Now you can party like it’s 1989. Fans of Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out — and you know who you are — are going to be thrilled with Rock Software’s new iPhone app, Mike Tyson. Like the 1980s Nintendo sensation that kept a generation of kids indoors, this one has a protagonist (called Little Sammy) fighting his way up the ranks until he gets to Tyson himself. Unfortunately it’s not the current Tyson, like the guy you saw in The Hangover. So there’s a good chance you’re going to get flattened.
A couple of twists: The fighters one encounters in the game are all based on friends of the creator, John Shahidi. And there’s a feature in which one can add current sports personalities into the fray. From Mashable:
“There’s my high school buddies,” Shahidi said. “Tyler is a friend who was a bully; Luke is another friend who was the first of my friends to have kids; Franco (Italian boxer) is my best friend and lawyer.”
The game will sell for $0.99, but Rock Software plans to further monetize by letting users buy other athletes that they can use in the game. The company does digital work for other flamboyant sports stars including Chad Ochocinco, Terrell Owens and Floyd Mayweather Jr., so we can imagine these in-game purchases being a fairly strong supplemental revenue stream.
If I can buy Piston Honda and Soda Popinski, I’m in. Glass Joe sold separately.
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20 Years Later, Mike Tyson’s Getting a New Video Game [Mashable]
