Episode 072 – Mike Tyson’s Punch-out!! (1987)

This week in Your Parents Basement, we are sidestepping left and right to avoid heavyweight champion punches! From 1987, we’re playing Mike Tyson’s Punch-out!! by Nintendo for the NES.

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TIMESTAMPS

• 0:00 – Intro, which is the nifty opening theme and main music from the game.
• 52:00 – Emails! Trump supporters, what about board games? What about asks?
• 1:08:00 – Ask the Sweet Boys! It’s litrully sweeping the nation! But not literally!
• 1:16:00 – It’s a Huell pick for next week!

SHOW NOTES

- According to Price Charting, Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! is pretty valuable, ranging from $26 for the loose cart to $96.55 for the box and cart. The non-Tyson version goes for $13, SNES about $25, and the Wii version is $11.50.

- The original has great music, but as Brisket points out, so does the Wii version! Listen to the full soundtrack here.

- From ESPN.com, an opinion piece on the popularity of the game, by Patrick Sauer.

- Joey Batz gets into the history of the series on his blog here.

Inexplicable Video Game Reviews: Punch-Out!!

A sweet example of the characters and gameplay.

First things first, in terms of actual reviews, my Bakugan review is now available on Blast by clicking here. Feel free to bask in its glory!

Anyway, my most recent gaming project was Punch-Out!! for the Wii, which had all of the charm of the original, minus a scary convicted rapist. Although you can play using the active Wii-controls, or whatever the frick it's called, it's a lot easier to flip the Wiimote on its side and to play "classic style," as the kids call it.

Although the gameplay is essentially the same as the NES and Super Nintendo versions, the presentation values have been radically upgraded. As the above video shows, each opponent now has a lot more individual characterization, such as wacky accents and distinctive sound effects. Also, Mac's trainer Doc Louis says silly things between fights, which makes me giggle.

Of course, it wouldn't be Punch-Out!! without some frustratingly tough enemies. I actually found this version of the game harder than the previous two - Although the character sprites are unquestionably larger and more interesting, as a result the camera bounces around and can make things hard to follow at times. This is also overlooking that quicker jabs, hooks and uppercuts. While in the original games, I could easily make it to the World Circuit (third tier opponents), in this one I struggled once I hit the Majors (second tier). Somehow, between games, Don Flamenco went from major pussy to major world-beater.

News - Thursday, May 28, 2009

This A-hole was by far the most infuriating part of the original Punch-Out for me as a kid, even if he was only on soda pop and not vodka in the NES version.

- At this point, I'm thinking of robbing someone to secure fundage to buy the new Punch-Out! It has been getting good reviews from even the traditional newspaper sources, and the game itself looks slick. Click here to see it in action.

- I've always been a PC loyalist, possibly because they are all that I know. When I was growing up and much more into computers, back in the days of multiplayer gaming on Heat.net and Quake: Team Fortress tournaments, I always viewed Macs as, well, not an option. Most good commercial games didn't get released for them, and if they did, they often came many months after.

Of course, all of that changed with the rise of the iEverything of Apple products, which probably partly explains why Dell's profit has plummeted 34 percent, beyond the bad economy. The odd thing that has surprised me about the rise of Apple has been that all of its products are basically hype. An Apple doesn't get viruses because it is a weaker machine, just like a Toyota Corolla is probably going to breakdown less than a luxury auto. (A PC isn't really a Ferrari, and while I would like to compare it to a Lexus or Audi or Benz, I have no idea how reliable any of those are, making the analogy hard.) An iPod doesn't really offer many functional advantages over the majority of MP3 players, and likewise with the iPhone vs. most other cell phones. I agree with Maddox's take on it.

... Yet despite all of that, I just bought an iPod about a month ago. In my defense, I am a consumer whore, and it was only $30 on eBay. Still, in hindsight, I wish I had just gotten an MP3 player instead.

- Piggybacking on the previous paragraphs a bit, this guy sounds like a friggin' loon, but the idea intrigues me. Too bad that the project seems to be dead, since the last blog post there was in October 2007.