29 years is a long time for a video game Easter egg to remain hidden, but that’s exactly what’s happened with one of the titles nearly every Nintendo NES owner spent time playing at some point: Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!
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A retro gamer going by the name “midwesternhousewives” on Reddit posted a video of a cue that would help Punch-Out!! players on the original NES classic get an advantage over one of the game’s top boxers. And that cue? A bearded man in the audience who will duck, prompting you to knock out your opponent.
Reddit user midwesternhousewives discovers a new secret hidden in Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! for the NES that makes a couple of the game’s fights easier.
This easter egg is rather subtle until you notice it, and then it’s very obvious.
Part of the genius of Punch-Out!! is your advantage in a fight is often a mixture of impeccable timing and recognizing graphical cues. In that article Nintendo designer Makoto Wada revealed a camera flash in the crowd that signaled when to land a body blow on the charging Bald Bull during the player’s first match up against the imposing fighter.
Both Piston Honda and Bald Bull (the second time you fight him) can be felled with a single shot if hit at the right time during their special attacks. There’s a video demonstrating how the bearded man and the counter-punch works, which you can check out below.
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With this new discovery, and Wada’s suggestive words from that old interview, many in the gaming community are on the hunt for other potential Punch-Out!! secrets that have been lurking in plain sight for decades.
