Good news: Per Polygon, Punch-Out!! will be one of the games coming to Nintendo Switch Online later in April.
The bad news: It’s the version without Mike Tyson, who was replaced by Mr. Dream as the final boxer Little Mac had to defeat in the classic boxing title that many of us — including me — spent countless hours trying to beat until finding out the cheat codes that you could use to get all the way to the last bout.
This news has made Tyson mad, although he seems to think Nintendo is coming out with a new version of the game:
I’m with Tyson here — it was so much more thrilling to face the real (virtual?) boxer in the game …
… than this guy:
The problem here, however, comes down to something we’ve discussed on For The Win before in the context of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater and why it wouldn’t appear on the PlayStation Classic: It all comes down to licensing.
Back when Nintendo paid Tyson to have his likeness programmed into the game, it was a three-year deal for just $50,000 (because he signed before he became the youngest heavyweight champion ever). You would assume there’s no way Nintendo would want to pay Tyson now for a licensing agreement because it would be much more expensive.
We’ll just have to settle for Mr. Dream.
