PixlBit

If you go to any store that sells video games, chances are that most of sports titles are heavily, heavily discounted. Sure, the most recent Madden or NBA title will go for $60 at launch, but given how many football and basketball titles have been released over the years, how much more, really, can you do with the genre? It's not like the rules of the sport have undergone drastic changes, and aside from roster updates and tweaks to the career mode, there's not much else you can do.

The best way for a sports game to stand out among the pack, in all honesty, is to take some liberties with the rules and go in a different direction with everything. The world has seen plenty of off-the-wall sports titles over the years: Technos's Super Dodge Ball, EA's Mutant League Football, Capcom's Mega Man Soccer... and although not all of them have turned out well, they're more interesting to talk about then, say, the latest installment of WWE something-or-other. However, one of the best-loved non-traditional sports titles is also one of the earliest, which makes its quality all the more remarkable...

Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! is an unusual title for a number of reasons; aside from the fact that it was one of the few boxing titles available on a home system at the time, it was also targeted specifically towards US audiences at a time when most Famicom/NES releases were Japan-exclusive, and US-only titles were practically unheard of. Although this game showed up on Japanese shelves as well, it really had American gamers in mind, with its notable positioning of an American sports celebrity as the final opponent and its mention of the "Nintendo Fun Club" during between-round segments.

The game was also unique for its use of the MMC2 chip, as it was the only game to do so. This chip allowed for larger sprites to be displayed on the screen, which contributed to the game's unique visual style. Each of your opponents is literally larger-than-life, towering several feet over the player and the referee, and bears a distinct look and personality - usually some ridiculous caricature of a racial stereotype, but it's several orders of magnitude ahead of previous titles featuring one-on-one, man-to-man combat...

...yeesh.

You play the role of Little Mac, a diminuitive boxer with a big heart, who seeks to become a world-champion boxer against all odds. Over a dozen opponents await you over the course of the three tournaments: the major circuit, the minor circuit, and the world circuit. Win a circuit, and you're given a password for the next one; lose, and you're forced to rematch either your current or previous opponent, depending on the circumstances. Lose three matches, and your career as a video boxer is over.

If you've never played a boxing video game before, it's hard to get across just how solid the controls are in this game. A and B perform body blows with the left and right hands, and will perform a face jab when combined with up. Left, right, and down dodge in those directions... and that's pretty much it. Your moveset is fairly simple, but everything responds quickly, and since Little Mac is more or less stationary through the match, combat does not factor in matters of positioning and is merely a matter of timing button presses.

There's one special move in your arsenal as well: the uppercut. To perform one, you must earn a star, which requires you to punch your opponent in a certain way at a certain moment in their attack pattern. This will vary from opponent to opponent, but learning how to get these is well worth it, as uppercuts will deal a huge amount of damage to your opponents and make it much easier to knock them out.

Beating each opponent is a matter of following their attack patterns and learning when to respond with your own punches. Each boxer will often telegraph their next move with a facial expression - a wink, a raising of the eyebrows, or the like - or will perform a series of attacks in a specific order. Opponents will tend to block certain attacks at certain times, so attacking haphazardly will merely run down the clock - not to mention your heart count, which also goes down when you get punched. Running out of hearts causes you to become exhausted and turn purple, forcing you to dodge a few times before you can start attacking again. On the other hand, timing your blows carefully and learning "proper punching" (i.e. countering a left punch with a right one, and vice versa) will allow you to take out opponents much more quickly, and can lead to a one-round victory if you're fast enough.

Each match lasts three rounds, during which you will need to knock your opponent to the mat until they can't get back up. Performing three knockouts in a round results in a TKO, which is the quickest way to end most matches and can often be performed during the second round. Performing enough knockouts over the course of the entire match, though, will guarantee that your opponent will stay down. The same holds true for you, although the exact number of required knockouts seems to be dependent on the opponent. It is also possible to win at the end of the third round by "split decision," although this is kind of rare; most players will probably either lose the split decision or finish the match quickly enough that they never get to that point.

As an added touch, your coach, Doc Louis, will give you tips between rounds; some of these are useless, though, including the exhortation to join the Nintendo Fun Club (which was included in the Japanese version, even though the Nintendo Fun Club was solely an American thing). Your opponents will also taunt you with various statements, which add to their paper-thin (and, again, somewhat racist) personalities; of note is one of Piston Honda's message, which consists of him saying random Japanese words. During these segments, you can press the select button repeatedly to have Doc Louis pat you on the back, restoring your energy; doing so too often, however, will actually cause you to *lose* energy. I suppose he's, umm, patting you too hard? Hmm.

The game plays less like a sports title and is perhaps more akin to a modern-day "boss rush," wherein each fight is against a major opponent that requires time, patience, and careful study to defeat. The learning curve is fairly gentle at first, and because the controls are so simple and responsive, it's easy enough to pick up the basics and plow through the minor circuit with little trouble. The major circuit requires more attention to move telegraphing, but exploits for a quick TKO are still possible. The world circuit is where things start to get tricky; you're up against six boxers in a row - some of them rematches against previous bosses who have a few tricks up their sleeve - and will have to make it through them all before getting the final password. Some of the later fights seemed to lean on the same exploits that worked earlier in the tournament, and for me, the game started to lose its edge just a bit towards the end; granted, Super Macho Man cleaned my clock the first couple of times I fought him, but careful planning and timing made that fight go by more smoothly later on.

Mike Tyson, however, is in a league of his own. During the first half of the first round - the first 1:30 of the fight - he throws nothing but Dynamite Punches, which knock you out in one hit. Even if you survive those, the rest of the fight is pretty brutal, as a few missed punches and failed dodges can deplete your heart count, forcing you to evade punches and forfeit a few good opportunities to bring Tyson to his knees. It's incredibly tough at first, but again, it's all pattern recognition - and despite the fact that there is some slight variation depending on how the round goes, there shouldn't be too many surprises once you get the hang of it. Don't expect success to come too quickly, though, as this fight is arguably one of the toughest moments in any first-party Nintendo title released during the company's 30 or so years as a console manufacturer.

Thankfully, the designers included a special password that lets you warp straight to Tyson - 007 373 5963. You'll start with a 0-2 win/loss record, which means you only get one shot at him before your game is over. If you lose, you have to re-enter the password every time - something that no other password requires, and is kind of tedious to keep re-entering. Its inclusion is handy nonetheless, though, since the final password you obtain from an honest playthrough starts you at Super Macho Man, and having to fight him before getting to practice Tyson would get pretty tedious.

Even when you're getting beaten up, though - whether it's by Tyson or someone else - the game never feels entirely cheap, and the charming visual presentation will keep you coming back for more. Several of the battles have their share of unique moments - Great Tiger's teleportation move, King Hippo's weird mouth noises and giant X on his stomach, and Bald Bull's signature charge - that make the game all the more memorable, and the simple controls give you more time to focus on the boxers' attack patterns, which, for a 1987 console game, would have been fairly complex. The game's structure also allows for advanced players to set additional personal challenges - a faster win time, a record high/low score, or the like - allowing for additional replay value for anyone who manages to take down Tyson.

The music is perhaps the least groundbreaking element of the game. It's not particularly bad or anything, but when listened to on its own, it's a lot less compelling than some of the better-known NES soundtracks. The sound quality is similar to that of Zelda II, with some specific use of vibrato in interesting places, but without, of course, the additional sound channel present in the FDS version of that game. Not that most Americans would be familiar with that version, though...

The sound effects are probably more attention-grabbing - your opponents' special attacks, your opponent hitting the mat, and Mario's strange, pulse-wave utterance of "TKO." Of particular note are the speech samples used for the sound of the crowd, as well as the laughter of certain opponents - the latter of which is actually one short sample played at different frequency levels. Strangely, this is the same laugh that was used for Ganon on the "game over" screen of Zelda II... does this mean that Bald Bull is secretly a giant pig-creature with magical powers? Or that Ganon is really Turkish? Doubtful, but that would make for an interesting fanfic, at least...

One last thing worth mentioning is the rerelease of the game removed Mike Tyson and replaced him with the far more generic "Mr. Dream," who hails from "Dream Land." Not only do I not remember any muscular humanoid boxers from Kirby's home town, but seriously, the game just isn't the same without its original star. This was presumably because Nintendo lost the license of Tyson's name and likeness, although I'm sure some of the scandal that came about later on hasn't exactly helped in terms of bringing Tyson back. Oh well.

Nowadays, the internet has taken away some of the mystique of this game, as strategies on how to TKO the Dynamite Kid in a single round are readily available. Imagine, though, playing this in 1987, feverishly typing in that password over and over, and getting your butt handed to you repeatedly by one of the greatest names in boxing. Its once-legendary difficulty is now overshadowed by that of Battletoads and Ninja Gaiden - or, in even more hardcore circles, more obscure toughies like Starship Hector and the NES version of Q*Bert. Still, Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! is a fantastic game and entirely deserving of both exclamation points in the title - a real knockout hit, if you will!...

...**dodges vegetables**

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Where/when purchased: A store in Bowling Green, Ohio called C&C Games, which was the best place I knew to get good deals on retro stuff until I discovered McKay.

Cost: $14.99. Little did I know that, a few years later, I would find the game for much cheaper at McKay. (I actually ended up buying the Tyson-less version for $5.95 later on.)

Date Started: 8-8-2011 10:44 PM

Date Finished: 8-11-2011 2:17 PM

Space in the NES notebook: Four lines for passwords, as well as personal KO/TKO records for a few of the boxers.

FAQs/assistance used: Mostly just the Tyson code to finish my initial run. Someday I'll come back and use my legit password to take down both Super Macho Man *and* the Dynamite Kid in one go.

Favorite part?: In all honesty, I kind of liked the middle stretch of the game, before the matches started ramping up in difficulty.

Difficulty: Moderate, for awhile... much more difficult later on, unless you perfect certain strategies that have started circling the internet, in which case you can take down most boxers in a single round. Either way, I'd say it's harder than most first-party Nintendo stuff on the NES.

Worth it?: If you've got the version with Tyson, yes! If you've got the version with Mr. Dream, probably!... I mean, the gameplay's the same either way, so it depends on how much you care about the original version.

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