zallard1 | Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! - Blindfolded run performed at AOD 2016 [21:51] (Current PB) @zallard1 | Uploaded January 2022 | Updated October 2024, 1 hour ago.
So after AGDQ 2016, I finally started to branch out and do marathon runs at other smaller events here and there. For this one, I was invited to the anime convention AOD (Anime on Display) to do a blindfolded run of Mike Tyson's Punch Out, since I was still in practice for the category due to the recent one at AGDQ 2016. I was invited to do this run on February 13th, 2016, and this run had gone so well that it still continues to be my personal best blindfolded time in this game, due mainly to a fluke at the end of the run.
Since the speedrunning stuff at this event was obviously not the main focus, it was kind of interesting to practice for this run, since there was a ton of noise, and only a limited amount of monitors to practice on. I ended up finding a PVM in the general area that the speedrunning marathon was being held, but the general noise level was SUPER loud, and the PVM that I found did NOT have powerful speakers at all, so I ended up just putting my ear completely next to the speaker while closing my eyes. It was literally the only thing I could do, lol.
https://i.imgur.com/XFTo2jU.jpg
The run itself was also kind of a weird situation, since initially the plan was that sinister was going to show up and do commentary, but he ended up not being able to make it, so I had to do my own commentary for this run, which actually worked out ok since this game thankfully has a decent bit of downtime, and I think I did a decent job of balancing commentary while doing a blindfolded run.
I made a couple of silly mistakes in this run on Piston Honda 1 and King Hippo that actually would've gotten me the WR for this category at that time from sinister1, but all in all, I was still super satisfied with this run having gotten a clean 14-0 record, especially after the race at AGDQ 2016 where I had such a bad struggle with Bald Bull 2.
I should have a couple more of these one-off marathon runs mixed in for a little bit, since I didn't get another GDQ run all the way until AGDQ 2018, and in that time I had the opportunity to go to at least one other event before I went to GDQ again. This is definitely a run I've been looking forward to getting uploaded here, especially because it still remains my PB, and I really like that it was set in a public marathon setting.
Anyways, thanks for watching!
So after AGDQ 2016, I finally started to branch out and do marathon runs at other smaller events here and there. For this one, I was invited to the anime convention AOD (Anime on Display) to do a blindfolded run of Mike Tyson's Punch Out, since I was still in practice for the category due to the recent one at AGDQ 2016. I was invited to do this run on February 13th, 2016, and this run had gone so well that it still continues to be my personal best blindfolded time in this game, due mainly to a fluke at the end of the run.
Since the speedrunning stuff at this event was obviously not the main focus, it was kind of interesting to practice for this run, since there was a ton of noise, and only a limited amount of monitors to practice on. I ended up finding a PVM in the general area that the speedrunning marathon was being held, but the general noise level was SUPER loud, and the PVM that I found did NOT have powerful speakers at all, so I ended up just putting my ear completely next to the speaker while closing my eyes. It was literally the only thing I could do, lol.
https://i.imgur.com/XFTo2jU.jpg
The run itself was also kind of a weird situation, since initially the plan was that sinister was going to show up and do commentary, but he ended up not being able to make it, so I had to do my own commentary for this run, which actually worked out ok since this game thankfully has a decent bit of downtime, and I think I did a decent job of balancing commentary while doing a blindfolded run.
I made a couple of silly mistakes in this run on Piston Honda 1 and King Hippo that actually would've gotten me the WR for this category at that time from sinister1, but all in all, I was still super satisfied with this run having gotten a clean 14-0 record, especially after the race at AGDQ 2016 where I had such a bad struggle with Bald Bull 2.
I should have a couple more of these one-off marathon runs mixed in for a little bit, since I didn't get another GDQ run all the way until AGDQ 2018, and in that time I had the opportunity to go to at least one other event before I went to GDQ again. This is definitely a run I've been looking forward to getting uploaded here, especially because it still remains my PB, and I really like that it was set in a public marathon setting.
Anyways, thanks for watching!
![Mike Tysons Punch-Out!! - Blindfolded run performed at AOD 2016 [21:51] (Current PB)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/jtFxClnfYkY/hqdefault.jpg "Mike Tysons Punch-Out!! - Blindfolded run performed at AOD 2016 [21:51] (Current PB)
So after AGDQ 2016, I finally started to branch out and do marathon runs at other smaller events here and there. For this one, I was invited to the anime convention AOD (Anime on Display) to do a blindfolded run of Mike Tysons Punch Out, since I was still in practice for the category due to the recent one at AGDQ 2016. I was invited to do this run on February 13th, 2016, and this run had gone so well that it still continues to be my personal best blindfolded time in this game, due mainly to a fluke at the end of the run.
Since the speedrunning stuff at this event was obviously not the main focus, it was kind of interesting to practice for this run, since there was a ton of noise, and only a limited amount of monitors to practice on. I ended up finding a PVM in the general area that the speedrunning marathon was being held, but the general noise level was SUPER loud, and the PVM that I found did NOT have powerful speakers at all, so I ended up just putting my ear completely next to the speaker while closing my eyes. It was literally the only thing I could do, lol.
https://i.imgur.com/XFTo2jU.jpg
The run itself was also kind of a weird situation, since initially the plan was that sinister was going to show up and do commentary, but he ended up not being able to make it, so I had to do my own commentary for this run, which actually worked out ok since this game thankfully has a decent bit of downtime, and I think I did a decent job of balancing commentary while doing a blindfolded run.
I made a couple of silly mistakes in this run on Piston Honda 1 and King Hippo that actually wouldve gotten me the WR for this category at that time from sinister1, but all in all, I was still super satisfied with this run having gotten a clean 14-0 record, especially after the race at AGDQ 2016 where I had such a bad struggle with Bald Bull 2.
I should have a couple more of these one-off marathon runs mixed in for a little bit, since I didnt get another GDQ run all the way until AGDQ 2018, and in that time I had the opportunity to go to at least one other event before I went to GDQ again. This is definitely a run Ive been looking forward to getting uploaded here, especially because it still remains my PB, and I really like that it was set in a public marathon setting.
Anyways, thanks for watching!")
![Punch Out!! (Wii) - Title Defense Disco Kid [0:22.88]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/kDcYvFvBthQ/hqdefault.jpg "Punch Out!! (Wii) - Title Defense Disco Kid [0:22.88]
So... this somewhat new strategy for TD Disco *requires* motion controls to pull off; Im not kidding.
So far there are 2 WR strategies in this game that have the odd privilege of needing access to Little Macs lesser known Left Handed Star Punch to provoke specific patterns from the opponents. So far these two fights include TD Von Kaiser, and TD Disco Kid.
Thankfully, TD Disco is a very short fight, however that just means that theres more of a reason to optimize the time even harder than his TD Kaiser counterpart. As of right now, LeeA1 has the record for this fight with a 22.76, which is 2 frames faster than what I was able to come up with on my first session of attempts with TD Disco. Ill keep at this fight, but due to the nature of doing attempts on him, I will not be consistently doing attempts on him since my arms are a bit sore from this set of attempts lol.
Anyways, lets talk about the fight itself. Start by countering his taunt, and doing a delayed gut punch to gather two stars. Throw a right handed star punch by pressing A and moving the Wii Remote forward, then allow him to go naturally into his next attack. Dodge and do a delayed gut punch into a delayed opposite gut punch to gather 2 more stars. This time, throw a *left* handed uppercut by pressing C on the nunchuk and moving the nunchuk forward.
This will provoke Disco to go into his 2 jab pattern afterwards, which you can gather 1 star from by intercepting the first jab before he even gets a chance to throw it out with a gut punch and subsequent delayed gut punch. From there, you can knock him down after blocking his next jab and stunning him with alternating body blow punches; you should have 1 star in reserve.
In phase 2, all you need to do is counter his taunt, do a delayed gut punch, then do a delayed triple star punch into his disco flurry windup and you should get an instant KO!
So yeah, I think Ill throw attempts at this fight extremely occasionally as opposed to grinding just this fight out due to the nature of motion controlled attempts being somewhat taxing to do for extended periods of time.
Anyways, thanks for watching!")
![Super Punch-Out!! - Blindfolded Speedrun performed at AGDQ 2014 [24:09]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/kFy8bSIxODE/hqdefault.jpg "Super Punch-Out!! - Blindfolded Speedrun performed at AGDQ 2014 [24:09]
This run was done on Friday, January 10th. This Friday still holds up as one of the greatest days in Games Done Quick history, with the back to back blindfolded MTPO and SPO runs, the quintessential Super Metroid race, the Metroid Zero Mission low% hard WR, and so much more.
This was so nerve wracking for me because I just saw sinister1 get to Mike Tyson in his blindfolded MTPO run, which got a standing ovation; there was an unbelievable amount of pressure on me. It was an amount of pressure that was so significant, that there were several seasoned GDQ speedrunners had approached me after the two punchout runs to tell me that it was an unfair amount of pressure for someone who is literally just debuting at GDQ
Regardless, as I was sitting down and trying to get to a point mentally to attempt to follow up the incredible run that sinister just pulled off, my heart was pounding at the strong possibility of messing up so much that my run would be etched in GDQ history as a debacle that had to be mercy killed. Once I put the blindfold on, it was that much more real that I was about to attempt beating this blindfolded in front of a crowd; something I had only been able to manage exactly one time before attempting it here.
It took until being able to make the entire crowd laugh at calling the exact time on Gabby Jay for me to calm down, which I ended up doing a couple more times with Piston Hurricane and Bald Bull. This ended up helping me settle in a lot more than I anticipated, which was everything I needed in that moment.
Beyond that, the truly scary part about this run was that I needed to beat the first 12 boxers in a row without a single loss anywhere in order to unlock the final circuit. Because of the estimate, I would have been forced to unblindfold to finish the run, as full game blindfolded completions at GDQ were not expected for runners to pull off at live events at that point.
I had some really close calls after getting lost a few times, and got some really favorable luck to help me get past the first 12 fights. Once I got to Narcis, I knew that finishing the game at AGDQ was on the table. I ended up losing to Narcis due to playing way too defensively, since during the one time I beat the game, I had learned that his counter jab can drain almost your entire health bar in certain circumstances. I hadnt practiced Special Circuit very much, because I didnt think I would get far enough for it to matter, so that loss was a direct consequence of that.
Once I got past Narcis though, I knew Hoy was going to be difficult if I got off track, but I barely pulled it together in a pretty memorable match in this run. Rick was a pretty simple fight, even when blindfolded, so I knew that one was a freebie for me lol. Nick was a big wild card, because I knew I was vastly underprepared if anything went wrong on him, so I *needed* that counter to get the quick knockdown at the start of the first phase. It was to the point where if I didnt finish this fight before the 25 second mark, I was almost guaranteed to lose.
What happened instead, was possibly the most memorable moment of the entire run, which was accidentally hitting the earliest frame of the random height counter, which had a significantly faster recoil animation that I had to take into account when following up with my next several punches. Thankfully, I knew exactly what to do, and was able to capitalize on it. With that, I was able to complete the run, which marked the first time a full length game was completely finished blindfolded at a Games Done Quick marathon.
This run, while sloppy at times, is a very important and special run to me, because it was a run where I felt I overcame unbelievable odds for myself, and gave me the motivation to try more runs like this at GDQs for years to come.
I hope you enjoyed this run, and thank you for watching!")
![Super Punch Out!! - Rick Bruiser [01065] (NTSC-U WR)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/kQZu8m929KY/hqdefault.jpg "Super Punch Out!! - Rick Bruiser [01065] (NTSC-U WR)
This run was done on an original 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=UUD_A5pFeb8
The reason for the distinction on NTSC-U in the title is because on the Japanese version of Super Punch Out, Rick Bruiser has the one and only speed difference between the US and JP versions of the game, since JP Rick does *not* do the leaning back animation before going dizzy that US Rick does. This results in a faster time of 1037, which you can watch me do here if youre interested in seeing the differences between the two versions firsthand: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZE37xPqLWik
Despite needing to be frame perfect in 5 places, this feels like the easiest fight to finish with that difficulty for me. To re-match the TAS on the J version of Rick, it took me like 8 minutes, and for this one, it took about 12. It might be because 3 of these inputs are guard manipulation, which is more than the other 5 input fights (Bull, Sandman, Macho), and is something that you have to use in nearly every fight anyways, so it requires less practice than other punches. This fight also has a little bit of luck, in that you need to win two 5/8 luck rolls for landing uppercuts, and two 7/8 luck rolls for his sidesteps in order to complete this strategy, meaning a 1225/4096 probability (or almost a 30% chance of success), which is honestly not bad at all for Punch-Out luck standards.
The fight starts with, you guessed it, guard manipulation. Dont press anything for the first frame of the fight, then press Up+Y for the second frame to get a left jab to sneak past his guard. Rick is unique in that he will reel back and retaliate with a jab every time you sneak a punch through his guard, so keep that in mind whenever you fight him!
Dodge his retaliation jab, and Rick will immediately attempt 2 jabs on your right side, followed by a hook on your left side. Immediately upon being centered from your previous dodge, throw a right jab to counter Ricks jab, then proceed to buffer the following sequence: right jab, right body, right jab, right body, then another right body to interrupt his hook. This deals *exactly* the amount of damage needed to get you the ideal phase 2 and 3 refills of 25HP and 14HP, which is exactly enough HP for a single uppercut in phase 3 to TKO Rick.
Upon throwing that final right body, Rick will go dizzy, and buffering 2 left body punches into a low super will net you the first knockdown of the fight. Its worth noting that if you get a 6.99 or lower for your phase 1 knockdown, you are hard committed into going for the TAS phase 2, because of the 4 second rule for knockdowns, you will only have ~3 seconds to get the second knockdown, and the usual phase 2 for single segment runs will be too slow to get you the good refill for phase 3.
If you find yourself wanting to do that safe strategy, throw an uppercut during the dizzy instead of the low super to fix that issue. This also happens to only really be a concern with the US version of the game, as the JP version has way more wiggle room for phases. As a random tidbit since were on this topic, throwing a low super for the dizzy knockdown is 99 frames faster in real time than knocking Rick down with an uppercut, just because he spins around a bunch in the animation, haha.
For phase 2, you will need to do a guard manipulated uppercut, which means pressing nothing at all for the first frame, then Up+A for the second frame. This allows Rick to take an uppercut, although he has the ability to dodge the uppercut 5/8s of the time, as well as doing a sidestep jump, which is 1/8 likely each time he shuffles his feet. Assuming he does neither of these, hell be hit with the uppercut, and attempt to counter-jab you for it, to which you just dodge to the right, and then dodge to the left to avoid his hook, and cancel the dodge by pressing the A button to do a low super for the 2nd knockdown of the fight. You want to do this low super cancel as tightly as you can in order to match the TAS time, and I dont have a great cue for it, but its one thats relatively easy to get the hang of by feel thankfully.
Phase 3 is simply the exact same as the start of phase 2 thankfully, which just involves another guard manipulated uppercut, which means pressing nothing at all for the first frame, then Up+A for the second frame. The same odds apply, where you need to win a 5/8s luck roll, and not get the 1/8 Rick sidestep.
Anyways, thanks for watching!")
![Mike Tysons Punch-Out!! - Soda Popinski [0:45.82]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/kakacYH1HOQ/hqdefault.jpg "Mike Tysons Punch-Out!! - Soda Popinski [0:45.82]
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=mVb4GvSod2c
Ive also got my full attempt session from power-on to the successful attempt right here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHr_EoSzGcw
Despite being a small PB, this is actually a fairly large tie break, as there are several people who have a PB of 45.97 for Soda. With that 45.82, this currently puts me solidly in 3rd place, behind jefemans 45.48, and lucandors 45.00. My execution is starting to tighten up a little bit, and Im thinking the main punches I timed better in this fight over my last one are the jabs after cancelling Sodas first hook in phases 2 and 3.
As far as the fight itself, 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.
The world record is a 45.00 by lucandor158, which currently uses a misdirected gut punch in the first phase of the fight. Its a very tricky input, and the odds of it even working at all are about 1 in 4, making completing the strategy a bit more rare than it is now.
On top of that, lucandors fight is very very optimized compared to the theory TAS for his strategy (44.97), so chances are very high that if I wanted to attempt to match his time, I would need to get the luck multiple times because of the execution needed to be that fast. Ill probably talk about the misdirect more when I start using it in attempts, because Im still learning about it myself, but until then...
Thanks for watching!")
![Sunset Riders (Arcade) - Co-Op 1cc Speedrun w/ Mr. K [14:57]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/klkRbV9v8Io/hqdefault.jpg "Sunset Riders (Arcade) - Co-Op 1cc Speedrun w/ Mr. K [14:57]
So Mr K and I have been practicing this game for a Co-Op run through Parsec (although, we may also try fightcade, as weve heard good things about it for 2p runs). This gives me a bit of input lag to deal with, so things on my end are a little bit harder than usual.
Anyways, this was our 3rd attempt after routing and a bit of practice, so were pretty happy that weve been able to simultaneously beat the preceding world record, as well as get our first co-op 1 credit clear of the game. Despite this, this is admittedly still a very sloppy run, but were very much going to be improving this soon!")
![Super Punch-Out!! - Rick Bruiser [1037] (NTSC-J WR)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/lOs10WLt8ls/hqdefault.jpg "Super Punch-Out!! - Rick Bruiser [1037] (NTSC-J WR)
So it was found out recently that despite the rare Japanese version of Super Punch Out being almost completely identical in terms of gameplay to the US version, the Rick Bruiser fight actually has a faster dizzy animation for some reason, making it actually faster than the US versions Rick fight!
The other Rick fight caps out at 1065, while this one can reach as low as 1037 with the same strategy! As far as I know, this seems to be the lowest possible time for this strategy. Because of the rarity of this cart, I did this run on my sd2SNES, which is possibly one of the best flash cartridges out there in terms of accuracy.
Anyways, enjoy!")
![Splatterhouse (Arcade) - *Former* High Score World Record [753,700 points] (TG/Aurcade ruleset)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/l_hqaSlYXBU/hqdefault.jpg "Splatterhouse (Arcade) - *Former* High Score World Record [753,700 points] (TG/Aurcade ruleset)
EDIT: I beat this by 57,700 points! Check out the new run here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8PPDkUaWsQ
This was played on an original Splatterhouse arcade PCB on the H.A.S. supergun. This run was also done on default difficulty settings shown at the end of the video, and was recorded through an S-Video connection because my setup cannot support RGB signals at the moment. Here is a picture of my boardset w/ its original romset & supergun setup: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dy6ucfvUwAA4AZC.jpg
Its worth noting that this run follows the Twin Galaxies & Aurcade ruleset for score in this game, which bans the use of the double KO tactic on the final boss, which is otherwise the most lucrative option to cash out your extra lives. If this were allowed, then you would have to set up guaranteed double KOs with the blue orb timer, which is something on the order of 14+ minutes per double KO. You could also die to rocks at the end, but if youre on a good pace, the guaranteed route is the best option for consistency. Without the restrictions in this category, scores in the 1.2 - 1.3 million point range are possible.
I also need to make a note that showing your physical DIP switch settings for this game is worthless. Switch 1 enables the settings menu, while switches 2-8 do absolutely nothing, so the only thing that showing the physical dip switches does is tell you whether or not the game is in test mode... which should be already obvious if thats the case or not by looking at the screen. Once the run was over, I flipped DIP switch #1 to show off the actual settings the board was set to during that run.
Because I am doing these attempts on a SuperGun, whenever I reset the board, I am pressing the Test button on the SuperGun. This actually resets the board without me having to power off the board and cause potential damage to it over time.
Im also posting an archive of the entire attempt session, which includes the boot sequence of the board from powering it on initially, up to the successful attempt:
Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbL3g6kS2xc
Twitch - https://www.twitch.tv/videos/396273038
And for convenience, heres the Twitch highlight of the run itself, complete with live commentary: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/396236370
Ok, now that we got all the fine details out of the way, lets talk about the run itself. The first loop of stage 6 was awful. I actually was about to reset it was so bad, but then decided if I got to see 2 blue orbs in a row, I would continue to see where it goes. Im glad I did, because I had tons of strong stage 6 loops in this run that handily made up for the awful start.
Something I need to elaborate on; the blue orb is a counter-measure so that players do not stay in one spot for an infinite amount of time. This is so theres something to kick idle players off of the game so any new players who walk up to the cabinet dont get any free games, as well as just make sure that players cant stall in one spot to prevent others from playing. This orb is great for score, since it puts a finite limit on how long you can point press any given spot.
Definitely think I want to push this to 800k+ since Ive been improving so fast in such a short amount of time. Im certain 850k+ is feasible given my current skill level, but would require a lot more effort than 800k+ would, so I might just save that goal for whenever I feel like pushing the score even further.
I gotta give huge shoutouts to both Anthony Paparo and Caitlin Oliver for driving up this score over the years! Their efforts to optimize this score ultimately inspired me to do attempts of this once I finally got access to arcade hardware.")
![Super Punch Out!! - Bear Hugger [01233] (PAL WR)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ldw2xicm-us/hqdefault.jpg "Super Punch Out!! - Bear Hugger [01233] (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.
Bear Huggers main mechanic that he forces players to learn is that ducking may be necessary for victory. This is because unlike Gabby, you cannot damage Bear Hugger with punches to the gut. If you try to punch his gut, the fight just freezes as Bear Hugger just does a raspberry at you and receives zero damage. This leaves you to try punching him the face, to which hell retaliate with a bear hug that you cannot dodge from the left or right, but you can duck it.
However, Bear will also taunt at you periodically, and during this very brief taunt, you can actually punch him in the stomach! It will deal zero damage, but it will still add to your dizzy meter and give you . If you dont know what that is, the dizzy meter is a mechanic that exists for every fight in this game. It is basically a hidden value in the games memory that will get a weighted value added to it for every punch you successfully land; the stronger the punch, the higher the number is that gets added to the meter.
When the meter reaches a certain high number, then the opponent will be forced into a dizzy state where a well timed punch will instantly knock them down! However, the challenging part of this mechanic is that this value will go down by 1 point per frame, which means in order for you to get them dizzy, you need to have a lot of punches dealt in a very short amount of time.
This fight deviates from the NTSC Bear Hugger fight that has a perfect time of 01292, since PAL Bear can just barely be dizzied earlier than his NTSC counterpart with a completely different strategy for phase 1 found by lixunis. If youd like to see the NTSC counterpart for this fight, you can check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wi2yAWfFbTE
For the start of this fight, you do not want to do a guard manipulated jab, since they dont work here. Instead, youll start the fight out with a buffered left jab to provoke Bear to do his signature hug attack. From here, you can actually do a double quick duck buffer by tapping down and up 2 times consecutively, and end it with another left jab to stun Bear on the first possible frame.
You’ll then throw 5 stunned left jabs to build up your super arrows and keep Bear’s stun meter up. Bear will then become idle, and his feet will move in and out. When his feet go out, I throw a gut punch that should intercept when Bear points to his stomach on the earliest frame when timed correctly. From there, throw 2 more left jabs for more arrows on the super meter, and to get Bear closer to dizzy status.
Repeat that for his next taunt, which will fully fill the super meter and get you ready to finish off that stun with an uppercut instead of a 2nd left jab. From there, buffer a quick dodge into an uppercut to intercept his next taunt on the first possible frame. Bear can randomly dodge super punches when he’s idle, so you’ll need to win 1 in 4 odds for it to land.
The dizzy meter has ZERO room for error in that if you are late on a single punch by 1 frame, you will NOT dizzy Bear with this strategy! With the way this works out, you only have to time the 2 gut punches, so effectively this means that your 2nd gut punch is mandatorily frame perfect if you want this dizzy to work. I tried to do a buffer strategy for the dizzy knockdown, but I messed it up and just hit it manually. Thankfully, it wasted no frames.
Once Bear gets up for phase 2, he’s going to immediately go to the back of the ring and rush towards you. You want to buffer a left jab, left body blow, and left jab, and similar to the unstunned super that you land near the end of the last phase, you also have to get 1 in 4 odds *again* for this uppercut to land as well, making the total odds in the fight 1 in 16. This fight also requires 2 frame perfect inputs to match the TAS time (both of the gut punches). I got this time on my 2nd attempt that got a frame perfect dizzy, so my leaderboard is pretty empty except for this time lol.
Anyways, thanks for watching!")
![Contra 4 - Hard Mode any% Speedrun [24:39]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/n4wYNwN6tIU/hqdefault.jpg "Contra 4 - Hard Mode any% Speedrun [24:39]
This run was done on an original cartridge of Contra 4, and an original model Nintendo DS that has been modified for direct feed video output.
I did this run a while ago, but didnt get around to uploading it until I got a decent chance to mess around with avisynth scripts to make sure that the final video was in decently high quality, would play back properly at 60fps on youtube, and had the correct pixel gap between the two screens.
This was actually a pretty alright run for me, up until the final stage where I got crushed pretty hard haha. I had made some bad decisions that lead to several deaths, part of which had to do with not having a good way to practice the final stage on a DS console. Id like to get back into this run at some point eventually, but for now this is a decent PB for the time being to upload I think.")
![Super Punch Out!! - Dragon Chan [00733] (PAL WR)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/n51gYbNAj60/hqdefault.jpg "Super Punch Out!! - Dragon Chan [00733] (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.
Dragon Chan is a fight that also tends to cause headaches when it comes to full game runs, because if he wants to, he can take nearly 5 seconds away from you compared to an optimal fight. If youre going for an individual level record on this fight, hes not too bad thankfully. His first phase requires a decent bit of execution, but thankfully that part has no luck requirements.
The fight starts out by holding Up for the first frame of the fight, then for the next frame, you want to throw a left gut punch, followed by buffering a second gut punch. For these next 2 right gut punches, you need to do very small delays for both of them so that he gets far enough in his punch animation to where he doesnt block them.
Then, you want to do a delayed left gut punch to counter the hook hes about to throw, then buffer a right gut punch as hes stunned, then press left and IMMEDIATELY press B to buffer a right gut punch while simultaneously cancelling your dodge into a quick dodge. This will end his stun early, while getting you everything you need in order to set up phase 2 for the KO.
For the super knockdown, you can easily buffer a right gut into a low super, which also happens to get you a faster knockdown animation just like for NTSC, and the buffer is much easier too, so its a win-win.
When Dragon gets up, hes going to do one of 3 patterns, which will either be him doing 3 kicks on random sides (this is the worst pattern) which is 50% likely, a heal with a slow delay which is 25% likely, or a heal with a fast delay, which is the one that we need. Thankfully, the buffer is just to do a tap duck (basically tap down but dont hold it), into a quick duck (tap down, then up), into an uppercut, and your super will hit Dragon on the first possible frame that hes vulnerable when he does the fast heal!
This fight ends up slightly slower than its NTSC counterpart, which is an uncommon outcome for PAL, but it happens sometimes. If youd like to compare this fight to my NTSC one, you can check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Mjjf6hyTHA
Anyways, thanks for watching!")
