Punch-Out!!, originally called Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!, is a 1987 boxing video game created and released by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). It is part of the Punch-Out!! series and is based on the arcade games Punch-Out!! (1984) and Super Punch-Out!! (1984). One difference from the arcade versions is the addition of Mike Tyson, a former undisputed world heavyweight champion, as the final opponent. The game was highly praised by critics and is now considered one of the greatest video games of all time.
Gameplay
In the game Punch-Out!!, players control Little Mac, a young boxer who competes in the World Video Boxing Association. After defeating opponents in three circuits—Minor, Major, and World—Little Mac earns a championship title in each. He then faces a final "Dream Fight" against a skilled opponent. In the Gold Version, the final opponent is Super Macho Man, who also appeared in Super Punch-Out!!. In Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!, the real-life boxer Mike Tyson was the final opponent. After his likeness license expired in 1990, later versions of the game replaced him with the fictional character Mr. Dream.
Little Mac has fewer moves than most opponents. He can throw left and right jabs, body blows, and a powerful uppercut. The uppercut can only be used after earning a star, which happens when the player successfully counters an opponent’s attack. Players can earn up to three stars, but they are lost if Little Mac is hit or knocked down. To defend, he can dodge left or right, duck, or block punches by raising his arms.
Little Mac has a heart counter that decreases when he is hit, blocks a punch, or throws a punch that the opponent dodges or blocks. When the counter reaches zero, Little Mac turns pink and appears tired. At this time, he cannot attack but can still dodge, duck, or block. He can regain some hearts and return to his normal color by avoiding the opponent’s punches. If he is knocked down, he loses all his hearts but can regain some by standing up.
A match can end in three ways: knockout (KO), if a fighter cannot stand up within ten seconds after being knocked down; technical knockout (TKO), if a fighter is knocked down three times in one round; or decision, if the match lasts three full rounds without a clear winner. To win by decision, the player must score enough points by hitting the opponent. Some matches cannot be won this way and result in an automatic loss if the opponent is not knocked out. Little Mac can stand up three times during a match. If he is knocked down a fourth time, he loses by knockout.
If Little Mac loses his first match to a ranked opponent, he can fight a rematch. However, losing a Title Bout causes him to drop in rankings—by one place for Minor or Major Circuits, or two places for the World Circuit. Losing a rematch also lowers his ranking by one (unless he is already at the bottom of his circuit), forcing him to fight again to climb back up. A third loss or losing the Dream Fight ends the game.
Little Mac faces 14 opponents: three in the Minor Circuit, four in the Major Circuit, six in the World Circuit, and either Mike Tyson or Mr. Dream. Most character designs are reused for two characters, with changes to colors, heads, or special moves. Mario appears as the referee. Three opponents from the Minor and Major Circuits return in the World Circuit with new attacks, requiring players to adjust their strategies.
Development
Punch-Out!! was created by Nintendo Research & Development No. 3. Genyo Takeda, who was the producer of the Punch-Out!! arcade games, directed the NES version. Because the NES had less power than arcade machines, the developers could not copy the arcade graphics exactly. Instead of making the player's boxer outlined or see-through so the opponent could be seen, they made the player's boxer smaller and named him Little Mac, a 17-year-old boxer who weighs about 107 pounds. Each opponent in the game follows a specific pattern that requires players to try different strategies, learn, and remember how to beat them.
The music that plays at the beginning and end of Punch-Out!! is called "Look Sharp-Be Sharp." It was written by Mahlon Merrick for the radio and television program Gillette Cavalcade of Sports, which aired from 1942 to 1960. Most opponents in the game have music that plays when they enter the ring, except Bald Bull, Great Tiger, Mr. Sandman, and Mike Tyson / Mr. Dream. The music for most opponents is a classical or folk song from their country of origin. For example, Glass Joe uses the French national anthem, "La Marseillaise"; Von Kaiser and Super Macho Man use a piece by Richard Wagner called "Ride of the Valkyries" (possibly because of a reused piece of code); Piston Honda uses a Japanese folk song called "Sakura"; Don Flamenco uses a part of "March of the Toreadors" from the opera Carmen by Georges Bizet; and Soda Popinski uses a Russian folk song called "The Song of the Volga Boatmen."
Release
Before the public release of Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!, Nintendo released it in Japan as a gold-colored Famicom cartridge titled Punch-Out!!, without Mike Tyson's name. This version was given as a prize for participating in the Famicom Disk System's Family Computer Golf: U.S. Course tournament in September 1987. A total of 10,000 units were made—5,000 were given to participants with the highest scores, and the other 5,000 were distributed as lottery prizes. The final opponent in this version is Super Macho Man, who also appears as the final opponent in the arcade game Super Punch-Out!!.
Minoru Arakawa, the founder and former president of Nintendo of America, attended a boxing match in the Heavyweight unification series that included Mike Tyson, who later became a champion. Arakawa was impressed by Tyson's strength and skill, which inspired him to use Tyson's image and the tournament in the game. Tyson was reportedly paid $50,000 over three years for the use of his likeness. This decision was risky for Nintendo, as it happened before Tyson won the World Boxing Council (WBC) heavyweight championship from Trevor Berbick on November 22, 1986. This victory later increased the game's popularity. Nintendo released the Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! version in Japan shortly after its North American release.
In 1990 and 1991, Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! was renamed Punch-Out!! and re-released in the United States and Europe, respectively. When Nintendo's license to use Mike Tyson's likeness expired, his image was replaced by a fictional character named Mr. Dream. This version of the game was used in all major re-releases, including the Virtual Console, Animal Crossing for GameCube, the NES Classic Edition, and the Nintendo Classics service. Mike Tyson later joked about his involvement with the Nintendo Classics service.
Reception
By 1988, more than 2 million copies of Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! were sold in North America. It was one of two Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) games to reach this sales goal that year, along with The Legend of Zelda.
Critics praised Punch-Out!! for its quality. In 1989, Computer and Video Games magazine described the NES version of "the great boxing arcade game" as having "big, well-drawn and animated characters, a strong control method, and excellent gameplay," calling it "definitely THE best boxing game available on any machine." In the same year, ACE magazine ranked it as the second highest-rated NES game, after Super Mario Bros. They noted that it outperformed other home boxing games on any console or computer, even though Nintendo's hardware was not very advanced.
A GameSpot reader poll ranked Punch-Out!! as the 6th greatest NES game. Nintendo Power magazine listed it as the 17th best game for a Nintendo system in its Top 200 Games list. In August 2008, Nintendo Power again ranked it as the sixth best NES game, praising its focus on arcade-style fun over realism. Historian Steve L. Kent called it the second major game of 1987. Author Nathan Lockard highlighted its graphics, violence, controls, and variety, calling it a "true classic" and one of the best NES games. In 2005, Punch-Out!! appeared on GameSpot's list of the greatest games of all time. Editor Shawn Laib of Den of Geek ranked it 7th among the 15 Best NES Games of All Time, and Esquire's Dom Nero and Cameron Sherrill placed it fifth.
GamesRadar ranked Punch-Out!! the 11th best NES game ever made, calling it a "brilliant puzzle game [disguised] as a sports game." Game Informer listed Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! as its 14th favorite game ever in 2001, noting that no boxing game since has been as "beloved." IGN named it the 7th best NES game. Official Nintendo Magazine ranked the game 74th in a list of greatest Nintendo games.
In media
On October 29, 2014, during an episode of The Tonight Show, Mike Tyson was challenged by host Jimmy Fallon to play a video game live on television. The virtual version of Tyson defeated the real Tyson in the first round with a TKO.
In Brooklyn Nine-Nine's Season 5 episode "The Box," Detective Jake Peralta talks about the difficulty of beating the Punch-Out!! character Great Tiger, who moves quickly around the ring. The suspect confidently says, "I beat him every time. You just punch him when he gets dizzy."
In Family Guy's Season 7 episode "Not All Dogs Go to Heaven," during a family grace, Peter asks God for the "cheat codes for Mike Tyson's Punch-Out," saying he has "been stuck on Bald Bull for 4 years."