Punch-Out!! (Wii)

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Punch-Out
North American box art
Developer(s)	Next Level Games
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Platform(s)	Wii
Release date	JP July 23, 2009 NA May 18, 2009 EU May 22, 2009 AUS August 27, 2009
Genre(s)	Sports
Mode(s)	Single-player Multiplayer
Rating(s)	ESRB:E10
Media	Wii Optical Disc
Input methods	Wii Remote Wii Nunchuck Wii Balance Board

Punch-Out!! (パンチアウト!!, Panchi-Auto!!^?) is the fifth mainline video game in the Punch-Out!! series, and the third released on consoles. It was developed by Canadian game developer Next Level Games, released on the Wii and published by Nintendo. It was first revealed at Nintendo's conference on October 2, 2008. It was released on May 18, 2009, but was released on May 16th at the Nintendo World Store launch party. In an interview on October 9, 2008, Charlie Scibetta, Senior Director of Corporate Communications for Nintendo of America, confirmed motion control will be used in this game. NES-style controls were also confirmed to be in the game.

Gameplay and Plot

Punch out for the Wii is easily the most unique game in the series seeing as unlike previous games where boxers usually have their core moves then special attack, every fight is different from previous entries. For example. Soda Popinski’s basic strike is a quick hook, Sandman’s basic strike is an overhead punch. No fight in this game can be beaten from past experiences alone as a result since every tell is different and requires different strategies and/or criteria to beat the opponent.

Every fighting style is different so outside of strikes, some boxers can only be beaten by baiting strikes, some by countering, some with star punches, some by landing enough hits, and others the traditional way. Most if not all fighters in this game has an instant knock out or instant knock down trick to accompany their different styles of boxing. The point system has been retired for this game to decide fights, now only the fighter with the better health/knockdown advantage will win so every fight can be won by decision.

Little Mac now has improved his uppercutting technique into the star punch. The star punch works a lot differently than the uppercut. For example, 1 star will be weaker than the NES version, 2 stars will match the NES version, and 3 stars will outmatch the NES version. The star punch could be added seeing as this is the easiest engine in the series due to the advanced graphics and adding a risk reward system to the game would require strategy to know when to use it if it’s better to risk losing one to gain a better version or to burn it instantly. To gain stars is identical to the NES game where counters and some delayed punches are the only straightforward way to earn stars but unlike the NES, all stars are lost instantly with 1 punch.

Career mode is the main mode to this game where you face boxers 1 by 1 through 7 circuits broken into 3 different sections and unlike previous games, it isn’t a rush where you lose 2 times, you have to restart the circuit and fights are recorded on a fight record so losing to Glass Joe once will make his new record 2-99 and your record 0-1. Contender mode is where you first climb up the rankings as a rookie and get used to the game. Title Defense is the game’s hard mode after beating the champion from Contender mode. Once the credits roll, the game introduces you to 3 more circuits against the same 13 boxers but enhanced to be extra challenging by adding extra criteria to beat boxers or making them faster with extra gimmicks. This time, most intro cutscenes show fighters after their loss to Mac and how they’ve changed or improved like Piston training harder, Macho losing his fame after Mac upset him, Don lifting weights to get stronger, and Aran wearing his gloves out and stealing Mac’s. Mac can lose his belt if he loses to any boxer once but can regain it by beating said boxer. After beating the former champion again. Mac can now access the final mode of the game, Mac’s Last Stand. Here Mac get’s tired of all the fame and attention but doesn’t want to just drop out. Doc proposes 1 last challenge before Mac retires. Mac now has to fight an endless loop of fighters and win all fights to keep his career alive. Doc gives Mac 3 losses before retirement and if Mac wins 10 times in a row, he gains access to Champion’s mode (which we’ll get to later) also, this mode is the only way to unlock the only secret fighter in this game and after that, really nothing’s left in this mode other than trying to get a very high winning streak before losing 3 times. Losing 3 times is the only way to gain the ending to this game. After losing 3 times, Mac forces himself to retire but before the end of the game, Doc Louis goes through a boxing museum and he’s walking until he sees Little Mac’s section. A photo of Mac running with Doc is shown with Little Mac’s pink hoodie and Doc’s bicycle. Doc stares at the photo and rings his bike’s bell 1 last time and leaves respectfully complementing Mac’s career as the camera stays on the picture and the credits roll again. Career is no longer playable after this and you can only see the statistics of previous fights in career should you go and see what happens after the end.

Exhibition mode is the “time attack” of the game as every fighter from any mode can be fought again. This acts as the game’s replayable mode after Career Mode but only fighters that were beat in Career can be fought, if you’re stuck on a boxer, Doc Louis will make a hologram of the opposing fighter that can’t hurt Mac but he can hurt it. It’s a good way to learn patterns and attack properties without making your record or having your health bar be an issue. In Exhibition mode, there are 3 challenges for each boxer and their TD forms. Challenges on occasion will hint at KO techniques like punching Joe in the head several times and their main purpose is to give the player a hard challenge after beating the game to complete the game. Completely completing 3 challenges for 1 fighter will give you access to their audio and music. If you complete 1 challenge, Doc instead of hyping you up after a win will congratulate the player on completing the challenge and jokingly comment on if it was hard or not. If you win 10 times in Last Stand mode, Doc will give you access to champion’s mode where any punch (other than Aran’s desperation attack) will knock the player down giving them 3-1 of the opponent’s punches a round on average to knock the opponent out or to stall for decision. Your record is also affected in Exhibition mode but the opponent’s isn’t. After completing 3 challenges, the 3 stars from the fighter will be on the side of them in he select screen to show that you completed the challenges. If you win in Champion’s mode, then there will be a trophy on the side of the fighter that you beat to show you’ve beaten them on Champion’s mode.

Head To Head mode is the VS mode, you can fight another human also playing as Little Mac in a W.V.B.A match. Little Mac now has 3 extra attacks, he now has an overhead, a leaning hook, and a standing straight. You can dodge the opposing Mac’s attacks to make him blue, making him blue and attacking will give you extra Giga Mac Juice, every strike gives a little bit of Juice but dodged punches will give extra in exchange for no stun time, once a Little Mac gains enough Juice, he can morph into Giga Mac. Giga Mac’s attacks are a parody of his new attacks and he can now earn stars by taunting. The other Mac’s attacks are now cut down to the basic strikes from the main modes, Giga Mac’s attacks deal extra damage and are faster than Little Mac’s extra attacks. He can delay overheads too to throw off the other player. As the player spends time playing Giga Mac, the Juice goes down and the only way to stay in this state is to taunt. Giga Mac has a weakness, he can be stunned like everyone else in the W.V.B.A after missing an attack so the player has to be mindful and careful about when to throw punches. Giga Mac can be knocked down and has a special knockout animation like everyone else. Doc Louis will be in a random Mac’s corner during breaks and he will still give his advice.

Boxers

• Little Mac
  • Giga Mac (Only in Head-to-Head Mode)

Minor Circuit

• #3 Glass Joe

• #2 Von Kaiser

• #1 Disco Kid ^(debut)

• Champion: King Hippo

Major Circuit

• #3 Piston Hondo

• #2 Bear Hugger

• #1 Great Tiger

• Champion: Don Flamenco

World Circuit

• #4 Aran Ryan

• #3 Soda Popinski

• #2 Bald Bull

• #1 Super Macho Man

• Champion: Mr. Sandman

Donkey Kong as the secret fighter

• Secret Fighter: Donkey Kong

Other characters

• Doc Louis

• Referee

Trivia

• In this game, fights are most likely happening 1 after another so Mac retiring after less than a year is strange seeing as he lore wise just started boxing.
• This is the only game where every strike is a unique punch since they all differ from each other.
• This the first and currently, the only game to have most foreign characters speak different languages besides English.
• When Mac loses the first time, Doc will tell him he can practice against his current opponent in Exhibition as a hologram that can not tire Mac or hurt him.
• This is the first game in the Punch-Out!! series in 15 years, when Super Punch-Out!! was released.
• If Mac loses to anyone in Career mode, the opponent's win record is increased (like if Mac loses to Glass Joe at least once, his record will go from 1-99 to 2-99). This does not apply to Mac's last stand or Exhibition, however.
• Princess Peach from the Mario series was initially planned to be an opponent in this game, but was scrapped and replaced with Donkey Kong due to the possible negative reception that could stem from having violence against women in the game during development.
• A 100% playthrough requires the player to lose at least four times.
  • The player needs to lose three times in Mac's Last Stand to retire.
  • Glass Joe has a challenge in Exhibition Mode which requires the player to lose by decision after knocking him down 3 times.
• Every opponent (other than Sandman) in this game has at least 1 infraction.
• In the 2023 Super Mario Bros movie, one of the restaurants called Punch-Out Pizzeria is named the series. Many of the pictures on the walls show the opponents based on their appearance in the Wii game.
• In the live-action commercials for the game, it's advertized that there will be 12 classic characters plus new ones returning. The only new characters not featured in the NES versions of Punch-Out!! or Super Punch-Out!! are Disco Kid and Donkey Kong.

Credits

Production Team

Programming: Erik Benediktson, Duane Bieber, Chris Deas, Scott Hansen, Bryce Holliday, Jonathan Kift, Gary Shaw, Andrew Top, Hewan Woolley, Jason Wylie

Sound Design: Matt Harty, Scott McFadyen, Denise Ng

Music of NES Punch-Out!! Arrangement and Additional Music Composition: Mike Peacock, Darren Radtke, Chad York

Voice Acting: Christian Bernard (Glass Joe), Matt Harty (Little Mac), Riley Inge (Doc Louis, Mr. Sandman), Mike Inglehart (Super Macho Man), Horst Laxton (Von Kaiser), Donny Lucas (Disco Kid), Ihor Mota (Soda Popinski), Takashi Nagasako (Donkey Kong), Richard Newman (Bear Hugger), Juan Amador Pulido (Don Flamenco), Sumit Seru (Great Tiger), Kenji Takahashi (Piston Hondo), Stephen Webster (Aran Ryan), Erse Yagan (Bald Bull)

Front End Design and Art: Paul Gill, Neil Singh

Character Art: Darcy Patko, Jonathan Yao

Environment Art: Anthony Leonati

Special Effects: Aazim Khan

Animation: Chris Auchter, Chris Colibaba, Seng Lau, Jeremy Mathiesen, Aric Norine, Dennis Pena, Cai Wen, Marie Wyatt

Technical Art: Jonathan Snyder

Concept Art: David Enciso, Anthony Iammarino, Nelson Garcia

Game Design: Jamie Ip, Matt McTavish

QA Management: Chris Cleroux, Jahn Myklebust

QA: Chuck Boyle, Jeff Chong, Sam Kirvan, Michael Levesque, Sarah Mah

Game Directors: Jason Carr, Mike Inglehart

Technical Director: Tedd Streibel

Art Director: Eddie Visser

Audio Director: Chad York

Producers: Jared Johnson, Ken Yeeloy

Special Thanks: Audiokinetic, Inc., Jon Adkins (Technical Art), Albert Chau (Audio), Chris Cleroux (Design), Keith Hentschel (Programming), Bryce Holliday (Gameplay Direction), Kalvin Lyle (Art Direction), Reece Mills (Animation), Derek Stenning (Concept Art), Rob Sugama (Front End Art)

Additional Work: David Bokan, Steven Brekelmans, Jung Chan, Mike Vlad Cora, Mike Cline, David Catlin, Noam Chitayat, Ryan Kemp, Andrew Osborne, Jim Randall, Jonathan Soh, Cody Watson, Owen Wiggins, Rob Willock

Next Level Games

CEO: Douglas Tronsgard

President: Eric Randall

Studio General Manager: Edoardo de Martin

PR Coordinator: Pam Saunders

Office Manager: Megumi Asakawa

HR Coordinators: Karen Chan, Elisabeth Kleckner, Melodie Li

IT: Trevor Clark, Simon Roscoe

Receptionist: Jenny Thiessen

Nintendo

Executive Producer: Satoru Iwata

Producer: Kensuke Tanabe

Assistant Producer: Risa Tabata

Supervisors: Genyo Takeda, Shigeru Miyamoto

Coordination: Yuji Ichijo, Akiya Sakamoto

Coordination Assistant: Toshihiko Okamoto

Graphic Supervisors: Yusuke Nakano, Tsuyoshi Watanabe

Title Logo Art: Ryo Koizumi

Storyboard: Naoki Mori

Music of NES Punch-Out!!: Kenji Yamamoto

Technical Support: Hironobu Kakui, Takehiro Oyama

UI Supervisors: Miyako Nishio, Tomoko Ichikawa

Special Thanks: Makoto Wada, Takumi Kawagoe, Atsushi Watanabe, Tomoaki Kuroume, Digital Media Lab, Inc., Super Mario Club

Nintendo of America

Project Development: Todd Buechele

Business Development: Minoru Fukuda, Tom Prata

NOA Localization: Leslie Swan, Nate Bihldorff, Kevin Sullivan, Gema Almoguera, Joanie Grenader, Cesar Perez

NOA Marketing Support: Jeff Miller, Chiko Bird

NOA Product Testing: Masayasu Nakata, Kyle Hudson, Eric Bush, Sean Egan, Arnold A. Myers II, Pat Wells, Teresa Lillygren, Nicko Gonzalez de Santiago, Valeria Soares

Special Thanks: Mindy Bannan, Devon Pritchard

Nintendo of Europe

Additional Coordination: Jan Hennig, Jesús Ángel Rodríguez Gago

All rights, including the copyrights of Game, Scenario, Music and Program, reserved by NINTENDO.