We don’t know about you, but amongst all of Nintendo’s game series, Punch-Out!! rarely sits at the top of our revival wishlist. Don’t get us wrong, we’d absolutely bloomin’ love a new entry, but we’d honestly rather see the likes of F-Zero and Chibi-Robo! make their grand return on the Switch or its upcoming successor.
Regardless of whether or not you agree with us on this, it sounds like the Punch-Out!! series may well be dead and buried for good; at least with regards to developer Next Level Games. The lastest mainline entry, simply called Punch-Out!!, launched for the Wii in May 2009 with a WiiWare game entitled Doc Louis’s Punch-Out!! following just a handful of months later. Thanks to the criticism levelled toward the former’s use of stereotypical characters, however, it sounds like Nintendo isn’t prepared to commence work on a new title anytime soon.
This comes from Kinda Funny Games presenter Imran Khan, who took to ResetEra (thanks, My Nintendo News) to relay the news as told by an unnamed developer (presumably someone who works/worked at Next Level Games). According to Khan, the Wii title received a lot more backlash over its character designs than anyone expected, and regardless of the assurances from Next Level Games that it wouldn’t happen again, Nintendo essentially called it a day:
“I got someone from, let’s say a studio close to Punch-Out, drunk at a bar once and asked about a new one.
“The story I was told, and bear in mind this could just be the perspective of one person and no one else, was that there was significantly more backlash against the characters of the Wii game than they expected. And this team spent a lot of time assuring Nintendo that they weren’t leaning into bad stereotypes that would get called out this time, so everyone just kind of furrowed their brow and called it done. Especially since other games from that team had much, much higher sales potential.”
It makes sense that Nintendo would be keen for Next Level Games to focus on more commercially-viable franchises (Luigi’s Mansion, anyone?), but the idea that Nintendo would prefer to retire an entire series rather than work to ensure stereotypes are avoided seems kind of baffling to us. Just make new characters, y’know..?
It’s important to keep in mind that the information provided is, as Khan stated, only coming from one source (who, apparently, was also drunk). It’s also possible that the Punch-Out!! series may yet survive, albeit potentially in the hands of another studio. Sure, the Wii title didn’t sell gangbusters (estimates put it at around 1.27 million units), but the status of Punch-Out!! as a classic Nintendo franchise dating all the way back to 1984 may convince Nintendo to give it another shot.
We don't know about you, but amongst all of Nintendo's game series, Punch-Out!! rarely sits at the top of our revival wishlist. Don't get us wrong, we'd absolutely bloomin' love a new entry, but we'd honestly rather see the likes of F-Zero and Chibi-Robo! make their grand return on the Switch or its upcoming successor.
Regardless of whether or not you agree with us on this, it sounds like the Punch-Out!! series may well be dead and buried for good; at least with regards to developer Next Level Games. The lastest mainline entry, simply called Punch-Out!!, launched for the Wii in May 2009 with a WiiWare game entitled Doc Louis's Punch-Out!! following just a handful of months later. Thanks to the criticism levelled toward the former's use of stereotypical characters, however, it sounds like Nintendo isn't prepared to commence work on a new title anytime soon.
This comes from Kinda Funny Games presenter Imran Khan, who took to ResetEra (thanks, My Nintendo News) to relay the news as told by an unnamed developer (presumably someone who works/worked at Next Level Games). According to Khan, the Wii title received a lot more backlash over its character designs than anyone expected, and regardless of the assurances from Next Level Games that it wouldn't happen again, Nintendo essentially called it a day:
"I got someone from, let's say a studio close to Punch-Out, drunk at a bar once and asked about a new one.
"The story I was told, and bear in mind this could just be the perspective of one person and no one else, was that there was significantly more backlash against the characters of the Wii game than they expected. And this team spent a lot of time assuring Nintendo that they weren't leaning into bad stereotypes that would get called out this time, so everyone just kind of furrowed their brow and called it done. Especially since other games from that team had much, much higher sales potential."
It makes sense that Nintendo would be keen for Next Level Games to focus on more commercially-viable franchises (Luigi's Mansion, anyone?), but the idea that Nintendo would prefer to retire an entire series rather than work to ensure stereotypes are avoided seems kind of baffling to us. Just make new characters, y'know..?
It's important to keep in mind that the information provided is, as Khan stated, only coming from one source (who, apparently, was also drunk). It's also possible that the Punch-Out!! series may yet survive, albeit potentially in the hands of another studio. Sure, the Wii title didn't sell gangbusters (estimates put it at around 1.27 million units), but the status of Punch-Out!! as a classic Nintendo franchise dating all the way back to 1984 may convince Nintendo to give it another shot.
