Take it on the chin. A lot of fun in it Super Punch Out !! is, strangely, losing. The 1994 Super Nintendo game, the fourth in the hit Punch out !! series, marked a number of transitions for the franchise. While every previous episode’s journey – taking the player character Little Mac (most recently seen in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate) up the rows of the boxing ladder – remains the same, the nature of the journey changed quite a bit.
If you’re a paid Nintendo Switch Online subscriber, you can play Super Punch Out !! now for free by downloading the Super Nintendo Entertainment System app.
For starters, the game has evolved entirely from the man who made it famous: Mike Tyson. Tyson was one of the most electric fighters of the 1980s, shocking the boxing world with his lightning-fast knockouts. The original Emit on the NES took advantage of his success in 1987, promoting Tyson as one of the toughest bosses in sports game history.
But things took a sudden turn for Tyson in the 1990s. He began to lose fights and was convicted of rape in 1992. Emit games started playing Tyson again as a character called “Mr. Dream,” though Game Informer notes that this “was done two years before the conviction and was probably a contract issue at the time”.
Neither Tyson nor Mr. Dream are present in the SNESs Super Punch Out, and the game is better for it. Little Mac’s opponents are the stars of the show in the game, and letting them shine usually pays off.
It’s worth noting that some characters, like Bob Charlie, have aged quite badly. Intended as a reference to Bob Marley, it is racist to give a black character a distinctive “shuck and jive” movement, playing out associations with American slaves that game developer Genyo Takeda and game director Makoto Wada probably didn’t know about. It tells that Super Punch Out marks Bob Charlie’s first and last appearance in the Emit series.
But beyond that, it’s great to see who you’re going to fight with and likely lose from the first few times you play. The first character you encounter, Gabby Jay, begs you to let him win to boost his confidence. While losing to a 56-year-old Frenchman is frustrating, it’s totally worth it to watch his dance as he “Yay!” Likewise, fighting the vain Daffodil Prince has all its own joy, like seeing him panic when you slap his pretty, pretty face.
Gameplay in Super Punch Out it’s all about timing, although there is certainly a bit of luck involved. When you hit Narcissus Prince in the face, he starts to panic and quickly attacks you, although this makes his face even more vulnerable. These attacks can be avoided by paying attention to signals, but this becomes more difficult as the game progresses.
Despite its mistakes, Super Punch Out is a really fun experience, and unlike most modern sports games, you don’t have to pay $ 60 every year to get the new selection. Capturing the manic energy of an arcade game in a console isn’t easy, and when the battles revolve around knockouts instead of rounds, the kind of suddenly epic combat is possible where you bite your nails hoping for the perfect to get bumped.