Mike Tyson's Punch-Out is another one of those games that is such a classic that I don't really feel like I need to describe the game all that much. Most of you out there already know about this game with its rhythm based gameplay that requires more brains and faster reflexes than just about any other game. Even today telling people that you beat Mike Tyson always impresses. I'm happy to say that I've beat him twice, and more impressively Mr. Sandman a bunch of times.
Oddly enough I never played this game during the NES era and knew very little about it. The only time I remember hearing about it was on the cartoon Captain N the Game Master. That was the game Kevin was playing when he was pulled into game world. The show also featured King Hippo as one of its villains. I never actually got to play the game until the NES was dead and I was just starting to get into collecting. It's probably just as well because I doubt this game would make any sense to a seven year old.
So I beat Mike Tyson for the first time when I was in high school, probably 10 years ago or so. I never played it again until recently when I picked up a copy of it at a thrift store. This makes it much easier to compare my first time through as a youth and the second time as an adult. One thing I quickly noticed was that I still had it. I got through the Minor and Major circuit without even getting knocked down. Bald Bull didn't even give me any trouble like he did 10 years ago. Glass Joe gave me the most trouble, and that was just because I had to get used to the controls again. I also found out that I will never forget the password to get to the world circuit. It's one of the few passwords that I've ever memorized, and I'm not exactly sure what it's so ingrained in my mind.
It could be because I had to use it about 10,000 times. One thing that hasn't changed about this game is that the last three fighters are some of the most brutal battles in all of gaming. Even though he's the first, Mr. Sandman is probably the hardest of the three. He always gets me with his Dreamland Express punches. He throws three punches in quick secession, and I've only been able to avoid all three of them twice. The first time through my goal was to only get hit by one of the three. If I didn't get hit by a single punch the rest of the match than I could sometimes win. Super Macho Man, the World Circuit champ, was never much of a problem for me as a kid, but this time through he gave me fits. If he hits you once with that super spinning punch than you're down, and he can spin over a dozen times in a row. I think you can only get knocked out three times, so once again the best strategy is to not get hit by anything ever.
The reward for all this is the match with Mike Tyson, and he's quite an imposing figure. He does his deadly dynamite punches for the first minute and a half, so it's quite possible to lose the fight in about 15 seconds if you don't know what you're doing. I lost count of how many times I fought him this time. I tried it for an hour or two on three separate occasions. Every time he knocked me down I just got madder and more determined. Finally after about 50 tries I won by decision, and the experience was just as exciting now as it was back in the day. I know I'm just playing a silly old game on a tv when I could be doing something productive, but I really feel like I accomplished something. How many of your friends have beat Mike Tyson?
Well I guess that's about it. I don't have many gripes about this one. Some of you might have played this as plain ol' Punch-Out, but it's basically the same game. They took Mike Tyson out of it when he lost the title and started getting into legal trouble, but Mr. Dream uses all the same moves. Well okay I have one gripe. Why did they decide to put Don Flamenco in the game twice? He's lame the first time and just plain boring the second! Were they that happy with the gag about his toupee? That's about the only thing I can figure. Anyway, I don't want so sound like I'm nitpicking, so I'll end it there. It's still an excellent gaming experience.
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