Retro Favorite ‘Punch-Out!!’ Still Has Secrets, Thirty Years Later

  The more decrepit Ego-gamers among you will probably have fond memories of Punch-Out!!. This NES brawler was one of the first of Nintendo’s patented Wacky-Ass Sports Games (tm); a genre I just invented that includes all kinds of weirdness. Mario at the Olympics, Mario baseball, Mario basketball, Mario soccer, all of these and then some have appeared since. 

1987’s Punch-Out!! is a festival of nostalgia-tastic memories. Whether you’re a retro head, remember the original, NES collector or just dabbled in the game on an emulator, it has a cutesy charm and sense of humor that most anyone can appreciate. On top of that, it seems that –just shy of 30 years since release—it still has a secret or two hidden in its undercrackers.

First, to quickly remind your asses how Punch-Out!! works. As scrawny lil’ boxer Little Mac, you had to rise up the ranks against a crew of cartoon opponents, each of which with their own fighting style and animations. In a straight-up fistfight, you had as much chance as a one-legged kitten in a coma, so you had to be tactical. Matched played out like a series of boss battles, with you watching foes’ movements, dodging their attacks and reading chances to land a hit or two. Outside of these moments, your punches would barely register at all. 

Some opponents had very obvious tells, some not so. Some of these tells weren’t even from the boxers themselves, as Redditor Midwesternhousewives discovered recently.

A face in the crowd will duck during the second Piston Honda and Bald Bull fights. Throwing a punch at just this moment will instantly see both opponents faceplant the canvas. This had been known to work against Bald Bull, as IGN reports, but the fact that it can also be done elsewhere seems to be a secret the NES classic had kept for 29 years.

Punch-Out!! fans can hit the link for the full story, or watch the easter egg in action right here: