Premise:  Based on the real-life Toughman Contest, this cart puts you smack in the middle of the famous fighting tournament with opponents from around the world.  In head-to-head competition against up to seven players or the CPU, you try to defeat all other competitors to become the Toughman champion.  Each of the 24 fighters has a unique fighting style and three special punches.  The action takes place in five arenas in three-minute, knockdown, drag-out rounds where you win by KO, TKO, or Decision. (GamePro)

Comments:  Toughman stands tall in the videogame ring.  Like Super Punch Out!, the Toughman contenders fight harder as you progress through the ranks.  Where the two games really differ, however, is the two-player action, which Super Punch Out! doesn't even have ....  Fans of Greatest Heavyweights and Legends of the Ring will miss the famous faces and build-your-own-boxer feature, but when the bell rings in the final round, the unanimous decision goes to Toughman. (GamePro)

Rating:  8

Variants:  This is a 32X upgrade of the original G/MD game.

Sidebars:  The Toughman Contest first gained nationwide attention as a result of the 1983 film Tough Enough.  Aspiring actor Dennis Quaid starred as Art Long, a sometime country singer who enters the contest as a means of earning enough money to further his career.  It was an obvious Rocky ripoff, but it did fairly well and helped establish the actor's eventual fame and good fortune.  The movie was filmed at the world-famous Cowtown Coliseum in Fort Worth, Texas.  The man on the videogame box cover is none other than "Battling Butter" Bean, a real-world Toughman Contest legend and the toughest opponent in the game.  By 1994, the Jasper, Alabama native had racked up 45 knockouts in 65 fights while never being knocked down or taking a standing 8-count.  In the 1993 finals, he continued fighting with a bloody gash over one eye that eventually required 6 stiches.  A two-time regional Toughman champion and two-time World Contest finalist, he spends most of his spare time with his wife and three children.