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“2 Player Reviews” is a series of articles in which two members of the Wing Damage staff separately review a game, so as to give our readers multiple perspectives on the subject matter.

Player 1 - Jesse “Main Finger” Gregory

Punch-Out!! has always been a very simple game. The camera sits right behind your character, Little Mac, as you face off against somebody who probably shouldn’t be in the same weight class. You have four attacks that consist of high and low punches with your left and right arms. You can dodge left, right and down, as well as block. There is also a “Star Punch” that can be performed causing extra damage, provided you have a star handy.

Can a game with so few actions compete with the complex beasts of modern gaming? Can a Punch-Out!! remake capture all the things that made its predecessors great while at the same time improving upon the series? Can a Wii game have both great graphics and fun, responsive motion controls? The answer to all these questions is a resounding yes.

Anybody familiar with the Punch-Out!! series will notice a lot of familiar faces when playing this game. In fact, with the exception of Disco Kid, all of the characters in the normal circuit progression are from previous entries. Luckily, these characters have a few new tricks up their sleeves to keep veterans on their toes.

Hitting your opponent at just the right time will award you a star, much like it did on the NES. However, you can save up to 3 stars to use all at once to make an even more devastating star punch. Another interesting addition is that sometimes you can get lucky when things look grim. Just when it looks like Little Mac is down for the count, it’s possible for him to catch himself and avoid the fall altogether. It’s not something you can rely on, as it’s fairly rare and has never happened (at least to me) more than one time in a match, but it’s a nice glimmer of hope in tough matches.

Career mode is unsurprisingly linear. Each boxer you defeat will unlock the next. However, a few tweaks have made the game more accessible without losing its hardcore appeal. You can now retry the boxer you’re currently on as many times as you like without having to start the circuit over. If that isn’t enough, you can enter a “Practice Mode” where you can fight the boxer without stamina or health constraints, though winning will award you nothing. These additions help newcomers hone their skills while still keeping the challenge level of the actual fights high.

Though initially there are only 3 circuits, the game has more to offer once you’ve become the champion. The new “Title Defense Mode” will pit you against each of your opponents a second time. More than a quick rehash, this mode mixes up the enemies’ patterns and increases difficulty so much that it feels completely fresh. This is also helped by the fact that the boxers have new intro sequences, appearances, and attacks. To give you an example of the rise in difficulty, I actually lost to Glass Joe (who now has a padded training helmet) in Title Defense Mode.

The content doesn’t stop there, though. In Exhibition Mode, you can fight all the boxers while trying to fulfill different achievement-like goals. Challenges like “Knock down Glass Joe three times in a match and have him win by decision” force you to approach fights in a whole new way. Also, there is a 2-player versus mode that can be a lot of fun.

The graphics in this game are gorgeous. The cartoon style fits the game like a glove. Everything is animated beautifully. Each of the characters are voiced in their native language and the combination of the voicework and the art style bring new life into these classic characters.

All the control schemes work great as well. The sideways Wiimote works just like an NES controller. Using the Wiimote and nunchuck combo feels both immersive and responsive as long as you are punching in the same rhythm as your on-screen character. The balance board, however, is much harder to use, not because it’s a bad control scheme, but because I have terrible balance. Ducking is simple enough, but it’s difficult to lean left without accidentally putting too much weight on my right foot and vice-versa. Though it’s much harder, it can be a lot of fun if you carefully concentrate on your balance.

I can’t recommend this game enough to Wii owners. It’s great for people who grew up with the series and hunger for more, yet at the same time it’s easier to pick up for newcomers thanks to more responsive controls and lenient continue options. It’s easily the best Punch-Out!! to date and well worth the $50 price tag.

Player 2 - Jonah “spambot” Gregory

When I originally heard they were doing a remake of Punch-Out!! for the Wii, I had a lot of doubts. How were they going to make a game as pure and simple as the original? Would the over the top characters be around in this day and age of political correctness? Would you be forced to play with terrible waggle controls like the Wii Boxing included with the Wii Sports bundle?

Fortunately, all of my fears were unnecessary, as Next Level Games really delivered the goods on this one. Instead of using the name Punch-Out!! to make Random Shovelware Boxing Game(TM) with a few references thrown in as a wink to the old game, they have brought us an updated version of the original that is just as fun as you remember it.

They brought back Little Mac, one of my personal favorite Nintendo characters who is sadly underused, to take on a series of colorful opponents on his road to the championship. Since the characters are such a huge part of the series, it makes sense that they stuck very close to the first two games. The only new character in the main circuit is Disco Kid, while the rest of the boxers include such fan favorites as Glass Joe, King Hippo, and Mr. Sandman.

They were very smart about the game’s progression. While I was able to take the title in one sitting (one very long sitting, I will admit), the Title Defense Mode really kicked my ass. Here all the characters return with new tricks up their sleeves. Glass Joe has a helmet, King Hippo taped a manhole cover over his stomach, and Von Kaiser is harnessing the power of self-confidence.

Every opponent in Punch-Out!! has a tell that lets you know when they are about to throw a punch. If you have played the old games a lot, then you will most likely get through the main game fairly quickly. You will be happy to know that when you re-fight everyone in Title Defense Mode, they are completely fresh. I am having more fun fighting these versions of the characters than the originals, as they have really done some interesting stuff with them.

They also did a great job of making this game approachable. If you get stuck on a fighter, you can keep re-trying him as many times as you need. You can even go into a practice mode where you don’t have a health bar so you can spend time figuring out their patterns. In the old games, you had three tries, then it was back to the start of the circuit. This got really frustrating as the guys you were having trouble on would continue to be unbeatable, since you had no way of retrying them except re-fighting all the guys before him.

While this game really shines as a single player experience, it is surprising how friends in the room react to the action. While taking turns playing through the main game, Jesse and I would both find ourselves yelling helpful comments to the other while we were watching. Duck! Punch Right! Now go for the stomach!

The crazy thing is, once we had seen each other struggle with a particular opponent and worked together to figure out his moves, the other player would have much less difficulty once they got to him. This game is all about pattern recognition, and is one of the few you can get a lot better at simply from watching someone else play.

The two-player vs mode is a little odd. You both play as Little Mac and the moves have been changed so that there is a delay between your punches. This gives the other player a chance to hit you and also built up your super meter to turn into Gig Mac. Here the game plays much like the normal game for the player who is still Little Mac. We tried the vs mode a few times, and, while interesting, it did not really grip me.

I can easily recommend this game to old school and new school gamers alike. It is one of those simple games that most people should be able to pick up and play fairly easily. They even give several control options for your convenience. Anyone with a Wii should buy this game. Unless you are one of those few people that hated the original Punch-Out!!, in which case, I officially disown you.

Tags: 2 Player Reviews, Next Level Games, Nintendo, Punch-Out!, Wii

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 28th, 2009 at 5:00 am and is filed under Game Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.