So here’s one of those “odd thoughts” I’ve had recently:
Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out was the first rhythm game.
Hear me out…rhythm games are the new big thing with the guitar heroes and the rock bands and the like. You play them by seeing some kind of impulse on the screen, then pushing a button or hitting a drum or some other Pavlovian response to that stimulus. There the players simulate playing a musical instrument that the screen is showing you how to play (although it’s about as far from that as my next subject is from actual boxing).
Yet back in the late eighties, we were already doing that. Whether it was to dodge Piston Honda’s punches (after seeing the stimulus of his eyebrows twitching) or hitting Blad Bull during his Bull Charge (if I remember right, it’s a stomach punch after his third hop towards you), it’s pretty much the same thing. You watch for the tell-tale sign of a punch that was different for each boxer (like a shaking head or even a flashing jewel), dodging that punch and then delivering a counter attack. It’s almost like Guitar Hero, yet they don’t tell you exactly what key you need to push when the different colors come up, you have to figure it out on your own.
In it’s own way, Punch-Out was SUPERIOR in that respect as it never told you exactly what you needed to do, but once you were a good player, you knew exactly when to punch King Hippo in the navel, or to smack that laugh off of Soda Popinski.
Well, now that I’ve earned my geek-cred, I’ll let you all ponder that moment. Don’t ask my why this is on a Shakespeare-themed blog…I refer you to my previous posts about particle physics and time travel.
-Adam
