Punch-Out!! Review

August 19, 2022

The Punch-Out!! series is a well-known one, especially among older gamers, as the first installments in the series came out quite a long time ago. The most recent one, designed exclusively for the Wii, follows the similar premise of the previous games, while making the best possible use of the Wii's motion controller. Imagine the Wii's standard boxing game perfected in every way imaginable – that's the newest Punch-Out!!

Gameplay

The game will put you in the shoes of a fighter named Little Mac who's trying to build up a reputation in the professional boxing leagues. You'll have to go through a long series of fights, with your opponents becoming progressively more difficult to take down.

You'll be playing with the Wii's motion controller, and you'll need strong reflexes if you want to succeed in Punch-Out!! – even though the first opponents you'll be coming up against aren't really challenging, the game becomes more and more difficult later on. At some point, you'll find yourself up against opponents who don't give any clear indication of what they're about to do, leaving you quite confused in most cases.

Once you start feeling confident with the game's controls, you may want to give some of the new game modes a try, such as “Tiled Defense”, which will pit you against some of the tougher opponents from the standard campaign, though with new abilities and dirty tricks. For example, fighting against the famous King Hippo won't be as easy in this mode, as his belly (his standard weak spot) is covered by a metal plate, preventing you from striking it.

Graphics and System Requirements

Punch-Out!! looks on par with today's titles and is definitely a fresh game in terms of visuals. It uses a cartoony art style, with lots of colors depicting each character and plenty of variation in the backdrops to your fights to keep your eyes relaxed for the entire matches. Despite being a new game, it also manages to retain the classic style and feeling that the first Punch-Out!! had, and should be a pleasant walk down memory lane for fans of the classic title.

Being a Wii-exclusive title can only mean one thing for Punch-Out!! – complete lack of hardware compatibility issues. Really, there aren't any slowdowns, hiccups or whatever you can think of – and we should especially reinforce this notion when talking about the game's controls, as they're immediately responsive and the game plays without any lag (which is especially important later on, against the tougher opponents).

Other

Even though most of the characters in the game are returning from previous titles in the series, there are several new ones as well, and don't be quick to judge them if you find them lacking in personality initially – we assure you the developers haven't slipped from their quality standards when creating the new characters.

Conclusion

Punch-Out!! is one of the better boxing games for the Wii at the moment. It's exciting, full of humor and colorful characters, and it can make for the perfect bonding game with your kids!