Finally. Nintendo doing something the “core” audience can care for. It’s been 15 years since a new Punch Out game came out, and 22 years since the NES classic was released, and 25 years since the original Arcade game came out(and 24 years since the sequel to that one came out). Let’s just say we were well overdue for a Punch Out sequel.

And ever since I saw the trailer for this, I knew it was gonna be awesome.

So read on and see if it’s really as awesome as I thought it would be.

Looks and sounds
What you see on the cover art is pretty much what you get in the game itself. It’s cartoony, slightly over-the-top, and it looks great. Each character looks awesome and faithful to their 2D incarnations. The one new character, Disco Kid, is pretty well done and feels right at home with other Punch Out characters. Each character is full of personality and are pretty humorous. The few still shots of the characters before each match look great too.

The animations are great. Of course, they’re the best in the series. The Wii’s capabilities are really shown of here. Not only are the models incredibly awesome, but their animations are just incredibly fluid and well done, and for the most part they represent the characters’ personalities really well. For example, Glass Joe’s punches look weak and stupid, while Disco Kid’s animations are slightly gay-looking. All of the characters move very well, and few of the animations look unnatural.

As for the sounds… Well, each character has a voice, which is cool. The voice you’ll hear most is Doc’s, and he’s hilarious. The lines he delivers are weird and nonsensical and usually about chocolate, but the voice actor for him just nails each and every line. The other voice actors… Well, it’s a bit hard to say since most of them speak in foreign languages, and there’s no subtitles. I can say that Glass Joe, who is french, speaks really weird(but his voice is still quite fitting), but the others I have no idea what they’re saying. They pretty much sound like they should, I guess, but adding subtitles during “cinematics” would’ve been nice.

The music is pretty good. Not as classic as the NES tunes, it still has that Punch Out feel to it. None of the music feels out of place and it’s great for that. There’s a few remade tunes too, and they obviously sound great.

I have no complaints whatsoever as to how the game looks and sounds like.

Gameplay
Remember Punch Out on the NES? Well, if you do, it plays the same. Almost exactly.

Controls
The controls are simple. Pressing Left and Right dodges in that direction. The 1 button punches with the left hand, the 2 button punches with the right hand. Pressing them while holding Up does a punch to the face, and pressing them alone does a punch to the body. Pressing and holding Up guards against jabs, and pressing down dodges downwards to pass beneath wide hooks. Pressing A does a Star Uppercut (if you have stars). The controls are the same as on the NES, and they STILL work great.

There’s also motion controls. Punching with the nunchuk is a left punch, with the wiimote is a right puch, and punching while holding A is a star uppercut. The rest of the controls are on the control still, the same as the normal controls. The motion controls… work. But that’s about it. They’re not as sensitive as they should be and they’re not really that easy to use.

There’s a controls scheme with the Wii Fit balance board, but I have yet to try it (I will report on it once I have tried it out though, my mom just bought the Wii Fit so why not?).

Overall the controls are infinitely better with the NES configuration, with the remote on it’s side.

The game itself
Well, what is there to say really? It’s just like the NES game. And for that, it’s awesome. There’s 13 boxers to go through, each with a distinct pattern and moveset. Going through each of them brings you closer to being the world champion.

Each of the 13 boxers come from previous Punch Out games, other than Disco Kid. Each of them is increasingly difficult, each with a special gimmick or certain ways of getting KOd. Multiple enemies have  certain animations where you can KO them in one hit. Some also have immunities to certain kids of hits. There’s really a lot of variety.

Glass Joe is weak, Von Kaiser is slightly stronger, Disco Kid is a weirdo with unconventional moves, King Hippo is a powerhouse but goes down fast with body hits, Piston Honda (I won’t call him Piston Hondo) has killer repeating jabs, Bear Hugger likes to hug you (but he lost his immunity to stomach hits), Great Tiger teleports and summons ghost versions of himself, Don Flamenco has multiple attacks with different timing (and he lost his “instant KO” strategy you could use on him before), Aran Ryan MUST be counter-punched, Soda Popinski(who sadly didn’t get back to his old name: Vodka Drunkenski) gets powerups from his soda and he’s quite powerful,  Bald Bull is strong and can charge at you (which is when you can do a 1 hit knockdown on him), Super Macho Man is manly and macho, but also pretty strong, and Mr Sandman is the world chapion who is super strong and super powerful. Every character is still recognizable from their original versions, but they all have minor changes that make them a bit different from before too.

Each of them have a weakness though, and when you find that out it’s easy enough to exploit. And the game is made well enough that there’s multiple ways to knock down your opponents. For example, instead of trying to avoid Mr Sandman’s attacks, I countered him each time he moved. It was safer that way, since I couldn’t screw up my timing to avoid his punches. It’s a bit slower though, so if you want to learn the proper timing for all his attacks, you can probably beat him faster than a 3rd round TKO.

Each boxer also has a few frames of animation that, if you hit them properly, gives you Star Power. The star system is a bit different from in the NES. Here, you get up to 3 stars. If you get hit, you lose them all. If you use your Star Uppercut, you ALSO lose them all. The more stars  you have, the stronger your Star Uppercut will be, but you have to be careful not to get hit before using them or you’ll lose them all and lose your chance to use the punch. This system is really awesome, with a lot more risk in taking time to use your powerful punch, but a lot of reward if you can avoid getting punched and get a punch in.

After becoming World Champion, you get to Title Defense mode, and each boxer is powered up. Some get items that protect them(Glass Joe gets headgear, King Hippo gets a garbage can lid on his stomach, for example), some are faster, some are stronger, and overall you have to work hard to defend your title. And after that, you get another hard mode where, if you lose 3 times, Mac retires(apparently preventing you from playing career anymore on that profile), but you can also get to fight a super-secret Nintendo character.

Overall
What more is there to say? Punch Out is a magnificent game. A great addition to any “core” gamer’s library. The gameplay is incredible and old-school.  The graphics are badass, the animations are great and the sound is really good.  This is pretty much the perfect game for an NES fanboy, and hardcore gamers in general. ALSO, this game is VERY replayable. The NES and SNES games are still being replayed a lot to this day, and this one should be no different.

If there was something I would say I’m disappointed in, I’d say it would be the low number of boxers. Another circuit would’ve been awesome. But at 14 boxers in total (including the super-secret Nintendo character everyone knows about by now), it’s a bit disappointing. But each boxer is so well done I don’t really mind.

Overall it’s a great game and a must-have for any Wii owner. But some people might want to wait for a price drop, as it’s a whopping 60$ in Canada (AKA the starting price for most PS3/Xbox 360 games), so 50$ in the US. A bit much.

jobocan Console, Games, Review, wii