Punch Out!! is a real hit, in all the right places.
You play as Little Mac, a New York City born boxer full of determination and hard work under his belt. He wishes to one day win the WVBA Boxing Championship. You play as him as he progress's through the tournament by each circuit.
Doing this will not be easy. You will have to Punch your way through mammoth sized boxers from around the world, each with their own unique ways of clobbering you.
This game is pure fun at the heart, with the standard career mode allowing you to go through the circuits once, winning the championship belt, then going through it all over again to defend your title.
The game plays using three methods, The Wii Mote and Nunchuk method, which is preferred. You simply swing your arms as if you were boxing.
Loads of fun for all, however, at some points the cord in between the two controllers may tangle your arms up.
The second is the wii mote flipped over. This acts much more simple, you flip over the wii mote on its side, and play it like a SNES controller, similar to the early version of the game.
However, the last method is the least preferred, the Wii Balance Board. While punching with the Wii Mote and Nunchuk, you dodge by stepping left or right off and one the board. Sadly this method is horribly unresponsive, and makes a great game frustrating.
Going through all of the opponents in career mode is challenging, addicting, and fun. And if you ever want to face them down again, then there is exhibtion mode sitting there waiting for you.
There is also multiplayer, where you and a friend can battle it out as two Little Mac's to see who reigns supreme. Multiplayer might be fun, but being only able to play as two little macs may feel like a missed opportunity.
Punch Out!! uses its own unique style of art, that looks almost similar to that of a cartoon. The blocky artistic make everything fun to look at, and really brings out the characters vivid atitudes.
If you ever want to win at this game, you are going to have to utilize the Wii much differentley. Dodging, countering, or even trying to land a hit requires you to build lightning fast reflexs, so be ready.
Once you make it through the 3 circuits, Mac will win the championship belt. But it is nowhere near over, because now you have to go through title defense mode.
It is now your duty to protect the belt from all the players all over again, but this time, they all have new strategies. It will be a lot of fun seeing all your old foes again with their new attack schemes, but it will be even more fun taking them down!
Punch Out!!'s main problem aside from the Wii Balance Board, is the difficulty.
The game can get mighty frustrating when going through, yet also tempting. So please no matter how hard you try, throwing the wii mote at your tv won't help.
Another problem is that the characters all speak different languages, and it feels weird they didn't come with subtitles.
Overall, Punch Out!! is Wii Boxing at its best, and anyone who wasn't checked it out yet is missing out.
2+2=SCORING PORTION
Graphics: 9/10: Aside from one or two quicks, the artistic design is wonderful, and makes all the characters come alive.
Dynamics: 7/10: Punch Out has wonderful control, except of course the Wii Balence Board, and multiplayer only has Little Macs to fight with.
Characters: 9/10: Each and every opponent is funny, zany, crazy, messed up, or just plain scary. What ever you call them, they're all just perfect. However they don't have subtitles for their text at all.
Gameplay: 8/10: Long and fufilling. Except with a few multiplayer quirks.
Difficulty: 8/10: Frustrating, but always keeping you wanting to play!
Overall: 41/50 = 9/10 = "A Real Hit!"
Knock him out baby, knock him out!
-Blazekick2