The Blogtastic Blogfest That Is Getmeoutofthis.net!

So my latest Gamefly conquest was Punch-Out!! (the two exclamation points are important, apparently) the sorta-remake sorta new game for the Wii.

Note that I didn’t even try the motion controls. Just the first match with Glass Joe showed me that it would be a tiring and inaccurate exercise that I wanted nothing with. I played it NES style, all the way.

And man. For all the talk about “looks good for a Wii game” that people throw around, Punch-Out!! looks gorgeous. I’d be completely happy with graphics like these on the 360. The characters are so expressive and alive, and they get all injured and everything… it is just fantastic to watch. It just goes to show you that a good visual style trumps millions of polygons any day. At least in my opinion.

As far as the gameplay goes, though, there isn’t much to say. If you’ve played the original Punch-Out! then you’ve played this game. It controls exactly the same, and it handles just as wonderfully. I haven’t played the original in long enough to remember, but from what I’ve heard, the various boxers you know and love act similarly to what you remember, but are different enough to still challenge. In the end, though, it’s one part puzzle, one part memorization, and two parts reflexes. There’s always that time period of figuring the boxer out, and what you have to do, and that is certainly fun. But in the end, it all comes down to training yourself to make those dodges at the right times.

It’s because of those reflexes that I didn’t “beat” the game. I mean, I beat the game. I beat Mr. Sandman, I got myself a Title Belt. But then the game throws out “Title Defense Mode.” This is a great idea: it’s the same boxers, but their weaknesses are gone, or modified. Title Defense Glass Joe murdered me completely. Granted, it was clear that I could beat him, if I kept at it. I knew it was possible. But I also knew that, a few fighters down, would come a boxer that I could not beat without so much frustration and memorization that it wouldn’t be fun.
So I let Glass Joe keep the belt. The guy deserves a break.

In the end, I’m very happy to have gotten to play Punch-Out!!. It really is a lot of fun, and fans of the old school game really should give it a shot. But unless you really, really, really enjoy memorizing these fights, or are just, I don’t know, much much better at your reaction time than I am, this is really a rental. A really, really awesome rental, but a rental none the less. I rented it, I’m done with it, and I am happy.