Punch-Out!!/Headscratchers


 * What always bothered me is that while the other boxers can cheat, you couldn't. It would have been cooler if you could pull off a kick or headbutt.
 * Little Mac seems to want to become the champ legimitely, and defeating cheaters says something about him.
 * As noted below, everything is defensible; no harm, no foul. Also, would Little Mac have the slightest idea how to throw an effective kick or headbutt? Probably just throw him off balance, if not hurt himself.
 * So, Little Mac's allowed to fight anyone that steals his title immediately, but Mr. Sandman has to wait for Mac to beat 12 other guys before he can fight him again?
 * He probably spent time training to ensure that he wasn't beaten again, rather than immediately challenging Mac and getting another loss on his record.
 * This was a throwback to the arcade games. If you lose after winning the title, your opponent takes it (there is no scene of your guy surrendering the belt, however). If you continue, it's against the same opponent, just like any other time, and you DO get a repeat of jumping with the belt if you win.
 * How did Glass Joe get a shot at the title anyway?
 * The headgear. It made him far tougher than most of the other boxers are in their initial fights, arguably even Mr. Sandman. So he presumably started winning fights offscreen. This might also explain why the others all becomes determined to take their own levels in badass: "Shoot, even Joe is tough now. Got to get my act together".
 * Okay, some fighters obviously have stage names, like Super Macho Man and Bear Hugger, and some have names which seem to be their actual names, like Don Flamenco or Von Kaiser. But what about Soda Popinski/Vodka Drunkenski? His parents couldn't actually have named him that. And is King Hippo actually the king of Hippo Island, or is he just called that because King Hippo sounds cooler than Citizen Hippo?
 * Alcoholism is hereditary. If the parents were drunks, maybe they named their son after what they loved most..
 * King Hippo is likely a nick name that he embraced, and Vodka Drunkenski? Believe it or not there have been worse names in real life, especially considering a family in Ukraine may not catch on the implications.
 * In Russia, "Power Station" and "Industrialisation" are girls names.
 * "King Hippo" is likely a title/moniker given to whomever happens to be the king of Hippo Island at a given time. And as for Vodka Drunkenski/Soda Popenski, it may be a nickname, or it may simply be his name. Indeed, wouldn't it be dynamite if it turned out that all the shit he got over his name turned to him developing drinking problems for real, creating a dramatic irony? Hey, if one of the people in my sister's graduating class can be named Murgatroyd Rumplestiltskin (it's true, I saw the roster), any name is possible. My parents collect lists of comical unlikely real life names. Long, long lists. They could show you a pretty few: Helen Highwater, Dr. Miles Ovary the Gynaecologist...there are billions of people in the world, a few zany names are inevitable.
 * ...seriously? They're ALL stage names. Think about what Don Flamenco and Von Kaiser would mean in Spanish and German; it's the same as English boxers naming themselves Lord Of The Dance and The Emperor. Everyone's name is a stage name, even Little Mac.
 * Except Mike Tyson.
 * Didn't people make fun of the spelling of Aran Ryan's name? Odd that he'd be the one to go by his actual name.
 * If all the boxers are using the language of their native land, why doesn't Aran Ryan speak any Gaelic (Celtic?), or for that matter, why is Bear Hugger using a redneck-dialect mixed with english-speaking Canadian and no French?
 * Apparently, the native Irish language is spoken by a minority. Thus they could just go with the more common and more stereotypical accented English. Bear Hugger has a few things for the English. The main point and most important is that French is not commonly spoken in BC, Canada, the province given to BH.
 * French is only common in quebec. And he's talking like a canadian redneck.


 * What happens if Aran Ryan knocks you down with his glove-on-a-rope in the second fight when he's falling down and you aren't being KOed or TKOed?
 * I haven't checked to make sure, but I hear that it isn't able to knock you down at all.
 * Correct, he can't KO you with it. You, however, can score a TKO on him if you punch him just before that final hit connects.
 * Even funnier in Champion mode (every hit knocks you down) when you can let it hit you and it will reduce your HP by half. Not only that, but if you recover this health while Aran's down on the mat, your HP bar will shoot back up to full instantly.


 * Where the hell are the standards of the WVBA in allowing fighters in? Huge tall boxers and huge fat ones are fine since they can box (never mind the fact they are way out of your weight class) but then there's Great Tiger who blatantly uses illusionary magic, Dragon Chan who tries to KICK you (in Super Punch Out) and then Aran Ryan who is a BLATANT cheater with headbutts, elbowing and a glove-on-a-rope WHICH THE CROWD AND YOUR TRAINER RECOGNISE? Aran has also assaulted the referee so being blind is no excuse.
 * The only standards boxers have to stand up to is backing off when their opponent is unconscious, and their hands must be covered by gloves. Like, obv.
 * To be fair, there probably isn't any official mention of magic use in the boxing rulebook, so the illusions could be handwaved with the Aint No Rule clause. Not so much the kicking and the headbutting, though. Or the elbowing. Or the spitting. Or the quarterstaff. But then again, Mike Tyson wasn't immediately disqualified for trying to bite Hollyfield's ear off...
 * My pet theories (i.e. fan ramblings impossible to prove either way): Dragon Chan first did his kick in a moment of wild desperation and was disqualified for it, but it was made legal in later matches, mainly because the league was having financial troubles and they had to do something to spice up the product. Naturally, Bear Hugger, King Hippo, Great Tiger et al soon followed suit, and the rest was history. The general rule is that if that if it can be defended against, it's legal. No nets, tear gas shells, napalm, giant boulders, machine guns, etc. Hey, you got a better explanation for why Mad Clown always gives you an opening when throwing his balls, I'd like to hear it.
 * "Throwing his balls?"
 * Not brass, if that's what you were wondering, but plenty annoying nonetheless.
 * That's...actually damn clever! Good for you.
 * It's pretty much the premise of the game, isn't there a trope about having to accept this at some level...
 * I'd say MST3K Mantra applies best here.
 * Apparantley a certain boxer was cut from Punch-Out!!!! Wii due to his: "inability to dissuade controversial material" I'm assuming that means he was too big of a Stereotype, which is really saying something. My question is, who was it? (I would guess it to be Pizza Pasta purely on account of his name)
 * My guess is Dragon Chan. He's one of the only boxers who feels more like a racial stereotype than a national one, and Punch-Out Wii was the only game in the series not made predominantly by Asians, the most likely white developers may have felt less comfortable using him.
 * Except Chan's look and style was an homage to Bruce Lee, so that doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
 * True, just look at the Pokemon Hitmonlee
 * Maybe it was Dragon Chan's buck teeth that were offensive.
 * What about Bob Charlie? That guy must've been baked 24/7.
 * According to the punch out wiki it was Soda Popinski and this was later repealed. http://punchout.wikia.com/wiki/Soda_Popinski
 * It just says that people guessed it was Soda, considering the short time between the game's announcement and release it's unlikely that they informed the public that a character was removed, then had time to put him back in.
 * It's been revealed that Princess Peach was originally the guest fighter, but decided to replace her with, because of Unfortunate Implications.
 * Seriously?
 * Aw, that would've been the first female boxer in the series.
 * Why is it no one knows what King Hippo's height is? Does he eat the tape measure? I know mosst of his stats in the NES Punch-Out!! were "???", but still...
 * I would guess that the weighing folks are afraid to go near him. He's too freaky.
 * Is King Hippo even human? The guy has no nose, not to mention a physique that if any normal human had one he'd keel over.
 * How is it that Title Defense Bald Bull can withstand a head-on charge from an actual bull, but can't withstand the Star Punch? If the Star Punch is supposed to be more powerful than a bull, then how come it hasn't killed anyone?
 * It's magic, we don't have to explain it.
 * Or, alternatively, consider this: Bald Bull initially had been training his head to be incredibly tough (i.e. bashing his head against things like the corner of the ring), but was defeated by Little Mac once the contender figured out Bald Bull's weakness, his stomach, especially during a Bull Charge. As a result, Bald Bull had been training rigorously to be immune (or at least recover) from regular punches to the stomach, as demonstrated by having a bull smash into him head on. What he didn't take into account was the fact that a Star Punch of any level actually hits the head, rather than the body. He even had been doing his "head shield" training a little less rigorously (hence only punching himself in the head, which is likely significantly less painful than headbutting a pole).
 * Long story short, TD Bald Bull had been conditioning his BODY to withstand powerful hits, but not his HEAD, thus Star Punches can effectively knock him out.
 * Or it's magic, whatever works.
 * Von Kaiser is a washed-up has-been who gets beat up by the little kids who attend his boxing academy. Okay, fair enough...but then why does he have a starting record of 23-13, which is better than the likes of Bear Hugger and King Hippo, who are 18-10? Why are Bear Hugger and King Hippo both ranked higher than Kaiser, if they have worse records, and if Kaiser is such a sissy to begin with, how did he ever get his wins in the first place?
 * The implication I got is that he was a skilled boxer who won a lot before he ended up getting beaten by a student. That's when he went into his current twitchy PTSD form and had a long losing streak, moving him down the ranks quickly.
 * I've always been a little bothered by King Hippo's inability to keep his trunks up. They fall down every time Mac punches him in the gut, which leads me to believe that they're pretty loose fitting. Now, answer me this; where in the hell did a guy like King Hippo find a pair of pants that were too big for him? You'd think he would have enough trouble finding a pair that was big enough for him.
 * They were custom made when he entered the WVBA, and he's lost a bit of weight since then. Now try to imagine him being even fatter.
 * Just what the hell is the Head Gear made of? It makes Glass Joe's head invincible! Glass Joe!