Games for Lunch: Punch-Out!!
In a nutshell: After 15 years, Mac is back!
5/19/2009 7:04 PM | 1 Comments | Page 1 of 4
Kyle Orland
Status: "You can't get quality video game editorial from a value menu!" "No, really, you can't."
Developer: Next Level Games
Publisher: Nintendo
Release Date: March 18, 2009
System: Wii
ESRB Rating: E10+
Official Web site
0:00 I loved loved LOVED the first two console Punch-Out!! games, but was underwhelmed by my 15-minute demo of this new one at GDC. It felt way too easy, and too much a carbon copy of the original game with updated graphics and bad motion controls.
0:01 I'm digging the looping bit of the
remixed original theme that's playing on the preview screen. Dun ... danana... dun ... dananana!
0:02 Little Mac punches the air in a silent room bathed in soft light. The camera zooms in and gets punched to pieces. A wall of light bulbs pops into view in the background as the title appears. The awesome remixed theme has been replaced by some odd horn-filled tune.
0:03 Heh ... the Wii pointer on the menus is a little boxing glove that punches the menu options when I click the A button. Cute.
0:04 At the GDC demo, I found that punching the air with the Nunchuk and Wii Remote was more annoying than engrossing. I'm instead holding the Wii Remote alone like an NES controller. It's just simpler. Also, I'm a lazy weakling. What of it!
0:05 Let's dive into Career mode. Glass Joe is up first ... I TOLD you this was a lot like the original game.
0:06 A short series of still pictures shows Glass Joe in front of the Eiffel Tower, sipping coffee and holding up a long roll of French bread. "
Bonjour, bonjour, je suis Glass Joe!" he says as he walks over from his corner. Funny, I don't remember him being this ... French in the original game. No time to ponder that now ... "FIGHT!"
0:08 He's already down. I'm just punching with abandon ... if he blocks high, I go low, and vice versa. He did manage to hit me once when I messed up the timing on my dodge to the side. Hey, who's this referee doing the count? Where's Mario?
0:10 And three knockdowns means Little Mac's first TKO! The camera cuts to a side view as Joe flies through the air in super slow-mo, and croissants fly around him, for some reason. "Ha ha ha ... I sure wouldn't want to get in the ring with you, son. Not after that last fight!" says trainer Doc Louis, patting his red tracksuit in the stomach. Um ... you're my trainer. I wouldn't hit you?
0:11 Von Kaiser's up next, in his full-mustachioed, be-suspendered glory. When I click him, he says "PONCE!" in a big German accent (at least I think it's "PONCE!"). A short vignette shows him training kids in a gym, then getting beat up by those same kids. Children can be so ... so cruel.
0:13 "
Achtung!" His first punch hits me. His second punch I throw a counter-jab, which he blocks. His third punch I counter successfully, getting an uppercut star for my trouble. I dodge his fourth punch, then throw the uppercut with a tap of the A button. He's already down. Wow!
0:14 I get too fancy, trying to counter his punches and taking some licks instead. When I do get a counter in, though, it gets me another free knockout with an uppercut. This is waaaay too easy.
