Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! (1987)

Preliminary: Lol great soudns, is that a Mario referee, and I was crushign the frist opponent! I thought this would just be a playtest but we shall see. The dodging then couterattacking was already getting old but I felt good at it which is nice :-p I'm sure the later levels will brutalize me. The 2nd opponent has a funny movement animation :-p But yea the mechanics were already getting old and the opponents kept getting up too many times :-p There are 14 opponents... hm. I might return to it tomorrow and if doesn't feel fresh enough despite the good Sound and surprisingly good Play and Look, I shall move on. Cuz Goonies II is next! A favorite Konami game! (I got through the first 2 opponents on first play session)

Look: 8/10 Always loved the Look of this and the odd, full-body sprites.

Sound: 8/10 The audience sound effects, the usual tune, the interlude tune. Full of great Sound.

Play: 7/10 Not a favorite genre of mine, and quite repetitive. But decidedly better than the Fighting games I've played so far in the chronology project. It took me a bit to discover what the Stars do. Nice. I like the guy giving you hints in between Rounds.

Feel: 8/10 Good feel, even if not a game I would regularly (or ever) play to the end. I love the Look and Sound of the interludes

Attachment: 7/10 After knocking this guy down for the third time and him getting back up, I decided to call it quits. I have nostalgia for this from childhood, and it's surprisingly engaging, but the repetitive gameplay bogs it down after a while. Sure, they add mechanics in each fight, but the new mechanics for this guy (the 2nd tournament type thing? I dunno I think it was 4th opponent maybe 5th) did not bode well for the rest of the game.

Completion: To Don Flamenco Playtime: 25 mins

Despite having played both the SNES and Wii versions previously, the NES version of Punch-out proved to be quite a challenge in its final matches. Beating Tyson required me to use savestates at the beginning of each round and also reading a guide, since the reaction times required to win are really excessive. I would have preferred to play it on a CRT TV to decrease the input delay and thus have just a few frames more to react to attacks. It literally gave me a headache to play this game as you have to keep your eyes very fixed and not even blink if you want to beat Tyson.

Before the Tyson fight, it was a fun game, but trying to defeat him is an act bordering on masochism.

Look: 8/10 These graphics seem so ahead of their time, far ahead any of the other full body sprite games. Maybe because it's actual humans? I dunno but the faces and bodies just seem super advanced for '83.

Sound: 8/10 Great intro music, doesn't really fit the theme of a fighting game, sounds more like a cutesy platformer, but hey. Ha. Still like it. Whoa, and wild to hear an actual human voice for the announcer or w/e, rather than a digitized voice ha. The sounds during the gameplay were actually really satisfying and not annoying--glad it seems I'm officially past most the annoying sound era for videogames.

Play: 8/10 Now to see if the gameplay holds up as much as the look and sound. While it was really fun to KO my first guy, I can't claim I had a blast doing it. Still, for '83, I bet this was super exciting when it came out. Far smoother than any other attempts at fighting games before this, including the martial arts ones (at least the ones I've played).

Feel: 8/10 I definitely see why this is a classic. Not just for its innovation and advance feel for its release year, but also just because it is genuinely fun. I know I said I didn't have that much fun KO'ing 2 guys, but I can imagine when this was fresh and unprecedented, this would be insanely good and fun to play. It's so satisfying when you get left hook after left hook until a KO, or when you manage to actually dodge a hook rather than just block it which for me was easier to predict/do of course.

Attachment: 8/10 Dang that second guy (Piston Hurricane) was a lot harder. But after a few tries I got through him! I kinda wanted to keep trying, but didn't. I could see this being loads of fun at an actual arcade, and I will definitely play it when I visit Galloping Ghost. For now, moving on--but it truly is as advanced, classic, and excellent as I had always heard. I could definitely see myself returning to this, also, to show my brothers and have some fun at a get-together, perhaps. Still, as per usual with fighting games, I don't see myself replaying this much just for myself.

Completion: Won 2 Fights, ~22,000 Score Playtime: ~20 mins

This game for what it is, For what it wanted to achieve, For what system it was made for is just Perfect.

The Whole game's Design still Amazes me with how little the player looks against the opponent, how there are a lot of details on the background for such simple graphics. It still amazes me how great and simple this game looks.

The little depth you get for each opponent you fight with each one having a different style, Different ways to throw punches to each opponent, and having a simple controls to understand, but to master and create strategy around it. it's Something Insanely creative.

Put on the Simple catchy music, that short Cutscene with little mac training (Running) to make the player feel like they victorious, getting better, and to keep up. and lastly being a Great port from the Arcade to home console without high difficulty to munch on Quarters, is just the Cream of the crop.

This Simply is a great game.

Now to be fair I think I played pitfall and pong on Commodore 64 and Atari but I can’t remember when. I do remember playing Mike Tyson’s Punch Out when my extended family came to visit in summer of 88 (I’m old as dirt). As a kid I don’t think you know when to stop so I had to be told “ok that’s enough for today.” And it always sucked. So I asked my parents for an NES and as my amazing parents always did, they were clutch as usual and got me one for Christmas 88. Back then there was no internet so I had to figure out the rf switch and the tv had to be on channel 3. Luckily it wasn’t too difficult and we figured it out. Onto the game itself, the music and visuals were probably way ahead of it’s time. The gameplay was so fun and you actually had to have some skill in beating everyone from Glass Joe to Iron Mike himself. As games usually do they start off easy and get more difficult as the game moves along. Glass Joe, the game’s first character is meant to be beaten but you still can lose to him. It’s basically a tutorial fight and then you have to figure it out yourself. King Hippo for instance needs a gut punch at certain timing which then drops his shorts which leaves his head exposed for a punch or punches. Don flamenco is another one where if you punch left, right, left, right etc you can punch him till he falls down. The 2nd time you face him that game mechanic does not work and you need a new strategy. There are many great characters that have certain ways to beat each one but I won’t spoil that. Mike Tyson the final boss can knock you down with one punch for the first bit of the fight and then eventually he punches normal. I only managed to beat him once and never did it again. Luckily there is a code that can put you right to the Tyson fight(I think anyway) so you can try as much as you want game over and continue etc. This game actually got me into the sport of boxing as well. For as limited as the NES was back then it was pretty incredible and had some great games like this one

This was totally my opinion and I think it’s a must play...especially for all you younger people(emulators).

The bell sounds on the ring to signal the beginning of the hostilities, the crowd is roaring. It is finally to put on your gloves, one last vague tip from the coach, telling you to join the nintendo club before the fight. Everyone is waiting for only one person: you, the smallest manler to ever exist (that or everyone else is gigantic). The crowd is screaming your name. Will you be ready for the challenge?... Probably not because this game gets kinda hard.

The best thing about this game is the gameplay and while we could regret the lack of evolution of the gameplay and it is true that over the course of the game, the way to apprehend the fights and to finish them will more or less be the same. However, it's what makes the game so intense, you're given a limited amount of options and it'll sometimes feel like you're playing a puzzle game, you have all of the pieces and it's your job to solve the riddle and put them to the best use possible.

The second thing i absolutely adore in the Punch-Out! franchise (something that'll become even important in the 2009 wii remake) is the visual style of the game. The characters are all more wacky than the others and their animations are rather impressive and expressive for the time. We also note a flashy color palette that perfectly fits the mood. It's like playing a cartoon !

Originality is undoubtedly the highlight of this title. The exponential difficulty of the fights makes this game a real challenge, and it will be necessary to show audacity and reflexes if you want Little Mac to turn to you arms raised to celebrate the victory.

3.8 out of 5, would get destroyed by Mike Ty- i mean, Mr. Dream again.

(Ps : This is the greatest moment in gaming history and you cannot change my mind about this)

I finally beat this game. I've been playing Punch Out for maybe three months now. It is an awesome game that requires patience and skill, and I really enjoyed playing it. However I want to take the one flaw that I find in the game out of the way: the fighters distribution. Particularly in the last circuit, some fighters are just oddly ranked. One that is really hard is below a easier opponent, and while some may argue that this gives a sense of the player becoming better in the game, for me, it just interrupts the flow of the game. Because right after the easier opponent, there is one that's harder than both of them, and since you have already lowered your guard because of the previous opponent, you will lose much more times and feel like it's the game's fault (if anyone that has played the game is interested in the fighters I'm talking about, go to the comments, where I will put their names). But with that out of the way, let's get to the rest game, that is really good in my opinion.

The story is pretty basic and straightforward, and that's okay. No need for a complex story to get in the middle of the fights. But the fighters themselves are really well designed and all of them have different personalities that really change the feel of the fights. Some are threatening, while others are funny. Some are pathetic, while others appear to be invincible. It goes to shows how much care Nintendo put into this game. Sadly I didn't have the Mike Tyson version, but the final boss Mr. Dream ends up being exactly the same. But the fact that they went to make a contract with Mike Tyson to appear in the game shows that they really wanted this game to succeed. The presentation and music in the game are the best the NES has and can offer. Now let's talk about gameplay. This game uses the NES controller in every way possible. Every button on the controller is used to make one of the most complex games in the NES library. You can trow left and right uppercuts, you can make left and right body blows and you can dodge left and right. While this may sound simple by today standards, as we have many more buttons on the controllers, Punch Out is actually harder than most of the games that we play nowadays. But it's never frustrating. Every fight in the game is fair, and even tough I don't like how some of the fighters are ranked, the fights are always challenging but beatable. The final boss, Mike Tyson/Mcompletelyis, in my opinion, one of the most hardest and complexes boss battles in gaming history, if not the hardest. And while you can say other bosses are harder, what makes this boss stand out, is that, while it's so hard (trust me, it is), it's still fair. You have to have patience and waste some time practicing where you will even fall in the first half of the first round, but it's never impossible. And that's what I like about this game. It offers the best boxing representation that gaming has to offer, but it doesn't rely on making enemies just impossible to pass. Do you want to prove you are a really good gamer? Step into the shoes of Little Mac and try to beat the game. Because beating Tyson is all the proof you need. I give this game a 4/5 stars.

I finally managed to finish this one after attempting it for years. I'm a huge fan of the snes version. I finished on wiiu using savestates and although not proud of it, still found it very challenging. I tried using save states back in 99 and couldnt do it. I suppose I'll go back and try legit now that I get the pattern. I finished the Mr dream version so I will try the mike tyson one next time if Lil mac feels like coming out of retirement

History:

I feel like I've possibly picked this game up once or twice, but not in any capacity that I can actually remember doing so...

Expectations:

I've heard nothing but good things about pretty much every game in this series, and I'm really excited to give it a go. It sounds like my type of game.

Day 1:

I actually got some play time in the night prior, just to try it out. Turns out, it's a ton of fun!

My stopping point that night was Piston Honda, as I just couldn't figure out how to deal with his barrage attack he'd use during the fight. It clicked just as I was rolling up the controller, that blocking is faster than dodging and that was probably what I was supposed to do.

The next night I gave it a more focused attempt. I had to look up what the stars I was earning were for, and knowing I had access to an uppercut was really helpful. With that I was able to take out Hinda and move on to the next bracket.

I know, I know, quite the achievement. Seeing Mac hear almost makes me regret selling my Little Mac Amiibo, of course Nintendo in general has managed to make me regret buying them in the first place, but that's a rant for another day...

The iconic King Hippo fight. This was actually a lot of fun, going from somewhat hopeless to finally figuring out how to break his defense, then getting the timing down to actually do it. Not very satisfying though, only took one trip to the mat for me to get the win.

Then this happened... I only just started getting a handle on guarding against this guy but it was too late. Game over and time for bed.

I'm enjoying this game a lot, and I can easily see how someone would want to sit down and dedicate the time to mastering it. I'm not sure that someone is me though. Still it's a great pick up and play game and I plan on picking it up and playing it more!

Day 2:

Another night of taking punches to the face! I managed to get the last guy pretty well mastered, I can even block all the attacks in his magic spinning hyper fists of death move. Beating him takes me to Bald Bull.

Man that dude freaks me out...

It didn't end well, as I couldn't find a good way of beating him. I even played up to that point in the game three more times and couldn't do it. I was able to knock him down, avoid all his attacks, even get some stars from him, but in the end it just wasn't happening.

I think this game's about run its course with me. It was a fun distraction but for me I don't see it being much more than that.

Conclusion:

Like I said, I can easily see someone, somewhere, wanting to sit down and master this game. For me, it's more of a light distraction, light Excitebike or Dr. Mario. It's a game I'll happily pick up again in the future until I've had my fill but it's also one of those games where if I play it too much, the fun starts wearing off quickly. The game is very fun. It handles extremely well, as it must, and the graphics and sounds are a lot of fun. Every fight starts off like a puzzle, and after you've figured out how to handle it, it's a matter of executing. It's really rewarding to go from not being able to figure out an opponent, to getting a flawless victory on him. My only complaint is that some mechanics are just a bit too obtuse and, for example, if I never looked it up online I'd of never known that I could throw an uppercut with Start. Still, it's a very minor detraction from the overall fun I had with this game!

Liked:

- Tight, fast controls made me feel like all mistakes were completely on me.
- Opponents are fantastic and fun to fight against.
- The between round screens can be hilarious.
- Learning the game was extremely rewarding.

Disliked:

- I understand it's a product of the era, but a little clarification or direction from the game could have gone a long way.

Personal Score: