The original Punch-Out for the NES is still one of those gaming memories that I still look on fondly, regardless of the fact that – even to this day – I've never been able to beat Soda Popinski and that mocking laugh. Along comes Punch-Out for the Wii to bring back all those memories of nostalgia in this re-imagining of the original. It's got all of the characters you love to hate, but is this a game you'll universally love?

King Hippo

Punch-Out for the Wii comes with three different control schemes: Balance Board, nunchuk/remote, or the remote. The Balance Board is the iffiest of the controls, because since the game requires such quick movements, needing your body to register to move or duck can be too much and cost you a match. The nunchuk/remote controls work better, but they're tiring during long gaming sessions and still there's a bit of lag time it seems from your brain to telling your hands to shake and press the right buttons. Instead, the old school controls are the best, in which you turn the remote to the side and play it like an old NES controller. You'll use the direction pad to move left, right, block up, and duck, while you'll use the 1 and 2 buttons for left and right jabs. The only other controls come from using the A-button to perform a Star punch.

If you've played a Punch-Out game before, you'll know exactly how the Wii's new Punch-Out plays. You play as Little Mac, a scrawny boxer, who with the help of his trainer hopes to rise through the ranks in order to become the greatest boxer in the world. You start in the amateur circuit, battling boxers like Glass Joe, who take almost no skill at all to quickly dispatch. In fact, a lot of Punch-Out's early opponents are laughably easy, and you'll start wondering where the insane difficulty from the past games has gone. There will come a point in time, however, when you'll lose once, maybe twice, but then you'll move on again. There will also come a time sometime after that when you'll be stuck trying a guy so many times you start dreaming of them…that's how frustrating Punch-Out becomes.

It's important to note that Punch-Out is by no means a sports game; in fact I don't even know how you would classify the game. Unlike other boxing games where there is no set pattern and everything is on the fly, Punch-Out is about one thing and one thing only – memorization. Basically, Punch-Out is like a game of Simon, though instead of Red Blue Blue Red the game's combo is Wink Punch, Right Jab, Right Jab, Wink Punch. In Punch-Out you don't want to press the fight except for a few characters, but instead you'll want to hang back, let your opponent make the first move, and then counter by taking the fight to them. Take Mr. Sandman, for example, who will give you a wink; it's a minor thing to notice, but it's a signal that he's going to throw a punch from the side of the winking eye. Great Tiger has a jewel on his head, which will flash specific colors, indicating what type of punch he'll throw. Learning the patterns is the only way you'll win since they use the same pattern every time you play, which means the game is a lot of trial and error gameplay.

Knockout Punch

Beyond learning your opponent's set pattern, knowing how to get Star punches is another key to victory. By attacking during specific taunts (the opponent will usually have a quick gold glimmer over their body) or other key moments like during a special punch (they'll usually flash red), you'll earn yourself a Star that you can unleash for a super punch, either taking away a lot of the enemy's hit bar, or using near the end to hopefully give yourself a chance at a KO. You can keep building up your Star meter until you have three in your possession, where each additional Star helps make the punch more powerful. The only downside to the Stars is that if you get hit while holding one, you'll instantly lose them.

When it comes to the Punch-Out franchise, one area where the game has always suffered is in the replayability section. Punch-Out for the Wii does a good job at giving you a little more bang for your buck, but it still doesn't feel like enough. There are around 14 characters of which only one is completely new: Disco Kid. Instead, everyone you fight will be familiar opponents from both the NES and SNES games. It's great from a nostalgia factor, but it keeps the game from feeling truly new and fresh; a lot of the characters even use the same tactics as the first time they appeared in the series. While there are only about 14 characters, once you beat them you'll then have to defend your title from them, and each character now has a different pattern, making it like fighting a new character instead of playing someone for the second time in a row. The title defense characters are usually built around their weakness, such as Glass Joe wearing a boxer helmet to protect his head, while King Hippo now sports a manhole over his belly button. It's nice the characters don't play the same the second time around, and though you'll get the most satisfaction from these fights, I'd rather have had 14 brand new characters instead of the same ones though tweaked.

The game is far from perfect, despite the fact I had some fun. For instance, the game is extremely short, but only manages to pad its length by the frustrating gameplay. If you knew every character by heart and didn't need to study them through losing over and over, you'd probably be able to beat the game in under an hour (under two at the max). The problem is that you won't beat everyone on the first try, and so you'll have to try over and over again, until you're bored seeing the same character so often in a row. The only plus is that the frustration factor isn't too high, but mainly because it doesn't feel unfair, since the only reason you're losing is because you just aren't good enough yet.

Glass Joe

Besides the Career Mode, players can also train to help takedown those tough to beat opponents, partake in the Exhibition Mode to complete tough challenges (don't dodge at all, for example) and earn special unlocks, or go head-to-head with a buddy sitting beside you. The multiplayer is quirky enough for a few fights, but I can't see anyone sticking with it for too long since it's not that in-depth and having only one character is pretty boring. In the game's multiplayer, players play as Little Mac on their side of the split-screen, dodging and punching like always. If you counter enough, however, you'll pump yourself up, allowing you to turn into a Hulk-like version of Mac, which lets you become real powerful for as long as you can maintain the special mode.

In terms of the game's technical aspects, Punch-Out is both a pretty good looking game and sounds well too. The graphics are cartoony and semi-cel-shaded, and while there are some tearing issues on the outlines of the characters, otherwise they look excellent and really help add some extra personality to these over-the-top character. The game's opponents also have some great animations, as nobody punches exactly the same, so there aren't any canned animations that stretch across the bulk of the game. The vocals of the game work, but not having subtitles for the foreign characters is a bit weird; I wanted to know what they were saying about me between rounds, and not giving the option is a failure in my book. I love the fact that a lot of the music from the first game is recycled here, but sometimes (like the training montage song) it's too different and doesn't sound like much besides a garbled heavy metal track.

In some aspects, Punch-Out is a great game. When the game works it works great, but rarely did I find that sweet spot where the game fired on all cylinders for me, as I was more often than not left getting tired of the same old tricks, same old attack patterns, and same old characters. It's also a game that I can't see myself breaking out of its case often, as I've beat the career mode now, the challenge mode doesn't interest me, and now I'm left with really nothing to do to keep me playing the game. Punch-Out is the definition of a great rental game, though diehard fans will want to own it. I have a feeling, however, most fans will finish it and then rarely play it again.

Score