We kicked 2025 off with some sad news for fans of one of Nintendo’s biggest nostalgic properties. According to a ResetEra post by Kinda Funny Games present Imran Khan, the developers over at Next Level Games had reportedly put the Punch-Out series on ice. While the true reason seems to be that other Nintendo properties have higher sales potential, one of the cited reasons was that the backlash to Punch-Outs caricatures and stereotypes was greater than everyone involved imagined. It’s unlikely that the series will be coming back anytime soon, but a new article from Time Extension at least indicates that the roster of bad guys wasn’t to blame for the series taking a break.
Once the initial story broke, Time Extension writer Jack Yarwood took it upon themselves to investigate some of the claims made by Khan. Getting in contact with multiple past employees of Next Level Games, all of which requested to remain anonymous, it seems that none of the team members remembered any specific controversy involving the game’s cast. One even told the outlet, “I don’t recall any negative feedback from the public around stereotypes after launch nor have I seen anything since so I don’t believe that is a valid reason to prevent another version being made.” Funnily enough, the only controversy another ex-employee remembered was related to a Sailor Moon easter egg in-game, one which allegedly cost Nintendo a couple of million dollars in a lawsuit.
Other team members that Yarwood spoke to stated there weren’t any immediate plans to do a followup to the game. There was the Club Nintendo exclusive downloadable game Doc Louis’ Punch-Out, which repurposed the Doc Louis model from the Wii title and let Little Mac fight him, and that seemed to be it for the time. Following the game’s release, the team moved on to other projects, the first of which was a Transformers game for Wii and a few miscellaneous licensed titles before transitioning over to Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon for 3DS.
What Yarwood did get out of Next Level Games is an admission that the Punch-Out series is unlikely to come back because there isn’t any unique gameplay hook for a new entry. That’s a pretty similar sentiment to famed designer Takaya Imamura’s stance on F-Zero, which stated the series needed a “grand idea” to be resurrected. The designer told Yarwood, “There needs to be a new gameplay hook to make another. The Wii controls combined with how old the game was made it a perfect fit to make Wii Punch-Out.”
Lastly, the employees were able to confirm Khan’s initial claim that there was a struggle to get some of Punch-Out’s characters past the higher-ups at Nintendo. As the unnamed employee told Yarwood:
“We faced quite a few challenges on the Wii version in regards to avoiding or perpetuating cultural stereotypes. Things like Great Tiger’s mysticism or Aran Ryan’s brusque Irish mannerisms just made the cut after a lengthy debate. Previous characters like Kid Quick were cut due to their dated representation and instead replaced with more modern original characters like Disco Kid.”
Funnily enough, Next Level Games leaned into the Canadian stereotypes with the fighter Bear Hugger since they are a Canadian developer. Everyone on the team was ultimately comfortable with how ridiculous the character was.
Overall, though, it doesn’t seem as if Punch-Out is being sidelined because of its roster being culturally insensitive. While that doesn’t confirm a new one is in the works or anything, it does mean that Nintendo could indeed resurrect the franchise with another installment in the future. Considering the time between Super Punch-Out and Punch-Out Wii was 15 years, maybe we’ll need to wait a full 20 before Little Mac picks up his gloves again.
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Written by Peter Glagowski
Peter has been a freelance gaming and film critic for over seven years. His passion for Nintendo is only matched by the size of his collection.
