During the Christmas season, I was told my niece was coming over to visit. So, in preparation, I dug out my old Super Nintendo Classic (more popularly known as the SNES Mini) which I haven’t really touched in a good while since I got it. I mean, I’ve already played the heck out of most of the games already and I eventually moved on. But I thought my niece would get a kick out of these old games. Turns out, as she’s more used to mobile gaming, holding an actual controller and having to press buttons felt kind of alien to her. So, we didn’t really play many games on the SNES Mini but we did play a lot of Street Fighter 6… with Dynamic Controls on so she could press buttons and still do some cool stuff.

Anyways, days passed but I never bothered to put back the SNES. So, one night, I decided to boot it up and play a few games. I would’ve loved to play some Super Castlevania IV and Super Mario World. But those are games I would have the compulsions to finish once I started playing them again. What I needed at that time was some quick-twitch gaming. Something I could put down quickly and use to test my reaction speed as I have gotten older. That’s when I remembered the SNES Mini had Super Punch-Out!! on it.

So, I switched on the cute little mini device, knowing I would play a few rounds against the likes of Bald Bull and Super Macho Man, turn off my SNES Mini and call it a night. I wanted to see if I could check out how my reflexes were doing as I’ve gotten older since I beat it. Well, that was the plan, anyway. What actually happened was a three hour gaming marathon with me trying to remember how to beat each and every single opponent in Super Punch-Out!! once again.

You see, when I got my Super Nintendo Classic/SNES Mini, I already beat Super Punch-Out!! and I do remember doing so by mostly playing through the game and remembering all of the patterns of each boxer. That was a good five years ago and, I hate to say this, I forgot it all! I thought I could just play through the game and it would all come flooding back at me. Sadly, not everything did. So, I had to kind of relearn each fight from the ground up.

What I do remember is the basic strategy for every fight: dodge their attacks and then land a flurry of blows of my own. Funny enough, it took me a while to remember about the Super Punch, which you have access to once your Super meter is full. Thankfully, when I got to Piston Hurricane, I finally recalled I had this attack.

Even though I have forgotten most of Super Punch-Out!!’s opponent’s attack patterns, I didn’t really hit any major stumbling blocks when going through the Minor and Major Circuit. I was honestly surprised how I only lost one match throughout those circuits to Mr. Sandman because I got flustered once with his flurry of attacks after I knocked him down twice! But basically, all I did was follow the tried and true strategy of dodging and attacking while they were left defenseless.

However, I kind of hit a wall when I reached the World Circuit and faced off against Aran Ryan. Unlike any of the previous fighters, Aran Ryan takes very little damage when you do counter punch him. And, unlike the other opponents you’ve fought before, he will actually counter you if you hit him with a Super punch. If you do, he will go for an unblockable and undodgable grab which will suck out your life and replenish his! I was flummoxed. How the heck did I beat him?

I spent a good ten to twenty minutes figuring out how I did get past him. I tried just simply going through the match with normal attacks but, as Super Punch-Out!! only has one round and your opponent is always going to win by decision, this wasn’t working out for me as I couldn’t do enough damage to get the TKO to beat him. I tried various dodges to avoid the grab to no avail. I finally had to swallow my pride and just look up how to beat Aran Ryan and it turns out the answer is pretty simple. All you had to do was to punch him at a certain point before he rushes in for the grab. Kind of like how you can counter Bald Bull’s Bull Charge with a swift hook to the gut.

Still, getting past Aran Ryan was just the start of my troubles. While I was able to beat Heike Kagero and Mad Clown with little fuss, my streak was broken when I ran into Super Macho Man. There were a couple of reasons why I found him so tough. The first was dodging his Multiple Spin Punches as I found getting the proper rhythm to duck under them difficult.

The second had to deal with his Exercise Programs and this is where I did feel my old age reactions affecting my game. Basically, the trainer will tell Super Macho Man do execute one of his Exercise Programs and, based on if it’s A, B or C, you have to react appropriately by blocking four face punches, which is Exercise Program A or block four gut punches for Exercise Program B. If it’s Exercise Program C, you would have to dodge three uppercuts. Early on, I would simply not react in time as my brain was trying to connect which Exercise Program to what to do and then react properly. It took some time but, once I got it into my mental stack, which took around ten minutes, I did finally beat Super Macho Man.

After beating Super Macho Man, I went on a tear through the Special Circuit. I made quick work of Narcis Prince and, while I did have some early trouble with Hoy Quarlow, it did take me around five minutes to add his attack patterns to my mental stack and I took him out. Rick Bruiser, on the other hand, took me more than just a while to defeat him.

The biggest reason why Rick Bruiser was a problem for me is because his attacks works against what you’ve been doing with the previous fighters. For example, has a move where he does an uppercut. Your instinct is to dodge it and the counter attack afterwards, right? Wrong, because he does an elbow smash afterwards, meaning you have to dodge twice! The first time against the uppercut and the second against the elbow smash. You also have to do the double dodge in quick succession or else you’ll just get nailed by the follow up elbow attack.

The trickest one has to be when Rick Bruiser jumps in the air and slams to the ground. This isn’t the actual attack! The attack happens when he lands and he does an uppercut with his opposite hand! This means there are times when you have to be fighting against your own muscle memory of doing dodges and counter punches. Oh, he also has a move where, if he blocks one of your attacks, he will elbow it and you won’t be able to use that arm for some time! Hey, ref! Aren’t any of those moves illegal? Next to Aran Ryan, Rick Bruiser took me the longest time to get past.

We finally get to the final boss of Super Punch-Out!!: Nick Bruiser. And I do have to say I was very disappointed with him because I find Rick Bruiser much more difficult. Nick Bruiser looks like Rick but he is a much more straightforward opponent, so your regular dodge and punch strategy will work against him for the most part. There are some tricky things you do have to keep in mind against him. Things like having to alternate your hands when you punch or the succeeding blows won’t connect.

You also have to kind of look at if he’s going for your head or your body and counterattack that body part to actually connect with the blow. Honestly, the only really tricky thing he does is that weird rumbling thing where he alternates body and face punches as, even if you block them, they still take away your life. All things considered, he’s still a very straightforward opponent as you don’t have to look out for any real trickery. Once you recognize Nick Bruiser’s attack patterns, he was pretty easy.

It did take me a good three hours to re-beat Super Punch-Out!! and, honestly, I’m kind of glad I tried playing it again. Not only is it still a great game, I got to test out my reflexes and, seeing that I’m getting up there in age, it’s nice to know they’re still pretty good. At least good enough to beat a reaction based game like this. This does make me feel bad for my niece, though. I mean, I don’t think she’ll ever have the same exhilarating feeling of TKOing a bald man from Turkey with a single gut punch while he rushing at her. Shame, really.

Do you have any fond memories of playing an old-school game? Have you tried playing them recently? What was the experience like? Let me know in the comments section below!