Why wasn't Super Punch-Out!! more popular?

External Since: Aug 30, 2005 Posts: 29

It had everything that Punch-Out!! had, and it added speed, an extra
move, more "colorful" opponents and difficulty.

Was it too difficult?

Did Nintendo not promote it well enough to operators?

At the location I played it in '87 and '88, only myself and my "rival"
Lawton Mann showed any real interest in the game. Plenty of other
people tried it a few times but I never saw anyone else even get past
the 3rd guy (Vodka Drunkenski); which makes me think that maybe its
difficulty hindered its popularity.

Does anyone here remember seeing it in arcades in the 80's? How popular
was it? What kind of scores were people getting on it?

External Since: Aug 30, 2005 Posts: 29

guinness wrote:
> One reason is the difference between '84 and '85 in terms of arcades to play
> them in. The closing pattern was big at the time. Plus, generally
> sequels from games that did well originally do not blow up as big as the
> first version. Take for example DL1\DL2, SH1\SH2, SW\ROTJ, Berzerk\Frenzy,
> etc. I think Frenzy is way better than Berzerk but you'll still find many
> have never played it in the arcades.

That is all true. But then, you have Galaxian/Galaga and Pac-Man/Ms.
Pac-Man, Pole Position/Pole Position II; all being examples of sequels
that did extremely well. I wonder what makes the difference between
sequels that fare poorly and sequels that rival or exceed the success
of their predecessors? Maybe it is something that only Namco can pull
off, lol, though Donkey Kong Jr. was no slouch either, nor was Super
Mario Bros.; though admittedly, that success was mainly on a different
platform with a different syle of game as compared to Mario Bros.

> Now why didn't Arm Wrestling get as big??? I was trying to sell an Arm
> Wrestling kit but I think I need to slap it on my Punchout for awhile.

I think Arm Wrestling lacked a lot of the "fun factor" of the Punch-Out
games, i.e. the instant gratification of a punch landing on an
opponent. There also wasn't a lot of feedback on how well you were
doing vs. your opponent; it would seem like a tie and then all of the
sudden the opponent simply finishes you off all at once and you can't
do anything about it. On top of that, the game play was not intuitive,
in fact, it could be said to be downright confusing, to the point that
the entire first match used onscreen instructional prompts just so the
player had somewhat of a idea as to what to do.

I only saw the Arm Wrestling in an arcade one time, and it was only
there briefly. This was sometime around '85 or '86. I recognized the
cabinet and style of graphics immediately as being in the line of
Punch-Out, since I'd spent the better part of '84 playing Punch-Out. I
tried it out and I had no idea what in the blue hell I was doing, lost
to the first guy and had no desire to try it again. That is in contrast
to the first time I played Punch-Out, where I was immediately hooked
and thought it was the greatest thing since spray cheese.

BTW, how much were you asking for your Arm Wrestling kit, and what
condition/state of completeness is it in?