Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! (NES) Playthrough

A playthrough of Nintendo's 1987 boxing game for the NES, Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! Following up on the massive success of earlier hits like Donkey Kong, Mario Bros., and Popeye, Nintendo released the first Punch-Out!! in arcades in 1984. It was an upright, dual-monitor machine that pitted the player's wire-frame avatar against six ranked boxers in pursuit of the title. The success of the game - largely attributable to the huge character graphics, synthesized voices, and unique controls - guaranteed a sequel, and Super Punch-Out!! was released later the same year. But Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! isn't a port of either of those games. It's a fleshed out reimagining of those games' ideas, and it was built from the ground up specifically with the NES hardware in mind. You play as Little Mac, a seventeen-year-old boxer from the Bronx who dreams of rising through the ranks to become the world champion, but it's a long and difficult road to the top. Fourteen bouts stand between Mac and the belt. Punch-Out!! plays more like an action-based puzzle game than it does a traditional arcade boxing title. These guys require a carefully considered, reactive approach. The quickest way to find yourself eating the mat is to exhaust yourself by throwing punches in a blind frenzy, so you'll instead want to study their movement patterns, learn the ways in which they telegraph their moves, and work out strategies to exploit their weaknesses. It's a difficult game, but it's an addictive one...