At the pizzeria that Mario frequents, there is an old-fashioned, coin-op arcade cabinet in use. A quick glimpse over the player’s shoulder reveals it to be “Donkey Kong,” which first infiltrated arcades in 1981. However, because Donkey Kong will appear as a character later in the film, the filmmakers wisely chose to alter the game and retitle it “Jump Man.” Old school arcade denizens will recognize “Jump Man” as the given name to the very Mario-like character that players control in “Donkey Kong.” In that game, the damsel to be rescued is named Pauline, a character that would be resurrected for “Super Mario Odyssey” many years later.
The pizzeria is also called the Punch-Out!! Pizzeria, named after a Nintendo arcade cabinet released in 1984. The gimmick of the game was that the player controlled a wire-frame model of a boxer and controlled each of its fists with a separate joystick. The game was massively popular, and was adapted to the NES in 1987 as “Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!” The final boss of the NES game was Mike Tyson himself and ranks as one of the most difficult video game bosses of its era. The game, however, had to be retitled in 1990 to simply “Punch-Out!!,” when the limited license to use Tyson’s name expired. Tyson was replaced by a character called Mr. Dream. In 1991, Tyson was arrested for sexual assault, but his crime had nothing to do with the re-branding.
Like at Sal’s Pizzeria in “Do the Right Thing,” the Punch-Out!! Pizzeria is festooned with numerous portraits of the cartoonish international boxers featured in “Punch-Out!!” One might immediately see Macho Man or Glass Joe on the walls.
