Remember those two Punch-Out!! commercials featuring the live-action Little Mac and Doc Louis, released by Nintendo upon an unsuspecting public in the weeks leading up to the game’s release on Wii?
Loved by fans and hailed as some of Nintendo’s best advertising in some time, they were well received. But, did you also know that they were not alone?
Indeed, as UGO reports that a Nintendo rep informed them that there were additional shorts that were shot, but not used– left lying on the cutting room floor like Glass Joe after a couple of rounds in the ring.
According to the report, one short featured the Great Tiger performing some community service of a sort, reading stories aloud to patients of a geriatric center. Elsewhere, we find that Piston Hondo is the owner of a steakhouse– presumably Japanese.
And then there’s everyone’s favorite big man, King Hippo. For his short, he gives an “MTV Cribs”-like tour of his shabby home in “Strong Island.”
Personally, I would love to see a live-action King Hippo.
But alas, it is not to be; the plug was pulled on the promotion and the affiliated shorts at the last minute, leaving us wanting more. UGO asserts that the clips do indeed exist, and are in the can. We just can’t see them.
UGO is trying to reach out to Nintendo for comment, maybe the chance to run the shorts– hard to imagine why they wouldn’t have done so already, if they’re already finished. People loved the ads, so one can only wonder why they would be withheld from an adoring public.
Perhaps they’ll make for some nice bonus content in a Punch-Out!! 2?
