Pixelnauts.net

There are a number of games that adhere to a specific formula so closely that removing any single aspect of the game would produce an entirely different product. Take Tetris for example. That game is pushing thirty years old yet, (despite a few experimental variants here and there) the original format remains so incredibly successful that to this day, rereleases and clones are quite common. Nintendo's Punch Out!! series is the same way. And so, after a 15 year hiatus, Nintendo has just released the third installment in the Punch Out!! series, this time for the Wii. And like Tetris, it's essentially the same game that players popped into their NES just over twenty years ago.

Incidentally, the release of titles like this one make my job much more difficult. The question that I struggle with is whether I am reviewing a game formula, originally developed in 1987, or whether I'm reviewing the game on it's own merits as it exists today. Obviously, I have to review today's product, but in the case of Punch Out!! separating the two isn't so simple. This is what it comes down to: On the one hand, if you liked the original, you will probably enjoy this newer, prettier model. On the other hand, as a reviewer, I have a hard time recommending a game that costs fifty dollars when you can essentially get it for five on the Virtual Console.

But I suppose that all of this really doesn't matter. The bottom line is whether or not Punch Out!! for the Wii is fun and whether or not there is enough there to keep you coming back for more. Well, unlike Tetris' fluid and dynamic puzzle mechanics, Punch Out!! is all about pattern recognition and fast fingers. And, just as in the original, once you figure out the patterns, there isn't much reason to come back - other than to best your previous time. This is true despite the two significant changes that Nintendo included in this installment: a vertical split screen multiplayer mode and a new 'Title Defense Mode.'

The multiplayer is shallow at best. With no competitive online mode, stat tracking, or even the choice of which contender to play as (both players must fight as 'Little Mac,' one with black hair, the other with brown), the fun will last for about 15 minutes (or three or four fights) before becoming stale. In short, this mode does not have the Wii Sports party friendly quality that the system is predicated upon.

Unlike the multiplayer however, 'Title Defense Mode' does offer a little more meat by essentially doubling the size of the game. This mode unlocks after defeating all sixteen of the game's opponents in standard career mode. The purpose (as the name implies) is to defend your newly won title against the same sixteen recently bested opponents - who now come complete with new (and much more difficult) patterns to learn. This does give the game a much needed sense of variety, though part of me wonders if it wouldn't have been more effective if Nintendo had simply increased the character roster to include more variety in the fighters rather than recycling the same sixteen (which by the way, with the exception two new characters, are all veterans from the previous two games).