Game:

Super Punch-Out!! (1994)

Duration: 1:33

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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.

Mr. Sandman is a breath of fresh air in the Major Circuit, as he has a completely set pattern with no random elements, making him a completely skill based fight. Back when I initially was matching the TAS on the NTSC fights for the first time, I discovered a pretty handy quirk that ends up being applicable to other fights. This strategy also happens to be almost completely identical to the NTSC version of this fight, only really gaining time over it due to NTSC/PAL clock differences. If you would like to compared the fights to each other, you can check out the NTSC one here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIYq3sQ2QOE

This fight starts with you not pressing anything for the first frame of the fight, then pressing "Up" and "Y" to throw a left jab for the second frame. This manipulates his gloves down, which allows you to freely punch Sandman in the face. Once you've landed your first left jab, follow it up by buffering 3 more, then buffer a left gut punch. From here, you need to do a very slightly delayed left gut punch to intercept his slow uppercut, but *don't* counter the uppercut itself. From there, just buffer one final left jab to get him dizzy!

Now here's that quirk I mentioned briefly before; you have the ability to delay your dizzy knockdown in order to make Sandman's next attack come out a little faster! Fights in this game have what's called "move timers" which effectively boils down opponents having moves that are "scheduled" to come out after a set number of frames on the in-game timer. This seems like an idea that's simple and makes sense, but what if I told you that we could take complete advantage of this mechanic in certain scenarios to make execution more consistent on certain punches?

Let's take this fight for example! PAL Sandman's first punch in the second phase begins to come out in 4 frames (for NTSC, it's 5 frames). In order to intercept that like the TAS does, you would need to manually delay for those 4 frames before you throw your uppercut. This is reasonable to pull off for people, but wouldn't it be better if it could land frame perfectly every time?

The quirk I found is that you can burn frames off of an opponent's move timer *while* they are dizzy! What this means is that I could find a different buffer strategy while the dizzy animation is going off to waste those 4 frames *there* instead of having to wait out those 4 frames in the next phase before throwing the uppercut.

Once you throw that final jab to get Sandman dizzy, you can throw a left jab, into a right jab, into a full dodge where you hold the dodge button until your character centers himself, into an uppercut to burn those extra frames I was talking about earlier. However, I opt to throw a low super for the phase 1 knockdown for a slightly faster real-time knockdown animation (40 frames faster), which meant finding a different buffer strategy since I don't think one was used for any other completions of this fight, so I found that quick duck, into left jab, into quick duck, into left jab, into quick duck will set up a low super perfectly as well.

When Sandman gets up, you do NOT have to delay those 4 frames like the TAS does, because of the setup during the dizzy, you can just HOLD "Up" and "A" to buffer an uppercut to hit him frame perfectly every time!

It's worth noting that Mr. Sandman is special, in that he is specifically hard coded to have a KO be completely impossible on him, even via methods of hacking. This means that despite how much you've dominated in phases 1 and 2, Sandman will get up on his 3rd knockdown with a *massive* health refill, which is unlike how this works for any other fight in the game.

For phase 3, you start by throwing an uppercut with a slight delay. I like to time this uppercut immediately after I hear the first note in the Major Circuit theme, which still works really well for setups that are playing on an actual Super Nintendo on a CRT (or RetroTink with lagless monitor). From there, Sandman goes into his signature move, the Dreamland Express.

In this game, the Dreamland Express is pretty slow, so you just have to cut the final quick dodge as tightly as possible. Also, once you've dodged the 3rd uppercut, you need to stun him with your RIGHT hand, because this jab deals slightly extra damage that you NEED in order for this strategy to work, and then follow it with an uppercut. Finally, Sandman will throw another hook, similar to how the phase started, and you'll also need to land an uppercut into it.

Once the uppercut lands, then Sandman will be down for the TKO! This was overall still easier than the NTSC fight, mostly just because the game runs at 50fps instead of 60fps, which makes frame perfect punches easier due to the marginally larger window.

Anyways, thanks for watching!

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