Simply one of the most entertaining and unforgetable gaming experiences of all-time.
Gameplay: This is a first person boxing game, more animated than realistic. The game uses a p****word system which is a nice feature. Your character is Little Mac, and his trusty trainer helps you train for fights and also recover in between rounds if you know the trick. Anyway you are at the bottom of the screen and your opponent is at the top facing you. It's pretty simple - you can either do jabs to the face or body shots, with both hands of course. Also you can dodge to either side and also block or cover-up. That's it other than the power puches. Anytime you get a star during the bout you will be able to use a power punch unless you get hit first. Wait until your opponent is dazed from a punch and then hit select. Sometimes it will knock them out for good. 10/10.
Graphics: For one of the older NES games I'd say the graphics are very good. Some early 8-bit games like Bubble Bobble or Kid Icarus had pretty weak graphics, but Mike Tyson's Punch-Out has large polished sprites, with cool animations and even great facial expressions during rounds. 10/10.
Audio: It's probably just because I played it so much but some of the tunes in this game are permanently etched in my long term memory banks. Especially the tune when you p**** an entire circuit, and it shows you running in your pink sweat suit with the coach training you in between fights. Maybe it didn't have EPIC music, but it still adds to the appeal of the game for sure. Also the sound effects are very solid - like the wind-up for a power punch, or knocking your opponent to the mat for example. 9/10.
Controls: The controls are very simple, easy to understand and execute. Puching and dodging are extremely responsive, and it's a good thing they are becasue you'll need every mili-second to defeat Mike Tyson. 10/10.
Difficulty: The game itself is not hard to get the hang of. That being said there's some opponents on the game that will certainly give you a hard time, sending you flopping back to your corner time and time again. Especially Mr. Sandman, Macho Man, and Kid Dynamite himself. (Macho Man is almost as hard as Mike Tyson if not even more difficult IMO.) However, the feeling of overcoming the opponent and knocking his **** out is very, very rewarding.
Replay: This is the only part of the game that suffers. The only character is Little Mac, and once you've beaten Tyson there is not much left to achieve. I don't think there's any difficulty options, so when you're done you're done. 6/10.
Overall: This game is an early Nintendo sporting masterpiece, no doubt about it. The characters are very unique and extremely fun to fight. King Hippo and Soda Popinski are unforgetable. Still to this day I've never played a more entertaining boxing game (Fight Night Round 1 was close though.) 9.5/10. Probably one of the greatest games I've ever played.