Iwata Asks is a series of interviews conducted by former Nintendo Global President Satoru Iwata with key creators behind the making of Nintendo games and hardware.





Iwata Asks: Punch Out

Initially a Golf Prize

Iwata

It will be a problem if we don't manage to ever introduce the new product so…

Miyamoto

I came today because I wanted to talk about the past. (laughs)

Everyone

(laughter)

Iwata

There are a lot of interesting stories and I want to hear more, but I think we should start talking about the NES version. Wada-san, could you please tell us about how Punch-Out!!, which had been made this way, came to be released on the NES and Super Nintendo?

Wada

We were making the NES version of Punch-Out!! right after I joined Nintendo. Up until that point, Research and Development Department 3 did not have a dedicated designer and I was the first person to be a designer there. At the time, Takeda-san was the main person drawing the pictures.

Iwata

In the NES version, too. (laughs)

Wada

I was just a young pup then and he wouldn't let me touch anything.

Everyone

(laughter)

Wada

The memory limit on the NES was severe, so we had to break the pictures into parts and rotate them, or call up these parts partially, but no matter how you looked at the drawn images, the proportions were strange.

Takeda

(laughs)

Wada

But when you actually made them move, the movements started looking right. I thought that this is how you make videogames. I was impressed and I wanted to get my hands on them as well.

Iwata

You wanted to get in there and you were all excited to work, but they wouldn't let you, huh? (laughs)

Wada

They wouldn't let me touch anything at all. Right.

Miyamoto

Even though you were hired as a designer. (laughs)

Takeda

You were still in your first year then.

Iwata

When did you join Nintendo, Wada-san?

Wada

1986.

Tanabe

The same year as me.

Iwata

You joined in the same year?

Tanabe

I clearly remember Wada-san grumbling about not being able to touch the tools.

Iwata

Ha ha ha. (laughs)

Wada

This is a great opportunity, so I have something I'd like to say. In Punch-Out!!, the game gives you a lot of hints about effective timing of punches. There is a big boxer called Bald Bull in the NES version as well and a light flashes to the right in the audience when he charges. If you punch when it flashes you will land a body blow.

Tanabe

What? Really?

Wada

No one has known about that for about 22 years…

Everyone

(laughter)

Wada

I was wondering when I would have a chance to tell people that.

Iwata

You've been holding that information for 22 years since the release. (laughs)

Wada

Now that I had the chance. (laughs) There are a lot of hidden elements in the NES version.

Iwata

So Wada-san, when did they finally let you touch the game?

Wada

Well for example, before the match, when you see the display with the larger faces in the opponent's introduction.

Iwata

The portraits.

Wada

They finally let me draw those pictures. Also, Mario became the referee after the NES version, and I drew that myself without permission.


Punch-Out!! NES Version
*This image comes from the Punch-Out!! (NES version) currently available for download in the Virtual Console section of the Wii Shop Channel.

Iwata

You could get away with a lot then. (laughs)

Miyamoto

We didn't have an approval system when using Mario images back then and it went right past my check. (laughs)

Wada

That's why it is a slightly strange looking Mario.

Iwata

(laughs)

Wada

But I went to all of that work and it was just a golf prize.

Iwata

A golf prize?

Wada

Even though it was sold in a nice package in America, in Japan, it was a prize for the "Second Family Computer Golf Tournament."14

Iwata

I wrote the program for the Golf (US Course) used in that tournament.

14 Second Family Computer Golf Tournament: A golf tournament for players that used the Famicom Disc System's golf game Golf (US Course), which was released in June, 1987.

Wada

That's right. And the cartridges for the prizes were gold and really nice, but the game still wasn't for sale.


The prize cartridge for the NES version of Punch-Out!!

Miyamoto

But after we gave out those prizes, we started hearing that a lot of people wanted it.

Wada

That's why within a year they started selling it normally.

Iwata

After that, there was a Super Nintendo version.

Wada

We released it in 1998, eleven years after the NES version.


Super Punch-Out!! Super Nintendo Version

Iwata

So I'm sure at the time Takeda-san didn't start this on his own?

Wada

Not at that time. (laughs) The Nintendo 64, which Takeda-san had been involved in, had already been released.

Iwata

Was the content of the Super Nintendo Version pretty close to the arcade version? Or did it have elements just for the home version?

Wada

It was more or less unchanged.

Takeda

I think it was pretty hard because we did introduce a lot of new characters.

Wada

Just a few minutes ago, Mr. Iwata was talking about this not being a pro wrestling game, but even in the original arcade version of Super Punch-Out!!, a lot of different kinds of characters appeared. We continued with that and created a lot of strange ones. For example, there was this opponent who dressed like a clown, throwing balls. (laughs)

Iwata

Did you think up all of those characters?

Wada

At that point, there were several people in the design staff and we thought them up together. The Japanese version was for rewritable media.

Iwata

It was for Nintendo Power15.

Wada

So it wasn't sold in a package that time, either…

Miyamoto

They did it to you again.