6 Really Strange Boxing Games

Not all boxing games involve people punching each other. Sometimes they features monsters, animals, or all manner of weird "thing". But Animal Boxing changes things up taking it into the weird territory. On the surface you'd think it would be animals fighting each other (something that could work), but instead you are a human punching the shit out of animals in a boxing ring.

It's as insane as it sounds. You customize your human fighters ans then battle against some 50 normal animals via the Nintendo DS touchscreen. So if you have any desire to punch and weirdly attractive lady fox then this game might be for you. Fighting animals is one thing, fighting animals wearing sports bras and human shaped bobbies is on another level.

For a Nintendo DS game Animal Boxing looks pretty great. It's clear designed for kids as the gameplay is incredibly basic and limiting. I wouldn't doubt is this wasn't some subtle trick by a developer to get kids into the furry sub-set. It's a Spanish development team we really can't know one way or another. What I do know is you better have safe search on when looking of images for this game...

While the gameplay is simple the way it uses the Nintendo DS is pretty cool and worth tracking down the game for. Animal Boxing is played with the DS held upside down so that the touch screen is above. You then swipe with your thumbs to give you the feeling of throwing punches at your opponent.

Teleroboxer is essentially Punch Out! in space. Nintendo needed something to really show off the new Virtual Boy system and creating a boxing game would be a great way to show of the depth that no other console could do at the time. Even in 2019 this technique and game is pretty impressive.

Of course, we all know the story of the failure of the Virtual Boy because Nintendo pushed it out in a state that its creator did not intend. All that mattered to them was getting a console on shelves to by them time for the N64 and so consumers wouldn't forget about them amidst the new PlayStation.

The game is weird in that it put players in control of giant robots to settle their differences. It's pretty much the closest video game adaptation we are going to get to Robot Jox. Teleroboxer looks impressive and offers up a serious challenge, but the headaches that the Virtual Boy cases means extended play isn't feasible.

The controls have a high learning curve and the non-traditional Virtual Boy gamepad in a 3D space dosen't help the matter. If they tweaked the difficulty, controls and made this a direct follow-up to Punch Out!, I think it could have shifted a good amount of consoles.

You'd think that a boxing game would be pretty straight forward. Two combatants, one ring, and a whole lot of punching. Maybe throw in some real-world boxers and you're off to the races. Then there's Sega who are usually out of their minds when designing video games.

Funky Head Boxers is the fever dream of what I can only assume was a bunch on monkeys locked in a room with only a Sega Saturn development kit on hand. The only defining thing about the game is, well, the big funky heads that make up each generic character.

The team used the new 3D Sega ST-V hardware that was essentially a Sega Saturn in an arcade, hence why the game was eventually ported to the Saturn. It's claim to face is the giant box heads that had real-world facial models pasted on top of them. Each cube simply had parts of the persons (probably Sega employees) head pasted on.

It's a very simple process but allows for a great deal of animation in the front cube panel that held their face. Swap out the image to a different expression and you get a lot of cool screens. Still, it's a giant cube on a polygonal body. It's just a really bizarre title.

Fighting Mania is the perfect example of American arcade importers being afraid of the crazy anime stuff. This is actually a Fist of the North Star game where you punch six pads (three on each side) as a fight plays out on screen. If that sounds bloody well awesome, you're right! This is about as cool as it gets and makes for a great workout too.

As a fight plays out on the screen in the center the pads on either side will pop out and it's your job to punch them as fast as physically possible before they light up If they light up that means the opponent had blcoked your punch and you lose energy. This is as close to getting the First of the North Star experience minus the exploding heads and bodies.

As the levels get harder the pads move quicker and become harder to hit. Just make sure not to punch too hard as the machine will essentially TILT and ask you to calm your inner Mike Tyson down. People tend to ignore this and it's common to find machines with pads missing most of their protective padding.

You also need to punch with included gloves for your, and the machines, protection. In many location without proper maintenance these are probably missing. While not a traditional boxing game, it's the only game on this list that actually has your punching your opponent.

Power Punch 1 does not exist. Power Punch II is the only game in the series because it was originally intended to be the official sequel to Punch Out! You wonder why Nintendo rarely, if ever, give their huge 1st party games to other studios? Well, Power Punch II is one reason.

Punch Out! was a huge title that is still as impressive and fun in 2019 as it was when it released on the NES. So, Nintendo wanted another entry in the series as let Beam Software have a crack at it with only minor supervision from Nintendo. That was a huge mistake.

Instead of a follow-up to Punch Out! with a new cast and story, much like Super Punch Out! did on the SNES, Power Punch II went all sorts of weird. After Mike Tyson (changed to Mark Tyler because Tyson was a shit human being back then) beats everyone on earth he decides to prove he's the best by going into space and fight the toughest opponents the universe has to offer. Seems reasonable.

So now you fight robots aliens and space creatures. It's not the worst title in the world but it doesn't even come close to matching the original Punch Out! and after Nintendo saw what they were doing disowned the game. I'm pretty sure the lead developer got high off Quaaludes, saw the movie Arena, and decided that was the future of boxing.

The one thing that every game on this list shares, not matter how weird they fight be, is that you actually box. Maybe it's via a controller, joystick and buttons, or even hitting pads with your bare fists. Prize Fighter for the Sega CD decided that wasn't futuristic enough and decided to remove all the fighting.

Okay, so you still technically fight, but this was the Sega CD and they figure the future was in playing movies. And by playing I mean hitting a button at the right time so the movie keeps playing. Think of something like the original Dragon's Lair but with cheesy life-action footage instead of gorgeous animation from Don Bluth.

The entire game is played from a first-person perspective and has you rising through the ranks until your reach the mountain top. Artistically, the game is pretty cool with the black and white style calling to mind the amazing Raging Bull film.

The team behind the movie/game spent over a month simply choreographing each fight and it shows. Well, it shows if you ever figure out what the game wants you to do and when. Almost everything on the Sega CD was nothing more than Simon Says along with a movie. Neat the first time but once you get the pattern there is no reason to ever play these games again.