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How Much Punch Do Wii Have? Punch-Out!! By: PoisonRamune, the Apathetic Lizardman After 15 years, Nintendo’s comically caricatured boxing series is finally back, this time on the Nintendo Wii. Not only do the graphics have that cartoony cel-shaded look (which Nintendo seems to be madly in love with), but the game also sports those waggle based motion controls that your mom likes. Though many people cite the similarities between Punch-Out!! for Wii and Mike Tyson’s (Mr. Dream) Punch-Out for the NES as a detriment, I find the retro familiarity quite enjoyable.
As mentioned before, the control scheme is very similar to the NES Punch-Out (in terms of the “classic” control scheme, as I refuse to use those motion controls). In fact, Punch-Out!! for Wii only has one more button than the NES in its control scheme, which is the pause button. The controls are extremely simple in that you only have 4 main attacks: high right, low right, high left and low left and 4 different ways to dodge/block. However, during each fight you’ll find only certain dodges work against certain moves and each fighter has their own weak spot that needs to be exploited in order to win. Doing well timed punches or hitting an opponent in a specific area will sometimes yield a star. Stars are your character’s super moves of this game, using a star will cause Little Mac to unleash a powerful jumping uppercut. You can also choose to save your stars (up to 3) in order to fire off an exponentially stronger special move. Every fight in this game plays out like a sort of boss fight; they’re: epic, challenging and very fun. Though the game seems very twitch based, it’s actually quite the opposite. It’s more important to learn your foes’ patterns and moves, rather than just depending on shear speed. Knowing and accepting that fact is essential, since almost nothing in this game is random; the fighters will never do some random move out of the blue or suddenly decide that they would prefer to stay “down for the count” without rhyme or reason. Even Mr. Sandman, the in-game world champion is very pattern based; which really relieved me but also let me down at the same time, since I was hoping for a bit of a harder end game.
While the challenge in this game is there; I’m forced to wonder this about the Wii generation Nintendo games, why does Nintendo feel that it has to water down every one of its established series when they come to Wii? As I mentioned before, Nintendo has this awful habit of making the Wii version of their games either way too easy or way too accessible with copious amounts of ridiculous gimmicks and mini-games. Though this is a problem with all first party Nintendo franchises that have come to the Wii, I’m really bothered by this with Punch-Out!! Nintendo needs to learn that soccer mom and grandma will probably never play this game and therefore will never care about the difficulty level that we’ve come to know from the classic Punch-Outs. In fact, using the non-gaming members of my family as an indicator, it seems as if Mario Kart is the extent of their “hardcore” gaming preference. I doubt my aunt will ever play Metroid Prime 3 or ask to borrow Punch-Out!! from me so her and my uncle Dan could play one off night, it’s just not going to happen.
As previously stated, the graphics are done in beautiful cel-shading. The artistic style really fits the theme of the game, since the Punch-Out series has always stood as an over the top and cartoon-esque style boxing game. One thing I really like with the revamped graphics is the KO cinematography. With fast camera cuts and epic camera angles Nintendo managed to recapture that feel of sending your opponent reeling through the air with your final punch, but with a more modernized presentation. However, there are sometimes when the camera play works against you, most notably when you’ve downed an opponent and the camera changes to a wide overhead shot showing your downed opponent only to show him getting up mid count ready to fight you. The first few times this happened I thought it was the game’s way of saying “He’s going to stay down for 10, get yourself a soda real quick” only to return to a scene of Von Kaiser getting in a ton of cheap shots on me. Like the graphics the audio has also be heavily updated. Though the same riff and melody from the NES Punch-Out can be heard throughout the game, the theme gets an ethnic remixing depending on who you fight. For example: fighting Soda Popinski (the mad Russian) will cause the in match music to have a sort of Stalinist era Chanson feel going for it.
Instead of telling you, “you really should be playing this game” (but you should) or talking about how I love to play this game not sober; I wanted to do a little sidebar here and talk about exactly what genre Punch-Out!! falls under. A good friend of mine defines Punch-Out!! as a puzzle game, since you’re required to figure out what do in terms of sequencing and counter attack tactics in order to break your opponent. Though I agree in many respects, I see the game as more of a collection of arcade style boss fights. I feel that the game is more of a boss run than a puzzler because you’re required to figure out what do in terms of sequencing and counter attack tactics in order to break your opponent. So then again, maybe this game has no defined genre. Either way, I’m not going to be like Nintendo and go around calling this a sports simulator.
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