character speak Hindi or Turkish until I played this game and that's gotta mean at least something. Overall, though, they're a bunch of silly weirdos and I love them very much. Biggest standouts in my opinion are Doc Louis's unabashed positivity and goofiness, Disco Kid's flamboyant cheerful dancing, pretty much everything about King Hippo, Don Flamenco's infectious confidence (and arrogance), and Super Macho Man's amusing surfer dude lingo combined with his arrogance that reeks of Hollywood star, but frankly I think all of them are just so charming in their own ways. Mr. Sandman is a genuine badass and he's intimidating as hell, just as another example. Everyone's got some kind of unique personality that's interesting to see in action.
Here's a brief shoutout to the visual design of everything in the game. It's a pretty standard cel-shaded cartoony style from what I can tell, but man every character is just brimming with personality from how exaggerated their movement and facial expressions are. The game also just looks really good in my opinion, which is especially impressive to me considering that this is a Wii game and those aren't all known for looking great nowadays. Unfortunately there seems to be a strange issue with the characters eyes, where sometimes black lines will thicken to strange degrees, but I don't really notice that on original hardware (its mostly visible in those Punch-Out Wii HD videos I watch that are footage from an emulator).
So, yea, needless to say this is one of my favorite games and I love everything about it. I will say that I don't love it quite as much as Super Punch-Out (SNES), since I feel that game is just a lot more infinitely replayable to me and I have a lot of nostalgia bias for it. Nonetheless, I think Punch-Out Wii is just such a wonderful experience. I've been begging for it to get a port or remaster on Switch for what feels like such a long time by now, hoping that happens at some point but it might never happen.
Punch-Out Wii takes all the best aspects of its predecessors and puts them together, yet it still feels like its own distinct package. It takes the most inspiration from the NES Punch-Out, but it adds in fighters from both Super Punch-Outs (confusing, I know, but there's one on arcade and one on SNES). The way they translated the NES fighters for the regular fights is just so awesome; there are people out there that have articulated this better than I can, but they somehow managed to make it feel just like the original, from the charmingly goofy animations to the sound effects. Punch-Out Wii is absolute perfection of the series formula, if you ask me. Each fighter's pattern feels very satisfying to master - even the easy ones - and it just feels so fun to dodge, block, counter, and beat up your foes. Landing a Star Punch is very satisfying, too. In the later (harder) fights, you REALLY value your stars. That's partially because there's a great sense of risk and reward with stars: typically, the game encourages you to dodge then attack, but if you can intercept an enemy's attack with the right kind of punch at the right time you can get a star. So, whenever you're fighting, you have to decide whether you want to risk trying for a star or playing it safe to just dodge for the guaranteed damage. From what I found, each fighter has at least 4 unique ways to earn stars, and that's just really cool. Another cool thing about the game in my opinion is that each fighter has unique quirks that can add so much flavor to a fight, from the fact that Aran Ryan's punches need to be interrupted for you to be able to hurt him at all to Glass Joe taking a second to praise France. Some fighters also have cool exploits for ending a fight quick, typically in the form of one hit KOs, like how you can Star Punch ol' Glass Joe in the previously mentioned taunt he does for an instant KO. I found out the instant KO trick for the Great Tiger fight in Title Defense by complete accident and felt so accomplished when I did, especially since he was giving me a hard time. Punch-Out Wii is an excellent case of easy to learn but hard to master; aside from a few standout fights, chances are Contender Mode won't be too hard for you, but Title Defense makes even the easiest fighters from Contender a decent challenge. Some people might say that reusing the same boxers is a little lazy, and I can kind of see where they're coming from, but I think it was a great idea to make a new and much more difficult spin on the same fighters. They feel like evolutions of the previous fights while still adding at least one new trick up their sleeve. I noticed that a big theme with Title Defense fighters is attempting to throw off your sense of timing by alternating between speedy attacks and slow ones, which really messed with me many times, but the pattern is far from random so it never feels impossible to predict. The whole World Circuit and some of the Major Circuit fights in Title Defense mode are very tough, but that made it feel all the more satisfying once I figured it out and beat them.
Punch-Out Wii doesn't really have much of a story to speak of, so I'll make this paragraph for both story and characters. Basically, Little Mac is a young up-and-coming boxer coached by the lovable Doc Louis. Mac wants to rise up to the top of the WVBA boxing food chain, going from the Minor Circuit to the World Circuit. As his name implies, Mac is very short in comparison to the other boxers, which adds an extra layer of logic with the way the game is played (dodging is encouraged so heavily because you're so small to these hulking beasts). Once Mac braves through adversity and becomes the champ, Title Defense is unlocked. All the previous boxers come back for revenge and Mac has to beat them all to keep his title. Finally, once you do that, Mac's Last Stand is unlocked. Mac decides that he's going to go out with a bang, engaging in a gauntlet of fights against the same opponents yet again (aside from the surprise guest character Donkey Kong) that will only stop once he loses three times. By the end, we see Doc Louis standing in a museum with a photo of Little Mac training with him in honor of Mac's retirement, making for a bittersweet ending. So, yea, it's a very simple story, but is effective and honestly I wouldn't ask for anything more. Plus, there are some cool lore bits you learn through dialogue in the game, like how Doc Louis invented the Star Punch (learned through the "Doc Louis's Punch-Out" download only game which I really wish I owned). For the most part, though, that synopsis I gave is all you get for story. The characters are the real meat of the game if you ask me, they are so charming and goofy. Unfortunately they come with uncomfortable implications since they are all based on cultural or racial stereotypes, but I can't really say anything about that as someone who isn't part of any of the groups that might be impacted by this. I will say that I think its awesome that they all speak the main language of their home country, I've never seen a character speak Hindi or Turkish until I played this game and that's gotta mean at least something. Overall, though, they're a bunch of silly weirdos and I love them very much. Biggest standouts in my opinion are Doc Louis's unabashed positivity and goofiness, Disco Kid's flamboyant cheerful dancing, pretty much everything about King Hippo, Don Flamenco's infectious confidence (and arrogance), and Super Macho Man's amusing surfer dude lingo combined with his arrogance that reeks of Hollywood star, but frankly I think all of them are just so charming in their own ways. Mr. Sandman is a genuine badass and he's intimidating as hell, just as another example. Everyone's got some kind of unique personality that's interesting to see in action.
Here's a brief shoutout to the visual design of everything in the game. It's a pretty standard cel-shaded cartoony style from what I can tell, but man every character is just brimming with personality from how exaggerated their movement and facial expressions are. The game also just looks really good in my opinion, which is especially impressive to me considering that this is a Wii game and those aren't all known for looking great nowadays. Unfortunately there seems to be a strange issue with the characters eyes, where sometimes black lines will thicken to strange degrees, but I don't really notice that on original hardware (its mostly visible in those Punch-Out Wii HD videos I watch that are footage from an emulator).
So, yea, needless to say this is one of my favorite games and I love everything about it. I will say that I don't love it quite as much as Super Punch-Out (SNES), since I feel that game is just a lot more infinitely replayable to me and I have a lot of nostalgia bias for it. Nonetheless, I think Punch-Out Wii is just such a wonderful experience. I've been begging for it to get a port or remaster on Switch for what feels like such a long time by now, hoping that happens at some point but it might never happen.