Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!

aka: Punch-Out!!, Punch-Out!! Featuring Mr. Dream
Moby ID: 10305
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Description official descriptions

Mike Tyson's Punch-Out is one of the most popular and biggest selling video games of all time. Step into the ring as Little Mac, a 17-year-old fighter from the Bronx, ranked number three in the minor circuit. Your goal is to work your way up through the rankings so that you can challenge Mike Tyson, Kid Dynamite, in a dream fight.

But the road to the championship is long and hard. You'll have to work your way up through the minor, major, and world circuits by winning 14 bouts against some very tough opponents.

The rules of the World Video Boxing Association govern your bouts. Each match is three three-minute rounds long. Any boxer knocked down for a 10 count is Knocked Out (KO). If a boxer goes down three times, he'll find himself a Technical Knock Out (TKO). If both boxers make it to the end of the third round, the ref determines the winner.

Once you're in the ring you'll have to beat your opponent with smart fighting. Use left and right punches, as well as uppercuts to knock your opponent to the mat. Dodge your opponent's blows with some fancy footwork. Dazzle them with your brilliance and you'll be the World Video Boxing Association Champion. On the other hand, you might find yourself down for the count.

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Credits (NES version)

13 People

Producer
Supervisor
  • Nintendo of America
Director
Game Designer
Character Design
Music Composer
Electrical Engineer
Programmer
Secretary

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 85% (based on 31 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 103 ratings with 6 reviews)

The Most Entertaining Boxing Game Ever Made.

The Good
I'll start this review by stating that I am simply not a sports game fan. That aside, this still remains one of my favorite NES games of all time. This holds to Nintendo's ability to make an entertaining game back in their glory days.

Mike Tyson's career behavior not withstanding, the game offers a colorful selection of characters with personality, instead of two palette-swapped fighters blandly pounding away at each other. Each character was different, fully animated and entertaining. Same went for all of the little nods to the company, from the amusing Mario cameo, to Doc's advising Little Mac to join the Nintendo Fun Club (Pre-Nintendo Power). Even Little Mac himself had a bit of spirit to him, which kept him from being the generic boxer found in the arcade.

The music was simple, and as unforgettable as it might have been, it stays with you, same as the majority of classic themes from those old 8-bit games. The sounds are basic, with bleeps for laughter and grunts, but again, it works.

Gameplay is where it excels. The game is simply FUN. Never before or since has there been a boxing game as entertaining to me as Punch-Out!! The gameplay is rock solid, and even when you learn all the strategies and secrets, it's still fun to blow through over and over again. It's one of those classics that simply remains at its heart a great game, and never loses what made it special in the first place.

The Bad
Every boxer is different. And while the early ones are easy, the later ones can get cheap. Especially when they unrelentingly pound on you, or take you down in one hit (Mike Tyson).

And while battery save games were still finding their way from novel to mainstream, I have never been a password fan. The passwords in Punch-Out!! are not as bad as some games that came out, but it was still a tedious process to put in codes when you were ready to go.

Regardless of its issues, there's not enough to really bring this game down.

The Bottom Line
Punch-Out!!, like Kid Icarus, is a franchise that screams for an update. It got a SNES sequel, and Little Mac has recently made an appearance in Electronic Arts' Fight Night Round 2, but the series either needs a Game Boy Advance, conversion, a fighter appearance in the next Smash Bros. game, or an all new title on the next system.

Regular Punch-Out!! is just fine. But Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! - For all the hype and controversy it got back in the day, it remains a true classic.

NES · by Guy Chapman (1748) · 2005

Gameplay stands the test of time

The Good
I played this game 15 years ago and I thought it was really hard. I was 10 or 12 at the time. I just recently started playing it again, and guess what? It's still hard! The game is incredibly simple, but it's still entertaining and fun even today.

The Bad
I still can't beat Mike Tyson! It's been over a decade, and he still punches me out and then winks at me.

The Bottom Line
This one is a collector's item. If you still have a functioning NES, you'll want to find yourself a copy. It's solid gold.

NES · by Nick Seafort (16) · 2004

Nintendo's Knock out punch!

The Good
Mike Tyson was one the best Boxers of all time through 1986-1990. He was a dominant power house in the boxing ring and the greatest, until Buster Douglas knocked him out in Tokyo in 1990. Though he still boxes now, he's a mere shadow of his former self. Ear bitings, facial tattoos and racial abuse outbursts, oh and major bankruptcy... that's all he is known for now. But his most substantial contribution from his former legacy may not be his boxing in an actual ring, but a digitized one, and that is Mike Tyson's Punch out, without a doubt one of the greatest games of all time. If not the most fun, truly a game that gets better with age.

The first thing I liked was the main character Little Mac, a scrawny little man stepping in the ring with the professionals of pain and punishment. He has a long road to face the champ, but with the help of his trainer and a little blood and sweat, he might actually make it. Mac's attacks are standard fare at first, left and right jabs of sorts. As you damage your opponent, your power meter raises. When it's full (if you time it right) you can land one hell of a devastating Knock Out Punch, which, if your opponent is knocked down three times, delivers victory.

Another cool thing are your opponents, such as The Sandman, Soda Pop Pinski, Don Flamingo and my favorite: Bob Bull. Each character has its own special abilities and tactics in fighting styles. Don Flamingo, for instance, is an uppercut guy. He'll try to land a couple on you to weaken your health, then step back. He does a little cha cha, then lands a devastating uppercut. Bob Bull, on the other hand, will land some obvious jabs to weaken you, then step back, charge and uppercut you to unconsciousness.

All Opponents have two distinct attacks: a light and heavy one (both of which can knock you out). The light one, if connected, can consist of a combination flurry. The heavy is the bad one, which if connected, well...you're in dream world. There are however ways to avoid these attack and use them to counter attack your opponent and knock them out.

The cutscenes between matches are classic moments in video game history, especially when you're running with your trainer passing by the statue of liberty. Mario is another highlight in the game as the referee. The music and sound were also nicely handled, especially Mario's talking in the ring.

When you finally reach Mike, it's both an accomplishment and an ordeal. It'll take practice, skill and luck to defeat him, but if you succeed you'll pass one of the toughest bosses in video game history. You won't do it in one shot, however, that's why you need to practice, which is why the best thing of the game is the ability to use password codes to return to your original fight. And that'll come in handy when you face Mike. Very Handy indeed.

The Bad
The password codes are extremely long and are difficult to to input, due to the up and down letter selector. You can also save a game manually and reload it, but sometimes loading can take a half a minute and there is no guarantees the saved game will still be there the next time you play.

The Bottom Line
A boxing game starring Mike Tyson and the main character, Little Mac, trying to move up through the ranks of boxing to face the Mike Tyson himself to become the champ.

NES · by wade hampton (7) · 2005

[ View all 6 player reviews ]

Trivia

Cutscene

In between each tournament, Little Mac jogs through New York while his trainer Doc Louis leads him on a bike. This harmless scene became one of the biggest internet sensations, at the same level of Zero Wing's All Your Base, when a SomethingAwful.com user added the caption "Nigga stole my bike!" in one of their weekly photoshop contests. The picture soon spread and became a hype, in spite of the racist undercurrent. One of the end results, a YTMND showing the animation, along with a voiced song, can be found in the related links section.

NES version differences

When the 3-year licensing deal with Mike Tysonwas up, Nintendo decided not to renew it as Tyson was no longer world champion. The character was redesigned and named "Mr. Dream" and the game was re-released as simply Punch-Out!!. Not all passwords from the old version were compatible with the new one.

Technical issues

The "Little Mac" storyline was a product of technical issues that developers were confronted with in bringing the game to the NES. The arcade games featured a see-through character to allow the player adequate view of their opponent. This method would not work on the NES, therefore the idea of a tiny main character (Little Mac) was adopted in successful effort to provide a clear and full view of the opposing boxer.

Version differences

Originally, the arcade version of Punch Out! featured a Russian character named "Vodka Drunkenski." In the NES version his name was changed to "Soda Popinski." Although it seems clear that the primary motivation for this change was Nintendo's censorship guidelines (one of which forbids liquor references), it's also possible that the name was changed at least partially motivated by a desire to tone down the character's image as a stereotypical Russian drunk.

Awards

  • EGM
    • February 2006 (Issue #200) - named #44 out of 200 of the "Greatest Games of Their Time"* Game Informer Magazine
    • August 2001 (Issue 100) - voted #14 in the Top 100 Games of All Time poll

Information also contributed by Big John WV, CaptainCanuck, D Michael, PCGamer77, and Sciere

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Related Sites +

  • Nigga stole my bike!
    A YTMND showing an animation of the famous "Nigga stole my bike!" phenomenon based on a scene from this game, along with a voiced song.
  • Video review of NES accessories (WARNING: Laguage)
    The Angry Video Game Nerd, James Rolfe, reviews some NES accessories and some associated games, including the U-Force and Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! on NES.

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 10305
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by RKL.

Nintendo 3DS added by Lance Boyle. Wii U added by Michael Cassidy. Nintendo Switch added by Kam1Kaz3NL77. Wii added by Sciere. Arcade added by Pseudo_Intellectual.

Additional contributors: Shoddyan, Sciere, Alaka, LepricahnsGold, Thomas Helsing, Harmony♡.

Game added September 10, 2003. Last modified February 1, 2024.