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Mar 4th, 2014 at 22:21:57 - Super Punch-Out (SNES) |
Game Summary:
Super Punch-Out!! is a single player boxing video game released on the SNES in 1994 in North America. This is the fourth game of the series. You play the character named Little Mac and your goal is to knock out all your opponents and eventually defeat Super Macho Man to win the game. There are two modes to the game, Championship Mode and Time Attack Mode. In the championship mode you go through the three circuits: minor, major, and world circuits. Then, if you complete those you get access to a special circuit with more opponents. For each circuit you complete you get access to a the time attack mode and can fight each opponent individually.
Move set:
The player has a very limited move set. You can throw left and right jabs to the body or you can press up and the jab buttons to punch the opponent in the head. You also have a super meter at the bottom of the screen that will fill up as you hit the opponent without taking hits. Once it fills up you can do one of two super moves. You can hold your super button and you'll do one slow hard hitting punch or you can rapidly hit the super button and do a series of fast punches. The player is also capable of dodging attacks. You can dodge to the left, right, or back. You can also hold forward and your character will block and can absorb some attacks.
Terminology:
Knockout When you knock an opponent down, the referree in the ring will start to count to 10. If they reach 10 before the opponent can get back onto their feet, the player that knocked them down is declared the winner and is issued a knockout.
TKO Technical Knockout Each fight contains three rounds. If the player or the opponent gets knocked down three times, they are automatically eliminated and the player who knocked down that opponent is declared the winner.
Stamina Bar The player has a stamina bar and if it is emptied the player is knocked down.
Gameplay:
The gameplay is very simple. You have to try to dodge as many moves of the opponent as possible and retaliate. The player and the opponent has a stamina bar and once it is empty, the player or opponent is knocked down. Little Mac does very small damage in comparison to most of the opponents. Most of the early opponents have fixed patterns that they follow and if you play it enough you will eventually get used to their patterns. Some of the opponents even give you signs that they are about to use a specific attack by moving back and forth or shuffling their feet. As the game progresses and you reach further opponents, their combinations of attacks seem to become more random and harder to telegraph. The challenge in the game is these combinations of moves and you will notice the harder opponents has more patterns making it harder to predict which combo they will use next. As you deal damage to your opponent your special meter will rise and you can use special moves when it maxes out, but if you take damage it drops. The special moves hit hard in comparison to his weaker moves and is the best method of getting early knockouts. Each round has a 3 minute time limit and the time stops when an opponent goes down. The player loses if they cannot knockout the opponent in the time limit. If the player is defeated he can have a rematch but he only has 4 continues. After those are gone the player has to start the circuit over. Also, when the player knocks down the opponent, they can spam buttons while the referee is counting to regain some health.
Affordances:
The player has 4 continues.
The player has the ability to attack and dodge attacks.
The player can regain health when the opponent is knocked down.
The player can use a special attack if the special meter is full.
Limitations:
There is a 3 minute time limit to defeat the opponent.
The player's attacks are weaker than the opponent's attacks.
The player has a limited amount of stamina.
Scoring:
At the end of the round, points are given for different types of punches thrown, types of knockdowns (with and without a super punch), remaining stamina, remaining time, and more points if the player did not have to have a rematch. The player chooses a name when they start the game and their best times are recorded to compete with other players.
First Play Session:
I made it through the minor circuit during the first play session. I did not have much trouble with these opponents since I had played the game before. This is a summary of each round.
Minor Circuit:
Gabby Jay: 1-0 Knockout 2nd round
He is really easy to beat. He attacks very slowly and his tells are easy to notice. You can pretty much just spam a punch button to beat him.
Bear Hugger: 2-0 TKO
You can't hit him in the gut. He is a large character and he shrugs off body shots. He taunts you until you attack him in the head. He will block it and then immediately counterattack. You have to dodge back and then you can finally retaliate on him.
Piston Hurricane: 3-0 TKO
He has a very hard to stop combo where he runs to the side and then runs in and does a barrage of punches. If you punch him in the stomach when he first lunges from you after he backs away you can get an auto knockdown but the timing has to be perfect. If you don't you will be forced to try to block his assault but I have never been successful and usually get knocked down if I don't stop him before he starts.
Bald Bull: 4-0 TKO
He has a charge move that will one shot you. Similar to Piston you have to time a stomach punch and if you miss you will get knocked out. He also has 2 other combos where he will do either a series of uppercuts or jabs followed by an uppercut. He has some tells that will allow you to differentiate them by whether he wiggles his head or shuffles his feet. During the 3rd round he will charge you immediately.
Second Play Session:
This session was more difficult as the fights ramped up. The only exception was the third opponent in the round felt out of place. Here is the summary of the Major Circuit.
Major Circuit:
Bob Charlie: 5-0 TKO (Bob Marley)
Like previous opponents he has several special moves. One he will jump back and come spinning at you and if hits you one hit knockdown and you can stomach punch to knock him down. He also has a phase where he shifts left and right quickly to confuse you leading into an uppercut. During the second round he will juke all over the place and is very difficult to hit.
Dragon Chan: 6-0 TKO (Bruce Lee)
Difficulty is really ramping up in this round. The timing feels a bit different and this opponent actually defies rules of boxing. He jumps off the ropes and will kick you in the head and it's a one hit knockdown. He also can heal himself. The players damage is very small compared to the damage the opponents are dealing so you have to dodge most all of the attacks. He actually only has 3 or 4 attacks but they are tricky to avoid.
Masked Muscle: 7-0 TKO
I felt this opponent was easier than the one before and should have had the order changed or made more difficult. He will spit in your eyes. If you don't avoid it you temporarily cannot attack him and he is a hard to see silhouette and you have to just try to dodge his attacks until it wears off. I found his combos to be pretty slow and easy to avoid for the most part.
Mr. Sandman: 7-4 (Did not defeat)
The difficulty went through the roof for me on this fight. His combos are more random and the timing is hard to judge. He also does this foot shuffle really quickly and makes the player instinctively dodge but it is timed where you will dodge and come back into an uppercut. This was much more difficult than the previous fighters. He deals a lot of damage per hit compared to the player.
Thoughts About the Game:
The game is fun to play but the curve on the difficulty was not perfect. It started out simple enough that anyone could beat the first opponent and slowly ramped up but then took a giant leap with Mr. Sandman. I did not even make it to the world circuit in this play through. The challenge to the game lies in learning and studying the patterns and that works very well for this type of game. The developers were able to control the fights and make it more challenging by changing the timings between fighters and giving them different and more interesting patterns. With Mr. Sandman, they added too much of both changes to make it very accessible. I still had a lot of fun and with more time believe I would eventually defeat him.
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Feb 9th, 2014 at 21:54:29 - Aggravation (Other) |
Game Summary:
This is a Milton Bradley board game for 2-6 players ages 6 and up. The object of the game is to get all of your marbles around the board back to home before the other players can. You can all play nice or play dirty. If you land on another player's marble you get to send it back to base. The game ends whenever the first player gets all 4 marbles home and that player wins.
Game Pieces:
Game board with holes to hold the marbles
5 Marbles of 6 colors (Only 4 marbles of each color are used in the game)
One six-sided dice
Terminology:
Base These are the 4 starter locations for your marbles.
Home These are the 4 locations you need to get your marbles to win.
Aggravation When a player lands on another players marble and sends it back home.
Star Hole Shortcut Around the center of the board are 6 holes that if you land in them you can get around the board more quickly.
Center Hole Shortcut This is a special shortcut in the center of the board. If you roll an exact number you can land here and skip to any star hole if you exit it. To leave the center you must roll a 1.
Gameplay:
Each player starts with their four marbles in their base. Each player rolls to see who goes first. High roll wins and play goes clockwise. To get out of the base you must roll either a 1 or 6 and your marble goes to the start position. If you roll a 6 you can roll again. Your marbles can jump over or land on top of enemy marbles but you cannot go jump passed your own marbles. You also cannot get another marble out of the base if another one of your marbles is in the start spot. If you land on top of an enemy marble you will send them back to their base. To get into the Star Hole Shortcut or Center Hole Shortcut you have to roll an exact number to move into those spots. If you are in the Star Hole Shortcut you can go around to the different stars until you get back to your row. If you don't land on one of the shortcuts exactly you have to go around the home of each of the opponents bases. To exit the Center Hole Shortcut you must roll a 1 but you can go to any of the Star Holes. Once your marbles get close to being Home you have to roll exact numbers to fill up the home slots. If you roll a higher number than moves available then you are blocked and have to pass the turn. Once a player has all their marbles into Home they win the game.
In House Rule:
If you roll 3 6's in a row you have to send a ball back home. This is just a rule we've always had in case someone gets too lucky.
Affordances:
You have the Star Circle in the middle which you can use as a shortcut.
You can use your power to send another player's marbles back home.
You get a free roll if you roll a 6.
Limitations:
You cannot jump over your own marbles.
You cannot leave your base without a roll of a 1 or 6.
First Play Session:
I was playing with 3 family members who all had played before but it had just been a long time since we played. It was my mother, aunt, step-dad and myself. We decided we were going to play two games. One that we would play nice and one more dirty. This game is very luck based with the dice. It took a couple turns for anyone to get out and the other three players including me were stuck. The first player to get out was my step-dad. He nearly had a marble home before I got out. My step-dad got a marble into the center star. My aunt was stuck for a long time with bad rolls and couldn't get started. We all had several opportunities to send each other's marbles back but noone wanted to do it this game unless we had no other option. This game was not that close because my step-dad got most of his marbles home before others could get out. The game can be very luck dependent but players can choose to team up to intentionally take out the leader's marbles to bring him back down. My step-dad did get stuck for a while trying to get his last ball home. He needed to roll a 1 and took several turns to get it. Another observation is that it is usually best to land in the normal Star Hole Shortcut because you don't have to rely on rolling a 1 to get out. Many times someone would get stuck in the center shortcut and took a long time to get out.
Second Play Session:
The second game started much like the first. My mother got out first and got to a big lead before anyone else could get a marble out of the base. This game we played more aggressive. My aunt got her first ball stuck in the center and couldn't roll a 1 or a 6 and was stuck there for a long time. We sent my step-dad back to base several times trying to make sure he didn't win twice in a row. There were two times in this game where I rolled 6's three times in a row and by our rule I had to return a ball back to base. The finish to the game ended up very close. Every player had 3 of the 4 balls back in the base and were looking for specific rolls to get home and win. My mother needed a 4 to get in for several turns. She got a couple 1's and then finally a 2 to win the game.
Thoughts About the Game:
The game generally works well but it does hurt the fun for some players when they get stuck and have trouble even getting out of their base. The game is very simple to learn and is very easy to explain for the first time. It is fun to have the choice of playing nice or dirty and sending the other players' marbles back to base. With the way the game is setup, no 2 games will be alike. If there was one thing I'd like to change would be that maybe each player could start with a ball in the start position instead so they have something to do in the early game. Overall it was a fun experience for all the players and we'd like to play more games like this one.
This entry has been edited 2 times. It was last edited on Feb 10th, 2014 at 12:25:38.
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