Protip: By quickly hitting the 1 and 2 buttons when you enter the knockout animation, you can avoid a KO and even a TKO
Certain games hold a special place in my heart, a pantheon of gaming that is immune to all criticism or negativity. The original Punch Out was such a game, and so I approached the Wii version apprehensively, afraid that it would taint my 20+ years of warm fuzzies. But Punch Out Wii is a game that, like the new Star Trek movie, simultaneously reboots, remakes, and remasters an old classic.
The reason I loved the original Punch Out was its challenge: not the difficulty (though it was difficult), but the manner in which the game challenged you. It taught me pattern recognition techniques that still are vital in gaming today, and did it in a fun and enjoyable way. Punch Out Wii takes the same formula and turns it up to 11. The standard mode is already impressive, as opponents begin to try to fake you out and show off 3 or 4 patterns that you need to recognize. The title defense mode unlocks after you beat the game, and it frankly is invigorating to lose to Glass Joe. It’s almost like a puzzle game, you need to figure out each fighter’s tricks, but in title defense mode, a fighter can have upwards of 8 of them. In the harder levels, the fighters turn into multi-form level bosses, every time you knock them down their patterns change and they just get tougher and meaner.
Nintendo has proven once again that they are geniuses. The thing about this game is, I get frustrated when a fighter knocks me down, but I never doubt that I can beat them. So I just pick myself up off the mat and try again until I take Don Flamenco, King Hippo, or Super Macho Man down. Throw into the mix a hilarious cast of characters and fifteen remixes of the old Punch Out theme (each fighter has their own stereotypical remix of the theme), and what you get is a title that displaces its predecessor in the pantheon. I messed around with the original after I got the Wii version, and found it still to be charming in a nostalgic sort of way, but make no ifs, ands, or buts about it: there’s a new champion in town.
