The ESRB have gotten their hands on the upcoming Punch-Out!! game for the Wii, and, aside from revealing that the game’s suitable for Everyone over the age of 10, have let slip a few gameplay details that should get your nostalgia meters racing.
“This is a boxing game in which players compete in boxing matches against a cast of colorful, fictional characters,” the ESRB wrote on their Rating Information page for Punch-Out!! on Wii. That’s basically Punch-Out!! in a nutshell, sure, but what else? “While players can use standard boxing moves (jabs, hooks, uppercuts), most fights are performed in a comical fashion with an assortment of “dizzy stars,” “cartoony” sound effects, and slapstick signature moves (e.g., growling, dropping shorts, conking oneself on the head, twirling, etc.),” they continued.
That essentially sounds like a point-by-point throwback to the original game, though I have to wonder if by “dizzy stars’ the ESRB means that when a boxer gets knocked down they have stars swirling around their head or if they’re referring to the stars you score every time you land a good punch, which can then be traded for an uppercut later on.
Other details revealed by the ESRB seem to suggest that the main difference between the original game and the new one, is, as you’d expect, added visual flair. “Boxers’ faces show lumps and bruises after taking damage, and some knockouts are depicted in slow motion as players are sent flying across the canvas,” the description reads. “One character flexes his pectoral and glute muscles prior to a fight, while another boxer belches during a cutscene.”
So there you go NES nostalgia gluttons – it seems like you’ll be getting almost the same game you played all those years ago, obviously without Mike “Mr. Dream” Tyson, though. Hopefully we can probably rest assured it won’t be as racist, though I do recall seeing croissants flying in the background after glass-jawed Frenchman Glass Joe got knocked out in the trailer.
[Via CVG]
