*Here’s another game from 2009*

No Mike Tyson this time around.

The Wii iteration of Punch-Out is a 2009 video game by Next Level games, and serves as a retro revival for the classic Punch-Out!! series, which was a massive classic on the NES, and even had a big impact on the SNES. But does this revival live up to its predecessors?

Punch-Out!! follows the traditions of the series with young, lightweight boxer Little Mac fighting his way to the top of the boxing scene under the guidance of trainer Doc Louis.

And yes, many of Little Mac’s old rivals return, including the likes of Von Kaiser, Glass Joe, Soda Popinski, Piston Hondo and, of course, King Hippo. And they are joined by some new faces like the Disco Kid.

Each of Little Mac’s opponents have fun and quirky (if not stereotypical) personalities that gives the game a very fun personality of its own.

The gameplay plays very similar to the previous games, and places Little Mac against one of his opponents, and you only use simple controls to throw punches, block and avoid attacks, and use Little Mac’s secret weapon, the star punch!

You can play the game using a Wii remote and nunchuck combo, the Wii balance board or a Wii remote on its side. All of the control methods are fun to use, but I recommend to use the simple Wii remote for a more classic NES feel to the game (which is what the game was shooting for).

All of the controls work solidly and require very little learning curve. Though each opponent has new attacks and attack patterns at their disposal, which start off easy and gradually get more difficult. But figuring out your opponents strengths and weaknesses is fun in itself.

The graphics of the game are bright and fun, and use cel-shading to give the characters a more animated look, which lets the characters’ aforementioned personalities shine even more. I always liked the look of cel-shaded video games, like The Wind Waker and Viewtiful Joe, and I’m always happy to see more games utilize it.

The music of the game is delightful and energetic. It mostly consists of remixed music from the older games, but that’s not exactly a bad thing. It is awesome hearing the old Punch-Out!! themes made anew.

The game also includes voice acting! While I’m not about to say it’s terrific voice acting, I’ll be the first to say it is incredibly fun voice acting! Each character speaks their respective language (Von Kaiser speaks German, for example), and all of them bring out the characters. Yeah, the voices are pretty cheesy and overblown, but it fits the game. I especially like Doc Louis’ words of advise and his constant rantings about chocolate bars.

The game includes a Career Mode, in which you play as Little Mac and rise the ranks until you win all the available championships. This is the “story mode” of the game. After you complete Career Mode, you will unlock Title Defense Mode, a kind of extra hard version of Career Mode where all of the boxers are much tougher. There are even more secret modes for completing Title Defense Mode.

The game also includes Exhibition mode, where you can face any of the opponents you have defeated in Career Mode at any time. Exhibition Mode also includes three different “achievements” with each different Boxer, which gives you something else to shoot for.

And of course you can go head-to head in multiplayer in Head-to-head Mode.

All of the different gameplay modes are fun, but I still think there could have been more, as they all play pretty similarly to their NES and SNES counterparts. I know that the game was going for that retro feel, and it succeeds at it swimmingly, but I just wish there were a bit more to them. For example, I think they could have found more things to do with multiplayer, and I can’t help but feel there could have been a few side games or minigames or the like.

Again, all of the modes are fun, but sometimes it may feel they play it a little safe. Though maybe since this Punch-Out!! was going for a retro revival, a potential sequel can look to further the franchise a little more. I would love to see what they could do by adding a bit more variety of gameplay modes. The gameplay, while obviously based around boxing, could probably find lots of fun things to do with multiplayer and minigames. Think of the different things Wii Sports does with its contained sports for example.

But with that said, Punch-Out!! on the Wii is a very fun game that is swimming in personality and charm. It is a more than welcome, and long overdue revival of a classic gaming series that lives up to the previous entries. I hope we do see a sequel in the near future, and I hope it taps more into the potential of a current generation Punch-Out!! title, but this entry in the series takes you back in time to those good old days of gaming (you know, back when likability was involved).

It may not quite be the “future” of the Punch-Out!! series, but it nonetheless makes the series new again. And who doesn’t like the team of Little Mac and Doc Louis? Who doesn’t want to take the fight to King Hippo? Who wouldn’t want to be the World Video Boxing Association Champion? I mean come on, Glass Joe is just asking to be star punched!

Now let’s go get a chocolate bar!

(1 votes, average: 7.00 out of 10, rated)

 Loading ...