[HowardC]

I got this game the first day it came out and I can't agree more about it being a must-have title. I honestly wonder why the half a pickle was taken off? What for? Being too awesome??

There are a few things that bother me though and since nobody is really saying anything negative I'll go ahead and bite the bullet for everyone else.

In no particular order:

1. The last character is Sandman. Historically speaking, sandman was indeed the boss character for the arcade version of punchout, but on the console versions we've always been treated to a special "bonus" character after him. This isn't a big deal except for point #2.

2. The last character is NOT Sandman. "Wha??" You say? Well the thing is, while Sandman's character and appearance is in tact, his moves are not. From what I can tell his new moves are a combination of Mike Tysons (or mister dream if you will) and the bruiser brothers from Super Punchout. Historically speaking I can see the change as Sandman is just a clever pallette swap of bald bull originally. (Seriously go back and check) The thing is, if you are gonna give him Mr. Dream's moves why not just have Dream as a character instead?

3. You can't navigate the menus without the wiimote. This isn't a big deal except when using the classic control scheme in which you have to turn your wiimote around constantly.

4. The "cut-scenes" are a tad on the cheap side. When fighting a boxer you get 4 still images of the character. They are beautifully drawn, but come on still images!!!?! The recent Wario platformer for the wii has spoiled me... I want fully animated cut-scenes. The "password" sequence from the original game has been re-vamped in fully-animated 3d cut-scenes with the famous "doc on a bike, mac in a pink sweat suit" element still in tact and it looks great. Until you get to the next circuit and you realize that you'll essentially be seeing this same damn video over and over.


Ending on a positive note, I'm suprised nobody mentioned the music!

They did a great job with it, keeping in tact both the old musical format of the original game and the newer character specific themes. You have the same three themes from the old game (main theme, retire theme, training theme) but they have been remixed for each individual opponent, taking their "ethnic flair" into account. Each boxer also has his own theme, usually the same theme given to them in their original games. Don Flamingo's is suprisingly still catchy after all these years!

So now that we have the very few negative things listed for you, go buy it NOW!!