zallard1 | Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! - Soda Popinski [0:45.97] @zallard1 | Uploaded December 2022 | Updated October 2024, 1 hour ago.
This run was done on an original cartridge of Mike Tyson's 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: pastebin.com/m7tzR5Cq

I've also decided to include a non-stretched version of this fight in an unlisted video. If you'd like to learn more about why I'm including this too, you can check out the description in the second video here: youtube.com/watch?v=6S7zVZ5RxZc

I've also got my full attempt session from power-on to the successful attempt right here: 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. It's 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. He'll 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 I'll go into next.

Off of the 2nd cancel, a right dodge is buffered, which is a perfect setup to land a gut punch into Soda's 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 you're doing the Screwdriver's dodge, you will effectively eliminate 2 of the 4 possible delays for Soda's 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 I've 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 doesn't 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 there's still quite a bit of room for improvement. I'm 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, who's in 2nd place for Soda, has a 45.48 with this same strategy, and I'm reasonably certain that's the lowest timer increment that you can get with it. I'd 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 I'm 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 I'll talk about why it's such a monster of a record, but until then...

Thanks for watching!