69. Exciting Boxing (Konami, Famicom, 1987)

Exciting Boxing is the final game in my Famicom boxing game journey, and it's also the first game that I haven't really been able to fully experience. You see, Exciting Boxing was released with a large inflatable boxer that was also the game's controller. Punching one of four locations on the inflatable boxer corresponded to 4 types of punches that your in-game boxer can throw. You cannot use a normal controller to play the game, other than navigating through menus. 

This is unfortunate, because compared to the other Famicom boxing games I've been playing, Exciting Boxing seems like it could be the best of the bunch. There is a training mode where a trainer shouts various punches at you (with synthesized speech, a rarity on the Famicom) that seems like a fun practice mode. The actual boxing is similar to Great Boxing: Rush Up, in that you have a first person view of your opponent, though here there is just one screen and no indication of the player's hands anywhere. The enemy boxer sprites are huge for an 8-bit game, and the animations are great for 1987.

I found an eBay listing for the inflatable controller, but there's no way I'm paying $300 to play this game, even if it might be the best (non-Punch-Out) boxing game on the NES.

3/5, I sure would like to actually play this game some day.