You may as well just go on E-Bay and buy it now. Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! is one of the best games on the NES, it is incredibly addictive, and it has the best one song soundtrack for any game ever. I recently found Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! on E-Bay for about 10 bucks with shipping, and since I’d been looking for it (and it usually costs around $25) I went ahead and bought it. Back in the day when Nintendo games could be found on every street corner, I sold my NES and all my games for practically nothing and I’m seriously kicking myself now because all the stuff that was easy to find and dirt cheap is worth a fair amount of money now (which you’ll find out if you ever have to buy any retro console games, especially the cartridge ones). I played this game extensively when I was younger, and trust me in saying that it has not lost a thing despite its age.
In Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!, you are the boxer Little Mac, a 107 pound 17 year old, who is probably about 4 feet tall (everyone you fight is gigantic by comparison…supposedly Little Mac was made to be so small because the NES didn’t have the power to render the human player as translucent like the arcade game did). You begin your fighting career against the weakest person possible (Glass Joe, who’s 110 pounds with a record of 1-99), all the way up to the Dream Fight of Mike Tyson (from when he basically devoured everyone he fought…he had knockouts in his first 19 fights, 12 in the first round!). While those who don’t remember how Mike Tyson was at the beginning of his career probably find it funny that the game is named after him, it’s time for a little trip onto youtube to see why he has a game named after him (or if you want to go for laughs, search for Mike Tyson quotes on youtube…NSFW).
Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! has very simple gameplay, but that is a large part of its appeal. Because it is on the NES, there are only so many buttons that you can use. A is a left body punch, B is a right body punch, and you add in a directional pad up to make them throw a head punch. Push down to block, left and right to dodge in that direction, and that is basically everything you’ll ever use. The game also has a star system, where you get a star for punching your opponents at the right time (such as right before they throw a big punch, or if you surprise them). They are few and far between later in the game, and hitting Start when you have a star allows you to do your powerful, wind-up special punch (which does more damage but takes a little while to throw). This limited control system does nothing to limit the quality of the game however.
Each character is distinctly different and each has a distinct punching pattern and style. MTPO is a game of patterns...different characters have different punches, punch order, and different tells. King Hippo blocks everything until he flashes red when trying to do a power punch. The trick is understanding this…punch him in the face when he flashes, then repeatedly in the stomach to damage him. Piston Honda moves his eyebrows when he’s going to throw a straight punch, and flashes when he’s going to throw a hook. Finally (if you get there) Mike Tyson flashes or winks his eye (left eye for a left punch, right for a right punch) before he decapitates you and eats your children. Each characters pattern is very distinct, and later characters make life much more difficult by having tells that occur almost in synch with their attacks. Bald Bull spinning his hands super fast and swinging is tough to dodge unless you have excellent reactions, and punching Mike Tyson is a crapshoot and involves anticipating when he’ll start to punch. They all follow patterns, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t hard anyways (and good luck living long enough to discover Mike Tyson’s pattern).
The actual rules of Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out are surprisingly simple (although not exactly carbon copies of real boxing). Each round lasts three minutes, and there are only three rounds. Three knockdowns in a round are a TKO no matter what, a ten-count is a KO, and decisions can be had only if you have a set amount of points (awarded on punches and tallied below the health meters) that are never revealed in the game (look online to find out exactly how many, or just knock everyone out). It goes away from boxing in that the clock stops when someone is knocked down, but this is really just so it is more possible to get TKO’s. In between rounds, your opponents will say some fairly ridiculous things (sample Mike Tyson Line: "They say I can't lose...I say you can't win!"), and you can get a general idea of how you're doing based on your characters picture between rounds...eye's swollen shut, you have problems. Likewise if they have their eye covered by tape you have done some damage and knocked him down. The health bars are standard stuff…however having full health matters little if you get lit up by a special punch by anyone Bald-Bull and after (about a third through the game). Because most fighters have moments of weakness after missing with special punches, countering after their miss causes more damage, or (in some cases) knocks them down right away. Bald-Bulls Bull Charge attack will knock you down if he does it successfully, but if you punch him in the stomach at just the right time, it’s a knockdown every time. It’s a high risk/high reward situation if timed incorrectly, but sometimes that’s the only way to win.
In spite of its simplicity, Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! is an excellent game of boxing…just don’t expect any multiplayer. It runs lightning fast on the NES…in fact compared to running it on an emulator, you’re better off playing it on an NES. The NES controllers have lightning fast response, letting you dodge and throw punches the instant you push (it seems even a good controller on the pc still can’t match that responsiveness). My minor complaint about Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! is the fact that I can’t beat Mike Tyson, even after all the times I’ve fought him in the game…he is probably the most difficult boss in any game I’ve ever played. In the first 90 seconds of the first round, he knocks you down in one punch, which is a problem since he has the shortest tells in the game…you need lightning fast reflexes to dodge him for very long. I’ve beaten him in an emulator only, by saving often and reloading after every knock down. The video included was made on the NES, recorded on a DVD recorder (so I didn’t cheat, except for using the Mike Tyson code a few times after getting killed by him over and over again…fyi 007-373-5963).
Overall, Mike Tyson is in my top 3 of NES games (behind Super Mario Bros. 1 and 3). It is an amazingly addictive, fun game. I’ve played it over and over again to figure out the boxers’ patterns so that I can beat them more efficiently (or just so I can beat them). After dodging Super Macho Man’s tornado-like punch where he spins a punch at you anywhere from 3-7 times, you’ll appreciate the difficulty of the game, even if you know all the patterns. Mike Tyson is epically tough, and if you beat him on the NES, congratulations, you have done what I could not do despite having fought him hundreds of times. Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! is simply put my favorite boxing game ever, despite its dated graphics and lack of complexity….sometimes simple controls and premise (figure out the punch patterns) mask the depth and how difficult a game really is. The complexity is hidden under the surface of Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!...you’ll notice it when you get later in the game, being forced to act on minute punch tells, dodging or blocking, and then pick the proper hand and punch to throw to do the most damage possible. This game has the sharpest and most responsive controls of perhaps any game I’ve ever played, and you will not be disappointed playing it. This game is simply put, a must buy if you have an NES, even if you don’t like boxing games. Time to dust off the NES and cause Mike Tyson to go into retirement.
