2nd bald bull seems to be the unbeatable end of the game...

Hard ass game. Most often popiniski would be the one that got me. Sandman and macho were really tough. Beating Tyson required spoon bending abilities. Only did it once after countless hours of replay. The fact that I can't put that on my resume is a shame as I invested way more time and concentration on this than most other life accomplishments. I don't have anywhere near the patience to play such repetitive sequence games anymore. I would be surprised if many younger people in this era would have the patience to make it to the bottom row of this graphic.

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I would be surprised if many younger people in this era would have the patience to make it to the bottom row of this graphic.

That's not a patience issue, that's a design issue that has been eliminated in modern games.

There's no reason to delay progress by making players repeatedly play through several trivial fights before getting back to where they are having a challenge. It was done in the NES era because they were operating under the philosophy that "the longer it takes to beat the game = the more hours of gameplay in it." It didn't matter if most of those gameplay hours were trivial digital chores like stomping Glass Joe yet again.

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- Can it not be both? I think it can
  
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- Also the mindset of getting quarters out of gamer's pockets was very much the standard way of thinking about game design, even if no quarters were involved.
  
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"Nintendo Hard" was definitely a real thing. May I contribute Ghosts 'n Goblins to the conversation?

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- I'm still convinced that game was a troll
  
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Skill issue.

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People can beat this game with their eyes closed.

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- I beat Glass Joe once.
  
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"bull"

OP clear your browser history asap

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So in the non US game version, Soda Popinski is named Vodka Dunkenski.

Survive round one and tyson gets a bit easier.

I still have this game on my still working NES from 1987. MTPO and Tecmo Bowl are still fantastic.

*edit. That's supposed to be "Drunkinski".

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So in the non US game version, Soda Popinski is named Vodka Dunkenski.

I thought this was an issue with revisions, I still he was also called Vodka in the early US version.

I mean even Mike Tyson got renamed to Mr Dream later...

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- Went back and did some reading. It was an arcade game called punch out that came out around 1984. Vodka Drunkinski. No Mike Tyson.
  
  Nes got the rights to make a console game but their "family friendly" mantra called for him to be renamed to not be alcohol related.
  
  The NES release of Punch out in Japan had 10,000 gold cartridges given away as prizes and such in Japan a bit before launch. No Tyson.
  
  Then Nintendo of America's founder and president went and watched a Mike Tyson boxing mach, a bit before he ever became World Champ, and was like "daaaaaaaaaamn. We need him in our game as the final champ".
  
  They signed a 3 year deal to use his name and likeness for the now "Mike Tysons Punch-out" in exchange for $50,000. You could say it was a small amount, but no one knew how popular the game would be and it was risking that maybe he wouldn't ever even become champ and he was getting added into the game completely last minute.
  
  So MTPO dropped in 1987, Tyson Became world champ in 1987 (cause he was a scary flipping beast in the late 80's), the game was a huge hot (obvs) and if you own the cartridge from 87 through 90 you get to have MT in it. Everything released after 1990 is no Tyson, including any digital downloads and wii version or switch or whatever. It has a fictional "Mr.Dream".
  
  So you want Mike, you have to pirate it, or you have to own a cartridge from the first few release years.
  
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Isn't he called "Don Flamenco"? Haha

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