Playing with power: A fight with the world champion

"Now you play with power."

I remembered the old-fashioned slogan of an old Nintendo Entertainment System advertisement dating back to the mid-1980s when I found and bought one of the NES Classic Editions. Of course, video games look much better and brighter than they were over 30 years ago, but I have good memories on the living room floor playing "Super Mario Bros" and "Donkey Kong". a smile on my face. As I make my way through the 30 games collection of the system, I had fun remembering games at a time before complicated control schemes and high-definition displays.

Punch-Out !!

Like many games released on Nintendo Entertainment System, "Punch-Out !!" has its roots in the arcade. Long before focusing on home video game consoles, Nintendo has imposed itself on the arcade games scene. The first arcade "Punch-Out !!" was originally released in 1984 and was such a successful sequel, "Super Punch-Out !!" was published shortly thereafter.

A homemade version of "Punch-Out !!" was released in 1987. While the game itself is a fun, basic recreation of the arcade game, something else has helped to anchor it in the players memory of video games: "Iron" Mike Tyson

heavy boxers in the late 1980s. The queens of Tyson's early bouts are short and feature the boxer brutally beating his opponents to a knockout. He is still the youngest boxer to win the WBC, WBA and IBF heavyweight titles at 20, 4 and 22 days.

While Tyson's legacy is tarnished by his later actions on and off the ring, he was one of the most exciting athletes on the planet in the 1980s and a perfect mascot for the upcoming NES release of "Punch-Out !!" When it came out, "Mike Tyson's Punch-Out !!" presented the champion as the last opponents would face. Nothing prepared players for the challenge that Tyson would bring them. The beating required nothing less than perfect reactions to his assault as one of Tyson's fast uppercuts instantly sends the player's small boxer to kiss the rug. Tyson was the pinnacle of Everest and one of the ultimate Nintendo challenges. I could never beat him.

Unfortunately, the classic edition of NES has a later version of the game that removed Tyson in favor of a character named Mr. Dream. Nintendo's licensing agreement with Tyson expired in 1990 and the company decided not to renew it because Tyson had recently lost its titles. So, one of the most iconic boxers of a generation was whitewashed and turned into Mr Dream, which looked generic and looked more like home to the square circle of WWE only at a boxing ring. Mr. Dream has copied Tyson's moves and has the devastating blows, but does not have the flair that Tyson brought to the party.

For players of a certain age, Tyson will be the one and only king of "Punch-Out !!" no matter what happened with him in his later years.