Super Punch-Out!!

A. Champion. The player controls the boxer from a third-person perspective , with him being translucent on the screen. Players can attack their opponents with jabs to the face or with body blows from either hand.

The opponent can deflect punches, so players must aim at the opponent's open spot (where the gloves are not) to connect. Depending on the opponents' stances, they will guard themselves differently, so players need to use the correct punches. As in the first two arcade games of the series, players have a power meter, located on the bottom of the screen. The meter fills up as the player lands punches against the opponent, and it goes down as the player gets hit.

When the power meter fills up completely, the player will be able to launch knockout punches such as uppercuts , hooks , and rapid punches. These punches have a slight delay in execution, but they cause more damage to the opponent. Players can also build power as the match progresses, as indicated by the background color behind the player's face on the upper left corner of the screen, which goes from blue to green to yellow to red. The player reaches "Power-Up" status when the background color reaches red.

During this status, the player's punch speed and power increase. They lose their Power-Up status if they are knocked down. Players can avoid attacks from their opponents by dodging to the left or right or by ducking, but players cannot punch while dodging or ducking, nor can they duck body blows. They can also block attacks to either the head or the body, but they cannot block strong punches; strong punches must be avoided by dodging or ducking.

Depending on the situation, the player must strategically block, dodge, rope, or duck in order to avoid an opponent's attack. Players can capitalize on the opponent's attacks by launching counter-punches immediately after avoiding an attack. Both the player and the opponent have stamina meters, both displayed on the top of the screen. The meters decrease when either boxer gets hit by a punch.

Boxers will get knocked down if their stamina meter runs out. Faster knockdowns will cause that boxer to recover less stamina upon getting up; the same happens if a boxer is knocked down by a knockout punch. Either boxer will lose if they cannot stand up before the count of ten after being knocked down (resulting in a knockout or KO) or if they are knocked down three times in the match (resulting in a technical knockout or TKO). The player can also recover some stamina while the opponent is down by pressing the buttons on the controller .

A meter not displayed on screen is what many skilled players refer to as a "dizzy threshold". This means that if a player manages to land a given number of consecutive punches, it will put the opponent into a brief "dizzy" or "stunned" animation. A "dizzied" or "stunned" opponent will appear shaken for a short period of time (in which the match timer freezes temporarily), and the player has a small margin of opportunity to achieve an instant knockdown with a well-timed knockout punch. Each of the 16 opponents varies in how much match time it takes to become "dizzied", some more quickly than others.

There are two opponents who can be knocked out upon the first knockdown, however, a knockdown during a "dizzy" animation is critical in making this possible. There are eight opponents who can be knocked out in two knockdowns, however, the player must achieve the second knockdown within four seconds of the first knockdown. Finally, there are six opponents who the player must defeat via a TKO as the aforementioned four seconds between the first two knockdowns does not apply. [ original research?

] The player has three minutes to knock out the opponent. After three minutes, the match ends, and the player loses; the player cannot win by a decision. After losing, the player can use a continue and fight a rematch. The game ends after all continues have been used; the player must fight all opponents in the current circuit again.

The game consists of four circuits, the fourth of which can only be unlocked if the player has never suffered a loss. The player can retry any circuit that has already been beaten. The game has a battery–backed memory in which players can save their data and records for future play. In 2022, it was revealed that the use of a button prompted cheat code , a hidden two-player game mode can be unlocked.

This works on all versions with no hacking required.