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Punch-Out!!
- May 18, 2009 11:19 AM PST
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Punch-Drunk Love
True to the franchise's hard-knock roots, Punch-Out!!'s Career mode is the meat of the game. Players are sent on a journey that will inevitably lead Little Mac through all three circuits of the World Video Boxing Association, not to mention a colorful cast of fighters waiting to take him down at every given opportunity. Players can choose from motion-sensitive Nunchuck and Wiimote controls, classic NES controls, or even the option to use Wii Fit's patented Balance Board to really bring you into the game. While I found myself more than content with holding my Wii remote sideways in the vein of an old-school Nintendo controller, it's worth mentioning that the motion-sensitive controls worked very well for themselves - the Nunchuck and Wii remote duo representing the left and right gloves, respectively, with dodge, duck and block controls mapped to the Nunchuck's analog stick. The Balance Board is a neat idea, but for the amount of precise dodging, ducking and countering you'll find yourself doing round after round in Punch-Out!!, the peripheral just felt too slow and poorly integrated to hold its ground.
Players can also choose from an Exhibition mode, where they can go back to battle defeated fighters in hopes of conquering certain challenges (TKO Von Kaiser in five minutes, knock Great Tiger out in only three punches, etc.) Exhibition mode is also extremely helpful for training against newer foes, as Mac is given the option to go up against holographic versions of the opponent you're currently stuck on, giving players the chance to analyze their attacks without receiving any actual damage. Finally, there's the highly anticipated integration of multiplayer in Punch-Out!!'s Head-to-Head mode. Splitting the screen down the middle, each player controls a variant Little Mac. The real charm of Head-to-Head is the ability to collect Giga Juice from pummeling your rival, transforming your Mac into the hulking "Giga Mac". Upon this massive transformation, the screen reverts to classic one-sided Punch-Out!! view, with the second player forced to find a way to take down their behemoth doppelganger. While I enjoyed what Head-to-Head mode had to offer, I couldn't help but find it lacking with its selection of just one arena and one fighter. How cool would it have been to wear the crown of King Hippo, or perhaps tag-team Super Macho Man with a friend?
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- May 18 2009 at 09:56:03:AM PST
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nice! It's good to see some first party Nintendo's getting the proverbial reboot. Especially since we haven't seen this one for a long time
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trackrunner89 wrote:
How much better are the motion controls than wii sports boxing
They actually play completely differently -- where Wii Boxing has actions such as "lean" and "block" in real-time, Punch-Out!! has them mapped to the Nunchuck's analog stick.
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greyscale wrote:
trackrunner89 wrote:
How much better are the motion controls than wii sports boxing
They actually play completely differently -- where Wii Boxing has actions such as "lean" and "block" in real-time, Punch-Out!! has them mapped to the Nunchuck's analog stick.
Punch Out's motion controls are a lot more responsive and fun.
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denveraic wrote:
I had high hopes for this game, but it sounds and looks awful. The graphics look terrible. And from the sounds of the review the controls are terrible. My biggest knock on the Wii is that the controls are a gimmick and never function at a high enough level to actually make the game experience enjoyable.
come on dude, give the wii a break. i know im a wii fanboy but im a different kind the kind that understands why everybody hates the wii. i know it has graphical weaknesses and sometimes has control problems but this game has pretty good controls, not the greatest but good! so cool it!
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I'm getting my copy tonight and taking down King Hippo to China Town!!!
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denveraic wrote:
I had high hopes for this game, but it sounds and looks awful. The graphics look terrible. And from the sounds of the review the controls are terrible. My biggest knock on the Wii is that the controls are a gimmick and never function at a high enough level to actually make the game experience enjoyable.
Not for nothing, but no one really cares what you think.
Thanks for sharing though.
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