Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!
Image: Nintendo

Back when Nintendo ported its popular Punch-Out!! arcade title to the NES, it was savvy enough to realise that a celebrity endorsement could make all the difference – so it enlisted the assistance of Mike Tyson to promote the game, even going as far as to include the boxer as a character.

When Tyson's deal expired he was removed from the game and replaced by the generic Mr. Dream, and he hasn't been part of the Punch-Out!! franchise since – something that may also have something to do with the fact that at the start of the '90s his darker side began to appear in the mass media. Mike Tyson’s Intergalactic Power Punch – a different NES boxing title developed by Beam Software – was eventually released as Power Punch II following Tyson's prison sentence in 1991, with all references to the boxer removed.

If the former heavyweight champion gets his way, we could see him in a new Punch-Out!! installment. Tyson has been speaking to Shacknews and feels its time for his version of the game to make a return – and if you thought that was crazy, then you'll be pleased to learn that he plans to use the computer division within his cannabis licensing and branding company Tyson Ranch to make it happen:

Hey listen, we're going to start our own Punch-Out!! game and our own Tyson Ranch computer game and bring it back to life, man. Bring back Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!

Punch-Out!! has seen sequels on the SNES and Wii since the NES version, which proves it can survive without Tyson's involvement. Besides, we're pretty sure Nintendo would wish to distance itself from the troubled star, even in 2020. Of course, there's nothing stopping Tyson from creating a Punch-Out!!-style game without using the name, which we're assuming is what he's talking about.

There's also the small matter of Tyson actually beating the original game, something he admits in the interview that he still hasn't done – he finds it too difficult, apparently.

You're not the only one, Mike.

[source shacknews.com, via gonintendo.com]