The best boxing game for 16 year olds

Boxing games have been around since, and they were certainly the first games in arcades. Sega's Heavyweight Champion was... there really wasn't much strategy involved in these early titles. Other than dodging and punching, punching, punching.

Punch-Out and its revolution

It wasn't until Nintendo introduced this dual-screen masterpiece, Punch-Out, that we got not only excellent advanced graphics and gameplay, but also all the presentation and spectacle that accompanies a professional boxing event. What's the real reason two monitors were used in the arcade version?.

The year was 1983, and LaserDisc games were all the rage in the arcade community. Nintendo didn't want to take on the heavy maintenance burden associated with LaserDisc technology, but realized it needed to offer impressive graphics to compete with emerging products. They began researching sprite scaling and rotation and discovered they could do so, but only with one sprite at a time. Another issue was a stock issue following the sales failure of the arcade smash hit Donkey Kong. They realized they had a surplus of monitors after their attempt at creating a side-by-side racing game. Inspiration struck, as the boxer only has one opponent, which was perfect for the hardware being developed. The second screen would be used for all the shows.

The game's uniqueness can be attributed to two key members of the team: game designer Gallo Takata and craftsman Saguru Miyamoto. Mr. Takata thought the game needed to be tailored to the Western market, given that boxing was centered in America and the arcade scene was huge there. His other major contribution was a realistic control scheme with real boxing gloves, similar to the one Sega used in the arcade title Heavyweight Champion. Interestingly, Mr. Miyamoto intervened and said that a standard joystick would work better than motion controls. Eventually, Mr. Miyamoto scaled down the Nintendo Wii. The game ended up being sold with three fire buttons and one joystick. The original designs for the quirky cast of characters are Mr. Miyamoto's work. He had to fill giant pixel images onto huge pieces of graph paper and then send them to the animation department. If you look closely, you can spot Mario and Donkey Kong in the crowd.

Super Punch-Out (Arcade)

Later that year, Super Punch-Out was released in arcades. It was essentially the same game, only with an updated cast of challengers. One big difference is the addition of a linear duck: if you pull back on the joystick, you'll try to dodge your opponent's punch. While the first game featured a fairly straightforward roster of standard boxers you had to fight, Super Punch-Out introduced the concept of wacky and wild challengers. For example, Canadian Bear Hugger is a Canadian lumberjack with a bushy beard and overalls. Dragon Chan is a Hong Kong martial artist, based on Bruce Lee, who has a flying kick as a special move. The further the series progressed, the wackier the boxers became.

With Nintendo abandoning the arcade system and moving to the home market, it was decided to introduce punch-out to every home from the start. It was obvious that they couldn't make a direct arcade conversion due to the NES's less powerful hardware, so instead they tried to draw two large sprites on the screen. They opted to draw only the large Challenger and make his character small. They felt it was more satisfying to see a small guy knock out a big one, and I think they were right. That's where the name Little Mac came from. Several changes were added to the game to give it more depth. The game is now divided into three rounds instead of one. The KO bar was removed, and uppercuts were earned by blocking the opponent's punches and countering. Heavy hitting was discouraged, as each missed or blocked punch would drain hearts. If the heart meter dropped to zero, a little back would tire and be unable to hit. To circumvent a brief period as the game expanded to the home market, several new boxers were created. Some were incorporated into Super Punch-Out, including Super Macho Man, Great Tiger, and Vodka, and a drunken Ski, who was renamed Soda Pop in Ski. You were also assigned a trainer between rounds named Dr. Oz. After witnessing the events of the first two Punch-Out matches, Mario decided to get his referee's license and became part of the show. Speaking of Doc Louis, after retiring from professional boxing, he decided to change course and become a top-notch newspaper salesman at Dunder-Mifflin.

Super Punch-Out (SNES)

The next step in the Punch-Out franchise was Super Punch-Out for the Super Nintendo console. Thanks to the Super Nintendo's more powerful hardware, Little Mac became a medium-sized man with a larger sprite set. The hearts and stars from the NES version were gone, but the KO meter was back. The graphics and animation are excellent, with bright, vibrant colors, making this one without a doubt one of my favorite games in the series. With the largest roster of contenders, a total of 16 Little Macs or medium-sized Macs, three lives were given per course, and after completing each course, the game is saved.

Well, that's all. I hope you like this post as much as I did.