Punch Out!! (Wii) Rules

I took a quick break from Dokapon Journey--which I have a lot of fun with--to sample Punch Out!! on Wii, which arrived in my hungry mailbox today. It's really a whole lot of fun. I love the little aesthetic touches that the developers have made to the fighters when they're bruised, as well as to the music for each person; for instance, the "Game Over" screen music from the NES version now serves as the "You Won!" screen music--but the motif changes for each fighter. So if you've just beaten Von Kaiser, the music is tinged with a wartime Germany bent. If you've just beaten Disco Kid, the music is tinged with a disco beat and the appropriate instrumentation.

Of course, the gameplay is as expected. The mechanics are just as tight as they were in the NES and SNES Punch Out!! titles, but what I really like is how you build up Star punches to be a stronger single punch as opposed to having a stockpile of 3. In other words: Every star punch you earn is contributed to a cumulative build-up. You can build up to a level 3 punch, so when you hit the button, that star punch packs a whole hell of a lot more power than a level 1. Of course, you no longer have the ability to fire off three star punches consecutively because throwing a star punch makes use of all of your stars, regardless of how many you have.

The podcast had a few hiccups. Sound files are screwed up again, but I managed to worm my way around the problem with a lot of time and patience. It should be up tomorrow. The Trilobytes should be up too (by tomorrow). Been a busy week. Damn that Dokapon!