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Mar 23, 20164 min read

Mike Tyson's Punch Out!! Review (NES) - Part 1 - History


Game Name: Mike Tyson's Punch Out!! (Later Punch Out!! featuring Mr. Dream)

Developer: Nintendo R&D3

Publisher: Nintendo

Platform: NES (Nintendo Entertainment System)

Release Date (North America): October 1987

I have been playing videogames for quite some time and there were many games that continued to peak my interest to play these games. This title is one of them. I played it later in the early 90's when I received a Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) for the first time. I remember going to the corner store called Idéfix. It used to be a second hand store that would sell Vinyls, CD's, tapes, VHS movies and so on. However they had an area for NES games. Renting them would cost 1.00$ and you had it for 24 hours. Quite different from renting a game nowadays. I am not even sure if this is a popular way of testing games. Most people I know, old and young just buy the games now and do not rent them.

History

Punch Out!!! has a long history that started in the days when arcades were all the rage. The original game appeared in arcades in 1983 in Japan, and in 1984 in other parts of the world. The game was developed and published by Nintendo. It was at a time when Nintendo had a few hits in the arcades and in homes with the successes of Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Junior. The basic gameplay never really changed through the years. Bascially you go up against various challengers and you need to punch and dodge your way to victory. However the arcade game was in the third person perspective. You can see the game play below from http://www.longplays.org/

Punch Out!! (Arcade gameplay)

I remember playng this a few times in the arcade and it was not easy. You fight against Blad Bull, Glass Joe, Kid Quick, Mr. Sandman, Palette Swaps, Piston Hurricane and Pizza Pasta (my favorite). You can now play this on different emulators.

On the shoulders of the success of Punch Out!!, a sequel came out in 1984 called Super Punch Out!! It was also released to other platforms as ports on the Comodore 64 and MS-DOS. The look and feel of the game was pretty much the same. You fight different opponents until your become Heavyweight Champion. There were fewer opponents in this game. They were Super Macho Man, Great Tiger, Bear Hugger and Vodka Drunkenski (later changed to Soda Popinski) and Dragon Chan.

Super Punch Out!!! (Arcade Gameplay)

The next follow-up sequel or game was called Mike Tyson's Punch Out!!. Many of the different boxers in the arcade versions made an appearance in this game. The look and feel of the game was slightly different due to the platform that it was on, however it does not mean that it was not as fun.

The background story is that you play the character of Little Mac. A fighter that looks like he should be in the featherweight division. You go through a few circuits before you meet the great Mike Tyson. You go through the Minor, Major and World circuits.

I have seen 2 different stories regarding the following point, but I am not sure which one is correct or if both are correct. In 1990, after Tyson's loss to Buster Douglas in what is considered one of the biggest upsets in sports history, and due to licencing issues, Mike Tyson's name was removed from the game. The game was now titled Punch Out!! featuring Mr. Dream. The game play did not change, and the old Mike Tyson character kept the same body type and fighting style. Only the skin color and face changed.

Sequels

I will not get into the sequels too much as I might review them at a later time, but there was an attempt by Mike Tyson and Don King to have a Mike Tyson's Punch Out II. The story apparently goes that Mike Tyson was going to fight in space and fight aliens instead of boxers. After Nintendo saw the game, they refused to pubslish it saying that it was a horrible game. Unfortunatly this game still got released in 1992 under Power Punch II which is funny, because there was never a 1.

Power Punch II (NES Game play)

The game looked awful and the sounds was horrendous. Needless to say that it was not a big hit with the kids.

Then there was a next gen console that came along called the Super Nintendo. So in 1994 and 1995 Nintendo released Super Punch Out!!. This is not to be confused with the arcade game of the same name. Although it is not a direct port of the original arcade game, it comes closer to looking like the older games. Again only a few characters came back. There were many fighters to go through compared to the first Punch Out!!

Super Punch Out!! (SNES Gameplay)

After this there were a bunch of releases on the Game Cube and the Wii Virtual Console. In 2009, some members of the Club Nintendo Fan Club were chosen to download Doc Louis's Punch Out!! Doc Louis is the manager and coach of Little Mac in Mike Tyson's Punch Out!! This game has Doc Louis fight Little Mac in the Ring

Doc Louis Punch Out!!

Look for Part 2 of my review where I take a closer look at the actual Mike Tyson's Punch Out! game.

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