Hello, and welcome to another edition of Box Art Brawl!
Before we get cracking with this week's crawl, let's have a gander at how things went down last time. We took a look at the GBA launch title F-Zero: Maximum Velocity, pitting North America and Europe against Japan. Surprisingly, although the Japanese variant is pretty awesome in its own right, it appears the vast majority of you prefered the more straight forward approach taken for the western design. As such, North America and Europe took the gold with 67% of the vote.
This week, we're going to be throwing the NES classic Punch-Out!! into the ring for a proper good brawl. Originally released to the public in 1987 as Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!, the game actually arrived in Japan as a special gold edition earlier the same year, available to competitors in the Famicom Disk System's Famicom Golf: U.S. Course tournament. When the license to use Mike Tyson expired, Nintendo relaunched the game using an alternative character called Mr. Dream.
We're going to be looking at all three versions for this edition of Box Art Brawl, so get your boxing gloves on and vote for your favourite down below!
Be sure to cast your votes in the poll below; but first, let's check out the box art designs themselves.
Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!
The original public release of Punch-Out!! incuded Mike Tyson on the front cover after the former founder and president of NoA Minoru Arakawa attended a boxing match featuring Tyson. He was reportedly so blown away by his abilities that he became inspired to include his likeness in the game. It's certainly a striking image, and it's perhaps something that EA or 2K would love to have on the front cover of their sports games these days.
Punch-Out!! Featuring Mr. Dream
Swapping out the photographic image of Mike Tyson, the relaunch of Punch-Out!! featured Mr. Dream on the front cover, albeit in the same pose as the previous edition. The US and EU variants of this version are pretty much identical, however the EU version refrained from including the red 'Nintendo Entertainment System' strip at the top. All in all, it's a pretty good alternative to the original design!
Punch-Out!! Gold Edition
Before the public release of Punch-Out!! competitors in a Famicom Golf tournament got their hands on one of these bad boys. There were reportedly only 10,000 produced, and obviously they make no visual reference to Mike Tyson, having occured prior to the inclusion of the sports star in the public release. It's a great, minimal design and would make for a pretty incredible collector's item for fans today.
Thanks for voting! We'll see you next time for another round of the Box Art Brawl.
Comments 50
Why is a young Chevy Chase a ref on the Mike Tyson's Punch-Out box?
I like the colours of the gold edition the most, and ive never been a fan of real people on game/book covers
For some reason, seeing real live people on the cover of a game doesn't do it for me. It's the Japanese Gold Edition this time.
If Gold had more going on/more characters I’d say that, it’s dull as it is though. I’ll say the original US one.
I hope Nintendo come back to Punch Out!! again soon, that Wii one was was an absolute diamond of a game. DK was a great surprise too at the end, would be great to see a circuit of Nintendo characters to fight against- K.Rool, Ganon, get Enzo from Bayonetta in there etc
I figured I’d be voting for Tyson for sure. There’s something about that Japanese edition that really calls to me thought. David likey
The Champ Mike Tyson! Great brawl, I forgive you Ollie for that comment on Disco Elysium article. Haha!
@jump
At first, I thought "Blimey! How did they get Chevy Chase to do this?". Are we sure it isn't Chevy Chase? 😆
While scrolling down, the Japanese art brought a smile to my face as it looked so goofy when compared to the other two, and ironically ended up as my favourite between the three.
I typically don't like seeing real-life people on video game covers unless it's something along the lines of FIFA, PGA etc. as opposed to a cynical stunt that shoehorns a real-life personality to sell copies.
Nevertheless, I would like to see the Mike Tyson version back in circulation for the historical curiosity that it is.
Mike is better, I did like the art on the other one, buut, I love how dynamic the mike cover looks!
The Gold edition looks so NESy. I like that.
I take the Mr. Dream, has some old school Advertisment to it.
But i generally do not like them all.
I went with Punch-Out!! Featuring Mr. Dream.
I like the gold edition simply because it feels like it captures what Punch Out is, presenting a character in its actual art style rather than just showing the final boss punching someone to smithereens.
Not a big fan of any of these TBH. The Japanese one is cartoony but bland, and I can't bring myself to vote for Mike Tyson despite the historical accuracy. I took the current unpopular route and voted for the Mr. Dream cover. At least there's some action, and the art style is slightly different/less real.
Anybody voting for Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! is purely out of nostalgia.
Gold edition easily
You gotta have Mike Tyson on the cover of "Mike Tyson's Punch Out"
Iron Mike Tyson all the way! You forgot to mention, he's the final boss of that version. Everybody thought of him as a monster back in the day, and being able to beat him in Punch Out, made you a hero!
Mike Tyson could've been a characrer/trophy/spirit in SSBU.
Speaking strictly about the Mike Tyson version, I think I prefer the less cluttered Japanese box art that also shows the arcade logo:
https://static.mercdn.net/item/detail/orig/photos/m72864319798_1.jpg?1628837393
As for which one I prefer, it's a tough one, but I'll most likely go with the Japanese one for showing something closer to what the actual game looks like, despite only showing Bald Bull. Imagine if we had realistic Little Mac, Doc Louis, King Hippo, Bald Bull, Super Macho Man or Mr. Sandman on the front cover. Not to mention, the Mike Tyson and Mr. Dream's box arts are lying, they don't have Mario as the referee.
That gold edition is so slick, what the hell have you all been smoking?
Mike Tyson was wrecking other heavyweights at the time and adding him to this excellent game was a stroke of genius. He had an air of invincibility back then, and I fully expect he’ll dominate this bout today, too.
I was gifted MT’s Punch-Out! and Rygar one Christmas (‘87?), along with my first color TV. Both such great games providing a type of fun you couldn’t find in the arcades! Tyson was a terrifying opponent at first.
I can’t imagine anyone who played the Tyson version back then could vote for one of the generic covers.
I actually own the gold edition so I went with that, but really the US one is probably the best as it represents the game in its truest form.
I had the Tyson one. I remember taking the wrapping paper off the box one Christmas and seeing that cover. Great memory! Nostalgia wins for me!!
@xiao7
I can’t discount the nostalgia factor, but were you alive then? Did you play the Tyson version of the game then? If not, then maybe don’t generalize about those of us who did.
For millions of North Americans, this was their first Punch-Out and Iron Mike was the meanest final boss in video gaming. The game preceded all his subsequent scandals, too.
NOA wouldn’t have sold half as many Punch-Outs without that boxer on the cover.
@jump
"Why is a young Chevy Chase a ref on the Mike Tyson's Punch-Out box?"
"Chevy Chase"?
I mean it's Mike Tyson on Mike Tyson's punch out, it just makes sense
I voted for the EU version as it was the one I grew up with.
Had to fight my personal nostalgia a bit on this one (I refuse to acknowledge the west’s Mr. Dream version), but the Japan box is better. Gives you a better idea that this isn’t supposed to be a realistic sport sim. Bald Bull is also the best choice for series mascot if you ask me.
@Clamango except for the rape.... Oh well
@jump it isn't
@larryisaman As much as I enjoy Punch-Out and would love a new game, I think Nintendo would run into a lot of issues nowadays due to the fact that pretty much all the cast, even Little Mac himself plays on stereotypes of various countries around the world.
If gives the series it's charm, but in the modern social climate, I could see Punch-Out having fun with stereotypes drawing the wrong kind of ire from the wrong kind of crowd.
I know the cultural humor has been there since the first arcade game(Pizza Pasta, Vodka Drunkenski), but technical limitations on the older Arcade, NES, and SNES games kinda downplayed it.
But the Wii game made the cultural stereotype humor one of the main focuses of the game, and while I think it was fine when that game first released, the world has changed since 2009.
@Edu23XWiiU I don't know if I heard an update, did even the real Mike Tyson manage to beat up his video game self?
I hear he didn't actually play the game himself until a couple decades later... and then he lost to Glass Joe.
@Mario500 Don't know Chevy Chase? He's an actor. A comedian probably most famous in the '80s.
I had to think about this one for a while. None of them are good to me, but I finally settled on one thing, that being the Mr. Dream version is definitely the worst. It's less dynamic than the original cover with Tyson and Dream looks like he's made of wood. I don't love photo covers in general, though it makes sense since it's Mike Tyson. The gold cover isn't particularly interesting, but it's my favorite, ever so slightly.
@Caryslan You’re probably right sadly. There’s ways they could still make it work in 2022 though, could take it in a Space Jam style direction with Little Mac squaring off against a load of aliens, or just going full on with Nintendo characters. I would rather the absurdity of the old games carry on though but I can see why Nintendo wouldn’t want to touch that stuff with a ten foot pole today.
Mike Tyson pre scandal was a huge deal. The generic drawn boxer is a bit of white washing a game that had Tyson as a boss. And then the Japanese version the bald middle aged guy on the box really does not sell a boxing game for my mind
Had to go with Iron Mike. Maybe if they had a cool anime style one in JP I could have voted against it. 🤷♂️
@Teksetter It's a generic sports game cover, similar to the yearly FIFA games. At least the Mr Dream was has a classic font.
Box Art Brawls Current Total:
Europe: 43
Japan: 48
North America: 50
Australia and New Zealand: 1
*collating this one as a North America and Europe win.
@xiao7
I get where you are coming from, and I know this is a forum where many people judge covers based purely on their art, but this week is a little different. We’re actually comparing the covers of 2 different games - one featuring the fearsome Mike Tyson, the other, a watered-down substitute.
That photo cover back then had instant appeal - anyone even marginally interested in a boxing video game knew that Tyson was the scariest end boss you could ask for.
But yeah, it’s been probably 35 years since the game came out - ancient history! I certainly can’t expect people to consider all the context of such an old game.
Seems unfair as the boxart featuring Mike Tyson is bound to win. Ha.
casting Tyson as the "big bad" was a stroke of genius, on multiple levels. he's a bad person, yes, but he's also basically the villain of this game. if he had been the hero/players character, I'd find the whole thing less appealing.
voted Tyson, obv. that gold one is cool though in a wanna be collector kind of way.
Weird... I kind of like the Mike Tyson version, but I love the artwork on the Mr. Dream version. Meanwhile, the Japanese version does nothing for me. Apparently not a lot of people agree with me.
@KingMike The story that says he lost to Glass Joe, I think it's true hahahahaha. Not the same skills with his fingers, than the ones with this fists, it seems hahhahaha.
@Slowdive That'll show him!
@-wc- Yeah, from what I've heard, the opinion of Tyson in 1987 was different than that of, even a few years later when the Mr. Dream version was produced.
And his bad behavior was a meme by the end of the '90s.
@larryisaman Interesting you suggest aliens.
There is another NES game called Power Punch II, which was originally planned to star Mike Tyson. And it had that.
Some say it was a scrapped Punch-Out!! sequel that in the middle of development was handed off to a... less capable studio... to finish. (the suggestion is that "Power Punch I" was the prototype version)
But that doesn't sound like the Nintendo way of doing things. They wouldn't want someone else finishing their work, unless it was someone REALLY good.
I love old box art that bears, at best, only a vague relation to the game, so I went with Mr Dream.
I mean, if you think about that image in terms of the game, that's the weirdest official painting of Mario you'll probably find.
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