Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! (NES)

Everyone has a plan 'til they get punched in the mouth
Everyone has a plan ’til they get punched in the mouth

It’s hard to fathom that come this October, Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! will turn the big 3-0. Wow, where does the time go? Growing up, my brother and friends adored Mario. Don’t get me wrong — I loved the Italian plumber myself, but when it came to the NES it was always about three games that truly cemented me as a gamer for life. Contra, Mega Man 2 and of course, Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! I recently reviewed the sequel, Super Punch-Out!!, so it’s only fitting to return to the original and remember why it’s arguably the greatest boxing video game of all time.

LET’S GET READY TO RUMBLE

The Man, The Myth, The Menace
The Man, The Myth, The Menace

We came for Mike Tyson. We stayed for Little Mac.

MTPO1

Co-starring Carl Otis Winslow!

#mychildhood
#mychildhood

MINOR CIRCUIT

MTPO2

Ah, Glass Joe. Nintendo’s greatest jobber.

MTPO3

Joe’s facial expressions are priceless.

MTPO4

Love seeing that spit flying out!

MTPO5

Mario moonlighting as a ref was so cool.

MTPO6

Von Kaiser is a big step up from Joe.

MTPO7

Earn stars for Mac’s Super Uppercut.

MTPO8

23-13? About to go 23-14.

MTPO9

Dodging like a smooth criminal.

MTPO10

Control is crazy on point.

MTPO11

Knock off his mustache!

MTPO12

Piston Honda was serious business.

MTPO13

So intimidating the first time you see him!

MTPO14

Snapping his massive head back felt so sweet.

MTPO15

Piston’s infamous flurry of jabs.

MTPO16

He polishes it off with a gigantic uppercut.

MTPOEx

Love the way he back peddles before falling.

MTPOEx1

Looks like Paul Bunyan with those huge feet!

MTPO17

Ah, the classic training sequence.

MAJOR CIRCUIT

MTPO18

Don Flamenco has a face you just want to punch.

MTPO19

He gave off such a douche and creep vibe!

MTPO20

Give him that electrocution hair.

MTPO21

One of my childhood friends looked like King Hippo.

MTPO22

King Hippo’s defense is top-notch.

MTPO23

Until it isn’t. Classic moment!

MTPO24

One knock-out and he’s done for.

MTPO25

Great Tiger used to give me fits.

MTPO26

Love how his eyes bug out when you drill him.

MTPO27

His teleportation trick was a bit trippy.

MTPO28

Look for his turban to flash…

MTPO29

One of the all-time great NES villains!

MTPO30

Such an imposing sight the very first time!

MTPO31

Did this feel good or what?

MTPO32

He’s got buggy eye syndrome, too.

MTPO33

The Bull Charge is such an iconic move.

MTPO34

As was the counter for it!

WORLD CIRCUIT

Note: You’ll have rematches with Piston Honda and Don Flamenco in this circuit. However, I’ll skip showing them again even though they are slightly tweaked to be more difficult second time around.

MTPO35

Soda Popinksi. What an all-time great name!

MTPO36

He scared me as a kid…

MTPO37

He always whupped my ass.

MTPO38

“Mr. Sandman, bring me a dream.” He’ll be glad to.

MTPO39

Enjoy this while you can.

MTPO40

He’s a tough bastard!

MTPO41

He’s no Randy Savage, though.

MTPO42

They just keep getting bigger and bigger.

MTPO43

Watch out for his Macho Spin Punch.

MTPO44

Whew!

MTPO45

A NES rite of passage.

MTPO46

Making it this far was impressive alone.

MTPO47

Hey, he’s not so bad…

MTPO48

Yeah, right. Gotta be super fast!

MTPO49

Arguably the most intense NES final boss battle.

MTPO50

You were a legend if you could beat Tyson legit.

MTPO53

My brother’s friend was able to make it to Tyson on a few occasions. Just getting to Iron Mike was an accomplishment in and of itself. Being able to land a few blows was enough to earn you a couple high fives. Tyson is very fast and very hard to hit, let alone knock out. If anyone ever did, they became a gawd damn legend. No one in my group could ever do it, and it wasn’t for a lack of trying. Tyson terrorized many Nintendo kids growing up in the ’80s. He’s the stuff nightmares are made of.

MTPO54

Show him who’s boss, Mac!

TELL ‘IM, DOC LOUIS!

MTPO51

In-between rounds Doc Louis will give you tips.

MTPO52

Gotta love the added damage to the avatars!

CLOSING THOUGHTS

Mike-Tyson-Punch-Out-Cast

Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! is one of my favorite NES games of all time. I love the 8-bit Nintendo but if I were to be perfectly honest a large portion of its library has not aged well. To be frank, some have aged downright terribly. However, Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! stands the test of time even nearly 30 years later. From the huge sprites to the different strategies one must adopt from fighter to fighter, there’s no denying this is one of the all-time classics. A truly great game never goes out of style. No matter how much time passes by, it remains as playable and fun as ever. Few games can claim that. This game can. It’s always hard to admit when a childhood favorite fails to live up to standards. In this case, there are thankfully no nostalgia goggles. Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! is still a TKO even three decades after its initial release. That says it all, really.

OVERALL: 9.5

Whisper sweet nothings into my ear, Doc
Whisper sweet nothings into my ear, Doc
Rock on Rocky, er, Little Mac
Rock on Rocky, er, Little Mac

2 thoughts on “Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! (NES)”

  1. Another great article, I very much appreciate the screenshots of the fights, before, during and after. I remember the 1st time I beat Tyson, me and 1 of my younger cousins were jumping for joy, high-fiving, we couldn’t believe it. I’ve always heard rumors about that newspaper section where it’s asking about somebody’s dad coming home (above the I found a key with a password) being that it’s Mario’s child. IDK about that one, but still it’s fun to speculate. Another question I have to ask you, and again no rush in answering, was have you ever played the Gold Cartridge Edition? It was a Japanese version given to 2nd place winners of an NES Golf tournament iirc. The rings are different colors, along with King Hippo and Piston Hondas skin tone. They also fixed some of the spelling, and there’s no Mike Tyson! The final fight is against Super Macho Man. One more thing, me and a friend of mine used to do fantasy tournaments in certain games, and 1 of our favorites to do was the Punch-Out series. We’d have brackets, winners advance, and the losers had brackets of their own. I really wish they’d bring this series back, or at the very least if possible, make a SUPER Super Punch Out with EVERY character, from the arcade series up to the Nintendo Wii version. THAT would be a KO imo.

    1. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and memories! I agree, a Super version featuring all of the computer opponents (plus new ones of course) would be killer. It’s a surprise they haven’t done anything like that on the Switch yet! To answer your question, I haven’t played the Gold Cartridge edition. Finally, love your memory of you and your younger cousin jumping for joy the first time you beat Tyson. I think I only ever landed a few punches on him, max, ha! But yeah, those gaming memories are the kind that stay with us for a lifetime :)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>