Ever since I first started playing NES games, this has always been one of my favourites. For one thing, the gameplay is really addictive. Feeling just as much like a puzzle game as it is a sports game, the player follows the patterns and reacts quickly in order to damage the opponent. This formula works really well. As you play more fights, you are introduced to different challenges that keep you on your toes. Like how Bald Bull 2 can only be knocked down with a star, or how they start adding attack that can one-shot you.

There's also a bunch of small things that I find enhance the experience. The cartoony animations of the characters has always been funny. Seeing them go from stone-faced or even cocky to being completely dumbfounded upon getting stunned adds life to the game. Another aspect I respect is the high-risk, high-reward moments where the more challenging strategies can lead to greater benefits. Characters like Piston Honda, Great Tiger, and Mr. Sandman have attacks that do tremendous damage when hit by them, but if you know how to act against them, can lead to a big payoff or even an instant knockdown.

The ONLY thing stopping me from giving this a perfect score is Tyson himself. While the other fights in the game are relatively simple and can be learned after a couple rounds, Tyson is just way to unforgiving. The fact that his one-hit KO punches can randomly delay means those with bad reaction times have practically no chance of getting very far in the fight.

If you're an aspirer who enjoys video games, this is for you. If flaunting to your parents (or great grandparents) about how you beat Super Mario Bros. was a feat, then think again. To your ancestors (or possibly even you), Mike Tyson's Punch Out is a nightmarish game. Iron Mike is a not a foe, not a monster, but a demon in the cartridge. Once you see Mike hit the mat for the last time, you'll feel the power radiating from the game finally subside. If you wish to challenge this game, know that it will haunt you until you muster up the courage to take on the dream fight.

we’ve all heard countless urban legends about classic games: for example, that the mythical pokemon mew can be obtained not just by crosspromotional toys r us garbage but instead by using the perfect sequence of actions on an unassuming out-of-place truck. i think there’s something beautiful about these urban legends- they get at the hyper-idealized version of a game we imagine in our minds.

punch out is a game about these moments- if your enemy unleashes their signature move you can often get a huge opening by unleashing a perfectly timed parry. little mac’s sprite in a round break reflects the damage you’ve allowed to be wrought upon it during the previous round. when knocked down, you can stay down and risk getting an early ko called to regain just a bit more health when you get back up. listed matter-of-factly in glass joe’s profile, you can see that this ziploc bag of a guy somehow was able to serve up a single knockout. call it soul. call it attention to detail. call it whatever you want. it’s these touches that bring the actual aesthetic experience of a game closer to the fantasy that we’re anticipating when we pull the cartridge out of the box or load the rom up or what have you.

the word “immersive” gets thrown around a lot about games these days, reflecting a more general shift in values that instead of being a maximally “fun” experience in and of itself a game instead does all in its power to make you really feel like spiderman. NES games are typically not excellent at this- the system’s limited audiovisual memory often forces every resource to be rationed to convey the maximum possible gameplay information. but punch out is able to exude style and oomph that makes the experience not just tangible, but visceral. “racist boxing” may seem like a threadbare setting to put a player into, but when the game heats up and you hyperfixate on the smallest of movements of whatever jk rowling extra you’re put up against the zone you get into legitimately feels like you’re in a fucking street fight. the danger might be fake, but the adrenaline in your veins damn well isn’t.

smarter people than me have pointed out how punch out’s rhythm of watching, dodging, and opportunistically attacking preempts the developments the action genre would take over the next several decades but this compliment is often delivered alongside a complaint that punch out’s lategame is overtuned, much too hard. it’s not difficult to back up this argument, especially looking at the game’s final boss.

mike tyson truly earns his place on the box. this motherfucker could make a teamup of dracula, the yellow devil, and shadow link say “erm, maybe we’ll just get into an mmo.” iron mike spends the first full minute and a half- a full sixth of the time you’re given to beat him- launching instakill punches at you, many of them delayed or hastened to throw you off of any groove you may be desperately clinging on to. the following sections of the fight increase the amount of openings you have, but they also widen the gamut of possible moves and patterns you’re expected to react to. frankly, beating punch out requires dedication that will elude most players. but i’m honestly a little surprised that this is still seen as an objective fault. punch out is from the ancient and nearly extinct land of the arcade, where games don’t necessarily have to be beaten to be enjoyed. the idea of playing a video game to finish it, finishing it, and being done is not the end-all be-all philosophy of interacting with a game. mike tyson is the DREAM FIGHT, just seeing him is akin to encountering a cryptid, let alone beating him. for most people, the game is about honing yourself on the remaining cast of characters in the game, becoming steadily more confident and experimental as you push yourself deeper and deeper into the roster. it’s an all-you-can-eat buffet of boxing action

but if you do make it to iron mike, and you’re able to survive past his initial rush of instakill punches and make it into the subsequent rounds, you’re granted some rare respite. for the briefest of moments, he will lean back and blink a few times, and you can punch him to earn a star punch. but, if you hold off, and punch in the last 3 frames of his blinking, he’ll simply fall to the mat. the tightness of this timing cannot be understated- even when using a save state placed right before to specifically see it, it can take several tries. but in the midst of one of the tensest fights in gaming, the game humbly offers you the opportunity to have your own, private, EVO moment.