Finally got it, it is nostalgia overload. It has all the music from the original, it is such a huge homage to that game, I had a huge smile on my face the whole time I was playing. I gave the motion control all of 2 minutes then went right to classic mode, IMO the only way to play.

What can I say about the game, it IS Punch-Out. Nothing has changed about the forumla, if you have played the original you know what to expect from this game. I flew by the first circuit, got passed Hippo without dying and then hit Great Tiger and lost. This is so sweet cause Great Tiger in the original is also the spot where the game really ramps up in difficulty. His moves are presented differently so it took time to finish him. Then came Don Flamenco, lost a bunch of times, mostly cause I was trying to get stars.  I love seeing how all the fighters and their moves translated to this game. It's almost all there, all the tricks you learned, all the super moves, so cool to see it with such great animation.

I tried some exhibition mode, this mode is going to be so sweet, might be what I play the most. It really challenges you to play each fighter a different way.

But you know what, I am glad I rented it, I love it cause its Punch-Out but Punch-Out is a really simple game and so is this one. Punch-Out isnt the type of game you play non stop for a week or two, you play it for a few hours, this game is much larger so probably for a weekend and then take a break from it. For me right now its not the type of game I can afford to own. I am really glad they had the balls to make a game like this though, I truely believe there is a place for these simple arcade style games that pay homage to the types of games we used to play. That mix of classic games reborn with huge epic games  is what is making this generation so cool.

I just spent some time with the motion controls + balance board.  I don't see myself being able to so much as hold my own against the harder fighters, but for the easier fighters it's actually pretty fun.  I went into exhibition mode and messed around with Von Kaiser as I've been unable to win any of his challenges and figured I'd give it a shot.  I did pretty well.  It has the typical short comings that most of the motion controlled games have, though overall I'd rank it better than most.  As long as you don't go overboard with the punches you'll hit every time.

The balance board is works better than most reviews that trashed it, but there's a very important key to remember.  Once you've shifted your weight to dodge you have to quickly go back to the center.  Little Mac will do it on his own whether you shift back or not, and when you need to dodge again quickly the board has trouble figuring out where you are and what you're doing.

Again I don't recommend it for serious competition, but it is fun and I actually got a bit of a workout using it.  

I am up to Mr. Sandman title defense, what a mission. Bald Bull was the hardest so far, I spent nearly 2 hours on him, Macho Man was a cake walk compared to him. I tried Sandman for a moment, I got TKOed in like 20 seconds.

I bet most people will never really finish this game.

robio said:

Dvader said:

I am up to Mr. Sandman title defense, what a mission. Bald Bull was the hardest so far, I spent nearly 2 hours on him, Macho Man was a cake walk compared to him. I tried Sandman for a moment, I got TKOed in like 20 seconds.

I bet most people will never really finish this game.

I'm still at Bald Bull.  I can't get enough stars on him to save my life.  I hate to do it, but since I unlocked the face mask I may need to equip it.

Cheater!

It was a pain to find the stars but here is what I did. The fight starts and he does that double clutch right hook, dodge and punch. The next part is the key, he will do a right uppercut you need to left jab before he throws the punch, the timing is hard, sometimes you will land a hit and it wont be a star. It needs to be precise to get the star. Next is a series of jabs, where he spins his hands, the left side takes longer to punch dont forget that, just dodge and punch. Its three jabs and then he does the right uppercut again, once again counter it to get the star, now you should have two. He will do three jabs again, this time left, right, left; when its done, another uppercut you need to counter to get a star. Now you have three stars.

Next is a right hook, dodge attack, then an uppercut, no need to counter it just smack him, back to jabs, its a pattern.  Once you see his life is a little bit below half way, use the three star attack, it should knock him down. Make sure to knock him down before the 1 minute and 30 second mark cause he does a bull rush, you want to save that.

When he gets up he will have new moves, if you are near 1min 30sec just avoid until he does the rush. You should know how to do this, hit his body before he lands and all his life will go down and you get a star. He will stay up and regain a small chunk of life, dodge a few moves, hit him a few times and use the star. Thats KO #2. If you are a badass you may be able to TKO him in the first round but if not try to save some stars for the start of the next round.

After the first KO you will need to be aware of some new moves, but they are much easier to gain stars. He now will have a longer left jab, one where he spins his hands for a longer period of time, leaving his head open for attack, wait a moment and before he raises his hands right jab his head for a star, really easy.  The other star attack is his new left hook he will move to his left, he will say something and then come in for the attack. Its a delayed attack the way I got the timing down is that I dodge the moment he starts the move, by the time you are back to your normal position he is still doing his animation and its that moment when you right jab his face for the star. So dodge then right jab.  After he starts to use all these moves I never again tried to go for the right uppercut star counter, its just too hard to pull off consistantly, I only do it at the start cause I memorized his entire pattern.  I just focused on getting the stars from the two moves I mentioned above. The key is his bull rush, that is how you win the match, it will lower his energy down and you get a star, so its almost like an instant KO.

travo said:

Don't you have to lose 100 times to get the face mask?

I'm close to that, I think I am in the 90's.

Finally beat Mr. Sandman title defense (Mike Tyson) , no where near as hard as Bald Bull.

After you finish that mode you get Little Mac's last stand, you fight random opponents, if you lose three times you retire, you need to beat three. I got my ass beat, Donkey Kong was one of them (awesome). Once you lose you get an ending cutscene and then that mode is lost forever. So save your game onto a stick before so you can replay the mode. If you win I assume you get a new cutscene and some options mode where you can tweak stuff.

I have played for over 15 hours and I hardly did any of the exhibition challenges, in terms of length there are no issues with this game. For most they will never finish the game, its as hard as the NES game, the only difference being that you get to replay from the last fighter rather than having to beat a series of them in a row.

The difficulty is putting me off this one.

Is there an easy setting?

SteelAttack said:

Foolz said:

The difficulty is putting me off this one.

Is there an easy setting?

Pussy.

 There's a pussy setting?I thought Nintendo was meant to be kiddy!