Original Release: Zoo Publishing, 2004, Gameboy Advance
Other Releases: digiBLAST (2005)
An obscure Punch-Out knockoff with nice art and a few interesting ideas, but also some major gameplay limitations
Wade Hixton’s Counter Punch (GBA, Zoo Publishing, 2004)
Where to Buy: eBay
How to Emulate: coming soon!
Review by: C. M0use
While Wade Hixton looks at first glance like a Newgrounds title that somehow escaped containment and got some publisher to try it out on a GBA cart, it actually has a bit of a backstory. It was intended as a showpiece title for the digiBLAST handheld, a little-known budget child-focused system that was only released in several European countries in the mid-00s. The release of the digiBLAST was plagued with manufacturing issues and delays, so the publisher ended up debuting Wade Hixton as a GBA cart instead about a full year early.
So anyway. Despite being a clear Punch-Out clone in an era where that franchise had been dormant for a decade, and the obvious “curb appeal” it has from screenshots and short video clips, Wade Hixton sold very poorly and was pretty much unknown until retro video reviewers started dredging it up in recent years. It does offer Punch-Out fans similar enough gameplay that they may be interested, but not quite the same overall experience.
We step into the shoes of Wade, an average Joe … actually he looks quite a bit like Glass Joe specifically. The setup is that his car breaks down near some dusty town, which actually happens to have a thriving underground boxing scene. While he’s waiting an absurdly long time for repairs, he just sort of randomly gets absorbed in fighting the town’s various contenders as a side hustle basically.
The game actually adds a mild RPG bent to the Punch-Out formula. After the first match that you’re railroaded into, you can wander about town locations via a central menu. You earn cash from your various battles which is then spent on a variety of special moves, assistance from the townsfolk (as sort of a wrestling-style ring valet who interferes for you) and a variety of silly hats for the ref.
This game seems to be pretty popular among those that have bothered to try it out, but I didn’t like it. I think the biggest issue is the core game loop – it’s a small game with only eight foes in total. That translates into a lot of padding, which comes in various forms. One is that it’s dialogue-heavy. To be fair you can skip all the text with a mere button press, but there are so many of these conversations that even wading through them with skipping is still a substantial waste of time. Now obviously you don’t come into this expecting the gritty absorbing drama of a working class loser rising from his humble circumstances to the heights of boxing fame and all that, but it seems very much pitched to kids and that silly/random humor they like in early adolescence. Absolutely what you should expect given the Cartoon Network sort of art style, but nevertheless a little grating for adults. It’s also Brits writing Americans solely from movie stereotypes, which is annoying in its own way.
The other big padding element is grinding for cash. While not strictly necessary, the very tough last two or three foes are probably going to necessitate buying at least some of the special techniques and getting a ring helper. After the first fight you get a beeper, the purpose of which is for beaten foes to challenge you once again but this time with some special condition – beat them in under a certain amount of time, without getting hit, etc and so on. They’ll bet you money on this, anywhere from $5 to $40. The thing about this is, the more advanced foes that are much more risky and time-consuming to beat don’t really offer more money! So, other than for pure love of the game, there’s no real point to grinding money by doing anything but beating up Rat Joe or Budget Dhalsim over and over and over again. And while the fights can have new conditions, old foes never add anything new to their repertoire.
Then there’s the fundamental gameplay, which is a mixed bag at best. The good thing is that it does capture the feel of Punch-Out for the most part, at least in the broad strokes, and has a solid and fair feel to it. There is some sheer memorization required with some foes, but that’s always been part of the package. It is very simplistic compared to Punch-Out, however. Despite having “Counter Punch” in the title I don’t think you’re ever able to actually do that. Every enemy attack has one specific dodge or block, you either do that or get hit. They then leave a window open for a follow-up combo. It’s that simple pattern aaaaalll the way through the game for the most part.
Also, if you like Punch-Out speedrunning, forget about that here as each match has a randomized length. That’s because there are no TKOs, the opponent can just keep getting back up forever based on seemingly a random dice roll. You, on the other hand, are probably losing the match if you get knocked down a second time. The game does track your win-loss record but it seems to be totally meaningless, other than losing optional bets there are no stakes, you can just keep throwing yourself at the next foe in the story progression over and over.
By far the best thing going here is the animations. While it’s essentially Flash art, it’s very well-done. It does seem to paper over some of the deeper flaws, though. But if you’re fiending for more Punch-Out, this gets close enough that it might be of some interest to you. I think more general and casual players will be put off, as the game’s sales indicated.
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