Having recently/finally installed an airport in my house, I spent the weekend deliberating, debating, and deciding which Wii Shop Channel games I should download first. I went through all the menus and wrote down all the games that I thought I "had to have". The list came out to over $80.00 worth of Wii Points. So I decided to start small- just add a small number of points and get the games that jumped out as being "the best". The first game I downloaded was Punch-Out Featuring Mr. Dream. You may know this game better by its original title, Mike Tyson's Punch-Out. Many believe that the name was changed in response to Iron Mike's "legal difficulties", shall we say. But it seems that the name change is due to a contract dispute with Nintendo as well as his loss to Buster Douglas. In middle school I would spend hours a day playing the original Punch-Out. I bought the strategy guide which I studied more intently than my school books. I was determined to memorize every fighter's weakness, learn all their strengths, so that I could be the best fighter I could be. And back in the day, it worked. I could fight my way through this game completely undefeated. I downloaded the game, and immediately started it up. I wanted to see how long it would take me to get back up to speed on one of my favorite childhood titles. I was curious about whether or not I could fight my way back to the top without the aid of strategy guide. And I have to say, I was amazed by how much came back to me rather quickly. Within twenty minutes I had left opponent after opponent on the mat, either the result of a TKO or a straight 10-count knockout. First time through I fought all the way up to Mr. Sandman (the second to last boxer in the game) who proceeded to destroy Little Mac in a matter of 50 seconds. I even remembered the code to take you straight to the final match with Mike Tyso... er... Mr. Dream. (007 373 5963... weird that I can't remember what I had for dinner last night...) Note from Sean's wife: You had leftover Chinese. And since I couldn't get to him on my own, I decided to enter the code to see how different Mr. Dream was from the boxer-formerly-known-as-Kid-Dynamite. Answer: not much. Same punches, same trunks, same pattern of the fight. The real differences lie only in aesthetic places: his hair, skin, and face are where the differences lie. Oh, and he's from Dreamland, not Catskill NY. And he kicked my ass as quickly as I remember Mike Tyson doing it. As far as the game itself goes, it is as much fun to play as I remember. Although I had forgotten how blatantly stereotyped all of the characters are, I loved seeing the ones I remembered: Don Flamenco and the left-right combo; King Hippo's big mouth and sensitive tummy; and Bald Bull and his mustache of doom. Then there were the ones that I had forgotten about: Great Tiger and his blinking turban; Soda Popinski's longer stand-up time; the second, less predictable Don Flamenco. Since this was the first Wii Shop game I downloaded, I was impressed by the novel nature of playing this game with my Wiimote on its side. I had a great time playing this title, and for the price (500 Wii Points or $5.00) it will certainly be played again and again. If you have fond memories of Punch-Out, this is the game for you. Sorry Mr. Tyson.