ILX Plays: Mike Tyson's Punchout for the NES

I agree with AB. This is nearly a perfect NES game, there's something so satisfying about it and it manages to be super addictive despite its difficulty. I say 'almost' because Tyson was just way way too hard. I remember being so thrilled being able to finally beat Great Tiger and Bald Bull and then get absolutely destroyed by Iron Mike. I never got close to beating him.

it is so much work just to get there. how can you ever figure it out?

this may be the game/thread that convinces me to get a better usb controller

also I think Von Kaiser's head bobbing around as he descends the ring is probably the funniest thing in any NES game

i got to the Great Tiger on my first quarter. I think I lost because I couldn't remember how to use the stars? How do you use them again?

start button i think? very non-intuitive since it so quickly became strictly the pause or inventory screen button in like 95% of games. not that the two middle buttons would have ever really have been much use in non-secondary roles - too hard to move your thumbs over there - but it's interesting to think that if they'd just laid out the controller hardware differently this could have been a real four-button system. wonder what that would have done for game design.

not that having six 'active' buttons turns every super NES game into a rich, complex super-game, but it does open up some possibilities. definitely would have freed you up from soooooooo many now-forgotten titles with frankly bizarre button combinations to accomplish basic things (down + B to climb ladders or whatever).