Glass Joe
Encyclopedia
is a fictional
boxer
from Nintendo
's video game series Punch-Out!!
He first appeared in the arcade game
Punch-Out!! in 1984, and three years later made his home console debut with the Nintendo Entertainment System
(NES) game of the same name. His most recent appearance was in Punch-Out!!
for the Wii
. In the aforementioned games, he is the first boxer the player fights, and hence the weakest. The character was originally designed by Shigeru Miyamoto
for the arcade game. Makoto Wada revised Glass Joe's appearance for the NES version, while Eddie Viser redesigned him once more for the Wii game; the character was voiced by Christian Bernard in the latter.
Glass Joe is considered by critics to be a racial stereotype of French people
, due to his weakness and cowardice. The stereotypical characteristics of Glass Joe were emphasized even more by the developers of the Wii game, Next Level Games
. For example, they included cutscenes that depicted the character as a lover of luxurious things, such as gourmet coffee. Glass Joe is considered an icon of Nintendo, and one of the most well-known characters in the Punch-Out!! series. His name has been used as a negative title attributed to sportspeople as a consequence of their poor performances.
boxer hailing from Paris
. The character is said to hold a record of one win to 99 losses. He is the player's first and weakest opponent in every Punch-Out!! game he appears in, and is notably skinnier than the series' protagonist, Little Mac. Glass Joe's low level of difficulty has been attributed to his poor blocking and reaction time. He possesses characteristics of racial stereotypes of French people, including cowardice and weakness, which are demonstrated by his quote "Make it quick... I want to retire" in the NES
Punch-Out!!
The character was designed by Shigeru Miyamoto
for the original Punch-Out!! arcade game
. The name "Glass Joe" was conceived by Genyo Takeda
as a play on the fact that the character has a glass jaw, which signifies his inability to take a head blow. Glass Joe's appearance was later revised by Makoto Wada for the NES Punch-Out!!, and by Eddie Viser for the Wii game of the same name
. The character is voiced by Christian Bernard in his Wii appearance, for which his dialogue in between matches mostly consists of counting to ten in French. Next Level Games
, the developer of the Wii game, introduced cutscenes to depict Glass Joe as a fashionable Frenchman. They showed him in front of Parisian landmarks – the Arc de Triomphe
and the Eiffel Tower
– and associated him with "fancy coffee" and French foods such as baguette
s and croissant
s.
. The cutscene before this fight shows a doctor performing an X-ray
examination on Glass Joe, and prescribing him the headgear because of his weak jaw. GameSpy
's Ryan Scott stated that the character "[lulls players] into a false sense of familiarity" in the regular mode, as other opponents in the Wii game were made more difficult than in their previous appearances.
, and is considered one of the most identifiable characters in the Punch-Out!! series. Glass Joe's name has been used as a negative title applied to real-life sportspeople such as Derek Anderson
, Darnell Dockett
, and the players of the North Penn football team. ESPN
's Bill Simmons wrote that the fight between boxers Wladimir Klitschko
and Chris Byrd
was like watching "Glass Joe become the champ in Mike Tyson's Punch-Out". New York Yankees
pitcher A.J. Burnett stated that "the last thing you want to be is a Glass Joe". The character was featured as part of a series of trading card
s depicting the Punch-Out!! boxers.
GameDaily
's Chris Buffa listed Glass Joe as one of the most unappreciated Nintendo characters, and expressed a desire to see him "with a fighting chance" in another game. The Daily Telegraph
s Tom Hoggins described the character as a "deliriously entertaining creation" and a "wimpy French man". "jmanalang" of G4TV referenced his defeat of Glass Joe as a memorable moment in his video game history. In his review of Super Punch-Out!!
, Allgame
's Skyler Miller commented negatively on the character's absence, as he felt that it "[did not] seem right to have a Punch-Out!! game without him".
's Oli Welsh. GamesRadar
's Brett Elston wrote that Glass Joe embodies numerous French stereotypes, including cowardice, an affinity for fancy or expensive things, and that the population of France "apparently must live within 100 feet of the Eiffel Tower at all times". IGN
's Craig Harris found the character to be a "generic, weak white guy" in his early appearances, but called his Wii rendition a "baguette-loving Frenchman who speaks in fluent Pepe le Pew
dialect". One member of the Retronauts podcast
stated that he had identified Glass Joe as simply a "weakling" until he learned more about French stereotypes. Wired
s Chris Kohler used the croissants associated with the character as an example of how the game enhanced the ethnic stereotypes found in previous games. Buffa wrote that the stereotypes could be considered "funny or insulting", while Giant Bomb
's Ryan Davis felt that someone "[would] have to have a pretty sour disposition to take offense at [them]".
listed the character as one of their favorite "punching bags" in video games. He has been used as a litmus test for the usability of NES
controllers such as the U-Force
and the Power Glove
. GamePro
s Will Herring called Glass Joe a "criminally fragile" character that fans of the series grew up with. GamesRadar editor Mikel Reparaz included him in his list of the "13 unluckiest videogame bastards". However, he added that there is something "weirdly poignant about a man who fights a hundred matches and loses all but one of them, but keeps on fighting". UGO's Chris Plante listed the fight with Glass Joe as the 15th greatest NES moment, and wrote that it was more memorable than the last in-game match with real-life boxer Mike Tyson
. Other critics have mocked Glass Joe for his weakness. Elston commented that the character has "forever been the lamest boxer in the series" and that "he can barely throw a punch". GamePros Dave Rudden listed Glass Joe as the 11th skinniest video game character, and wrote "the fact that his losses almost outnumber his weight speak [sic] more about his ineptitude as a boxer than the inability for skinny dudes to fight". GameDaily editor Robert Workman stated Glass Joe to be a "wuss" and a "no-talent schlub who has no business stepping into the boxing ring". Game Informer
s James Cowan called the fight against the character a "total joke". Earnest Cavalli of Wired described Glass Joe as a "living metaphor for physical weakness".
While the character is known for his weakness, his appearance in the "Title Defense" mode of the Wii Punch-Out!! received attention for his increased difficulty level. Kotaku
's Michael McWhertor found this incarnation of Glass Joe, who he described as a "frail French fighter" and a "perennial punching bag", to be surprisingly difficult. Editors for GamePro used the character's new incarnation as a demonstration of how difficult the "Title Defense" mode can be. Official Nintendo Magazines Chris Scullion wrote that, while they were initially worried that the Wii game would be too easy, Glass Joe offset those worries. GameSpot
reviewer Tom McShea stated "the sad fact is, you will lose to Glass Joe, for maybe the first time in your life". 1UP.com
's Scott Sharkey found the difficulty of Glass Joe to be surprising after fighting Mr. Sandman
, the final boss in the preceding mode. Nevertheless, Game Informers Bryan Vore still considered him "tremendously easy".
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
boxer
Boxing
Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...
from Nintendo
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
's video game series Punch-Out!!
Punch-Out!!
is a 1983–1984 boxing arcade game by Nintendo. It was the first in a series of successful Punch-Out!! games that produced an arcade sequel known as Super Punch-Out!!, a spin-off of the series titled Arm Wrestling, a highly popular version for the NES originally known as Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!,...
He first appeared in the arcade game
Arcade game
An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, usually installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars, and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, and merchandisers...
Punch-Out!! in 1984, and three years later made his home console debut with the Nintendo Entertainment System
Nintendo Entertainment System
The Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America during 1985, in Europe during 1986 and Australia in 1987...
(NES) game of the same name. His most recent appearance was in Punch-Out!!
Punch-Out!! (Wii)
Punch-Out!! is a boxing video game for the Wii. It is the latest game in the Punch-Out!! series. It was developed by Canadian developer Next Level Games. Game designer Shigeru Miyamoto served as the game's producer. It was first revealed at Nintendo's conference on October 2, 2008...
for the Wii
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
. In the aforementioned games, he is the first boxer the player fights, and hence the weakest. The character was originally designed by Shigeru Miyamoto
Shigeru Miyamoto
is a Japanese video game designer and producer. Miyamoto was born and raised in Kyoto Prefecture; the natural surroundings of Kyoto inspired much of Miyamoto's later work....
for the arcade game. Makoto Wada revised Glass Joe's appearance for the NES version, while Eddie Viser redesigned him once more for the Wii game; the character was voiced by Christian Bernard in the latter.
Glass Joe is considered by critics to be a racial stereotype of French people
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
, due to his weakness and cowardice. The stereotypical characteristics of Glass Joe were emphasized even more by the developers of the Wii game, Next Level Games
Next Level Games
Next Level Games Inc. is an independent video game developer based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Founded in October 2002, Next Level Games specializes in creating console video games. Its first project was NHL Hitz Pro, which was published by Midway Games. Since then, it has worked with...
. For example, they included cutscenes that depicted the character as a lover of luxurious things, such as gourmet coffee. Glass Joe is considered an icon of Nintendo, and one of the most well-known characters in the Punch-Out!! series. His name has been used as a negative title attributed to sportspeople as a consequence of their poor performances.
Concept and creation
Glass Joe is a FrenchFrench people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
boxer hailing from Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. The character is said to hold a record of one win to 99 losses. He is the player's first and weakest opponent in every Punch-Out!! game he appears in, and is notably skinnier than the series' protagonist, Little Mac. Glass Joe's low level of difficulty has been attributed to his poor blocking and reaction time. He possesses characteristics of racial stereotypes of French people, including cowardice and weakness, which are demonstrated by his quote "Make it quick... I want to retire" in the NES
Nintendo Entertainment System
The Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America during 1985, in Europe during 1986 and Australia in 1987...
Punch-Out!!
The character was designed by Shigeru Miyamoto
Shigeru Miyamoto
is a Japanese video game designer and producer. Miyamoto was born and raised in Kyoto Prefecture; the natural surroundings of Kyoto inspired much of Miyamoto's later work....
for the original Punch-Out!! arcade game
Arcade game
An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, usually installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars, and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, and merchandisers...
. The name "Glass Joe" was conceived by Genyo Takeda
Genyo Takeda
is the general manager of Nintendo's integrated research division, and has been working there since it was founded in 1981. He mostly works on improving hardware for home consoles and handhelds, but sometimes develops video games...
as a play on the fact that the character has a glass jaw, which signifies his inability to take a head blow. Glass Joe's appearance was later revised by Makoto Wada for the NES Punch-Out!!, and by Eddie Viser for the Wii game of the same name
Punch-Out!! (Wii)
Punch-Out!! is a boxing video game for the Wii. It is the latest game in the Punch-Out!! series. It was developed by Canadian developer Next Level Games. Game designer Shigeru Miyamoto served as the game's producer. It was first revealed at Nintendo's conference on October 2, 2008...
. The character is voiced by Christian Bernard in his Wii appearance, for which his dialogue in between matches mostly consists of counting to ten in French. Next Level Games
Next Level Games
Next Level Games Inc. is an independent video game developer based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Founded in October 2002, Next Level Games specializes in creating console video games. Its first project was NHL Hitz Pro, which was published by Midway Games. Since then, it has worked with...
, the developer of the Wii game, introduced cutscenes to depict Glass Joe as a fashionable Frenchman. They showed him in front of Parisian landmarks – the Arc de Triomphe
Arc de Triomphe
-The design:The astylar design is by Jean Chalgrin , in the Neoclassical version of ancient Roman architecture . Major academic sculptors of France are represented in the sculpture of the Arc de Triomphe: Jean-Pierre Cortot; François Rude; Antoine Étex; James Pradier and Philippe Joseph Henri Lemaire...
and the Eiffel Tower
Eiffel Tower
The Eiffel Tower is a puddle iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars in Paris. Built in 1889, it has become both a global icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world...
– and associated him with "fancy coffee" and French foods such as baguette
Baguette
A baguette is "a long thin loaf of French bread" that is commonly made from basic lean dough...
s and croissant
Croissant
A croissant is a buttery flaky pastry named for its distinctive crescent shape. It is also sometimes called a crescent, from the French word for "crescent". Croissants are made of a leavened variant of puff pastry...
s.
Appearances
Glass Joe's debut was in the first Punch-Out!! game for the arcades in 1984. According to an editor of UGO Networks, the character's role in the arcade game was to give young players a sense of accomplishment, and motivating them to spend quarters trying to beat the more difficult opponents that appear later. Afterward, Glass Joe appeared in Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! for the NES in 1987, which was later renamed to simply Punch-Out!! Glass Joe's most recent appearance was in Punch-Out!! for the Wii in 2009, for which he was one of the first characters revealed before the game's release. The Wii Punch-Out!! features a mode called "Title Defense", wherein all opponents are modified to be more difficult to beat. In this mode, Glass Joe is wearing protective headgearHeadgear (martial arts)
Headgear is padded helmet worn during sparring in the martial arts.-Boxing:Headgear is a padded helmet, worn on the head by contestants in Amateur and Olympic boxing. It effectively protects against cuts, scrapes, and swelling, but does not protect very well against concussions. It will not protect...
. The cutscene before this fight shows a doctor performing an X-ray
X-ray
X-radiation is a form of electromagnetic radiation. X-rays have a wavelength in the range of 0.01 to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30 petahertz to 30 exahertz and energies in the range 120 eV to 120 keV. They are shorter in wavelength than UV rays and longer than gamma...
examination on Glass Joe, and prescribing him the headgear because of his weak jaw. GameSpy
GameSpy
GameSpy Industries, Inc., known simply as GameSpy, is a division of IGN Entertainment, which operates a network of game websites and provides online video game-related services and software. GameSpy dates back to the 1996 release of an internet Quake server search program named QSpy. The current...
's Ryan Scott stated that the character "[lulls players] into a false sense of familiarity" in the regular mode, as other opponents in the Wii game were made more difficult than in their previous appearances.
Impact and critical reception
Glass Joe has become an icon of NintendoNintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
, and is considered one of the most identifiable characters in the Punch-Out!! series. Glass Joe's name has been used as a negative title applied to real-life sportspeople such as Derek Anderson
Derek Anderson (American football)
Derek Matthew Anderson is an American football quarterback for the Carolina Panthers of the National Football League. He was drafted by the Baltimore Ravens in the sixth round of the 2005 NFL Draft...
, Darnell Dockett
Darnell Dockett
Darnell Maurice Dockett is an American football defensive end who currently plays for the Arizona Cardinals of the NFL. Arizona picked him in the 3rd round of the 2004 NFL Draft...
, and the players of the North Penn football team. ESPN
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
's Bill Simmons wrote that the fight between boxers Wladimir Klitschko
Wladimir Klitschko
Wladimir Klitschko is a Ukrainian heavyweight boxer. Klitschko is the WBA , IBF, WBO Super, IBO & Ring Magazine Champion. His older brother Vitali Klitschko is the current WBC champion...
and Chris Byrd
Chris Byrd
Chris Cornelius Byrd is a retired and former professional boxer. He is the former WBO and IBF heavyweight champion. His nickname is "Rapid Fire".- Early life :...
was like watching "Glass Joe become the champ in Mike Tyson's Punch-Out". New York Yankees
New York Yankees
The New York Yankees are a professional baseball team based in the The Bronx, New York. They compete in Major League Baseball in the American League's East Division...
pitcher A.J. Burnett stated that "the last thing you want to be is a Glass Joe". The character was featured as part of a series of trading card
Trading card
A trading card is a small card, usually made out of paperboard or thick paper, which usually contains an image of a certain person, place or thing and a short description of the picture, along with other text...
s depicting the Punch-Out!! boxers.
GameDaily
GameDaily
GameDaily was a video game journalism website based in the United States. Launched in 1995 by entrepreneur Mark Friedler under the name Gigex and focused on free game demo downloads, The site changed its business model from a flat fee per download CDN distributed service network to an...
's Chris Buffa listed Glass Joe as one of the most unappreciated Nintendo characters, and expressed a desire to see him "with a fighting chance" in another game. The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
s Tom Hoggins described the character as a "deliriously entertaining creation" and a "wimpy French man". "jmanalang" of G4TV referenced his defeat of Glass Joe as a memorable moment in his video game history. In his review of Super Punch-Out!!
Super Punch-Out!!
is a 1984 arcade game by Nintendo. It is a boxing game with the same gameplay and digitized speech of its arcade precursor, Punch-Out!!. This second game in the Punch-Out!! series introduced recurring video games characters such as Bear Hugger, Dragon Chan, Vodka Drunkenski, Great Tiger and Super...
, Allgame
Allgame
Allgame is a commercial database of information about arcade games, video games and console manufacturers.Allgame is owned by All Media Guide, along with Allmusic and Allmovie....
's Skyler Miller commented negatively on the character's absence, as he felt that it "[did not] seem right to have a Punch-Out!! game without him".
Racial stereotyping
Glass Joe's stereotypically French characteristics have been discussed by critics such as writer Sumantra Lahiri and EurogamerEurogamer
Eurogamer is a Brighton-based website focused on video games news, reviews, previews and interviews. It is operated by Eurogamer Network Ltd., which was formed in 1999 by brothers Rupert and Nick Loman. Eurogamer has grown to become one of the most important European-based websites focused on...
's Oli Welsh. GamesRadar
GamesRadar
GamesRadar is a multi-format video game website featuring regular news, previews, reviews, videos, and guides. It is owned and operated simultaneously in the UK and US by worldwide publisher Future Publishing...
's Brett Elston wrote that Glass Joe embodies numerous French stereotypes, including cowardice, an affinity for fancy or expensive things, and that the population of France "apparently must live within 100 feet of the Eiffel Tower at all times". IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
's Craig Harris found the character to be a "generic, weak white guy" in his early appearances, but called his Wii rendition a "baguette-loving Frenchman who speaks in fluent Pepe le Pew
Pepé Le Pew
Pepé Le Pew is a fictional character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons, first introduced in 1945. A French skunk that always strolls around in Paris in the springtime, when everyone's thoughts are of "love", Pepé is constantly seeking "l'amour" of his own...
dialect". One member of the Retronauts podcast
Podcast
A podcast is a series of digital media files that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication...
stated that he had identified Glass Joe as simply a "weakling" until he learned more about French stereotypes. Wired
Wired (magazine)
Wired is a full-color monthly American magazine and on-line periodical, published since January 1993, that reports on how new and developing technology affects culture, the economy, and politics...
s Chris Kohler used the croissants associated with the character as an example of how the game enhanced the ethnic stereotypes found in previous games. Buffa wrote that the stereotypes could be considered "funny or insulting", while Giant Bomb
Giant Bomb
Giant Bomb is an American video game website and wiki that includes gaming news, reviews, commentary, and video, created by former GameSpot editors Jeff Gerstmann and Ryan Davis in collaboration with Whiskey Media...
's Ryan Davis felt that someone "[would] have to have a pretty sour disposition to take offense at [them]".
Difficulty
Glass Joe's low level of difficulty has contributed to his iconic status. Nintendo PowerNintendo Power
Nintendo Power magazine is a monthly news and strategy magazine formerly published in-house by Nintendo of America, but now run independently. As of issue #222 , Nintendo contracted publishing duties to Future US, the U.S. subsidiary of British publisher Future.The first issue published was...
listed the character as one of their favorite "punching bags" in video games. He has been used as a litmus test for the usability of NES
Nes
-Localities:In Norway:* Nes, Akershus, a municipality in the county of Akershus in Norway* Nes, Buskerud, a municipality in the county of Buskerud in Norway* Nes, Hedmark, a former municipality in the county of Hedmark in Norway...
controllers such as the U-Force
U-Force
The U-Force was a game controller made by Brøderbund for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It employed a pair of perpendicular infrared sensor panels to translate the user's hand movements into controller signals.From a print advertisement circa 1989:...
and the Power Glove
Power Glove
The Power Glove is a controller accessory for the Nintendo Entertainment System, and the first peripheral interface controller to recreate human hand movements on a television or computer screen in real time. The Power Glove was not popular and was criticized for its imprecise and difficult-to-use...
. GamePro
GamePro
GamePro Media was a United States gaming media company publishing online and print content on the video game industry, video game hardware, and video game software developed for a video game console , a computer, and/or a mobile device . GamePro Media properties include GamePro magazine and...
s Will Herring called Glass Joe a "criminally fragile" character that fans of the series grew up with. GamesRadar editor Mikel Reparaz included him in his list of the "13 unluckiest videogame bastards". However, he added that there is something "weirdly poignant about a man who fights a hundred matches and loses all but one of them, but keeps on fighting". UGO's Chris Plante listed the fight with Glass Joe as the 15th greatest NES moment, and wrote that it was more memorable than the last in-game match with real-life boxer Mike Tyson
Mike Tyson
Michael Gerard "Mike" Tyson is a retired American boxer. Tyson is a former undisputed heavyweight champion of the world and holds the record as the youngest boxer to win the WBC, WBA and IBF world heavyweight titles, he was 20 years, 4 months and 22 days old...
. Other critics have mocked Glass Joe for his weakness. Elston commented that the character has "forever been the lamest boxer in the series" and that "he can barely throw a punch". GamePros Dave Rudden listed Glass Joe as the 11th skinniest video game character, and wrote "the fact that his losses almost outnumber his weight speak [sic] more about his ineptitude as a boxer than the inability for skinny dudes to fight". GameDaily editor Robert Workman stated Glass Joe to be a "wuss" and a "no-talent schlub who has no business stepping into the boxing ring". Game Informer
Game Informer
Game Informer is an American-based monthly magazine featuring articles, news, strategy, and reviews of popular video games and associated consoles. It was formed in August 1991, when FuncoLand started publishing a six-page magazine, free in all its retail locations...
s James Cowan called the fight against the character a "total joke". Earnest Cavalli of Wired described Glass Joe as a "living metaphor for physical weakness".
While the character is known for his weakness, his appearance in the "Title Defense" mode of the Wii Punch-Out!! received attention for his increased difficulty level. Kotaku
Kotaku
Kotaku is a video games-focused blog. It is part of Gawker Media's "Gawker" network of sites, which also includes Gizmodo, Deadspin, Lifehacker, io9 and Jezebel. Named to CNET News' Blog 100, Kotaku is consistently listed in the top 40 of Technorati's Top 100...
's Michael McWhertor found this incarnation of Glass Joe, who he described as a "frail French fighter" and a "perennial punching bag", to be surprisingly difficult. Editors for GamePro used the character's new incarnation as a demonstration of how difficult the "Title Defense" mode can be. Official Nintendo Magazines Chris Scullion wrote that, while they were initially worried that the Wii game would be too easy, Glass Joe offset those worries. GameSpot
GameSpot
GameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which...
reviewer Tom McShea stated "the sad fact is, you will lose to Glass Joe, for maybe the first time in your life". 1UP.com
1UP.com
1UP.com is a video game website owned by IGN Entertainment, a division of News Corporation. Previously, the site was owned by Ziff Davis before being sold to UGO Entertainment in 2009....
's Scott Sharkey found the difficulty of Glass Joe to be surprising after fighting Mr. Sandman
Mr. Sandman (Punch-Out!!)
is a fictional character in the Punch-Out!! video game series. He is an African American boxer hailing from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the United States. He was first created by Shigeru Miyamoto in the Punch-Out!! game for the arcades, and then by Makoto Wada in the Nintendo Entertainment System...
, the final boss in the preceding mode. Nevertheless, Game Informers Bryan Vore still considered him "tremendously easy".