Game:

Power Punch II (1992)

Duration: 2:26:51

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The last of the Piko software released NES games on Steam, back with the enhance version of the emulator that 8 Eyes used, we have Power Punch II. No, there is not Power Punch 1. This game started life as a sequel to Punch-Out!! titled "Mike Tyson's Intergalactic Power Punch." A beta version of the ROM with that name and branding has been released. But Nintendo saw the game, turned 'em down - and Mike Tyson was getting into legal trouble at the time so they wanted to distance themselves from that, and that leaves us with Mark Taylor to battle the intergalactic boxers.

And this game is terrible. And I cheated like crazy. Going in, I said I was going to cheat through this. It's more a showcase than anything. I took the ROM from the Steam folder (a file named "game") and renamed it to "Power Punch II (Steam).nes". Really you can rename it to anything as long as you add the ".nes" part. And there you go, if you bought the game on Steam you have a completely legal ROM you can use in any emulator. I chose the Nestopia core in RetroArch. Nestopia is the emulator, RetroArch is merely a front end for multiple emulators together. Which is amazing. Honestly, I love how far emulation has come.

As I said, the game itself is awful. Hit detection leaves a lot to be desires. And it lacks some of the puzzle appeal that made Punch-Out!! so good. The later fighters DO require you to figure the puzzles out - or do what I did and just look them up - in order to actually win. So the puzzle aspect is there, but even then the sloppy hit detection and the imbalance of damage your punches do vs the opponent's makes this game just a chore. Without rewind I would not have managed to get through this. Even with, it was a challenge. But I did finish, so you can see all the fighters, and never have to bother with this game yourself -- Watch live at https://www.twitch.tv/the_nametag

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