Nintendo is the undisputed heavyweight champion of video game heroes. Your pantheon of key protagonists –Mario, shortcut, Samus– features some of the most iconic characters in all media. While the gameplay gimmicks and boss fights may be different, what unites them is their pure warmth in the face of overwhelming odds. Nintendo’s less popular characters are often pushed aside Smash Bros. Cameos and Virtual Console re-releases. (We miss you, pit of Child Icarus!) But there are many more Nintendo franchises that deserve a modern reinvention.
Nintendo’s rough boxing series, Punch Out!! made its debut in arcades 40 years ago and was instrumental in Nintendo’s rise to video game supremacy in the mid-to-late 1980s. After the great success of Donkey Kongthe first Punch Out!! Arcade Cabinet was released in 1984. It had to be fun and exciting, and most importantly, it had to use two television screens – because Nintendo had one Many of them are sitting in their warehouse. (Yes, really.) Shigeru Miyamoto designed your colorful selection of enemies that are alternately hilarious and incredibly dated. For example, the Italian fighter was called Pizza Pasta. In the arcade sequel Great punch out!!! A few months later, in the fall of 1984, a pugilist named Vodka Drunkenski, who fought for the USSR, was released.
The arcade game was an instant hit in Japan and North America, allowing players to perform thrusts, uppercuts, and swings with just a few buttons and a joystick. Each of the game’s six opponents had their own striking and blocking pattern that had to be meticulously memorized in order to get them to the mat. The game’s balance between challenge and an attainable sense of mastery ensured that eager players took quarters just for another round.
For a time, the series was at the forefront of the arcade and emerging home console scene, receiving sequels Arm wrestling spinoffA Game and observation systemand myself unofficial fakes. The peak came in 1987 Mike Tyson’s Punch Out!! on the NES, in which a memorable new protagonist replaced the nameless, green-tinted boxer of the arcade games. Little Little Mac, a 17-year-old rookie from the Bronx, was born and, with the help of his trainer Doc Louis, wanted to prove that size doesn’t matter by going to the top, eventually taking on the title heavyweight champion . Enemies like the weak Glass Joe and the portly King Hippo returned from the arcade games, as did more family-friendly versions of other arcade enemies. (The NES version’s Russian fighter, Soda Popinski, had traded his alcohol addiction for a sugar problem.)
The gameplay had to evolve for the NES’s control scheme, but the core loop remained the same. To eliminate their opponents, players had to pay attention to visual cues, understand patterns, and wait for the right time to strike. This solid core is so strong that four decades later Punch Out!! still has a huge one Speedrunning community I’m trying to run the gauntlet as quickly as possible.
There were few new ones over the next few decades Punch Out Title. 1998 had Great punch out!! for the Super Nintendo and had the confusing title in 2009 Punch Out!! for the Wii. These days, if younger gamers know about Little Mac, it’s probably because they passed him by when choosing their favorite fighter Super Smash Bros Ultimate or noticed the game’s cameo in 2023 Super Mario Bros. Movie.
But Mac and Punch Out!! still deserves so much more, so here’s hoping the Switch 2 sees the glorious return of Nintendo’s plucky underdog series. In the meantime, if you ever get the chance to try out the arcade cabinets or a vintage Nintendo console, give it a go Punch Out!! and its sequels are an opportunity. It’s much easier to become a boxer if you don’t have to get beaten in real life.
