I never was that big of a fan of Punch-Out(!!) despite being a sorta-kinda fan of boxing as a teenager, which was mostly brought on by infatuation with Fight Night Round 4 on the Xbox 360... which was mostly brought on by my intense infatuation with physics simulations in games. I would talk about how cool that game was, but this is supposed to be a review for Punch-Out(!!) so let's focus.
The gameplay in this game is pretty straight-forward and has a decent bit of variety for an NES game. Dodge, block, and counter punch your way to victory in a series of fights against creative bosses that all have their own special moves... aside from a couple repeat fights with previous bosses that change their patterns up.
It's not a bad game and it's certainly a challenge, but somehow despite how everyone seems to feel about it, it never really gripped me. Maybe it was because I only finally sat down to play it at great length when I was already in my 20s instead of connecting with it as a kid and then revisiting it with nostalgia, but I think a large part of it too is just that the game is merely about pattern recognition and reflex instead of any kind of critical thinking (and the only time I really like that kind of game is when there's a catchy beat playing because it's a rhythm game).
It's kind of like Simon Says, except in this case Simon beats the crap out of you relentlessly while you struggle to get a handle on what it is Simon is about to say when he flashes on the screen. You're never really asked to put your mind to anything, just watch, learn, and react. Considering that's all there is to it, the game really drags on, and by the time I reached the hardest stages I was really wanting to be done with it, so my patience was running low.
By the way, if you don't want to have a really frustrating experience with this game, play it on a CRT with an NES, or at least turn on your Retroarch run-ahead feature, because otherwise the lag is going to make the last fight nearly impossible for someone who isn't already so well practiced at it that they know what to do instinctively. This game is hard enough already without adding lag frames.
I appreciate all the things (graphics, sound, fun character design...) that go into making Punch-Out(... !!) into the complete package that it is and so I'm willing to shake hands and say good match and give it a pretty good rating, but not admit it into my cabal of greatest games ever (the 4+ star crowd).
3.5 - Good: Good but still lacking something that propels it to greatness
The gameplay in this game is pretty straight-forward and has a decent bit of variety for an NES game. Dodge, block, and counter punch your way to victory in a series of fights against creative bosses that all have their own special moves... aside from a couple repeat fights with previous bosses that change their patterns up.
It's not a bad game and it's certainly a challenge, but somehow despite how everyone seems to feel about it, it never really gripped me. Maybe it was because I only finally sat down to play it at great length when I was already in my 20s instead of connecting with it as a kid and then revisiting it with nostalgia, but I think a large part of it too is just that the game is merely about pattern recognition and reflex instead of any kind of critical thinking (and the only time I really like that kind of game is when there's a catchy beat playing because it's a rhythm game).
It's kind of like Simon Says, except in this case Simon beats the crap out of you relentlessly while you struggle to get a handle on what it is Simon is about to say when he flashes on the screen. You're never really asked to put your mind to anything, just watch, learn, and react. Considering that's all there is to it, the game really drags on, and by the time I reached the hardest stages I was really wanting to be done with it, so my patience was running low.
By the way, if you don't want to have a really frustrating experience with this game, play it on a CRT with an NES, or at least turn on your Retroarch run-ahead feature, because otherwise the lag is going to make the last fight nearly impossible for someone who isn't already so well practiced at it that they know what to do instinctively. This game is hard enough already without adding lag frames.
I appreciate all the things (graphics, sound, fun character design...) that go into making Punch-Out(... !!) into the complete package that it is and so I'm willing to shake hands and say good match and give it a pretty good rating, but not admit it into my cabal of greatest games ever (the 4+ star crowd).
3.5 - Good: Good but still lacking something that propels it to greatness