zallard1 | Star Fox 2 - Hard Mode run on SNES Hardware (1/24/1995 CES Build) @zallard1 | Uploaded July 2020 | Updated October 2024, 1 hour ago.
This was my first playthrough of the hardest difficulty this build has to offer, played on actual Super Nintendo hardware via an SD2SNES flash cartridge.
Yesterday a ton of prototype leaks for several Super Nintendo games surfaced, and Star Fox 2 was among them. There were several builds of the game that surfaced due to this. Many of which have varying degrees of stability when attempting to play them.
Of the versions unearthed, this build was by far the most interesting and stable. This version is very slightly later than the one that's been showcased at the Consumer Electronics Show of 1995. I've titled the video like this, since it is almost entirely similar to known footage of the build from that show, which can be seen here: youtube.com/watch?v=8UrxqVYODho
For the run itself, space combat has pretty rough hit detection, making it really difficult to hit small targets consistently. Bombs seem to do nothing (or there is some alternate mechanic to use them correctly that I never understood). I have no idea what the D power up does whatsoever lol.
I also got to demo the 2 player battle mode at the end of the run, just because I think it's really amazing to be able to play a stable/complete version of 2p Star Fox 2 after all these years.
Anyways, hope you enjoy watching!
This was my first playthrough of the hardest difficulty this build has to offer, played on actual Super Nintendo hardware via an SD2SNES flash cartridge.
Yesterday a ton of prototype leaks for several Super Nintendo games surfaced, and Star Fox 2 was among them. There were several builds of the game that surfaced due to this. Many of which have varying degrees of stability when attempting to play them.
Of the versions unearthed, this build was by far the most interesting and stable. This version is very slightly later than the one that's been showcased at the Consumer Electronics Show of 1995. I've titled the video like this, since it is almost entirely similar to known footage of the build from that show, which can be seen here: youtube.com/watch?v=8UrxqVYODho
For the run itself, space combat has pretty rough hit detection, making it really difficult to hit small targets consistently. Bombs seem to do nothing (or there is some alternate mechanic to use them correctly that I never understood). I have no idea what the D power up does whatsoever lol.
I also got to demo the 2 player battle mode at the end of the run, just because I think it's really amazing to be able to play a stable/complete version of 2p Star Fox 2 after all these years.
Anyways, hope you enjoy watching!
![Super Punch-Out!! - Bob Charlie [00550] (NTSC WR)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/P_snYeeSOBo/hqdefault.jpg "Super Punch-Out!! - Bob Charlie [00550] (NTSC 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=WFtZ07BlEIw
Bob Charlie is mostly known in the full game speedrun as that guy who makes you reset because he dances so often and makes the dizzy a bit harder to get consistently. The TAS strategy for Bob is honestly one of the easiest to execute in the game, and the only real opposition he has for you is an abundance of random dances to break out of the strategy.
To start the fight, dont press anything for the first frame of the fight, and then press Up+Y to throw a left jab during the second frame of the fight. This punch is the *only* punch in this strategy that determines your final time, since the rest of the punches are completely buffered, so if you do this one frame perfect, then congratulations! You just need the luck to cooperate from that point forward.
After you land the first punch, you need to buffer 3 more left jabs, then buffer a right jab, then two more left jabs to get Bob dizzy. With this strategy, Bob has the capability of sidestepping punches 1, 2, 3, 6 and 7. Punches 4 and 5 should be guaranteed, because Bob is attempting to throw 2 consecutive jabs during those punches of yours, and cannot commit to sidestepping during those.
As a sidenote, it technically doesnt matter where the right jab is in this phase 1, although its argued that its best thrown for either jabs 4 or 5 since hes committed to trying to hit you during those punches, and therefore may reduce the odds of him dancing away, since right jab is slightly slower. Just dont throw the right jab on punches #6 or #7, otherwise he can block you, because his move timer will be running during those 2 jabs, and it ends up coinciding with your final jab if the right jab ends up being either of those punches.
Once you land that 7th jab, immediately buffer a left jab, two right gut punches, and finally an uppercut to instantly knock him down. Because of the thing that happened with my Bald Bull fight, I decided to check the rest of the the applicable fights for their super knockdown animations in phase 1 to verify which one is faster. For Bob, knocking him down with an uppercut saves 17 frames of real time compared to knocking him down with a low super.
For phase 3, all you have to do is hold Up+A and pray that Bob doesnt commit to the jab that he winds up for, and does a feint to the left. If he doesnt do that feint, then he just lands a jab before your uppercut can land, but if he *does* do that feint, then hes stuck in an animation in which he cannot dodge, and your uppercut will land and knock him out for good.
Also, since I know someone is going to ask about it, the leaderboard for this fight on this cartridge is kind of silly, because I initially matched the TAS on Bob when I was still running this game on Wii Virtual Console, so I never actively attempted matching the TAS on this fight with my zallard1 file when I got this cartridge. However, I did match the TAS a couple of times in full game attempts, which obviously by now, Ive erased those files long long ago.
When you delete a save file that had leaderboard entries, this game will take away the original file name from all of those leaderboard entries, and replace it with a random name from a pool of several that the game likes to use.
For the 2 times I matched the TAS in full game runs, they got reverted to *Thunder and *Lance when those attempt files got deleted, with *Thunder just permanently being in 1st place because of it, which is pretty funny. The other 3 attempts that were a frame off of the TAS in full game attempts got reverted to *Darren *Bruce and *Tony in that order. Those ones can be taken off the list if I filled the board with 5.50 times, but *Thunder and *Lance will never ever be dethroned.
Anyways, thanks for watching!")
![Punch Out!! (Wii) - Credits [1,042,500 points] (WR)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/PlAayTtPHTo/hqdefault.jpg "Punch Out!! (Wii) - Credits [1,042,500 points] (WR)
Before I get into the details of this run, I should mention a few things about where Ive been for the last several months. I took a hiatus from the speedrunning community for a little while for various personal reasons. Around early November, I was diagnosed with pneumonia, which became a lot to deal with on top of everything else Ive already been going through. I am past the infection thankfully, but the healing process for my lungs and respiratory system has been incredibly slow and painful for me.
Im still coughing very frequently and still have chest pains often. Im also constantly fatigued and take random naps frequently throughout the day, and have troubles falling asleep at night due to coughing myself awake if I accidentally lay in such a way that irritates my lungs (colder temperature is also definitely a factor too).
Im hesitant to go to the hospital as much as possible to minimize exposure to COVID in the overpacked hospitals here, so its hard to tell if my pain is worth the risk of exposure. Please wear a mask, social distance, and take this pandemic *seriously* always; its the only chance we have to beat this.
I just really wanted to let everyone here know whats been going on with me in some way, so I decided the Credits minigame would be a low stress; low execution Punch Out video to upload in the meantime. Ill be trying to slowly get back into the speedrunning community as my symptoms from the post-pneumonia healing process subside, but I wont push myself. In the meantime, expect a few more relatively light execution videos like this one until I get better.
So, the credits mini-game WR has been 1,040,500 for the last decade. As far as Im aware, a million points have only been broken 3 times ever, and all 3 of them were from me lol.
This minigame is all about clicking names that have a letter flipped around incorrectly. Youll get points based on how many of those you fix in a row. Once you find the name of a boxer thats in the game (i.e. Glass Joe, Bald Bull, ect), you will need to hit that name to bank your score that youve been accumulating.
The bank score can be modeled by the polynomial (125x^2) + 375x where x represents the number of boxer names youve clicked in a row. Thus, because this is a parabolic function, in order to maximize your score, you want either long combos of names in a row before banking your score with a boxer name, or clicking a boxer name alone.
There is one caveat to this though. There is a multiplier that will start at x1, but once you hit your first boxer name, that multiplier climbs to x2, then subsequent boxer names will increase it to x4, x6, x8, and finally x10. The rough idea for the first 4 boxer names is to try to hit those boxer names as early as possible, such that the combo of misspelled names will have higher worth than if you were to hit them early. Then, once you hit the x10 multiplier, the goal will now shift to you wanting to hit names in long strings no matter what.
The exact calculation of when you bank your score is that it will take your current bank score, then add 2000 points to it, which is a fixed bonus that you always get from any boxer name, then it will multiply that number by your current multiplier (1, 2, 4, 6, 8, or 10), and add that result to your current score. In the scenario of hitting a boxer name when your bank score is zero, it will just be the 2000 point boxer bonus multiplied by the current multiplier.
Phew, now that all of that is out of the way, I can actually talk about the run itself. So the reason why this minigame truly sucks to optimize is that the amount of names and boxer names that appear are *completely random* in every way. The boxer names are spaced out in roughly the same-ish areas, but thats kind of it. The amount of flipped letter names you get can vary wildly. I didnt keep track of stats this time, but I remember tallying stuff for this back in 2010, and you can get like 10+ extra names sometimes in some runs, and get completely robbed in others. There appeared to be no rhyme or reason to it.
Despite this run containing a 10,500 point mistake by missing a name before it got hit by the gloves at the top at 0:25, this run was EXTREMELY lucky. I got super bailed out by more than average amounts of names spawning in really fortunate combo heavy areas. Sucks that I missed that one name, mainly just misjudged how fast I could get to those names at the top and took a greedy risk.
Definitely beatable even if I got the missed name, but the luck is really horrible for this minigame, even if your only goal is just attempting to break a million. Anyways, hope everyone enjoyed the thorough description of the credits minigame, as well as the run!")
![Super Punch Out!! - Heike Kagero [01049] (TKO strategy)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Pq-8WDZRiOI/hqdefault.jpg "Super Punch Out!! - Heike Kagero [01049] (TKO strategy)
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
So, lixunis found a great strategy (with the bizarre name Brunch of Eggs and Ham and Stuff) for full game runs that actually improves on the old TAS of 1060 by a few frames (to 1052 in fact).
Phase 1 is super easy here, because you just need to hold up for the first frame of the fight, then buffer 6 left guts, 2 right jabs, then quick duck into low super to get him to the mat. This is the classic phase one thats been optimal for years and years as far as a quick first knockdown goes anyways.
For phase 2, by buffering a low left punch to interrupt Heikes first hook, you can set his guard to be high on the next punch by holding Up until the first frame Heike gets out of his recovery animation and becomes idle again. Then you just buffer 1 more left gut punch, into rapid punches, which effectively you just hold A and repress it as soon as you see your character wind up to throw a super.
Heike will get dizzy off of this, then you just need to throw a left gut into a low super to knock him down again. For lixuniss strategy, he does low rapid punches for phase 3, which gets the 1052.
Now, I ended up playing around with finding backup strategies for missing the rapid punches in phase 3 the other night, because a good friend of mine, Hootey, has lost some great runs on great paces because hitting the rapids can be pretty strict and unforgiving if you miss.
When I was loading the savestate to mess with backups, I would also just mess around randomly sometimes, and stumbled into an adjustment that not only gets rid of the rapid punches altogether, but is *faster* by 2 frames! This was never found before, because this low super strategy working is a direct consequence of the new strategy that lixunis found, since phase 3 has a lower refill here compared to normal.
Lixunis found a perfect buffer for this new phase 3, which involves a quick left dodge, into a quick right dodge, into a low super. Its important to note that double left quick dodge does *not* work, because Heikes hook hitbox lingers for an extra frame on the left side, probably because thats where the punch is coming from.
For this buffer, Im going with just holding left until the fight starts, then double tapping right as soon as my character moves, since tapping the opposite direction also gets you a quick dodge & the 2nd tap gets you to start your next dodge. From there, I just quickly hit A and its all good.
Anyways, thanks for watching!")
![Super Punch-Out!! - Mad Clown [901] (Original Resolution)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Q1bddZn6DtA/hqdefault.jpg "Super Punch-Out!! - Mad Clown [901] (Original Resolution)
Super Punch-Out!! - Mad Clown [901] (Original Resolution)")
![Super Punch Out!! - Hoy Quarlow [00835] (NTSC WR)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/QB_f64jZiA0/hqdefault.jpg "Super Punch Out!! - Hoy Quarlow [00835] (NTSC 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=kvq6b76k70U
Hoy Quarlow is an infamously random fight for full game speedruns, and from what Ive seen as far as general opinions go with this game, is widely considered to be the hardest fight in the game as far as casual playthroughs go. Thankfully, with some of the speedrun strategies you can pull off on Hoy, youll be able to skip all of his more elaborate attack patterns that he would be able to pull out later in the fight, with a bit of luck anyways.
The fight begins as you would expect by this point, with you doing a guard manipulation at the start of the fight by pressing nothing for the first frame, and Up + Y on the second frame, which will allow a left jab through his guard. From there, buffer another left jab, then Hoy will go into a crane stance before attempting to attack you. His sprite will twitch for a brief moment, and immediately following that twitch, you want to throw out a delayed left jab to intercept it.
After intercepting that jab, follow it up by buffering a left gut punch to intercept an attack of his, then 2 random left jabs, then finally a left body blow to intercept another attack of his. This will dizzy him, to which you can buffer a low right gut into a low super take him down. The TAS ends up knocking Hoy down with a right jab, which would normally be detrimental, since you end up with a much larger refill for phase 2 when you dont knock an opponent down with a super.
This paragraph doesnt cover how to do the strategy at all, and instead talks about some neat data on optimizing real time; you can skip ahead if you just want to know how to do the fight. Because of the way Hoys pattern shakes out, even if you go into phase 2 with a low refill to where you could take him down with 2 low supers, you end up waiting in phase 3, because you dont have enough time to sneak in a meaningful attack due to his scheduled low attack coming out too quick. Because of this, its actually faster in real time to do the right jab in phase 1, since he has a way faster knockdown animation (51 frames faster to be exact), then ends up behind by 4 frames by the time phase 2 is done, but since Hoys move timer is more depleted by the time phase 3 starts, the only real time lost is 4 frames from the uppercut knockdown animation, meaning youll come out ahead with a net profit of 47 frames vs if you just did low supers every time in the fight.
If you only care about in-game time, a really easy buffer for the dizzy knockdown would be a right gut punch, into a low super. For phase 2, I actually want to do guard manipulated uppercuts here for a specific reason. Since your entire fight time for phases 2 + 3 is dictated by Hoys move timer for his low attack, Im doing uppercuts to intentionally waste time such that I can buffer either a quick duck or a quick dodge in phase 3. I try to aim my uppercuts right around when I visually see Hoys guard drop, as opposed to aiming for the first frame guard manipulation. The best case scenario is that Hoy takes both of the supers that you chose to go with, which are 5/8s likely each.
Phase 3 involves throwing a low super into Hoys low attack. If you opted for the low super approach in phase 2, then youll need to time this manually, which involves throwing the super right around when you see Hoy go into his attack stance. If you opted for the phase 2 uppercut approach, depending on the times you go for phases 1 and 2, you may be able to buffer a quick dodge/duck to easily land it frame perfectly.
For example, if phase 1 was 528, and phase 2 was 749, then you can buffer a quick duck for an 835. If you got 750 for phase 2, then you can instead do a quick dodge into low super to get an 835. Outside of those two situations for that phase 1 time, youll need to time it manually, but also note that the attack comes out way sooner than in the phase 2 low super scenario. This concept extends to any situation where you get Hoy dizzy before hes idle after his 2 low attacks in phase 1, but the times to do dodge/duck are obviously different. Thankfully, there exists a calculator that accounts for the exact quirks of the timer if you arent comfortable with doing the math & accounting for timer quirks that you can copy from this spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/17GVICkDVWth1TOl7azFd-0sHj3rTGrXygktjxAYrFoQ
Anyways, thanks for watching!")
![Mike Tysons Punch-Out!! - Soda Popinski [0:45.25]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/QUkVEHzkwjI/hqdefault.jpg "Mike Tysons Punch-Out!! - Soda Popinski [0:45.25]
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=TVJnjU1KbnU
Ive also got my full attempt session from power-on to the successful attempt right here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqbN3hAE-30
Soda finally gave me the luck to finish a single attempt with a misdirected gut punch in phase 1. It paid off to switch to the WR strategy, but it took quite a bit more effort due to a couple factors Ill get into a little later. However, the change let me finally get an improvement thats larger than a single increment (skipped 45.48 & went straight to 45.25), however I missed lucandor158s 45.00 world record by a couple of frames of execution.
This fight starts off with Soda attempting to throw 2 hooks at you, and they need to be cancelled 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. At this point for me, the faster 2nd cancel is mandatory.
Ok, so heres the scoop on the spicy tech; the misdirected gut punch. This punch is not exactly exclusive to Soda, since the speedruns of other fights like Kaiser/Bull/Honda2/Macho also have misdirected punches too, but its very clear when you land any of those successfully, but for Soda, you can only tell if it lands 25% of the time, and unlike Bull 2, its a bit vague to tell if you got that luck or not. To complicate things more, the execution is deceptively fast, and its very easy for the misdirect to not go off due to execution.
This 1st phase starts by holding Up and waiting for Soda to raise his gloves. As soon as they go up, you need to let go of Up for the shortest amount of time you can, and during that window, press A. Instantly after, you need to let go of A and hold Up, THEN buffer B and quickly let go of Up. All of these have to happen in a split second! If you see Sodas guard stay up between your 1st and 2nd punches, its a good sign that at the very least, the input was likely correct. I definitely have to thank lucandor for helping me understand this trick a bit better, because otherwise its VERY cryptic.
After the cancels, Soda can either throw 2 uppercuts, or throw 2 more hooks. Hell throw uppercuts about 75% of the time, which is the luck we need to continue the strategy. 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 back in 2015.
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 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 normal way is to counter his 1st hook with a right jab, then buffer a right gut, then perform the Screwdriver. I go for the harder approach, which is to cancel the 1st hook with a right gut, then throw a jab into his 2nd hook. Youre supposed to buffer a jab and let go of Up on a specific 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 *can* 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. Ill be sticking with this for attempts.
My weakest phase was definitely phase 3, since I was nervous to even get that far (I keep losing attempts to P3 due to luck). Im still going to throw attempts at this since Im so close. Assuming the record doesnt dip to a 44.XX, the next PB of mine in this fight will at the very least be a tied record.
Thanks for watching!")
![Punch Out!! (Wii) - Disco Kid [0:27.42] (WR)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/RaKV2LBvjTE/hqdefault.jpg "Punch Out!! (Wii) - Disco Kid [0:27.42] (WR)
I held off on doing this run for SO LONG just because I remember pretty much never being any good at the first phase of the fight back in 2009/2010 (I only ever got 1 single 2:50). I figured this fight would be a nightmare for me in particular due to that, and that I was really bad at countering Discos hooks frame perfectly, but alas, over the last decade it seems Ive apparently gotten slightly better at speedrunning Punch Out games.
After finally getting the tied record on Title Defense Disco Kid, I figured it made sense to go immediately back to this fight, since the timing of the 2nd punch in this fight is the exact same timing of several of the punches in the Title Defense Disco Kid fight. I somehow got this WR tie within 4 hours of effort collectively over the past 2 days, which is significantly faster than I thought this grind would take.
To get a 2:50 in phase 1, you need to hit 5 frame perfect inputs in a row without losing 2 frames in total. I got, no joke, 69 of these 2:50 phase 1s during this grind, and hit everything perfectly on the 69th attempt. I only ever got the following times during this brief grind...
27.90 - 1
27.72 - 1
27.66 - 1
27.54 - 5
27.42 - 1
Thats right, I skipped 27.48. Ive never seen a 27.48, and I never will.
As for the fight itself, phase 1 has a couple of things we need to go over. The first thing that happens is that Disco will attempt to taunt you, which has him going YEAAAAHHHHHHH and you hear a whooshing noise accompanying it. Start by throwing a jab just as that whooshing noise stops, and you should hopefully get the first star really quickly. As Disco reels to the side, throw a delayed gut punch on the opposite side of where you threw your jab in order to collect a second star.
Immediately after collecting star #2, you need to throw a very slightly delayed gut punch on the opposite side such that he doesnt block it (if he blocks it, you lose a bit of time). Then, Disco will try to throw a jab, to which you can counter with a delayed left jab of your own. Disco will reel to the right, which leaves him vulnerable for an instant knockdown if you time your triple star punch just right (too early and it doesnt knock him down at all). If you were frame perfect, or lost only 1 frame in total throughout the entirety of phase 1, you will get a 2:50 on the clock.
For phase 2, Disco will throw a hook, which is a pretty awkward timing to counter frame perfectly for a star, especially because he has 2 different voice clips that can play for the hooks he throws in this fight (a long grunt, or here it comes!). I tend to use a sound cue, and for the long grunt, I wait until the grunt fully finishes before I throw (I throw immediately after the word comes for the other sound cue).
Disco will then do the taunt he did at the start of the fight, except this time you have a star beforehand. If you throw a star into his taunt, it instantly knocks Disco down no matter how much HP he had. I time this punch around when he gets to the E in YEEAAAAH and that seems to hit the perfect frame really often for me.
For the final phase of the fight, its very similar to phase 2, except this time his pattern is slightly different. This time, instead of him throwing 1 hook and taunting, he throws *2* hooks before taunting. The old strategy for this fight was to just counter both hooks and get an extra star from his reeling animation and throwing a 3 star punch to end the fight. The WR/TAS for that strategy results in a 28.80, which is very fast, but obviously we can do better.
This strategy adjustment that Mysteryman (aka Frame by Frame on youtube) ends up opting to do a move cancel on the 2nd hook, which is mandatorily frame perfect, and to star punch Discos taunt just like phase 2. I ended up using the star animation in the middle of the screen as my cue for hitting this cancel (once the star shape fades fully, I throw the hook).
Im so glad I got this done so quickly, because I know many other runners who struggled severely with matching this time, so its quite a relief to have effectively skipped that struggle entirely.
Anyways, thanks for watching!")
![Super Punch Out!! - Mad Clown [00905]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Rs6AEtl-HMs/hqdefault.jpg "Super Punch Out!! - Mad Clown [00905]
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=I4F8hCpIILY
Mad Clowns record strategy is a fairly easy fight to execute, but the fight is absolutely riddled with randomness throughout the first and second phases, and any little thing he does during a punch youve committed to throw, will instantly dumpster your attempt. Also similar to Bear Hugger, if you attempt to throw a punch at Mad Clowns gut, he will not take any damage and itll play a silly animation instead. This isnt important for speedruns, but its still possible to punch Clown in the gut when he taunts like Bear, but you have to wait until he points to his stomach the 2nd time for it to land.
This fight starts with you pressing nothing for the first frame, and then pressing Up and Y to throw a left jab on the next frame. Follow up from that left jab with a buffered right jab, with Mad Clown hopefully standing still without random retaliations and not randomly blocking for both of these punches. From there, Clown will throw a jab on your left side, and youll need to do a delayed left jab to counter it.
Once the jab is countered, just buffer 2 left jabs during Clowns stun, and then buffer 2 more right jabs once his stun ends and hope they both land without him randomly blocking, or doing random retaliations during the last jab. Once they both land, Clown will instantly go into a dizzy state, and youll need to land the strictest dizzy knockdown in the game, which sits at a 5 frame window. Thankfully, there exist buffer strategies that make this part trivial, but also were going to do something sneaky here.
Similar to Mr. Sandman and Aran Ryan, I found a strategy involving Clowns move timer that involves burning extra frames during the dizzy knockdown in order to setup an easier start to phase 2. For this, we need to do a very specific dizzy knockdown so that instead of getting an optimal 5.24 knockdown, we need to knock him down at precisely 5.28 on the clock, which happens to be the final frame of the instant knockdown window.
The start of phase 2 will consist of Mad Clown either opening by doing a taunt where hes pointing to his stomach, which means hell retaliate when you attempt to throw a punch, or hell start to throw a hook. If he taunts, then your attempt is dead, but if he attempts to throw a hook, then youre past the final piece of luck in the fight.
Due to the setup we did at the end of phase 1, weve got Clowns move timer in a perfect position such that a quick duck into a right jab will frame perfectly counter Clowns hook every time! Once you counter that hook, then immediately buffer an uppercut during Clowns stun, then once Clowns animation of getting hit ends, hes going to attempt to hit you with a backhand attack. You want to land an uppercut directly into this attack in order to take him down for the second time. I time this uppercut roughly around the first frame I see him start to throw out the attack.
Once youve landed that uppercut, then congratulations, because youve effectively finished the fight! For phase 3, Mad Clown will always open with his signature move, Show Time, which involves him throwing really fast jabs that people will usually block. However, we know that Clown will always open with jabs on your right side, which can easily be countered by buffering a right jab as soon as the phase begins! Because of how fast phase 2 was, hell also come back with so little health that hell instantly go right back down when the jab lands.
Overall, this strategy is super annoying because of how much randomness the first phase has, but once you finally get attempts past the luck walls, this is a pretty straightforward fight, with only 3 things that you need to manually time in order to match this record.
Anyways, thanks for watching!")
![Mike Tysons Punch-Out!! - Soda Popinski [0:45.61]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/S2aetuPXS2k/hqdefault.jpg "Mike Tysons Punch-Out!! - Soda Popinski [0:45.61]
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=OvVAOkRYjNQ
Ive also got my full attempt session from power-on to the successful attempt right here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTujaOUPizs
The Soda improvement train continues to chug along, this time getting faster by, you guessed it, yet another single timer increment lol. This PB doesnt change my ranking/placement, since Im still 3rd place, behind jefemans 45.48, and lucandors 45.00, but I think the execution here is decent enough to where I have a much higher chance of getting improvements to my PB by finally incorporating the misdirected uppercut cancel for future attempts.
Ive practiced it a bit with savestates, and I can get it rarely, but the challenging part is getting the luck and execution for it, in addition to a tightly executed phase 2 and 3 to tie lucandor. Its technically possible to beat luc with the same strategy, as a 44.97 is barely possible if you are frame perfect on every punch on the fight, but its just not realistic.
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.
Like I said before, Im definitely going to be attempting the misdirect strategy for future Soda attempts. Ill probably just be aiming to tie lucandors record as opposed to beating it, because the execution to beat it is very very unlikely when coupled with the current luck needed to complete the fight. The luck is about 1 in 114 for the misdirect strategy, so for MTPO standards its not the worst ever, but its not exactly fantastic when coupled with hitting every punch possible frame perfectly. Adding another misdirected punch in phase 2 would give us more time save, but it will make the odds roughly 4 times worse, and to me, the execution of phase 2s misdirect is harder than in phase 1, so Im not exactly jumping at the thought of attempting that :P
Thanks for watching!")
![Super Punch Out!! - Narcis Prince [00824]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/SmH06SRrkcY/hqdefault.jpg "Super Punch Out!! - Narcis Prince [00824]
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=fyI4BFUxskU
Narcis Prince is the most random fight in the game, and is the only one that doesnt have dozens of people tying the TAS because of it. A few people have been able to match it recently during the pandemic, but its a huge range from being a quick one to get, to taking close to a year of consistent effort to get. My PB on this fight was an 828 set in 2014, until I improved it recently to the 826, and now the 824 that you see here.
Ive been grinding mostly this on my Twitch channel, with several stats Ive been tracking, and a running timer during attempts. Ive also been exporting streams of this grind to my alt account on YouTube. You can check out the playlist for that (with more comments) here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXiI-lPUXEQ&list=PLt0miTqQ0e4i4dz-YRuBp4TJw-2DfmPiI
Narcis can literally end your attempt on the 1st frame of the fight if he dances or walks to the side. Start the fight starts by holding Up for the 1st frame, then letting go and buffering a left gut for the 2nd frame. After that 1st gut punch, follow it up with 2 more left gut punches. You have a 2 frame window to do that guard manipulation, otherwise Narcis will block your 3rd gut punch due to him starting his scheduled hook.
Landing those 3 gut punches is an absolute ordeal. In addition to the dances I mentioned before, he can also end your attempt before *every* gut punch by: twirling left or right, side stepping left or right and sliding away side to side. He can ALSO end your attempts during the punches themselves, by randomly block them outright, or doing a random retaliation in response.
If you land the 3 gut punches, Narcis will throw a hook that youll need to counter with a low left gut punch. After landing it, you need to hit Narcis on the final frame of his stun animation from the counterpunch, which thankfully has a buffer that works every time, although its just finicky enough to where you could lose attempts on it sometimes. To do it, tap and hold left or right until you see your character start to dodge, then IMMEDIATELY let go of dodge so that you go through your dodge animation. As soon as youre about to center yourself, press Up plus Y to throw a jab, which should hit Narcis to where his recoil animation is faster and he instantly becomes angry.
When Narcis is angry, hell go to the back of the ring (which resets the dizzy meter entirely) and comes back to throw one of 3 main patterns at you. The first (and most common) pattern is the one where he throws 2 jabs on your right side, which is an immediate reset if it happens, because hell block it. The next pattern is 2 jabs on your left side, which will also be a reset. The final pattern is the one where he can throw a hook on your left side, then right side, which is the one we *need* to have a chance.
When the delayed jab lands, you need to buffer the following: left gut, quick duck, left gut, right jab, then finally left jab. You NEED to pause the game mid-punch to let the super meter catch up; if you dont, then Narcis cant dizzy. Then you need to buffer rapid jabs, which has a 6 frame window to repress the A button, otherwise youll be too slow Narcis wont get dizzy off of the 4th rapid. With the good pattern, Narcis can still dodge the initial jab, as well as your 1st and 4th rapid jabs, but if all rapid jabs land, just do a quick duck into low super for a knockdown!
Phase 2 just has you throwing a rapid jab into his jab that he attempts to throw. Ive changed over to a buffer thats been known about for a long time, but was one I always thought was too hard to do consistently. Murakuma ended up convincing me that the buffer is worth going for, since I had subconsciously assumed that this game would ruin quick dodges from hitting diagonals, similar to Mike Tysons Punch-Out, but this game doesnt do that at all! Sliding from down on the dpad, to hitting up, left, up, left gets you in position for the buffered rapid punch on the perfect frame.
From there, youll need to do a buffer for the final uppercut (I went with right gut, quick duck, right jab, into uppercut this time). This final uppercut is really awful too, and can easily kill your run at the very end. I lost 2 frames vs the TAS (1 from the counter in phase 1, and one from not starting my quick dodge out of my duck in phase 2 fast enough).
Anyways, thanks for watching!")
