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Jbrown's Super Punch-Out (SNES)
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| [March 4, 2014 10:21:57 PM]
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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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Jbrown's Super Punch-Out (SNES)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Tuesday 4 March, 2014
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