
You know what's worth randomly bringing KoopaTV back, over two years after it shut down for new content? Is it because I'm an owner of a Nintendo Switch 2 and I want to talk about my thoughts? Do I want to contribute my commentary on the political climate of the United States in 2025? Nope (in that I am an owner, but I have nothing to say)... and certainly nope! The correct answer of what's worth it is... The Punch-Out!! series! Twelve years ago at this time of the year, we launched KoopaTV's Punch-Out!! Week, but it was only observed during 2013 and never came back any other year. Until now!
Twelve years ago, Punch-Out!! Week was ultimately a vehicle to hype up to an end-of-week surprise of Trayvon Tyson's Punch-Out!!—I can promise you there won't be any surprises or videogame releases (from KoopaTV) this time. The week will be dedicated towards transcribing and providing commentary and analysis on the five live-action Punch-Out!! Wii commercials produced by Nintendo of America—although Piston Hondo's, Great Tiger's, and King Hippo's were never aired. These commercials were produced back around 2009. Here's the agenda for KoopaTV's next week:
- August 18, 2025: Doc Louis teaches how to play the game
- August 19, 2025: Little Mac's story
- August 20, 2025: Piston Hondo's story
- August 21, 2025: Great Tiger's story
- August 22, 2025: King Hippo's story
For one, I played on a non-CRT television. Sure, it's on “Game Mode”, but there's still a sizable enough lag. It's a major problem for a game designed around very frame-precise inputs. With lag, there isn't enough time to react to anything; you must anticipate (memorise) patterns and make inputs before your opponent even does anything. That makes the game less fun than it should be, but Punch-Out!! Wii does at least let you restart matches very easily and without hassle in the pause menu.
Regarding hassle, I cannot say the same for how the controls work. The only way to get through the menus is with motion controls, even if you are using the option to play the fights with the Wii Remote on its side. But you must have the sensor bar on and point the Wii Remote at your screen and aim your pointer at buttons to progress to the next fight or navigate the menus. Even when Doc Louis is just talking after a fight and the only interactable option is NEXT, you can't just press A to progress—you have to point to the NEXT button and press A. A lot of the user interface design of the Wii era is horrible and it doesn't get talked about as often as it should be—I didn't even mention it in my Punch-Out!! Wii review from 12 years ago. Also, the Wii Pro Controller (and the GameCube Controller) are not recognised by Punch-Out!! Wii—by comparison, even the Pro Controller is recognised in the Wii Channels HOME menu (and you don't need the sensor bar operating to use the Pro Controller, which means you need a working Sensor Bar to play Punch-Out!! on the Wii but not to navigate to it from your Wii HOME).
Both of those problems would be solved if there was a new Punch-Out!! game, so I'm hoping I can will that into existence with the renewal of Punch-Out!! Week! And then maybe it can even happen again next year?
By the way, LOGO CHANGE:
This article will be updated with the links on that agenda list above throughout the next week. It's also a good idea to be on KoopaTV's email list (subscribe to that at the bottom of any page on the website), which has been quite empty throughout 2025... until now.