Nintendo’s Punch-Out is a classic game series that predates the NES, but may have thrown its final punch.
The game saw a new entry in May 2009 on the Wii, but criticism over depictions of different groups and uses of stereotypes may have led to the series dying with that entry.
According to Kinda Funny Games presenter Imran Khan,on ResetEra, he spoke to an unnamed developer (presumably someone at or formerly at Next Level Games), and revealed that the Wii title received a lot more backlash over its character designs than anyone expected, and despite receiving assurances from Next Level Games that it wouldn’t happen again, Nintendo decided that would be all:
“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.”
Obviously Nintendo would want Next Level Games to work on more commercially viable games, but it also makes sense that redesigning all the characters in Punch-Out may also invite controversy in other ways. It seems Nintendo may feel the best thing is for Punch-Out to stay in the past for now. If that is the case though, they could always reuse the gameplay concept with a spiritual successor and just start over. Still, it is sad to see an iconic series bow out.
