If you were a part of the NES generation, there’s no doubt you’re a fan of Mike Tyson’s Punch Out!! The colorful boxing game featured a wide array of humorous characters, from King Hippo to Great Tiger. If you were talented enough to make it to the end to the championship match, you’d have the honor of getting KO’d by Mike Tyson in the first round.
Because the NES was my first console, I missed out on the original Punch-Out!! arcade game which came out in 1983. Though it didn’t include Tyson (or any other actual boxers), it did have early versions of many other familiar fighters from the series. This includes perennial loser Glass Joe and heavyweight hitters like Bald Bull and Mr. Sandman.
Now, it’s looking like I’ll finally get my chance to check the arcade classic out for myself. Polygon reports that a port of the game is coming to the Nintendo Switch as part of their Arcade Archives line. It’s going to be nice to be able to check this game out for the first time without dumping in a bunch of quarters. I’m sure I’m going to wind up on the mat a lot if the difficulty of the NES game is any indication.
The original Punch-Out!! arcade uses two monitors. To compensate, players can decide for themselves how to display the dual screens. They can be shown together either vertically or horizontally, depending on the preference of the player. Though the original arcade is set up vertically, I’m thinking a horizontal display will work better for these newfangled widescreen TVs we all seem to have these days.
The Japanese version will be available on March 30th, though the release date for the North American version hasn’t yet been revealed. An official date will likely be coming soon.
