Punch-Out!! (Wii)

Article originally written in French as a collaborative effort between Solo the CyberpunK and DarkEvil. It was translated in English by DarkEvil.
See original here.

This article will be presented as a review by Solo the CyberpunK with replies by DarkEvil, since both contributors have an opposite opinion on the subject discussed.

Legend:
Solo the CyberpunK
DarkEvil

I just tried Punch-Out!! for Wii. I have one word: sh*t!! The characters are the same as on the NES, the power-up system too (stars), the coach, the structure...

Is that a bad thing? The NES version is still my favorite version of the game after so many years for many reasons, including those you just mentioned. The characters are the most interesting and memorable for me. The power-up system with stars is easy enough to understand and looks more like a power-up than the charging bar present in Arcade versions and Super Punch-Out!! on the SNES, because of how we get them (by hitting the enemies at the right time, usually in a dangerous situation) or the result when we use them (always a much more powerful hit using one star, instead of the charging bar which remains at the same level until we're hit. Note that I acknowledge that the possibility to choose between a super powerful hit and a series of smaller hits is something missing in the star power-up system.) I like how Punch-Out!! is made, in general.

It's as if the game wants to erase Super Punch-Out!! on the SNES from our memories, but I don't understand why. By searching on the Internet, I found out that the fans didn't like Little Mac's absence and the fact that it wasn't as innovating as the first game.

There's also the fact that all the characters are not as caricatural or comical as in the first game, I'd even say there's a complete lack of inspiration in their design. A small mistake here, the character in Super Punch-Out!! IS Little Mac, as stated in the only official sources available, even if his name is never mentioned in the game. It's just that he doesn't look like before, he's not a Little Mac anymore, he's a Big Mac (I'm sorry). The coach, even if he's not that important, is an appreciated addition which sometimes, I do mean sometimes, gives good hints, and he can even give you a massage between rounds so that you recover a bit of your energy. This makes the game look like a real boxing game a little bit more, even if its goal is not to be as realistic as the sport. Finally, what can I say about their choice to eliminate rounds in Super Punch-Out!! on the SNES, forcing you to beat your opponent in a single round to win, unlike the NES and Wii versions each featuring 3 rounds lasting 3 minutes each and it can even end with the referee deciding on the winner if no one was KO'd (even if it's at your disadvantage most of the time, a KO or TKO being more desirable). This is what I like of both versions; they're simple fun games, which Super Punch-Out!! on the SNES also is, but Punch-Out!! (NES and Wii) seems more complete and memorable.

So Punch-Out!! for Wii is not a sequel, because it forgets all the improvements of Super Punch-Out!! to go back a step with the NES's version characters and controls. It's a remake. 9 years between the NES and SNES game and people point out the lack of innovation. 25 years later, we take a step back with a remake of the NES version and we're strangely not talking about a lack of innovation. Instead we see reviews like 9/10 or 4 and a half stars out of 5. Explain this to me.

In fact, there weren't so much improvements in Super Punch-Out!!, apart from the 16-bit graphics. I find the music frankly inferior too and the game even more simplistic, because of the elimination of a couple rounds. Remove the fact that it's 16-bit and it's nearly the same game as before, where you have to hit your opponent at the right time on the body or the head, while avoiding his attacks which follow a pattern. The main difference is the power-up system taken right from the arcade versions (that I don't like as much, but which is objectively neither better nor worse). So there were really few original improvements in Super Punch-Out!! on the SNES, apart from the possibility to recharge your energy slowly by pressing the buttons rapidly when your opponent is down on the floor (notice that they kept this in the Wii version) and I admit that Punch-Out!! for Wii doesn't feature a lot of improvements either, it's really a remake, but a good remake even though I don't think it deserves 9/10 either.

Super Punch-Out!! features 16 characters. On the Wii : 13 characters!! Is this a joke or what? Why go back?

In fact, Punch-Out!! for Wii features 14 characters with the secret one, most of them coming from the original game and 2 from Super Punch-Out!! on the SNES, adding the new one, Disco Kid (not a very interesting character and I'm totally opposed to the secret character in this game, but I can't really talk about it, it's a secret). I think the characters they chose were never as comical and lively as in this version, which clearly mocks all races and stereotypes (I imagine mocking everyone is like mocking no one, I hope), with short and very funny intros for each opponent. It's really not that bad and we get to fight them all a second time, with some of them changing their strategy considerably (as an example, take King Hippo, which is wearing a manhole cover on his belly the second time you fight him and you absolutely have to find a way to make it fall down to win). Also, among the 16 characters in Super-Punch Out!! on the SNES, Bald Bull, Mr. Sandman and Super Macho Man all came from the NES game and Piston Hurricane from the Punch-Out!! arcade. We're down to 12 original characters. Now, the two final adversaries are very generic big guys with muscles looking like Mr. Clean and I mean both of them, since they're brothers (the brother and final opponent moves like a heavy robot for some strange reason). There are 2 generic Asians. There's a Bob Marley ripoff. They replaced the comical and caricatural loser Glass Joe with an old guy named Gabby Jay, which no one remembers. You know, there's a reason why most of these characters weren't picked for the Wii version, also considering that it's first and foremost a remake of the NES game.

I'm going through the menus, searching desperately for more than the career mode (which consists of fighting one opponent after another, like the NES game) and the head to head mode where we choose which opponent to fight in a single match. (Other modes exist, but they don't differ a lot from a regular match).

In fact, the other main mode, "Exhibition", is a mode where challenges are added to each fight, requiring you to do something different than before, like losing against Glass Joe by the referee's decision, which can be interesting and some challenges are quite difficult to accomplish, even for an advanced player (big problem in Punch-Out!! for Wii, its frustrating difficulty). There's an unlockable mode in "Exhibition" where each adversary knocks you out with a single punch, really for elite hardcore player. Certainly there's not much to unlock and accomplishing the goals will only unlock each opponent's stupid audio capsules, which are totally uninteresting to hear on their own, but it's probably the most you can do with Punch-Out!!. It's an old simple concept that isn't worth the actual price at which it's sold (I know, I'm supposed to be in favor of this game, but I'm honest too).

What angers me the most about this game, it's because at E3 2008, Nintendo said long before the show that they would present a game for hardcore gamers. We were hoping for Mario, Pikmin, Star Fox, Zelda, Kid Icarus, Metroid, Kirby, Donkey Kong, Mother, F-Zero, etc.. No. Punch-Out!! and furthermore, it's a remake. Can we agree that this game did not take a long time to produce? Exact copy, 1 game mode.

Yeah, any of these titles would've been wonderful. Punch-Out!! was an unexpected surprise, yes, but I would've liked much more Kid Icarus or a new "good" Kirby why not another sequel to the series Mother (EarthBound), I mean one that reaches America. I still think it isn't an exact copy of the NES game, slightly more complex, and there was a lot of care put to small details in this game, so as to not disappoint the fans. Probably not the longest game to develop, but they did good work, even with beautiful cel-shaded graphics and an amazing soundtrack.

When I look at games like Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, which introduce a new concept in their series (vehicles), with magnificent worlds, TONS of things to unlock, dozens of gameplay hours minimum; Super Smash Bros. Brawl with its hundreds of trophies, dozens of modes and characters; I think if Nintendo puts all its hope in a remake to keep true gamers on their side, they fail lamentably. This game isn't worth 60$. I remind you that the first game came out 25 years ago. 25 years. With the massive upgrade in technology for the last 25 years, don't tell me we can't do better than that!! Games like Wade Hixton’s Counter Punch on the GBA (published by Destination Software) manage to keep the spirit of the original Punch-Out!! with new ideas thrown in. But it's a handheld game! Games on home consoles are supposed to be worth their price!!

I agree with the price being too high, like I said, and not much modes can be added to such a game. If I have to agree with you on some point, it's for Wade Hixton's Counter Punch. This is a good game and it's exactly what Punch-Out!! should be in today's world to be worth it, a handheld game. Either way, the possible advantage of an home console giving you access to easy multiplayer with your friends in the same room as you is ruined by giving you the possibility to only play as Little Mac versus Little Mac (and a power-up which transforms the other player into Giga Mac, a powerful adversary, a mutant form of Little Mac, while the game transforms into single player mode during that time. It's ridiculous.)

During the same night, I played the games on the NES, SNES and Wii, my favorite experience being on the SNES. Funny characters (as much as in other versions), beautiful 2D graphics, simple effective controls.

Well, we now know what I really think of the SNES version. My favorite one being on the NES, followed by the Wii version and I like the one on the SNES slightly, but certainly last. If we include the arcades, they're definitely at the bottom of my list, I'd even go as far as to say that I don't like them that much now that we have home versions, it's rare for a home port to be really better than the arcade it's based on, but that's the case here.

Talking about the innovation and the controls, I tried to play the combination with the "Wiimote" and Nunchuk, also with the Wii Balance Board. The short answer is no. Even the boxing game in Wii Sports has a more logical control. When we hit, we always hit in the middle of the body. To do an uppercut, the joystick on the Nunchuk has to be used to indicate that we want to hit the upper part of the adversary. Why? I logically thought that hitting upward would produce an uppercut, but it's not the case. Why, is the controller not precise enough? It's really confusing, because we need to mix a control that's more realist (moving) with a traditional control (button). For the Wii Balance Board, it doesn't work in the context of the game, since we don't remain slanted on one side or another. The timing is really important (because of the pattern of the enemies' attacks); we need to move lightning fast, at the precise millisecond. It's too much. So I use the standard control, which consists of turning the controller on its side to make it look like an NES controller. To summarize, we have a controller with a motion sensor and a board that can detect weight and balance, but the best control is the one with 2 buttons. Thanks Nintendo for demonstrating that all efforts to change our way of playing are destroyed by the games themselves, including Nintendo's own.

Nothing to add here, I think you summarize the situation clearly here.

In conclusion, you now have to make up your own opinion. Who's right? Are both of us right? These are just opinions, but still...