For 28 years, “Super Punch-Out!!” was considered a single-player experience. Now, a button combination has been found that allows you to play the cult game in two-player mode.
What kind of game is this? Super Punch-Out!! is a boxing game released for Super Nintendo in 1994. In this game, you participate in boxing matches against NPC opponents, viewing the back of the character you control, which is partly displayed transparently. This distinguishes it from many successful beat ’em ups like Street Fighter and Fatal Fury.
The goal of Super Punch-Out!! is to knock down the CPU opponent within 3 minutes. If the opponent is still standing or successfully gets back up after the timer runs out, the round is considered lost.
In this cult title, you can also win by a Technical Knockout (TKO) by emptying the opponent’s health bar three times during the fight and knocking them down.
Button combination allows for a fight against a second player
What is this 2-player mode? In the newly discovered 2-player mode of Super Punch-Out!!, the second player takes on the role of the opponent normally controlled by the CPU.
As IGN writer Kat Bailey wrote on Twitter , it is even said to be possible to start the 2-player mode on the Nintendo Switch. Player 2 should also be able to perform the special moves of the opposing fighter.
How do you start the 2-player mode? You start the 2-player mode by pressing a specific button combination on the second controller. One player summarized the steps to start the mode on reddit as follows:
- start the game until you see “Press START” (title screen), but do not press “START” yet
- hold down the Y+R buttons on controller 2 at the title screen
- then press A or START on controller 1
- Select a fighter
- On the next screen: Hold down the B+Y buttons on controller 2 and then press START on controller 1
Real 2-player mode or just a test?
Why was the mode secret? The 2-player mode is likely not a real 2-player mode and was probably never intended as such. Developers used to include cheat codes via button combinations or text entry fields in their games to test various functions and gameplay mechanics (better).
This suggests that the 2-player mode of Super Punch-Out!! was likely intended so that a developer could test attack combinations without the CPU interfering with disruptive actions. The CPU opponent would have been replaced by a second developer for testing purposes.
Since the button combinations need to be executed on the second controller and there’s no reason to press multiple buttons simultaneously on the second controller while playing single-player, it is unlikely that anyone stumbled upon the mode by accident.
How was the mode found? The Twitter account “Unlisted Cheats” actively searches for cheat combinations in old video games that developers integrated into their titles but that have not yet been discovered.
These combinations are, of course, very different from cheats that multiplayer games like CoD: Warzone and Destiny 2 suffer from.
While going through the routine work of Unlisted Cheats, they discovered various button combinations in Super Punch-Out!!, one of which starts the 2-player mode. Another is said to start a sound test.
Nowadays, game developers have sophisticated tools and a wide range of options to extensively test games and their individual mechanics. However, this was not always the case, which is why many cult games have numerous cheat codes.
Especially players of titles like GTA: San Andreas may still remember cheats like “cars fly”, “infinite ammo”, or “delete wanted level”. However, even in the latest installment of the popular game series, there are still cheat codes that make it easier for you to play the story.
