Someone going by the name of Unlisted Cheats on Twitter seems to have come across a hidden two-player mode in Super Punch-Out. The game was released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System back in 1994, making this a discovery nearly 30 years in the making.Super Punch-Out was the sequel to Punch-Out for the Nintendo Entertainment System, released almost a decade earlier in 1987. Similar to this earlier entry in the franchise, the game followed a character named Little Mac who takes part in a series of boxing matches. Super Punch-Out has always been known as a singleplayer game, at least until now.“While doing some request work, I casually found some new cheats in Super Punch-Out for SNES,” Unlisted Cheats remarked. “All secret codes in this game use two-button combinations. Two of them are known: sound test and Japanese name input. But there are two more.”The first big discovery was a mode allowing players to pick a fighter for a single boxing match, even one from the Super Circuit. “At the title, hold ‘Y+R,’ then press ‘A’ or ‘Start.’ Following screen will appear instead of regular menus,” Unlisted Cheats explained with a picture showing a character selection screen. “Here you can select any character to fight a free single match.” The player noted that “even fighters from Special Circuit are available here.”
Unlisted Cheats also came across a way to make these boxing matches multiplayer. “In this free match mode, at the character information screen, hold ‘B+Y,’ then press ‘A’ or ‘Start.’ From now, the CPU opponent can be controlled from Joypad 2, so you can fight against a real person,” the player pointed out.
These new modes apparently work on the SNES and Switch versions of Super Punch-Out, meaning that players can enjoy them without having to worry about finding a bunch of retro hardware. What other secrets the game holds remain to be seen.