One of Nintendo’s most popular franchises that has been around since the days of the NES reportedly has no plans to return any time soon. Outside of Nintendo’s major franchises like Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, Pokemon, and Animal Crossing, there are still dozens of other properties that are synonymous with the Japanese gaming publisher. Over the life cycle of most Nintendo consoles, it seems that many of the most beloved series end up returning in one form or another. However, based on new information that has come about from one reliable source, it sounds like new entry in a series that hasn’t been seen since the Nintendo Wii is doubtful to come back.
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Coming by way of reporter Imran Khan, it was said that Nintendo doesn’t expect to bring back Punch-Out!!, which is its arcade boxing series. The original Punch-Out!! first debuted in arcades in 1984 and was later followed by its most popular entry on NES with 1987’s Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!. Super Punch-Out!! then released in 1994, but the series was on ice until its revival on Nintendo Wii in 2009.
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Despite this Wii version of Punch-Out!! being quite popular, it seems doubtful that Nintendo has plans for a new iteration on Switch hardware. Khan says that based on one conversation that he had with someone who had close ties to Wii edition of the game, there was more backlash against the characters included than expected. As a result, the team behind Punch-Out!!, which is that of Next Level Games, opted to just simply cut its ties to the series and work on games like Luigi’s Mansion 3, among others.
“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 [Punch-Out!!] Wii game than they expected,” Khan said. “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.”
While it might be disappointing to hear that the prospects of Punch-Out!! returning aren’t great, there’s always the chance that Nintendo could change its mind in the future. And with the Nintendo Switch 2’s release supposedly planned to happen here in 2025, maybe the console’s launch lineup of games could contain some titles from Nintendo’s past that will surprise fans.
