What I’m Playing – I Gotta Go “P” as in Pinball and Punch-Out!!
January 6, 2026 2 Comments
“DADDY, COME BACK HOME” with a picture of Mario. Folks, Mario is a dead beat dad. It’s canon!
I haven’t done an IGC review since Luigi’s Mansion over a week ago. I spent the last week of the kids’ Christmas vacation playing Zaccaria Pinball with Dad, Angela, and Sasha The Kid (capital T, like Sonic The Hedgehog). We’re hard at work on a Definitive Review of the 40 table Zaccaria Pinball Retro set, which is notorious for appearing to be an incredible deal (40 tables for $5? REALLY?) but actually being mostly of low quality and based around 1950s style boardwalk pins. It used to be a 27 table set, but in 2025, they added 13 very odd tables. Some are genuinely experimental, like Pool Champion Retro (pictured above) while others have no outlanes or challenge elements at all beside the drain. Sasha The Kid dubbed them “shooter’s school” tables. One of those shooter’s school tables actually did score a CLEAN SCORECARD, meaning none of the seven Pinball Chick team members who cast a rating vote went negative on it. It took 19 tables to get that far, and there’s only potential for one more. We were hoping to finish it by now but instead we’re barely halfway through. But that review is coming to The Pinball Chick, and I promise in 2026 I’ll try to update TPC more. What makes it special is Jordi and Dave participated and we even have a newcomer, Matt. That should be up in a couple weeks at the latest.
I, for one, really liked Pool Champion a lot. It’s weird and Oscar the Grouch is furious over the circular walls, but I can honestly say I’ve never played a table like it. It’s not amazing. Actually, it’s often infuriating, especially since the outlanes are totally unprotected. It’s one of forty tables that the now seven person Pinball Chick team will be reviewing soon at The Pinball Chick.
As for content for this site, I’m hard at work on a Punch-Out Definitive Review. It won’t have the Wii version, but it will have AT LEAST Punch-Out!! (Arcade), Super Punch-Out!! (Arcade), Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! (NES), and Super Punch-Out!! Plus, I’m planning a few surprises, such as the game pictured below. I guess it’s not a surprise anymore, huh? Since these games are very short even if I replay them multiple times, this won’t be like the Llamasoft feature that takes me all month to finish. I hope everyone enjoys it! It’ll be published by this weekend at IGC. If you have ANY suggestions that belong in the Punch-Out feature as bonus reviews, leave a comment. I’ll give you a clue to the other two besides the pictured game. One is for the NES and one is for the Sega Master System. And why the hell is Texas Mac bragging about how well he’s hung? “Stud Horse.” Oh EVERY guy says that.
This has the most head-shaking sound effects I’ve ever heard in a coin-op. It sounds like two old people making love in a shower. Not that I know what that sounds like.
Indie Gamer Chick 
I’m old enough to remember the echoes of “body blow, body blow” ringing out in arcades. (Like, the arcade Paperboy even references this: https://youtube.com/shorts/uXFu08LVBKY?si=T-lFzTmnLpCPgKao) AND Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! was one of my favorite Christmas gifts, so looking forward to your thoughts on the games.
I do wonder how, in the arcade Super Punch-Out!!, Dragon Chan is allowed to do a jump kick off the top rope? Doing a running charge uppercut from across the ring? Okay. Hypnotizing me with a magic turban diamond, fine. But a jump kick? Let’s keep it to the Queensberry Rules please.
Just wait until the SNES game. They let people throw balls at you, spit on you, and even hit you with a walking stick. Marquess of Queensberry is spinning in his grave.