Punch-Out!!/YMMV

• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Narcis Prince. While he does have quite a few fans, and is a common subject for fan artwork, he also has something of a Hate Dom, mostly from fans of Aran Ryan, who feel that Narcis tries too hard to be a pretty boy by comparison.
  • Heike Kagero. With the Bishōnen archetype being itself so divisive among western gamers, Heike correspondingly has just as many people who love him as those who consider him to be just creepy and weird.
• Catharsis Factor: These games are all incredibly difficult to win and take enormous amounts of practice to even just barely eke out a victory against the later challengers let alone delivering a Curb-Stomp Battle against them. But when you do win, you will feel like a champion! Aww, yeah!
• Fanon Discontinuity: Nobody expected the SNES player character to be Little Mac, with many assuming him being labeled such in his guest appearance in Fight Night Round 2 just being EA taking artistic liberties. For some fans, this has been partially rectified with the Super NES recolor for Little Mac in Super Smash Bros., which made the two playable boxers easier to associate with each other in their eyes, but not all.
• Good Bad Bugs: It's unknown whether the strategy of blocking Soda's uppercuts on the NES was intentional or a glitch, but it makes beating him insanely easy.
• Harsher in Hindsight: The Wii game was rereleased on the Wii U eShop immediately after a surprise announcement that Club Nintendo would be shutting down in mid-2015, and that no newly-released titles – effective starting the rerelease week of Punch-Out!! Wii – would be eligible for registration. Kind of makes the order to "join Club Nintendo today, Mac" feel like the game's mocking you, huh?
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: One of the things Doc Louis says in Doc Louis's Punch Out!! is, "Thanks for joining Club Nintendo, Mac!" Originally, it was simply congratulatory. With the game returning as part of Club Nintendo's closing sale, however, it can be seen as Nintendo thanking you for registering with and using Club Nintendo as a final farewell.
• Ho Yay:
  • Frank Jr. looks positively elated to lose the match. Flushed cheeks, drooling smile, the works.
  • In the fandom, Little Mac and Narcis Prince seem to be paired up the most.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: What some people claim about the Wii version compared to the NES version, especially those who have seen but haven't actually played the Wii version. It's even mistakenly called a remake quite often.
• Jerkass Woobie: It's not hard to view Super Macho Man in Title Defense this way. It's clear how frustrated and bitter he is over losing all his fans to Little Mac and doesn't seem to have any fans of his own anymore, while being booed and subjected to Produce Pelting throughout the fight. Sure, he's still a cocky asshole, but it's not hard to see him as sympathetic.
• Mexicans Love Speedy Gonzales: It's a testament to how good the character writing is that, while Punch-Out!! Wii has stereotypical characters, they are beloved by fans in their countries of origin (like Super Macho Man, for American audiences) for being portrayed stereotypically, yet Played for Laughs. It also helps that the Canadian devs and the Japanese publisher of the game also took a jab at themselves with Bear Hugger and Piston Hondo respectively.
• Replacement Scrappy: Quite a few people feel Mr. Dream is a poor substitute for Iron Mike. Doesn't help that Mr. Dream seems generic and not a lot of originality went into him (same body type Tyson had, same exact dialogue, same exact moves, 99-0-99 record, comes from "Dreamland", etc). At least Nick Bruiser was fairly memorable.
• The Scrappy: Mad Clown is perhaps the least popular character from the series (not counting Mr. Dream), and is seen as a lazy re-skin of Bear Hugger. While there are many other Palette Swaps in the series, Mad Clown is easily the most blatant of them all.
• Ships That Pass in the Night: Almost all ships as, despite presumably fighting each other off-screen, none of the boxers interact with anyone but Mac. Punch Joe and Von Kaiser are commonly shipped together.
• Spiritual Licensee: Stereotypes aside, these are the best Rocky games ever made.
• Surprise Difficulty: You wouldn't expect Glass Joe to put up a fight, but once you get to Title Defense...
• Suspiciously Similar Song: The original arcade and NES games had one of the Gilette "Look Sharp, Feel Sharp March" which was played in their ads and on their "Cavalcade of Sports" which included, naturally, boxing.
  • The NES version seemed to have Jimmy Hart versions of La Marseillaise (Glass Joe), Ride of the Valkyries (mainly Von Kaiser but some other fighters as well), Sakura Sakura (Piston Honda), and the Song of the Volga Boatmen (Soda Popinski). The Wii version, in a subversion, has legitimate snippets from these four songs and "Les Toreadors" for Don Flamenco.
• That One Attack:
  • Mike Tyson's Dynamite punch/Mr. Dream's Dream Maker in the original definitely counts. For the first ninety seconds in the first round, if they happen to connect with these rapid punches, you're knocked down no matter what. Super Macho Man's lariat punches count too for the same reasons. Like Tyson, it is a One-Hit KO attack that requires a lot of rapid dodging to avoid it.
  • For players new to the Wii game, King Hippo's double side smash and Bear Hugger's Bear Hug can serve as a wake-up call, since it does so much damage early on in the game. Great Tiger's uppercuts are also this, since they're the first instance where you must dodge the right direction to avoid them.
• That One Boss:
  • In the Wii version, Title Defense Bald Bull is unanimously considered to be the hardest opponent. Significant damage on every attack, a right uppercut that comes out very quickly, a change in timing on his Bull Charge (his One-Hit Kill), and most importantly, knockdown immunity unless hit with a Star Punch. It also doesn't help that the Stars are hard to get. Bald Bull's status as That One Boss is lampshaded in Family Guy when, while praying, Peter asks God for advice on how to beat him.
  • Soda Popinski in Title Defense. If you don't have quick reflexes, have fun losing. Soda moves very quickly and early on takes little damage. Each consecutive time you counter, he'll take more damage, but if you get hit, it resets. And without quick reflexes, you'll be getting hit a lot.
  • Dragon Chan in Super Punch-Out!! (arcade and Super NES). Blocks a lot, is fast, and has that One-Hit Kill kick. Especially in the rematch of the arcade game. He blocks a lot more efficiently and he does two of those kicks in a row. Not only is the timing on dodging the kicks difficult, he throws them with random build-up times, and if he ends on the player's right, he can't be countered after missing.
  • Great Tiger in the arcade Super Punch-Out!!, especially the rematch. He rarely stuns, and even if he does, the player gets at most one or two extra punches out of it. He also uses an annoying low hook attack with an odd build-up time, making it very hard to dodge or counter. Even worse, he'll dodge the player's attack and follow with an easily avoidable attack, allowing the player to dodge that and get in a hit or two. Great, until he suddenly counters instantly and gets a free hit on the player.
  • Bear Hugger is notable in that he's one of the few boxers to not follow a specific pattern after the first knockdown. This makes him extremely difficult to read and anticipate his fakes. For the TD version, considering that the best way to do damage to him requires that you counterpunch his moves, not being prepared for his fakes only serves to aggravate the issue.
  • Despite only being the third-to-last boss in the SNES Super Punch-Out!!, Hoy Quarlow may well be the game's hardest opponent, due to his incredibly fast and powerful counter-attacks, which allow him to really whale on you if you get careless. By contrast, Rick and Nick Bruiser are more Mighty Glaciers, with the difficulty in their fights (especially Nick's) being more in actually taking them down before the timer runs out.
  • Many people will agree that Mike Tyson is the hardest opponent in the entire series, and Mike Tyson is infamous for being one of the hardest bosses in any video game ever. His quick reflexes and brutal attacks really make him a challenge.