While not the longest of games in the series, and they would ultimately pale in comparison to what would come later, the arcade Punch-Out and Super Punch-Out were still pretty good games, ones that still hold up almost 40 years after they released, still having a lot of personality and charm to it. With that being said though, these two games would end up being outshined greatly when Nintendo decided to take the series to the NES. And not only that, but they would also be doing so with the face of the, at the time, undisputed champion of the ring, Mike Tyson. This would occur when the at the time president of Nintendo of America saw him in action, and made a deal to use his likeness in the game… for three years, until then replacing him with a different character who nobody cares about for future releases of the game. That kinda sucks, but hey, that’s just business after all. Can’t do anything about it.

This is the very first game in the Punch-Out series that I have played, and the one that I spent the most time playing overall. There was something about it that seemed so charming and fun, despite it being a boxing game, that I had a great time playing it back in the day, even though I got my ass kicked many times, especially by Bald Bull, who I just couldn’t beat at the time, no matter what I tried. But now, I have beaten the entire game, and from my experience, I still had a pretty great time. Much like its arcade counterpart, there isn’t too many changes made to the sport in this game, and it isn’t that complicated or unique, but it stands out on its own from every other boxing game at the time by having that Nintendo charm spread all throughout, but having the difficulty to keep that drive to beat your opponents down much alive as you keep going.

The graphics, while definitely not even close to the quality of the original arcade titles, are still pretty good for the NES, and the character sprites and designs still retain the charm and energy seen from those titles, the music, while there aren’t too many tracks to listen to, are iconic, and still pretty good to listen to nowadays as you beat up people from around the world, the controls are simple, being what you would expect for a boxing game, but being all that you need in order to take on your numerous opponents, and the gameplay is pretty similar to that of the original games, but bigger, badder, and brutal-er.

Like with the other games, the game is a boxing game, where you take control of Little Mac, which is the best name for a main character in this universe, and you take on many different opponents in the ring from many different countries around the world, dodging, ducking, and counterattacking blows to learn your opponents’ moveset and get the upper hand, and become the ultimate title holder by the end of the game. Being an adaptation, not much of the formula is changed from the arcade games (if at all), but what makes this version much more appealing and iconic is not only because it was at home and more replayable, of course, but because there was more stuff here, not only in terms of the little segments that add more charm and story to the game, such as the training with Little Mac and Doc, but also how much longer the game lasts.

In the original two Punch-Out games, if you were good enough, you could beat both of them individually in less than 10 minutes. Yes, you could refight opponents on a much harder difficulty, but really, if you don’t want to do that, then there is no point to doing it. You won, plain and simple, go home at that point. But here, there are many more opponents and plenty more fights, so you will be at it for a while, and while a lot of the opponents have the same methods of attacking, a good chunk of them having different gimmicks of how they will try to take you down, such as with Bald Bull charging straight at you at certain times for a one hit KO, or King Hippo being more of a puzzle boss, where you have to find out exactly how to deal damage to him before he gets knocked down for good. It isn’t entirely complicated, and you can figure it out pretty quickly, but it is very memorable and extremely satisfying to take down a lot of these opponents.

And speaking of, this brings us to the main attraction of this game… Mike Tyso- I MEAN, Mr. Dream… yeah, definitely not as cool. He is the final boss of the game, and HOO BOY, if you aren’t ready for it, he will remind you as to why he was the champion of not just the game, but in real life boxing. If you aren’t too careful, he could instantly knock you down, and timing exactly when to dodge his attacks and when to counterattack yourself is a lot more hard and precise then it sounds. Yes, he has a clear pattern like everyone else, but with the speed he executes these attacks, and the damage he does to you in the process, it is no secret as to why he is considered one of the hardest bosses of the 8-bit era. Luckily though, I beat him! I just, you know, have to go to the hospital to fix my broken fingers after this fight.

If there were any complaints that I could give to the game, it would be that, while I do appreciate how much longer the game is compared to the originals, it does suffer from padding out the length for no reason. For the last main circuit in the game, you will need to refight a good number of the opponents you had already faced previously, and yes, while they are harder, they are practically unchanged from their original fight in terms of their movesets, so it is moreso about enduring these characters once again to eventually take them down once more to proceed forward. Yeah, not a big fan of that. It’s even weirder because, at that point, they had several other characters from the arcade titles they could’ve used, and they also could’ve made new characters as well, so I don’t understand why these rematches need to exist at all.

Overall, despite having a lot of unnecessary rematches, as well as the game being absolutely relentless with certain fights, the original Punch-Out for the NES still holds up extremely well, and while I wouldn’t say it is as good as later titles in the series, it still stands on its own for being what not only a Punch-Out game, but a boxing game for consoles should aspire to be. I definitely recommend it, not just for those who are fans of the later Punch-Out titles, but for those who wanna find out what else Nintendo had up their sleeves when it came to the NES library. Still though, kinda sucks that they couldn’t keep using Mike Tyson for the later releases. I mean, aside from contract expirations, what reasons would Nintendo POSSIBLY have for NOT wanting Mike Tyson to appear in their video games for general audiences?..... Wait, wha-

Game #272

A skillful game for skillful gamers.

Such skill to get around the terrible and gimped crouching that doesn't register your thumb naturally rolling on the dpad to begin immediately moving so you can evade the erratic patterns of the enemies!

I can't believe you got the alignment of Saturn's rings just right so that the ghosts don't spawn directly on top of you! Yowie wowie! A leprechaun must've jaywalked near your house, because the big guys decided not to constantly take a massive shit on the ladders and camp your ass! WOAH WOAH WOAH! What a fantastic god-fearing moment you had saying your prayers so the Arremers wouldn't swoop at impossible angles! Deary me! The Unicorn bosses didn't decide to charge you constantly?! How much did you pay them?! YA-YA-YOWZA! I commend your ability at kindly asking the jarheaded zombies to not pickpocket your lance and replace it with a torch! GODDAMN! You already knew the dragon in stage 3 was immune to the lance and grabbed the torch prior?! SKILLFUL ARTHUR! CONGRATURATIONS TO YOU ON YOUR ABILITY TO POWER CYCLE THE CONSOLE CORRECTLY!

rolls three dice

YIPPIE YAY! I rolled three sixes! I just beat Ghosts n' Goblins on Nintendo! What a great classic for the system!

turns into bongo cat and slaps the end of the table for the next hour

Btw, the Famicom version doesn't have continues unless you cheat code, Transformers Convoy no Nazo moment. Good fuckin' game. Glad I played three days in a row with a different experience each time. sips chocolate milx of quality