is a boxing video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). It was released on October 24, 1994 in North America and again in the same region in 1996. It was released in the United Kingdom on February 10, 1995 for the same console and in Japan in 1998 for the Super Famicom through the Nintendo Power flash RAM cartridge series. The game is also included in the GameCube version of Fight Night Round 2 as an extra game due to the inclusion of Little Mac in the game. The game was released for the Wii's Virtual Console in Europe on March 20, 2009, in North America on March 30, 2009, and in Japan on July 7, 2009. The game was also released on the New Nintendo 3DS eShop on May 5, 2016. Nintendo re-released Super Punch-Out!! in the United States in September 2017 as part of the company's Super NES Classic Edition. It is the fourth game in the Punch-Out!! series, taking place after the Punch-Out!! game for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).

In Super Punch-Out!! the player controls a boxer as he fights his way to become the World Video Boxing Association champion. Players, fighting from a "behind the back" perspective, must knockout their opponent in three minutes to win. Players can launch jabs, hooks, and uppercuts against their opponents as well as block, dodge, and duck opponents' attacks. Nintendo Integrated Research and Development, led by Genyo Takeda, Minoru Arakawa and Makoto Wada, developed the game. It also featured voice acting by Mike Shapiro and Charles Martinet.

The game received praise from reviewers for its cartoon-like style, its colorful, outlandish opponents, simple gameplay controls, and replay value. The game also featured colorful, detailed graphics, which included the usage of transparency that facilitates the game's "behind the back" perspective. Other reviewers had said that this game lacked the overall appeal, gameplay, or audience of its predecessor.

Gameplay

The gameplay in Super Punch-Out!! is more similar to that of its arcade and NES predecessors. The player controls a nameable boxer as he fights his way to become W.V.B.A. Champion. The player controls the boxer from a third-person perspective, with him being translucent on the screen, similar to the wireframe avatar used in the arcade game. Players can attack their opponents with jabs to the face or with body blows from either hand. The opponent can deflect punches, so players must aim at the opponent's open spot (where the gloves are not) to connect. Depending on the opponents' stances, they will guard themselves differently, so players need to use the correct punches.

As in the first two arcade games of the series, players have a power meter, located on the bottom of the screen. When the power meter fills up completely, the player will be able to launch knockout punches such as uppercuts, hooks, and rapid punches. These punches have a slight delay in execution, but they cause more damage to the opponent. They can also block attacks to either the head or the body, The player can also recover some stamina while the opponent is down by pressing the buttons on the controller. The game has a battery–backed memory in which players can save their data and records for future play.

Development and release

Super Punch-Out!! is the fourth game in the Punch-Out!! series and was developed by Nintendo Integrated Research and Development and was produced by Minoru Arakawa, Genyo Takeda and Makoto Wada. Mike Shapiro and Charles Martinet provided the voices of the boxers, the referee and the announcer. Nintendo IRD was developing this game simultaneously with Zoda's Revenge: StarTropics II. The game is the closest arcade-to-home console translation of the Punch-Out!! and Super Punch-Out!! arcades; however, like the NES titles, the Super NES title is not a direct port. Shortly before the game was finished and released, some screenshots and video footage of the prototype were shown in a video preview of the game, as well as in an issue of Nintendo Power magazine and two official television commercials, which all showed the protagonist of the game with a different look as well as the announcer having a different voice compared to the ones in the final version seen in the finished and released version. The game had a marketing budget of $3.5 million.

Super Punch-Out!! was released in North America October 1994 and in Europe on . It was rereleased in North America in 1996, and it was released in Japan as part of the Nintendo Power service on March 1, 1998, which allowed users to download the game unto a rewriteable flash RAM cartridge via a kiosk. In addition, Electronic Arts included the game as an unlockable bonus item along with its protagonist as an unlockable boxer in the GameCube version of Fight Night Round 2 as part of Nintendo's deal of featuring Nintendo characters in the GameCube versions of some EA Sports titles. The game was later released for the Wii's Virtual Console service in Europe and Australia on , in North America on and in Japan on . In 2016, the game was re-released via the New Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console. It was later added to the Nintendo Classics library on December 12, 2019.

Reception

| Fam = 26/40

| GI = 8.75/10

| GamePro = 18.5/20

| IGN = 8/10

| rev2 = Game Players

| rev2Score = 90%

Several reviewers praised Super Punch-Out!! overall for not trying to be realistic, for the originality of its different opponents, and for its simple controls. Chris Scullion from Official Nintendo Magazine praises the game for its outlandish characters, addictive gameplay, and simple controls. He adds that Super Punch-Out!! is "superb way to prepare for the upcoming [[Punch-Out!! (Wii)|Wii [Punch-Out!!] title]]". Scullion states that "the thing that makes Super Punch-Out!! interesting (along with the rest of the games in the series) is that it's not a realistic boxing game". He adds that the opponents in the game are "the real stars of the show", with each opponent having a unique personality, traits, and boxing styles. Game Players magazine applauded the game's "large, colorful graphics and easy-to-learn controls". In 1997, Electronic Gaming Monthly ranked it the 56th best console video game of all time, explaining the decision to include it instead of Punch-Out!!: "The NES version is great, but the Super NES one is even better, with large, well-animated characters, great control and a near-perfect learning curve." In 2011, IGN ranked the game 17th on its list of top 100 SNES games of all time. In 2018, Complex rated the game number 18 on its "The Best Super Nintendo Games of All Time" list.

Notes

References

  • Official website (Translated using Excite.Co.Jp)