by Elton Gahr

Created on: August 28, 2009

Since "Mike Tyson's" punch out was one of my favorite games in the old days I was quite excited to see that a wii version was coming out. One of the things that the Wii has done great is sports games and Nintendo has always been pretty good with the nostalgia factor. And in large part I wanted a game that was similar to the Punch Out of the old days.

If you don't know Punch Out is a boxing game, but unlike most boxing games it is more puzzle than anything else. Every boxer has a set of attacks and you can dodge, block, duck and counter punch. If you do so well you can even earn stars that will give you a super punch. All of this is entirely true of the original game, and that is because very little has changed. In fact if you use the wii mote as a controller rather than the motion sensing control then it is practically indistinguishable.

The graphics themselves are OK but not great.

Perhaps the biggest disappointment was how many of the same boxers are the same as in Mike Tyson's Punch out. They play marginally different but if you knew how to defeat them before you you can largely do the same thing now and since much of the game is learning how to fight new boxers that hurts some, but not a lot.

Where the game does come out ahead is in the other game modes. The exhibition mode allows you to play anyone you have beat before in an attempt to complete special conditions in the fight such as losing by a decision after knocking glass joe down three times or beating Von Kiser without missing a punch.

The Wii controls are the other major change. Being able to swing and punch takes some getting used to but once you are done it becomes less twitchy than many other wii games since all you really have to control is with the movement is punching.

Not having a second person to play the multi player boxing with I can only say that it would have to be a very different than anything else they have done.

Punch Out for the Wii is very similar to the older versions of Punch Out and that is both a good and a bad thing. If you haven't played Punch out for the Nintendo entertainment system or simply want to play it again this is perfect but otherwise it's probably only worth renting.

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