Three rounds, that’s all I ask
Punch-Out!! was one of the games I played for the first time, later in my life, that saved retro gaming for me. I still havenāt beaten it. Iāve reached Super Macho Man, I think. Progress is just so slow at that point that I eventually get distracted and move on to something else.
That has nothing to do with Beam Softwareās Power Punch II. Well, not nothing. You would have to be blind to not look at it and see it as having lifted Punch-Out!!ās formula. Thatās nothing new for the industry, though. Power Punch II just happens to have been catapulted to notoriety due to a rumor and its uncanny resemblance. Itās a rather strange game, but itās one where the ability to judge it by its own merits has been lost.
I could wallop you all day with this surgical 2×4
The pervasive story about Power Punch II is that it started life as an intended sequel to Punch-Out!!. According to the tale, Nintendo commissioned the game as a follow-up but dropped it once the scandals around Mike Tyson broke out (and also because of the quality of the game, as some tell it). This never made sense to me, and hear me out: Mike Tysonās Punch-Out!! was reissued as Punch-Out!! Featuring Mr. Dream in 1990 after Nintendo lost the license to use Tysonās likeness, so they obviously didn’t have any interest in maintaining it. Power Punch II was released in mid-1992. Super Punch-Out!! was released in 1994, and while that leaves time for development to stop on one title and start on another, the actual bears the name of the arcade game from 1984, as one would expect.
Now, the boot screen does say that Nintendo owns the trademark to Power Punch II and that it was licensed to American Softworks. Strange. So, for clarity, I reached out and asked Power Punch IIās programmer and character designer, Andrew Bailey (now at Relic). He replied:
āI don’t remember it being commissioned by Nintendo. We were working for LJN (from memory) a small US publisher. Of course, Nintendo needed to approve every game, and they would have probably not liked [Mike Tysonās] involvement once the issues came out.ā
That response has a bit of ambiguity to it (the publisher was American Softworks, not LJN, but I think thatās a reasonable mix-up), so you can believe what you want. However, I find it doubtful that someone from Beam would forget working with Nintendo and the drama around the project being dropped. Also, the Mike Tysonās Intergalactic Power Punch prototype does not mention Nintendoās ownership of the title. It is very strange that itās called Power Punch II when there wasnāt a Power Punch One, but that probably had more to do with American Softworks.
Given the fact that there is no citation on the original claims of the gameās source, I think the legends are questionable at best and most likely untrue. Regardless of how theyāve been accepted by the internet.
He’s going to die on his feet
The game itself, however, is obviously inspired by Punch-Out!!. You control Mike Tyson ā or, sorry, Mark Tyler ā from behind the back as you throw down against cartoonish aliens. The biggest difference is that you can move Mark left and right, whereas those buttons were instead used to dodge in Punch-Out!!. You can also throw body blows by holding down on the D-Pad, whereas Punch-Out!! had only jabs and uppercuts.
Then there are also the training ships, which is kind of the first place where Power Punch II goes wrong. You need to train in between each circuit of boxers in order to raise your stats. The problem is if youāre going to get good at any facet of Power Punch II, make it the training. Heightened stats can mean the difference between victory and defeat. Itās not the only factor, but itās a damned important one.
The next problem that Power Punch II has is that its decision to go with movement instead of just dodges affects the strategy of the game. Punch-Out!! was all about reflexes, pattern recognition, memory, and a bit of anticipation. Power Punch II is maybe a bit of that, but you can get really far by just leading your opponent to the edges of the screen and counterpunching them. Their AI just canāt fight and move at the same time, and itās really easy to take advantage of this in early fights and just win by decision. Itās like that Charlie Chaplin routine where he just hides behind the ref.
To the shores of Fistiana
If you want to actually get KOs, you not only have to train well, but you also need to gain power punches. You get these in a similar way to Punch-Out!!, you just have to hit an opponent the right way at the right time. It can be hard to tell what the right way or the right time is, but if you want to do more than just chip away at their health, you need these punches.
The enemies are maybe not as memorable as the ones in Punch-Out!!, but theyāre also not based on stereotypes. Theyāre a collection of aliens, and they do their job. Theyāre colorful, big, and rather detailed. They donāt telegraph their attacks, which, again, carries Power Punch II further from Punch-Out!!ās majesty, butā¦ I donāt have a follow-up to that. It sucks.
The music is done by Marshall Parker who also did one of my favorite soundtracks: the SNES version of Shadowrun. His talent doesnāt really shine here. The soundtrack is decent, but Iām not about to add it to my playlist.
Punching isn’t your thing, but that’s okay.
As much as I donāt think Power Punch II is a terrible game, writing this article has made me realize what it means to try and measure up to a perfect game. It seems like the only way you can be favorably compared to Punch-Out!! Is to do everything the exact same. I doubt most developers at the time would be willing to so blatantly carbon copy a Nintendo game. In fact, how many have even attempted it since? Mega Cat Studioās Creepy Brawlers is the only one that comes to mind.
But again, Power Punch II isnāt as bad as its reputation. It just fails to answer the question of why you arenāt playing Punch-Out!! or any of its sequels. What is it the kids say these days? āWe have Punch-Out!!Ā at home?ā Yeah, this fits that meme like a mouthguard.
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Published: Jun 6, 2022 05:00 pm