Together Retro: Punch-Out (NES)

[Gamerforlife]

Still awesome, though certain guys will always give me trouble like Bald Bull and Super Macho Man. Still a fun game though, even today. If I had a Wii, I would so be checking out the new one

Super Punch Out is pretty much on par with the NES one. It's almost the same game really. A few minor gameplay additions and nicer graphics, but otherwise, pretty much the same. It's just as fun as the NES one and the same guys still give me trouble

[sevin0seven]

THE BEST PUNCH OUT GAME HANDS DOWN! it's where it all started. I still play this game every now and then. One of the best video game classic ever made. Oh yeah, Mario as the referee is a great idea. Too bad, it was his last.

[Ivo]

I just "finished" Mike Tyson Punch (in that I cheated a bit using Save states). It is definitively a good game, with difficulty that was fairly common in that era but is DEFINITIVELY too steep for modern standard (and with good reason).

I used save states only between fights to save myself the trouble of passwords and/or repeating fights that I already cleared. I didn't really have too much trouble - until I reached Mr. Sandman, that is.

Now you are free to have your own opinions about using save states but personally I just don't have time to "grind" practice so that I can *very reliably* dodge certain rather harsh moves.

Mr. Sandman's throws 3 consecutive uppercuts that are amazingly fast and if all 3 connect knock you down. Worse than that is that if you do not dodge all 3 you can't hit him back for several punches (basically I don't know how to TKO him without doing a full dodge of that - probably not possible) - and to top it off it seems he always throws the 3 uppercuts when he gets back up. Hence in that fight I saved before and after the "3 sequence". I repeated the fight so often that I was rather proficient at dodging all his other moves.

Super Macho Man is different - he has moves that do a lot of damage, but after being ground out repeatedly by Mr. Sandman's I actually cleared him with some ease. It felt a lot easier and his special spinning move is much, much fairer to dodge (although I think only one hit will knock you down, you can dodge all four or five swings reasonably).

Mike Tyson himself is totally unfair until you are able to clear the start. His starting uppercuts are not as hard to dodge as Sandman's sequence of 3, but each of Tyson's one-hit knocks you down and they're still REALLY fast. It was obvious to me that I would need to spend a good number of hours of practice to "master" dodging over 1 minute of those "1-hit wonders" so I extensively used Save states until Tyson decided to be decent about it and used other moves. Even after that I only managed to TKO him at 2:57 or so of round 2 with what can only have been sheer luck - round 1 I had him to low energy, knocked him once very early round 2. Then he strangely went to the floor with a good bit of energy left about mid round 2, and then I racked up a couple of stars and managed to nail him with 2 star punches just as the round was finishing (it was really tight). If we had gone to round 3 I was probably not going to be able to close the fight.

The game up to Sandman is really nice. After that I think the difficulty is really steep, which is understandable as games back then had to "last longer" through being difficult. Particularly understandable from games with Arcade roots, which we know tend to be unbalanced in difficulty with the goal of gobbling up quarters.
Sandman's and Tyson's fight felt like chores (much like grinding in "old school" RPGs). To beat the game without save states would have taken me a whole lot more time than I want to dedicate to the game) - the sort of thing that should be IMO reserved for optional difficulty levels (e.g. Hard mode) only for dedicated fans. Major congrats to those skilled fans that are able to do it!

I wonder - are the other Punch-Out games are also as harsh (I presume the arcade versions are, to gobble up coins)?

Ivo.

[Bodmin]

My biological father was an alcoholic, didn't care to much for my sister and I due to him being on the sauce, but if one thing that brought us together and to distract him from drinking was my NES and Mike Tyson's Punch-Out.

The two of us would sit for hours trying to beat that game, I can still remember the time that we FINALLY beat Soda pop, man that took us forever, I think the farthest we ever got was the 2nd go with Mr.Sandman


Over the years my old friends would have the ROM for Punchout and the password to go stright to Mike Tyson but could not get it done. I've beaten Contra with out the code or continuing, I've gone threw Castlevaian and Ninja Gaiden, but beating Mike Tyson still alludes me to this day.

they don't make em like they used to

[LiL-mAc]

simply the best and my favorite nes game of all time.

[shwisha]

I've been playing this game a lot and I have to say it is a great example of why retro games are so fun to play. It's gaming in it's simplest form. The game is all about fun, it doesn't try to bog you down with a bunch of special moves or some long boring story line. It just gets you in the action.

BRILLIANT GAME!!

[jeffro11]

I've had this game for years and I never played it, I started playing it however... it's difficult! It really surprised me with it's refreshing gameplay and visuals! Stuck on that tiger dude though... Great game!

[env963]

Love this game. I haven't played it since the NES was king, but downloaded this on the Wii. Oh yeah, this game is still a 9 out or 10, even with the dated graphics.

[super_aggro_crag]

In the 20 years i have been playing this game i would like to say that i have mastered it. But at 26 years old i still can own the game until mike tyson where he just proceeds to rape me and bite my ears off every time!

[presicion25]

I, like a few others, beat this game as a kid. I bought it with allowance money, from Toys R Us back in 1988 when I was 10 years old. It took me FOREVER, but I actually did beat it. I also remember the code to go straight to Mike Tyson. They made the games near impossible and its supposed to be for kids lol. Anyways its still a great game 22 years later.