edytwinky

I'm still rather hesitant on this game. Fortunately a buddy of mine is getting it so I can try it at his place first

fumanstan

Not surprising, I'm sure that something like this, like Mario Kart Wii and Smash Bros, is asking for better control and precision then the motion controls provide.

Larry C.

Yea me too. $39.99 is a good price.

whoopdido

Sorry if this has been discussed, but I just wanted to know if you are REQUIRED to use the nunchuck and actually box or can you just turn the controller and play it like old school Punch Out.

kstublen

You don't have to use the nunchuck. You can indeed turn it sideways and play it like oldschool Punch-Out.

taffer

Either way works.

It can be changed on the fly too. The two guys that played on the 1up video stream were constantly changing it when they switched because one of them preferred the motion controls and the other preferred the classic controls.

jiggawhat

Yea the motion controls are what make the Wii, but I'll reserve judgment. One thing I'm kind of surprised about is why they didn't incorporate the Motionplus, probably too late in development, but they were able to include balance board support so you really have to wonder.

whoopdido

Nice. I'll definitely pick it up then. I'm sure I'll give the motion thing a try, but I'm guessing I'll use the oldschool way more.

slop101

So:

- No career mode
- No training mode
- Only 13 fighters
- limited online play
- ineffective motion-controls

I'm sure it'll be fun, but it's a bummer that Nintendo half-assed this when it they could've made it so much more - probably because, as with most Wii games, it'll sell millions regardless of how much work they put into it.

taffer

Punch Out has kind of a career mode. It has always been "circuits." First you fight your way through the minors, the the majors, then the world. You can't really compare this to a real boxing game like Fight Night. They aren't even close to the same thing.

It has a training mode. You can pick a fighter you have fought and lost against, and fight a "ghost" version of it for training purposes. There is a video on IGN that shows this.

The NES game only had 11 fighters. It still took plenty of time to get through them all. Plus don't forget the Title Defense mode where you fight them all again. All of them become a heck of a lot tougher with new patterns and fighting skills. Even Glass Joe becomes a formidable foe. This effectively makes 26 fighters.

I'll give you that one. However, I think most people who truly want online play go for either the 360 or PS3.

I think some of the reviewers might be a little biased. They probably just didn't give it enough time to get used to the motion controls before switching to the classic controls that they have been familiar with over the past two decades. One of the guys on the 1up video said he preferred the motion controls and played all the way through with it. So I don't think it is a matter of the motion controls being ineffective... just that people aren't used to them so their is a learning curve.

Goldberg74

I told my wife about the price drop and she gave me the go ahead to order it [for my birthday] rather than go to BB.

fumanstan

I'd say it only takes about an hour to get through the NES game. By todays standards, I don't think that really counts as taking plenty of time to get through. Although I do agree that the replayability here in this one seems fine.

musick

on this topic I don't think there is any bias
the Wii motion controls are just not intuitive enough to respond to a game that requires split decision movement
I can't help but feeling more and more that the feature this system touts as making itself different from the others is still just a gimick that is almost never implemented to its intended effect.
This game could have been delayed until the new Wii motion hardware was compatible

Sony should make more noise about their motion controls as I find theirs to be just as reactive if not more than Nintendos

slop101

Coulda' sworn that the GT review said it didn't have one.

Out of 30 fighters from the history of Punch Out (not including new fighters) and 15 years since the last incarnation, having less than half of those fighters in this version is just disappointing, if not lazy.

And that's my main point, it Nintendo's perpetual laziness lately, born out of the fact that their games will sell regardless - I guess I'd do the same thing. Why put in extra effort when you're gonna sell the same huge number of units either way.

musick

And even though 13 fighters seems a little short, the fact that you'll face them at least a second time with completely different moves and strategies – and at a much faster speed – means that there's a good amount of gameplay here. And this isn't including the Exhibition Mode that challenges players with specific goals for each opponent to unlock additional content. Some of these challenges range from damn hard to freakishly difficult, and I can imagine the message boards are going to be set alight with people wondering how the heck to knock out Glass Joe in only five punches, or punch the crown right off of King Hippo's head.
- IGN

taffer

It certainly takes a lot more than an hour the first time through. It took me a whole weekend just to get past Mr Sandman in the NES game.

And all the reviews are saying Title Defense mode in the Wii game is as hard as if not harder than the NES game. Heck, many of the reviewers lost to Glass freaking Joe in Title Defense. Even if it only takes half an hour to figure out how to beat all the fighters in Title Defense mode, that is still 6.5 hours alone. That is standard for most games today.


The 1up guy did say he completed the all the regular fights and was working his way through Title Defense using only the motion controls. It may not be as easy as classic controls, but according to him it is still possible to play with motion controls.

I guess we can think of it this way:
classic controls: easy mode
motion controls: hard mode





The GT review wasn't really all that great in my opinion. He nitpicked about a lot of stuff. He also said he didn't want to spoil the final fight, but yet showed a lot of footage of it anyway...

There is definitely some kind of "ghost training" mode in the game.

musick

that still doesn't make the controls intuitive
motion control just to say it is in the game just doesn't cut it for me


I don't recall any spoiling or showing of the 13th fighter
I do recall the comments about the "ghost training"

taffer

The 13th fighter is

.

The GT review does show him three or four times. The GT review shows all 13 fighters.

The full roster is

Goldberg74

I thought the last fight (World Title) was with...

... and the unlockable character was...

taffer

Over on the neogaf forums, there are a couple people that already have the game and have been posting pics and videos. The roster list I showed is the real roster.

There are 13 fighters in standard mode. There is a rumor going around that there may be a 14th fighter that is unlocked after beating Title Defense, but no one has beaten it yet so it is just a rumor so far. All the professional reviews say there are 13 fighters only, so either there is no unlockable character or no one at all has beaten Title Defense yet.

freshticles

Hmmmm, might be a reason to dust off the Wii....we were talking about selling it today

Michael Corvin

The game may be getting stellar reviews, but I have to agree with this assessment. Regardless of length(Punch Out always had high replayability), we're essentially giving us a modernized port when they could have given us so much more. Why not give us all 30 fighters? Having 15 new people with new patterns to learn would have been a huge in addition to the classics.

taffer

But Title Defense mode does give all the fighters new patterns to learn. Just watch a Title Defense fight against Glass Joe. He now uses fake out punches and a few other different attacks. He is like a completely different character. While the 13 fighters in Title Defense may be the same characters in name, that is pretty much where it ends. They are very different when you start fighting them. So there are effectively 26 fighters in this game.

I don't think a lot of people actually remember Super Punch Out and are just going by nostalgia. Many of the fighters in that game had no personality. Mad Clown, Heike Kagero, Bob Charlie, Piston Hurricane, and so on were just lame. The original NES Punch Out had much more personality and was a better game overall. The Wii game likewise has fewer characters, but they are the best ones.

fumanstan

It isn't like they couldn't have came up with more new characters though

Brent L

I wish they had Gabby Jay in the game just so I could hear him go "YAY!" on the Wii.

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Oh man that cracks me up every single time I hear it.