zallard1 | Doc Louis's Punch-Out!! - Training [0:41.83] (WR) @zallard1 | Uploaded September 2020 | Updated October 2024, 48 seconds ago.
Doc Louis's Punch-Out was an exclusive game rewarded to those in 2009 who had enough Club Nintendo points to receive "Platinum" status for the year. It was also rewarded at the end of Club Nintendo's lifespan among a huge list of several other games as a means to spend any lingering points you may still have. This was played on my legitimate copy from 2009, which was transferred over to my Wii U, making recording HDMI footage of this game possible for me.
This is the 2nd of 3 fights you will encounter in this short DLC-like game. This run also happens to finally match the TAS time, which is the best theoretical possible time that you can get on this fight! The old record was 1 frame away, so I'm glad to have finally improved it to its optimal time!
Each fight has its own rules in regards to Doc Louis's guard. In this particular fight, Doc will let one punch through his guard for every 7 punches that Mac throws, even if those punches are blocked of whiffed! This is the main reason you see me constantly throwing punches randomly, even if they are not part of buffer strategies!
Start off the fight by throwing 3 blocked punches, then countering his "Come On" uppercut with a left jab. You'll need to whiff 2 punches somewhere here, so I've chosen to throw them when he gets to "The" in "That's THE one I taught you" which makes for a great cue in buffering a 3rd punch to hit Doc as he's fully centered. You need this punch to land as Doc is completely idle, which is a 3 frame window before he starts his next attack. If you've done everything correctly, it will go through Doc's guard and hit him.
Next, counter Doc's "Dodge" uppercut, then whiff 2 punches and throw a double star punch here. We need to throw this now because if Doc's HP goes too much lower, he'll eat a chocolate bar and fully regenerate his health bar. From here, whiff 1 punch and throw a punch as Doc walks in to center him a little bit sooner, which starts his next attack sooner.
Now here's the complicated part of the fight. From that blocked punch, you need to buffer a second punch (which will go through his guard), then do a slightly delayed right jab which will whiff as he winds up for his "Duck this one" hook. If you've whiffed the punch early enough, you will have enough time to counter his hook as soon as possible. Once you do that, you can perform a frame perfect buffer I found which involves throwing a right punch as Mac is recovering from countering Doc (cannot start the buffer too early or too late, otherwise the buffer fails), then throwing alternating punches until Doc blocks a punch and gets centered early.
You should be able to buffer another punch to go through Doc's guard, and throw a slightly delayed gut punch to counter his "Keep low" attack early. Throwing a double star as he walks in will skip his chocolate bar and finish the fight.
I'll probably be revisiting the other two Doc fights, as well as doing full runs of Doc's Punch Out (which is all 3 fights in a row).
Anyways, thanks for watching!
---
UPDATE: The original video had some strange audio issues going on, reportedly sounding off and tinny, so I've *hopefully* fixed them here. To compare, here's the original for posterity: youtube.com/watch?v=voCaBdADlAY
Doc Louis's Punch-Out was an exclusive game rewarded to those in 2009 who had enough Club Nintendo points to receive "Platinum" status for the year. It was also rewarded at the end of Club Nintendo's lifespan among a huge list of several other games as a means to spend any lingering points you may still have. This was played on my legitimate copy from 2009, which was transferred over to my Wii U, making recording HDMI footage of this game possible for me.
This is the 2nd of 3 fights you will encounter in this short DLC-like game. This run also happens to finally match the TAS time, which is the best theoretical possible time that you can get on this fight! The old record was 1 frame away, so I'm glad to have finally improved it to its optimal time!
Each fight has its own rules in regards to Doc Louis's guard. In this particular fight, Doc will let one punch through his guard for every 7 punches that Mac throws, even if those punches are blocked of whiffed! This is the main reason you see me constantly throwing punches randomly, even if they are not part of buffer strategies!
Start off the fight by throwing 3 blocked punches, then countering his "Come On" uppercut with a left jab. You'll need to whiff 2 punches somewhere here, so I've chosen to throw them when he gets to "The" in "That's THE one I taught you" which makes for a great cue in buffering a 3rd punch to hit Doc as he's fully centered. You need this punch to land as Doc is completely idle, which is a 3 frame window before he starts his next attack. If you've done everything correctly, it will go through Doc's guard and hit him.
Next, counter Doc's "Dodge" uppercut, then whiff 2 punches and throw a double star punch here. We need to throw this now because if Doc's HP goes too much lower, he'll eat a chocolate bar and fully regenerate his health bar. From here, whiff 1 punch and throw a punch as Doc walks in to center him a little bit sooner, which starts his next attack sooner.
Now here's the complicated part of the fight. From that blocked punch, you need to buffer a second punch (which will go through his guard), then do a slightly delayed right jab which will whiff as he winds up for his "Duck this one" hook. If you've whiffed the punch early enough, you will have enough time to counter his hook as soon as possible. Once you do that, you can perform a frame perfect buffer I found which involves throwing a right punch as Mac is recovering from countering Doc (cannot start the buffer too early or too late, otherwise the buffer fails), then throwing alternating punches until Doc blocks a punch and gets centered early.
You should be able to buffer another punch to go through Doc's guard, and throw a slightly delayed gut punch to counter his "Keep low" attack early. Throwing a double star as he walks in will skip his chocolate bar and finish the fight.
I'll probably be revisiting the other two Doc fights, as well as doing full runs of Doc's Punch Out (which is all 3 fights in a row).
Anyways, thanks for watching!
---
UPDATE: The original video had some strange audio issues going on, reportedly sounding off and tinny, so I've *hopefully* fixed them here. To compare, here's the original for posterity: youtube.com/watch?v=voCaBdADlAY
![Doc Louiss Punch-Out!! - Training [0:41.83] (WR)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/exk5CPqmB64/hqdefault.jpg "Doc Louiss Punch-Out!! - Training [0:41.83] (WR)
Doc Louiss Punch-Out was an exclusive game rewarded to those in 2009 who had enough Club Nintendo points to receive Platinum status for the year. It was also rewarded at the end of Club Nintendos lifespan among a huge list of several other games as a means to spend any lingering points you may still have. This was played on my legitimate copy from 2009, which was transferred over to my Wii U, making recording HDMI footage of this game possible for me.
This is the 2nd of 3 fights you will encounter in this short DLC-like game. This run also happens to finally match the TAS time, which is the best theoretical possible time that you can get on this fight! The old record was 1 frame away, so Im glad to have finally improved it to its optimal time!
Each fight has its own rules in regards to Doc Louiss guard. In this particular fight, Doc will let one punch through his guard for every 7 punches that Mac throws, even if those punches are blocked of whiffed! This is the main reason you see me constantly throwing punches randomly, even if they are not part of buffer strategies!
Start off the fight by throwing 3 blocked punches, then countering his Come On uppercut with a left jab. Youll need to whiff 2 punches somewhere here, so Ive chosen to throw them when he gets to The in Thats THE one I taught you which makes for a great cue in buffering a 3rd punch to hit Doc as hes fully centered. You need this punch to land as Doc is completely idle, which is a 3 frame window before he starts his next attack. If youve done everything correctly, it will go through Docs guard and hit him.
Next, counter Docs Dodge uppercut, then whiff 2 punches and throw a double star punch here. We need to throw this now because if Docs HP goes too much lower, hell eat a chocolate bar and fully regenerate his health bar. From here, whiff 1 punch and throw a punch as Doc walks in to center him a little bit sooner, which starts his next attack sooner.
Now heres the complicated part of the fight. From that blocked punch, you need to buffer a second punch (which will go through his guard), then do a slightly delayed right jab which will whiff as he winds up for his Duck this one hook. If youve whiffed the punch early enough, you will have enough time to counter his hook as soon as possible. Once you do that, you can perform a frame perfect buffer I found which involves throwing a right punch as Mac is recovering from countering Doc (cannot start the buffer too early or too late, otherwise the buffer fails), then throwing alternating punches until Doc blocks a punch and gets centered early.
You should be able to buffer another punch to go through Docs guard, and throw a slightly delayed gut punch to counter his Keep low attack early. Throwing a double star as he walks in will skip his chocolate bar and finish the fight.
Ill probably be revisiting the other two Doc fights, as well as doing full runs of Docs Punch Out (which is all 3 fights in a row).
Anyways, thanks for watching!
UPDATE: The original video had some strange audio issues going on, reportedly sounding off and tinny, so Ive *hopefully* fixed them here. To compare, heres the original for posterity: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voCaBdADlAY")
![Super Punch Out!! - Piston Hurricane [00549] (PAL WR)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/fH9fwcDpU54/hqdefault.jpg "Super Punch Out!! - Piston Hurricane [00549] (PAL WR)
This run was done on an original Spanish Super Nintendo cartridge of Super Punch-Out, as well as an original PAL Super Nintendo 1chip console that was recapped and modded with the Borti RGB amp.
PAL Piston Hurricane is an interesting anomaly in that its the only fight in the PAL version of Super Punch Out where the best possible time actually exactly matches its NTSC counterpart! This is rare mostly because the timers between NTSC and PAL have different possible timer values because one version runs at 60 frames a second, and the other runs at 50, yet every second needs to be a real time second on the in-game timer.
The strategy for this version of Piston Hurricane is also identical to his NTSC counterpart, so I would suggest checking that out as well to compare to this one if youre curious on the different timer behavior: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56mkj9oIPs0
Normally, this is a fight that is designed to teach you the importance of blocking high and low for when he attempts to hit you with his Hurricane rush attack consisting of alternating jabs and hooks, however for the speedrun, he gets to show off none of this.
Start by not pressing anything for the first frame of the fight, then for the second frame, hold the input for a left jab. Follow that up with 2 more buffered jabs, then youll need to *delay* a left body blow here. For this strategy to actually get Piston dizzy, you need this delayed punch to either be the earliest frame where he doesnt block, or one frame later than that. If you punch later than that 2 frame window, then this strategy will *not* work at all, but if you want to match the TAS time, you need to hit it on the earliest frame.
After the delayed hit, just buffer another left jab, followed by a left gut punch, and another left jab to get him dizzy. For the dizzy knockdown, a jab into quick dodge buffer sets up a low super punch perfectly for an optimal super knockdown. From here, youre home free to just hold the super punch button and itll just land instantly and KO him in phase 2!
Theres really not a lot to this fight, even on the PAL version. It has one tricky punch for the TAS strategy, but aside from that, its about as basic as it gets.
Anyways, thanks for watching!")
![Super Punch-Out!! - Narcis Prince [824] (Original Resolution)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/fyI4BFUxskU/hqdefault.jpg "Super Punch-Out!! - Narcis Prince [824] (Original Resolution)
Super Punch-Out!! - Narcis Prince [824] (Original Resolution)")
![Sunset Riders [Arcade] (Switch; Caravan Mode) - High Score [58,630 points] (WR)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/gl7nCE9YQYY/hqdefault.jpg "Sunset Riders [Arcade] (Switch; Caravan Mode) - High Score [58,630 points] (WR)
So, I realized that the 2,000 point gold drop at the start of stage 1 was actually worth picking up, because there was a way to make sure that the screen is scrolling the entire time Cormano is jumping down, which is great! However, the situations it puts you in are slightly more luck dependant in order to get a comparable score as the old route (minus the 2k bonus), and the execution is much harder.
Despite all of that, this run still somehow managed to get a better score pace & speed pace than the 56k run I had uploaded a few days ago, even if you were to take away the 2k bonus the new route gets, which is pretty fantastic.
Caravan mode is a mode where you have 5 minutes in real time to get the highest score you can possibly get before the timer runs out. This adds an interesting spin to both speedruns and score runs, as you now have to consider both aspects to optimize your score. For Sunset Riders, I want to go as fast as possible to beat the bonus stage so I get that payout before the timer cuts me off.
This route almost completely forgoes all point pressing in exchange for some of the points in the score tally from the bonus stage. It cuts you off mid-tally, which means the reward that you actually receive is very granular (every 2 frames, the tally rewards you with 100 points).
Every run 2nd place and below is forgoing any hopes of getting points in the bonus stage in order to get all the bonus items in stage 1 and kill respawning enemies until they have to move on to collect the score bonus from the bosses.
This run has so much luck that needs to go your way, and you need two super fast kills for your run to even offset just scoring regularly, making it very difficult by comparison.
I decided to show the top 100 scores for Caravan mode at the time of setting this record. Its pretty incredible to note how many scores have huge ties, yet literally no other players have even attempted the route here in this video. Goes to show how brutal and/or out of the box the route is.
Anyways, hope you enjoy!")
![Super Punch Out!! - Gabby Jay [00626] (NTSC WR)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/hqwYzrfj0eg/hqdefault.jpg "Super Punch Out!! - Gabby Jay [00626] (NTSC WR)
This run was done on an original US Super Nintendo cartridge of Super Punch-Out, as well as an original Super Nintendo 1chip console that was recapped and modded with the Voultar RGB amp to restore the correct color intensity. For some more in depth information about my general RGB setup, you can check out this pastebin here: https://pastebin.com/TtXx1PQx
Additionally, Ive decided to include a non-stretched version of this fight in an unlisted video. If youd like to learn more about why Im including this too, you can check out the description in the second video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyOXKI7UEBU
So, just for the record, Super Punch Outs IL fights (IL meaning Individual Level) are relatively easy and straightforward compared to optimizing fights in the other Punch-Out games. For even the hardest fights, the most instances you have to be frame perfect in a row to get the TAS time is 5. Compare that to Mike Tysons Punch-Out being 20 to 22 frame perfect inputs on Tyson just to complete the strategy, and 24-27 inputs for matching the TAS on some of the last couple of fights in Title Defense, Super Punch Out stands out in having a lower skill ceiling when it comes to optimizing IL fights.
Because of the relative ease of these fights, and the fact that I have this extremely crisp RGB recording setup now, Ive decided to re-record the 15 TAS times that I already got in this game upwards of a decade ago, since several of these fights were either recorded with bad capture cards, encoded with poor quality compression, or got marred by youtubes upscaling back in the early 2010s. Ive learned a lot about recording videos in pristine quality after all this time, and I think re-recording these will make me more motivated to match the final TAS time that I never got in this game, which is Narcis Prince.
Narcis I never went for only because the luck for that fight is extraordinarily more rare compared to even the worst luck expected of you in any other fight in this game. I completed the strategy one time, with a time of 828, which is 4 frames away from the TASs 820 time. Several people have been able to pull this time off recently (Nolan414, FatPotatoSeal, Cranklinson, AwosomeAndy, and MrMega), and I figure I should give it a shot soon too now that I have my recording setup figured out!
Anyways, lets talk about Gabby Jay! Yay! This is the easiest fight in the game to match the TAS on with current strategies. You start the fight by pressing nothing for the first frame of the fight (00001 on the timer), then for the very next frame, you press and hold Up+Y to buffer a left jab. This delay will set Gabbys guard to be down for the entirety of the next several punches, since he reads your input for the first frame of the fight and guards accordingly.
From here, just let go of Up+Y and press it again before your next punch animation starts, which will ensure your next punch comes out on the first frame possible. Just repeat that until youve thrown out 4 left jabs in total, then throw a right jab immediately after. The right jab deals more damage, but the main purpose of it is to waste a very small amount of frames since the right jab is also slower than left jab. This sets you up for either a quick dodge or quick duck to counter his first and only jab in this fight. If you feel like you were 1 frame slow on your first input, you should opt for a quick dodge into a right jab to perfectly set yourself up for a free counter, since his first attack comes out at a predetermined number of frames of Gabby being idle. Quick ducks are one frame slower than quick dodges, so if you think you were frame perfect on the first punch, then you need to opt for a quick duck to waste the extra frame so your punch doesnt come out too early and miss.
Once your counter hits, you need to pause the fight, because when you do a counter punch, you get rewarded a lot of arrows in your super meter, but your super meter doesnt fill up quickly, so you need to make sure you can throw a super instantly when the game unpauses. When you unpause, just hold A and your super should send Gabby into dizzy status. While hes dizzy, if you hold Down, then wait until your character comes to the center of the screen on his own, then hold B to force your character to throw a right hook, and then Up+A for an uppercut, then Gabby will go down instantly for a KO!
I should also put this somewhere since someone will likely ask, but the reason the first place time says Heidrage on it is because I am still playing on his cartridge of Super Punch Out, since he gave it to me before AGDQ 2014 so I could get ready for my blindfolded run on console. Ive kept his name on my leaderboards because I respect him so much in helping me get ready for that, and as a friend.
I should be uploading some more Super Punch Out ILs pretty frequently over the next while. Hopefully youre ready for a ton of these re-recorded!
Anyways, thanks for watching!")
![Mike Tysons Punch-Out!! - 2 player 1 controller with sinister1 [First ever attempt]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/hsMI8E5REYI/hqdefault.jpg "Mike Tysons Punch-Out!! - 2 player 1 controller with sinister1 [First ever attempt]
First things first... this is not from a professional event like Games Done Quick, so stuff like audio balancing being un-ideal and talking over each other is very common in this run. This was done at a very small invite only event called the Contra Conference where players would attempt to get very optimized co-op speedruns during a single week (primarily in the Contra series). This was held in DK28s house at the time, so its a pretty cozy lowkey stream.
Sinister1 happened to go to this event, so we were actually in a rare scenario where we could attempt this challenge that was popularized/invented by Contra speedrunners Mr K and Hurblat. This video was back in September 2014, just to put a date on how long ago it was and where our skill levels were at that time. I was still somewhat of a novice at MTPO at the time, so Sinister opted to take control of the dpad, leaving me A/B/Start for punching. We also obviously attempted this with vision, because I had never attempted MTPO blindfolded up to that point.
This run had a ton of debacles, which were as immediate as Glass Joe since me and Sinister had 2 different buffer strategies at the time and the addition of buffers were still new to the speedrun. We had a few other people in attendance that youll hear from time to time too (DK28, Mr K, Mike Uyama, and Murphagator).
Other than that, theres not a whole lot else to talk about. The run was just a really lighthearted fun experience with pretty funny banter between us runners, and ended up being the origin for me and sinister to attempt this very same challenge at AGDQ 2020 blindfolded. Hopefully this gives some extra fun insight on how difficult this type of coordination is!
I know Ive been not uploading videos for a while, but health issues have been pretty rough, so Im probably going to lean back on posting videos from other events for a while like I was before.
Thanks for watching!")
![Mike Tysons Punch-Out!! - Soda Popinski [0:45.97]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/hzOhWpNYOpI/hqdefault.jpg "Mike Tysons Punch-Out!! - Soda Popinski [0:45.97]
This run was done on an original cartridge of Mike Tysons Punch-Out!! on an NES that was modded with the Tim Worthington NESRGB kit. For some more in depth information about my RGB setup, you can check out this pastebin here: https://pastebin.com/m7tzR5Cq
Ive also decided to include a non-stretched version of this fight in an unlisted video. If youd like to learn more about why Im including this too, you can check out the description in the second video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6S7zVZ5RxZc
Ive also got my full attempt session from power-on to the successful attempt right here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8yOtYlqL5Y
So yeah, I already got a sub 46 lol. The luck for this fight in its current form is honestly really not that bad. It obviously gets much much worse the more you add to it, but as of right now, this is shaping up to be a great way to get more comfortable with the execution of the advanced phases 2 and 3.
Soda is a very fast opponent with a couple of random elements, but has a massive weakness to exploit. The fight starts off with Soda attempting to throw 2 hooks at you, and they need to be cancelled immediately with 2 blocked hooks from Mac. Its more consistent to throw 2 right gut punches, but you can opt to instead buffer a left gut punch as your 2nd. It will save a couple of frames, since left gut punches are faster, but it will also whiff about 25% of the time, which would instantly end your attempt. I opt for the faster 2nd cancel.
After the cancels, Soda can take one of 2 different routes; throw 2 uppercuts, or throw 2 more hooks. Hell throw the uppercuts about 75% of the time, which is part of the luck we need to continue the strategy, but we also need something else that Ill go into next.
Off of the 2nd cancel, a right dodge is buffered, which is a perfect setup to land a gut punch into Sodas ducking uppercut stance, assuming that he does the fastest delay anyways. Soda can do one of 4 different delays, each 25% likely. When Mac is about centered, you need to buffer a left gut punch, then immediately press Down as the punch goes off. This technique is called the Screwdriver, and it was discovered by Jack Wedge days before I set my last PB in this fight.
A somewhat newer discovery is that by holding Right for the entire duration of when youre doing the Screwdrivers dodge, you will effectively eliminate 2 of the 4 possible delays for Sodas uppercut, making it ~50% likely instead of ~25% each time its used.
Once the gut punch lands, you just need to do a delayed gut punch to cancel his 2nd uppercut, and buffer a star punch out of it. No matter what Soda does after that, the star will land, and since you landed a gut punch while he attempted to throw an uppercut, it enables Soda to be knocked down instantly from a star punch!
Phases 2 and 3 are the same, and they can be handled in a couple of different ways. The traditional way is to counter his first hook with a right jab, then buffer a right gut punch, then perform the Screwdriver just like in phase. I opt for a harder variation that theoretically should save frames over the standard approach though.
I instead cancel the first hook with a right gut punch, then throw a jab into his 2nd hook. You are supposed to buffer a jab and let go of Up on the first possible frame, which allows the jab to be bufferable and land, but Ive opted to let go of all inputs as soon as I land my gut punch, then quickly press Up+A in isolation, which theoretically should be possible to land on the same frame as the buffered one, but doesnt kill an attempt outright if I let go of Up a frame late like the other approach. I may switch to the fully buffered method later when saving those frames become more necessary.
I definitely was better at the timing of the new adjustments compared to the 46.00 I got recently, but theres still quite a bit of room for improvement. Im probably going to be sticking with this strategy for a bit longer, because my potential for new PBs with it is still very high. For comparison, Jefeman, whos in 2nd place for Soda, has a 45.48 with this same strategy, and Im reasonably certain thats the lowest timer increment that you can get with it. Id like to get either a .61 or .48 before I even consider learning/attempting the WR strategy, because I clearly still need to practice these adjustments.
The world record is a 45.00 by lucandor158, which is leagues more advanced than what Im doing here. I still have a ways to go before attempting his strategy, because I have a lot of practice & possible PBs that I should get before I need to resort to anything faster. Whenever I feel comfortable switching over to that strategy Ill talk about why its such a monster of a record, but until then...
Thanks for watching!")
![Punch Out!! (Wii) - Mr. Sandman [0:31.98] (WR)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/itQv-OGtNs4/hqdefault.jpg "Punch Out!! (Wii) - Mr. Sandman [0:31.98] (WR)
This has been an ongoing fight that Ive been grinding on the down-low for the past week+ or so. Ive had a tendency to stop short on tying the TAS for some fights in the past, and this is one that I really wanted to see happen, no matter how difficult it was to optimize. So I realized an incentive that would get me to finish the job on this fight, which was to not upload *any* PBs of this fight until I literally hit the best possible time, which is a 31.98. Granted, the only time people missed out on seeing was when I initially hit 32.04, because once I hit that, I was stuck there for quite a bit, haha.
This is also partly due to the very bizarre and difficult method that I had to use in order to tune my timing to the exact rhythms needed for the 4 frame perfect move cancels in phase 2. I literally had to TAS the Sandman fight in Dolphin, and take relevant pictures in order for me to identify what frames Mac needs to start punching on. This was problematic, because the Wii Us video quality for this game is a bit spotty, while Dolphins is perfect, so the cues look a bit different, but I had a rough idea on where the punches need to be, so I started there. Any time something went wrong in phase 2, I would stop recording, look at my video, diagnose which punch was incorrect, find new visual cues to use, do more attempts, diagnose punches, ect ect. It was very tedious, but it was necessary for this fight due to the ambiguous nature of the 4 cancels in phase 2.
I quickly got a 32.04 with a 2:35 knockdown, which was great, but leaves things a little ambiguous on where the frame was lost. All I knew was that phase 3s punch was frame perfect, and exactly 1 frame was lost somewhere in phases 1 and 2. It gave me some new pictures to use as a way to diagnose punches more accurately, so it was slow but steady progress in cutting the final frame off this fight.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v v7x1fFXExE
Lets get into the fight itself. First off, this fight is played in Champions Mode, which is a toggle-able option that you can earn from 10 consecutive wins in Macs Last stand to make every punch from the opponent knock you down in a single hit. This is used to take a knockdown immediately at the start of phase 1 to advance a bit in his move script. You also need to do *2* blocked punches in order to make him attack immediately as you get up from your knockdown.
Once you get up from the knockdown, you cancel the first punch Sandman attempts to throw (you can buffer this punch for some reason?!?) and then counter his quick overhead punch for a star. Then comes the extremely important part; you need to cancel his Stand Still overhead punch with a slightly delayed blocked punch as hes coming to the center, then do ANOTHER very slightly delayed punch. This 2nd punch is mandatorily frame perfect, and is timed in such a way that his normal Boo taunt is actually AN INSTANT KNOCKDOWN when you buffer a star punch off of it!
The next phase is the scary part of optimizing this fight, because in order to match the TAS, you need to hit his first counter on the first frame, then cancel his two Night Night! punches on the first frame, his Stand Still! punch on the first frame, and finally, throw a mandatory frame perfect punch in order to set up the glitch on Sandman for the second instant knockdown. The 4 cancels are really hard because they are 4 inputs that all happen within about 2 seconds of real time.
Additionally, the tempo of these punches are very slightly misaligned, making the timing a bit harder than if they were equally spaced. For the first cancel, Macs punch needs to come out about 35 frames after youve collected the star, then the next cancel is 32 frames later, then 32 frames later for the 3rd cancel, and *31* frames later for the final cancel. This last one is so tricky, because you need to hit the previous two at an identical timing. My timing cue that I used for all of these is that Ill throw the first punch as soon as I see Sandmans sprite freeze from the previous counter, then the next 3 I end up timing when Sandmans head crosses the middle of the X on his knockdown counter.
In order to get a 2:36 instead of a 2:35, you need to do everything before phase 3 frame perfectly. I got five 2:36s before I landed the 31.98, four of which were today, which is ridiculous, but also reasonable, since Ive only just recently dialed in the correct timings. Before that, I got one 2:36 a few days prior, and absolutely nothing before that. It is just *that* specific to get it all right.
In the last phase, you just need to jab his taunt, buffer a gut punch, and finally the star for the instant knockdown off his dreamland express. I ditched the old pseudo buffer because timing it out manually seemed better for the precision needed.
Anyways, I hope you enjoy this one! This was a huge struggle to get done properly from scratch, but Im really happy that this one is over and done with!")
![Mike Tysons Punch-Out!! - Bald Bull 1 [0:55.97]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/jOxU6RvLqxk/hqdefault.jpg "Mike Tysons Punch-Out!! - Bald Bull 1 [0:55.97]
My attempts for the new Bull 1 strategy came up short today, but it was still enough to get a personal best time and tie the WR that Brandflakes set a few days ago! This strategy requires 1 in 1024 luck to happen, but I didnt get the 25% low refill for the final phase, so I had to throw an extra punch at the end of the fight that I otherwise wouldnt need to do. Still good progress so far!
Ive been currently streaming attempts for this fight on Twitch lately, along with stuff in Animal Crossing simultaneously. Heres the VOD of when I got this run live to see how silly my setup for this is lol: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/626147039
Thanks for watching!")
