> Notice something about the title? Yeah, it isn’t Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! The game is exactly the same, but you fight a palette-swapped Tyson at the end — they made him white and changed his name to Mr. Dream. Sad, really, but how often did you even get that far? Turns out this is a great party game.
What a shame :( I wonder how much extra money it would have cost them for the licensing.
The NES did have Punch Out cartridges with Mr Dream. Mike Tyson was only part of a 3-year licensing deal Nintendo decided not to renew[1]. So all cartridges sold after 1990 had Mr Dream. Also, it wasn't just a palette swap (but it was similar) [2][3]
I don't think it's a license issue, it was more of that Mike Tyson criminal convictions that caused Nintendo to replace him when they re released the game.
It's both. The licence expired and Nintendo didn't renew for obvious reasons. Also the game was rereleased for the nes as punch out in 1990, so it's still an authentic original nes game.
I'm pretty sure I remember getting that far. We even figured out how to actually win. I don't remember now how we got the knowledge - this was waaay before the internet and in a third world country.
What a shame :( I wonder how much extra money it would have cost them for the licensing.