It's been fifteen years since the last Punch-Out!! title, and what Next Level Games rewards fans' patience with is the same old gameplay from when Mike Tyson was still the champ. Of course, fans of the series wouldn't have it any other way. Puny pugilist Little Mac returns in the long-awaited Wii sequel along with the colorful cast of boxing blowhards he faced in the NES classic, and each opponent comes complete with their signature attacks, taunts, and over-the-top national pride. It wouldn't be a sequel without something new though, and Punch-Out!! throws a wild right hook at veteran players who think they have everything figured out.

Little Mac, still tiny and somehow still seventeen, is eager to regain his former title of Champion of the World Video Boxing Association, but he'll have to start at the bottom if he wants to get to the top. Working his way through the Minor, Major, and World Circuits, Mac encounters old rivals as well as a new one until he's champ once again. The road to becoming a boxing legend doesn't end there, however, as Mac comes to discover that his defeated opponents are eager for revenge. Despite the game's sparse plot, Punch-Out!! manages to go out on a significant note just before the credits roll.

If you can't figure out how to knock King Hippo down, Mac's oddball coach might have a subtle hint for you.

Gameplay-wise, Mac still needs to either knock his opponent down three times in a round, knock him out completely, or win by decision after the three rounds are done. He'll still receive stars for jabbing opponents at just the right time, allowing him to unleash powerful star punches. He even still has hearts representing his vitality; lose all his hearts and Mac will be unable to throw a punch until he dodges a blow or gets knocked down. Almost everything is the same as it was on the NES, and it's still great. It may be frustrating to defeat certain fighters at first, but slowly figuring out a boxer's pattern and then taking him down without getting knocked out will make it worth the extra effort.

Being a Wii game, Punch-Out!! allows players to literally throw their own punches with motion controls, and balance board owners can even dodge and duck with their own bodies if they'd like. Fortunately, these controls are optional and for good reason. The motion controls add unnecessary complexity to the simple control scheme that the series has always used. Veterans will be happy to find that they can turn the Wii remote sideways and play with the classic NES setup.

Fans should easily recognize Mac's opponents because every fighter from the NES game (with the exception of Tyson) returns alongside a couple from other Punch-Out!! installments, as well as one new entry to the series. Newcomer Disco Kid may be underwhelming to players, as he's the only new character fighting in the circuits and is taken down early on, but his design makes for a funny fight and he teaches both novice and veteran players a valuable lesson on timing. Fans may also be disappointed to find only one fighter who originated in Super Punch-Out!! has made his way to the Wii. It would have been nice to fight opponents like Masked Muscle, Dragon Chan, and Heike Kagero once more, but Punch-Out!!'s cast is already exploding with enough characters as it is.

The old favorites start out the same. Glass Joe is still a Parisian pushover and King Hippo is still a fat islander with a weak stomach, but once players go through the ranks their first time, the fighters return with new tricks up their sleeves in a mode called Title Defense. Now, Joe enters the ring with headgear protecting his signature weakness and Hippo guards his soft belly with a manhole cover. Some fighters make minor alterations to their clothes and appearance, but they all make significant changes to their fighting patterns, punishing players who have taken the time to memorize routines rather than learn to react. Title Defense serves as the core of Punch-Out!!'s career mode and is a welcome expansion upon the series' gameplay, challenging players to re-learn everything.

New to Punch-Out!! is a head-to-head multiplayer mode, which pits Little Mac against Little Mac. The mode starts out in split screen, with players going at it as they normally would. Scoring hits earns energy, which fills up a gauge that transforms Little Mac into his monstrous alter ego, Giga Mac. Once full, the screen reverts to the normal, single-player perspective for a limited time and puts one player in control of a towering fighter similar to an opponent in the career mode. While it's interesting at first, this versus mode gets old fast due to the lack of variation. Punch-Out's classic gameplay is about fighting over-the-top characters and learning their patterns so the player can exploit them, not throwing random punches at a friend.

Glass Joe is your first opponent once again. What could his weakness be?

Perhaps the best update Punch-Out!! has received is in the graphics department. The game's new cel-shaded visuals and creative character designs do the series' humorous style justice. Glass Joe's pitiful expressions of shock are highlighted as Mac dodges each blow and returns one of his own. Each time a fighter gets up, his body shows more signs of damage which range from fist-sized bruises and bandaged cuts to fat lips and black eyes. The game also sounds great. Before, during, and after each fight, opponents deliver lines in their native tongues without subtitles. The tone of their voices and the expressions on their faces convey the general message even if the speech itself goes unrecognized.

If fans were disappointed that Super Punch-Out!! tried to take the series back to its arcade roots, they only need to play the Wii sequel to relive the NES classic. The new Punch-Out!! successfully recreates everything fans loved about the series without getting caught up in gimmicky motion controls or the trap of drastically altering classic gameplay to attract a new audience. It's a great sequel well worth waiting fifteen years for.