Game of the Month: June

Personally, I find it inexcusable that I haven't written a VC review in over three months. I plan on doing something about it soon, but for now...

My gaming time continues to be spent primarily on Pokemon, but I have squeezed in a decent amount of other stuff as well. The Virtual Console is once again kicking out classic after classic, and it is from these golden oldies that I have pulled the following gem.



My Game of the Month for June is:







Punch Out! Featuring Mr. Dream!!



Now, don't get me wrong, folks. I'm not a big fan of boxing. I don't know what it is about it that turns me off- the brutality, the testosterone poisoning, or maybe the saddening number of wasted teeth- but when I'm flipping through the channels on TV and come across a match, I just keep right on flipping.
Punch Out!!, though, isn't about boxing. No, Punch Out!!, as it's name suggests, is all about punching people.
In a ring.
With boxing gloves.
And there's a referee.

Admittedly, these are traditional (one might even say pivotal) elements of your typical boxing game. However, there are a few key elements that make Punch Out!! incomparable to aforementioned garden variety brawlers.
First and foremost, beyond dodging from side-to-side, your character doesn't move. Instead, the game puts a huge amount of focus on predicting your opponent's moves. Every foe you'll face has some sign that they're about to attack, and it's up to you to analyze your opponent's movements to determine what those are. In this way, it's actually more like a twitch-puzzler than an action game- watch your foe, dodge at the right time, then counterattack.

In Punch Out!!, weirdness reins supreme. Your first opponent, the rather appropriately named Glass Joe, is a whiny fellow on the verge of retirement. And as the difficulty ramps up, so does the strange factor. Along your way to the final battle with Mr. Dream (originally Mike Tyson, changed in 1990 due to a contract dispute. I'm gonna guess that Nintendo was quite glad to be rid of him a year later), you'll meet the narcissistic Don Flamenco, the eyebrow-wiggling Piston Honda and the massive King Hippo, to name but a few.

If you haven't figured it out yet, I'll spell it out for you: Punch Out!! is easily worth the $5 cost. It's challenging, it's quirky and it's fun. What more could you really ask for?

Besides Sonic 2, that is. Download that as well. It was tied with Punch Out!! for my Game of the Month, but this time of year makes me feel uncharacteristically patriotic, so in the end I chose the underdog New Yorker over the mutant hedgehog from who-knows-where. They're both excellent, though, and deserve to be downloaded by as many people as possible.


Happy Fireworks,


-Smashing Brother