The History of Super Punch-Out World Records 

Flashing lights warning at 38:54 UPDATE: When this video was made, the SPO community's understanding of the probabilities of different RNG events occurring was partially inaccurate. Most notably, the odds in getting low times on Narcis and Hoy were diminished by ~8 and ~3 times what they actually are. So, the odds in FatPotatoSeal's 2:27 paced run at the end is closer to 1/155,000 than 1/2,688,000 - still a really crazy pace, but not quite as mind-boggling as before. I'm sorry for any confusion, but at the time we were working with the best estimates we had available. Thanks to the following people for help with research! Be sure to check their channels out: zallard1 - www.twitch.tv/zallard1 Mysteryman95 - www.twitch.tv/mysteryman9512 Hootey - www.twitch.tv/hootey FatPotatoSeal - www.twitch.tv/fatpotatoseal And check out the other top runners too! You can find them here: www.speedrun.com/spo

Was disappointed to not see Matt Turk dominate the early days of this as well

Feels like Christmas whenever Summoning Salt uploads

The fact that in 50 minutes you can make me go from knowing nothing about a game to my heart sinking watching someone lose the perfect run blows my mind. Absolutely fantastic video as always.

"He was going to do nobody else had done before. Become the first Super Punch Out single segment record holder, not named Zallard1. His name... Was Zallard2-- I mean Mysterman95."

Back in the 90s, used to rent this from my local videostore. There was a guy a little older than me who worked certain days and asked me if I was good at the game. We eventually competed against each other for fastest times saved on the cart's Time Attack memory for about a year, lowering each other's times, not letting anyone else rent it. The best part of it all was us not telling each-other in person what new times we achieved and we would only find out when going into time attack mode to see the history. I made a new friend and from that day onward, every game and movie rental from that store was on the house. Thank You Super Punch-Out!

Can we appreciate for a second the fact that there were basically no new strats, no newly found glitches, exploits or techniques, no new routes, no new ways to save an extra frame rule… just pure unadulterated skill, and grind versus the odds? this is one of the most straightforward history videos and yet it manages to hit just as hard. pun intended.

I love that your thumbnail for this is a reference to one of the most legendary footnotes in the history of a speedgame that I know of. For those who don’t know, the thumbnail is a screen cap from one of Zallard’s many attempts, where for some reason, the game bugged out and turned Nick Bruiser green. This glitch, as far as I know, has never been seen before or since. It was a purely visual bug that didn’t affect the gameplay, and the run wasn’t anything special until it happened. But it was so jarring and strange that “Green Nick Bruiser” remained Zallard’s Twitch PFP for many years, and it certainly makes for an interesting footnote. And there’s one more tidbit to it; during AGDQ 2014, Zallard performed a blindfolded run of Super Punch-Out. I’m a momentous and at the time unprecedented achievement, he actually completed the run. And if you look very closely, there is one brief moment lasting less than a second where, unseen by the blinded Zallard or the crowd watching from a distance… Nick Bruiser momentarily turned green again.

So here’s what I learned: To get world record in Super Punch-Out, the opponent needs to stand still.

It's so thematically fitting on a meta level that for most of the run you're facing all these crazy kooky characters as you mostly need luck to proceed, but right at the end you face the stoic Nick while you have to be just as stoic and pure execution.

Love the addition of the timeline graph. Really cool way to see the WR’s change over time rather than just a list of times and dates

I like the dots with the timeline visual, gives a real sense of how far the community has got. May I suggest coloring the dots based on the runner that achieved the record? Maybe matching their color in the leaderboard and with an indication to the side of who is who, I think it would add a lot to the narrative of the graph. In this case it would show inmediately how many records zallard1 has, showing a lot of orange dots in the early history.

The way you slowly unveiled the characteristics of each boxer and the style used to defeat them was superb.

The reason I think SummoningSalt is up there with the best content creators ever is that you can never predict what’s going to happen. He’ll show a god run, explain exactly how it can so easily fail, and then we see it succeed anyway. He’s mastered fake-out foreshadowing to such a degree that he can successfully tell the story he needs to tell without us ever being sure what will happen next. It’s genuinely incredible to watch, and it works so flawlessly for this style of content.

Man, I remember playing the heck out of Super Punch-Out when it came out on Wii Virtual Console, my dad introduced me to the series thanks to him just buying the original, inputting the Mr. Dream code from memory even though he hadn't played for nearly 20 years, and beat him in the first round. One of my most fond gaming memories to this day, and a fantastic video to see come out today, you always do fantastic work Salt!

Showing the graph for each record and its impact on the whole graph made this video so much more dramatic than I could have anticipated, very well executed on your behalf. Really well done!

My heart brakes for Fat Potato Seal and his once in a life time run. I am a giant fan of this video and am such a happy camper to see Zallard1 get so much time on this video because he is my favorite and best Punch Out player there is.

That ending is heartbreaking, holy mother of god Just seeing the numbers on screen made my heart sink I've never rooted for someone so hard :') Thanks for the amazing video as always!

I was fully expecting Matt Turk to just jump in at the very end, end up with a 15 second run, not say anything and dip

FatPotatoSeal and MR's 31/32 are two of the most heartbreaking moments in speedrunning ever.

If that run at the end had succeeded, I honestly would have suspected something. Seeing it fail, and knowing it was real, was heartbreaking.

This is 100% going to be lost in the sea of comments, but on the same day this was uploaded FatPotatoSeal achieved a PB of 2:33.24, just a bit slower than the WR, and he is quiting Single Segment for the future. What Salt said was right, it is entirely possible he will NEVER see that pace again in his life, truly a tragedy. Massive props to him for having the dedication to keep playing the game after that.

update: awosomeandy has actually done it! he has gotten the first sub 2m 30s with an unbelievable time of *2m 28s 79ms!* great video salt! and great job andy!

Zallard is hands down my favorite speed runner. If there was ever someone I'd want to meet in person it would probably have to be him. I feel like he's such a rare breed of extreme humbleness without being too hard on himself. Even if someone achieves something like a world record it typically goes one of two ways: either they become extremely arrogant, or they don't give themselves enough credit with statements like "I could've done better..." I feel like Zallard has found that perfect middle ground where he's motivated enough to make improvements, but not killing himself over something that's impossible. The man can crush a world record and still keep his cool like it's no big deal, but if someone else claimed a record he would sincerely congratulate them because he knows the work that goes into these games.

I loved the ending. Bittersweet. Heartbreaking, but with a fistful of hope. Thanks for the amazing videos ♥

16:05 is that an 7 frame reaction? That's completely nuts. No way any anywhere "normal" human would have such an amazing reaction time. "Normal" is like 12 frames, maybe 13 even. I get anxious just by imagining myself in a situation in which I have to react so quickly... at the end of a run.

Probably the most iconic intro song on the internet. That first note always gives me a smile.

18:50 I love how Jon Bois is such an influence to visual storytelling like this. That moment is straight out of his videos.

Interesting Fact: At the same day this video was published, FatPotatoSeal got a crazy 2m 33s 240ms time, making him second place. Less than half a second from world record.

This channel is the sole definition of "quality over quantity".

Man, even I felt my soul get absolutely crushed at FatPotatoSeal's run at the end. I can't even possibly fathom the absolute pain he suffered at the end of that run. Heartbreaker can't even begin to describe that.

That was absolutely heartbreaking. I kinda hope Zallard comes back and retakes the lead and shakes things up again. Great video as always!

The way Nick Bruiser was animated, the way he looks down on you, how he doesn’t react much to hits, how he walks to you, topped with being the last one to beat with such incredible difficulty gives off this idea that he’s the biggest villain in the game

32:49 I really love this subtle bit of foreshadowing here with how the leaderboard was used here. Not even a couple of minutes before this point, essentially this same leaderboard of the then-current Top 3 runners was pulled up to show how large the current gap in competition was between Zallard and the times of next runner after him. But when it got pulled up _this_ time to show 2nd and 3rd place were still the same times even after the half a year gap between Zallard's WRs, there's suddenly just this 4th name on the board that wasn't there before with Mysteryman, who goes completely unmentioned in the moment, only for that same name to then come up properly in a BIG way later on when they stormed into the scene to completely _demolish_ Zallard's record in spite of the extra layer of difficulty they had to deal with of the input delay they had to work around. Even if that wasn't actually an intentional bit of foreshadowing at work there to hint at what was to come later on, that was still some good stuff nonetheless.

I like how most punch-out speedrunning comes down to "Never stop beating the shit out of your opponent and hope they let you"

The new timeliness graph was really cool to visualise all the records and the time between them rather than just the numbers.

Just for reference, 2:16.41 is the fastest theoretical time any player can possibly get in this game.

Awesome stuff once again!

The absolute rhythm in storytelling of this video. Only introduces strategies for specific boxers when it is relevant to a run in question. Legit impressed.

When you introduced the runner whose goal was to become the first Super Punch-Out single segment world record holder not named Zallard1, I was really hoping it was Zallard2.

As someone who casually speedran this game for a while back in 2020, this video hit me hard. That Nick Bruiser counter with input lag is exactly as hard as it looks. Fun Fact: The right jab (or face punch) is slightly slower, but also slightly more powerful than the left jab. Same goes for right body blows and left body blows. So when you see a runner doing a right punch specifically, it's so they can do the exact amount of damage to knock someone down (as in, if they did a left punch instead, it would leave the opponent with a sliver of health). This is most notable with Phase 3 of Mr. Sandman and Phase 2 of Rick Bruiser. It's also important when doing buffer strats, due to the different timings. Awesome to see a video about this game, it absolutely deserves more attention.

I just watched 54 minutes of a game I've never played and I enjoyed every second of it. Also, that ending was brutal. Just goes to show that no matter how incredible your run can be, all it takes is ONE thing and it's over. It doesn't even have to be your fault and that's the risk that speedrunners have to deal with all the dang time which is why I respect them so much.

I’m liking the new timeline format for these history lessons. It gives a better visual of how far set records progressed with better execution and everything else. This was a rollercoaster of crazy progression and rng barriers to fend off.

I swear, Salt just never bringing up the fact he has the PERFECT Mike Tyson WR is so damn humble, I love you Summoning Salt

Love getting to the 20min mark of a summoning salt video where it wraps up the story of this epic grind resulting in an untouchable record celebration...and then realizing there's another half hour of video left 😳

The last bit of video is pure heartbreak. I hope he's doing ok right now and is healthy

Never fails to amaze me how I’m continuously brought from “I have never played this game in my life” to “OH NO, HE COULD’VE SAVED .05 SECONDS IF THE FRAME PERFECT TECHNIQUE WAS UTILIZED!” type of informational and emotional roller coaster in these videos.

God, I can't imagine running a game like this. You have to play well _and_ win the lottery? These runners have the persistence of gods.

Crazy that one person managed to hold onto the WR for that long. Props to him for his accomplishment and to those who finally managed to surpass it.

I feel so old right now. I remember getting this for Christmas..... which means i was 12. I'll never forget that Christmas, because i had the flu. I felt so shitty but so pumped! My shortest playthrough was 20 min., and my friends thought i was awesome. Thank you for bringing me back to reality. Love the channel, keep rockin' it!

0:01 Introduction 1:30 Single Segment Explanation 1:56 The Game Being An RNG Gauntlet 2:45 Zallard's First Run 3:17 The 2 Fight Types 3:25 Gabby Jay 3:43 Super Meter 3:57 Dizzy Meter 4:30 Dizzy Frames 4:45 Buffer Strategies 5:36 Difficulty Increase 5:44 Aran Ryan 6:05 Other Nonrandom Fights 6:26 Random Fights 6:50 Dragon Chan Phase 1 7:06 Dragon Chan Phase 2 7:58 The Amount Of Random Fights 8:08 Zallard's 3:10.72 8:20 Zallard's Attempts 8:34 Zallard's Promising Run 8:43 Bob Charlie 9:41 Zallard's Bob & Chan 9:57 Zallard's Good Times 10:05 Hoy Quarlow 11:32 Zallard's Lucky Hoy 11:42 Zallard's 2:54.02 (11:57 ...wat) 12:00 Zallard's Break Time 12:30 Super Punch-Out!!: Return of Zallard 13:09 Zallard's Unlucky Hoy 13:29 Zallard's Further Attempts 14:04 February 27th 2014: Zallard's Great Run 14:45 Nick Bruiser 17:15 Zallard's Successful Phases 17:55 The First 2:49 18:24 Break Time Again 18:49 Zallard's Return 19:22 That Nick Ruined 20:09 How Much Time Was Saved 20:48 Mad Clown 21:59 Zallard Bringing The Run Back 22:15 Zallard's Give & Take Run 23:05 Zallard's Next Great Run 23:31 Super Macho Man (Hey Look He's Very Luck Based Again) 23:59 Macho's Countdown Knockdown 25:06 Macho's Muckery 25:25 Narcis Prince 26:14 Narcis' Destruction Of The Run 26:51 Super Punch-Out!!'s Lack Of Care 27:21 The Record's Stagnation 27:30 Hooty's 2:53 27:46 Zallard's Further Runs 28:56 Rick Bruiser 29:12 Rick Phases 1 & 2 29:28 Rick Phase 3 30:25 Super Punch-Out!! Being Super Punch-Out!! 30:51 Zallard's Brief Break 31:05 Zallard's Return³ 31:46 Successful Rick & Nick 32:29 Zallard Stepping Back From Running 33:04 Zallard Stepping Forward To Running 33:27 Another Great Pace 34:49 A Heartbreaking Finish 35:28 A Path For Redemption 35:56 Redemption Cut Down 36:19 A New Record 36:34 He Wasn't Fond Of 37:24 Timeline Lookback 37:53 Zallard's Slow Down 38:04 A New Challenger Approached 38:54 Mysteryman's Input Delay 39:39 Mysteryman's Strats 40:37 Hooty's New Strat 40:48 Mysteryman's Attempts To Take Down Zallard 41:49 Mysteryman's World Record 43:00 The New Runners (Hey Look It's KHANanaphone) 43:25 Stocc 43:41 Stocc's Barely Sub 2:40 44:16 The 2 New Runners 44:37 Cranklinson's Run 46:00 Even More Sub 2:40s & Zallard's Fall Down On The Leaderboard 46:29 New Strats 46:48 3 Record Pace Runs That Failed 47:16 The God Run 47:41 MrMega's Run 48:52 Mega's Successful Record 49:54 FatPotatoSeal's 1/155,000 Pace 52:41 The Most Heartbreaking Finish To A Speedrun Ever 53:49 Conclusion 54:15 Credits

I’ve never heard of many of the games you talk about but you’re such a great storyteller that I’m captivated every time.

I love to see this as #26 on trending. NOT #26 on gaming, no. 26 for the entirety of the platform. People of all demographics love well researched documentation of widely unknown feats of human achievement.

Bro these are straight up documentaries. I love you Summoning Salt, never stop doing what you do best!!!

Damn, this vid made so many of the characters of Super Punchout even cooler than I already found them. It especially did sucha good job of making Rick and especially Nick Bruiser so much cooler and more memorable than I've ever found them before; going from "we're not gonna even try for a license like Mike Tyson again" to "the ultimate gatekeepers of good speedruns even decades later", especially Nick with those damn awesome animations and expressions. Your storytelling and editing just get better and better, able to take characters designed for totally different purposes long ago and breathe new life and purpose into them.

The old saying "absence makes the heart grow fonder" is the best compliment I can give you about your videos. Thank you for making the best videos on the platform. Even though they take a while to get to us lol.

I love Zallard. Easily one of my favorite runners. He swears like a sailor but he’s extremely humble. It’s like all Punch out games were made with his strats in mind, he just had to break them.

This is for myself and whoever else needs it 0:00 HOME - We’re Finally Landing 1:30 Chris Doerksen - Perhaps Something More 3:06 HOME - I Will Forget 5:36 Chris Doerksen - Deep Dark 6:26 HOME - Byzantium 8:19 Chris Doerksen - Return Journey 10:07 Amie Waters - Superposition 11:59 HOME - New Machines 14:00 Chris Doerksen - Night Running 14:45 TheOfficialLobst - Cosmos 18:49 HOME - 4 20:09 Chris Doerksen - Major Minor 23:04 HOME - Head First 26:51 HOME - Resonance 27:55 Chris Doerksen - Madness 30:50 HOME - Above All 33:04 Chris Doerksen - The Polyhedron 35:41 HOME - Carrier Wave 36:39 HOME - Intervals (Open Spectrum) 38:03 Chris Doerksen - We Made It 41:57 HOME - 4 42:55 Chris Doerksen - Flashback 44:15 Chris Doerksen - Slingshot 46:00 Chris Doerksen - Perspective 47:17 HOME - Mainframe 48:57 HOME - 4 50:06 HOME - We’re Finally Landing

I’m not even into speedrunning, but your storytelling ability is captivating. Love the content!

It's 6am, I've been sitting with my newborn daughter for hours, losing my mind with her crying and her being unable to settle. Seeing an upload from you has have me a respite and escape for the last hour. Thank you and keep making these great documentaries around speedrunning! All the best from Scotland

I've already lowered my expectation for the last run. But when the chance shot up from 1/750 to 1/52500, I was a bit taken aback, but considering from your reaction earlier. I assumed it was nothing special. Then the counter shot up to 1/1680000. nothing in my life has ever prepared me to witness such luck is possible on this planet

The end was truly heartbreaking, but as always your storytelling is so good, thanks for your content

That slight nod to Jon Bois in 18:45 gave me goosebumps, you two are the best storytellers in RU-vid

Not going to lie, i can legit imagine zallard seeing people appearing on the leaderboard, taking his record from him, and instead of being angry, laughing his ass off.

Your already stellar content has reached another new high, this one was perfect. I know it gets said a lot but this is a better quality than you would see on television.

This is not a game I would personally play and yet Summoning Salt's narration brings me to tears in these videos. Thank you for all the hard work you put into making this a reality

*Fun Fact:* The real life Mike Tyson can't finish the Punch Out game that he he couldn't passed Glass Joe in the fight. This means Glass Joe's first win (1 - 99) is Mike Tyson himself. Coincidence? I think not.

bro the way you delivered the final run at the end was actually making my heart beat in my chest. literally shed a tear afterwards...

That ending. Man. Just, wow. Speechless in more ways than one.

The editing on this video is incredible tbh

Time to go to church, boys.

Could you imagine watching a boxing match that ends in about 10 or less seconds? just seeing one fighter land punch after punch, over and over in rapid succession, somehow sneaking right past the other fighters defense every time, and then LAUCHING them into the other side of the ring with a single punch. something like that would be impossible for anyone who wasn't there to believe.

I don’t think I’ve seen a moment as heartbreaking as the end of this video. You can literally see the moment his soul rips in half. Amazing video as always, Salt man

Last top 10 run was on 2022 05 22 on fifth place. zallard is still 14th right now some top players were banned because quote "he was banned due to a leaked discord server he and some other members were in, that server contained reprehensible behaviour including doxing, death threats, r*** threats, use of the n word and the f slur}" Their runs are still perfectly legitimate though idk how Awosomeandy made up the time his splits show he gained time on almost every fight Top 10 as of 11.01.2024 Awosomeandy(banned) 2m 28s 790ms 22 04 10 FatPotatoSeal 2m 32s 540ms Banned 2 2m 32s 860ms Cranklinson 2m 33s 370ms Banned 4 2m 33s 670ms Kuto1k 2m 34s 020ms 45ag 2m 35s 480ms Banned 5 2m 35s 500ms Lixunis 2m 35s 580ms Mysteryman95 2m 36s 530ms

Duuuuude the piano piece talking about Rick Bruiser gave me literal chills

These Summoning Salt videos are closest thing there is to Jon Bois videos for speedrunning. And that is the biggest compliment I can give to a RU-vid video. The style and narrative choices are very similar and I love it. So glad I gave these videos a go after RU-vid has been shoving them to my face for months.

Just gonna take a moment to admire this amazing transition and build up at 18:30 - 19:00

We've come full circle the series that started it all, and I'm all here for it. Keep up the amazing work. 10/10

Once again your music taste and ability to keep the audience captivated with your style never ceases to amaze :)

I don't think the music to Summoning Salts videos could be any more nostalgic or accurate for the subject of retro video games, reminds me of being a kid and the wonder felt when playing a game you love and overcoming the challenges and doing the fun miscellaneous objectives and tricks there are to do in so many of the great games of the 90s and early 2000s. Keep up the great work summoning salt.

i love it when a run deemed as one of the best is only 15 minutes in

That last run was absolutely painful. The 35" finish tells you his heart shattered when he missed the counter. Glad his attempt has been documented for the insanity it was.

Anyone else keep coming back to this video because it’s so much better than the rest?

As a non-speedrunner, the most impressive runs to watch are the ones where the runner plays the game in the intended way with absolute perfection. Which is not to say that glitching through the map and wrong-warping to the end doesn't require incredible skill, but - as a civilian - it's a lot harder to appreciate exploits you've never done than pure, flawless gameplay.

Everytime Summoning Salt comes out with a new video, I can't help myself but smile knowing that his videos are second to none.

So this game is basically gambling

38:32 "His name... was zallard2."

It’s impressive how much of a speedrunning community Super Punch-Out has been able to have (especially with the shadow of Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out looming large over it).

I was nearly crying from the last run, thank you so much, Summoning Salt, you are no doubt one of the best content creators out there Also the moment at 18:49 was PERFECT, the music, the line, the colour of it, it all made just a mesmerising moment

It was a lost opportunity not calling this video “the Ballard of Zallard”

The amount of cheering I was about to do for a guy I don’t really know in a game I’ve never played was insane. If Potato had hit that Bruiser fight, I don’t even know what I would do.

Yeeeeessss I’m so excited to learn every intricate detail of this game I’ve never played and enjoy it immensely. Seriously, you make this so enjoyable to watch, well done.

I really love how you manage to describe the specificity of each of the 16 fighters one by one, with every time a run where it has a good illustration of how hard or how important for the run it can be. And all of that without ever breaking the pace of the video nor flooding us with too much explanations at once. As someone who never played Punch Out, nor was even interested in it, you managed to get me hyped at every sentence and to make me understand everything. I think it's been somewhat like 1,5 years I subscribed to your chain and I think this comment applies on all your other videos too, whether I knew the game you were talking about or not. And it's why I love your videos so much so keep up with the incredible work !!!! =D (Plus you articulate nicely and doesn't speak too fast so, as a french person who isn't an ace in english, i'm really enjoying to be able to watch such big documentaries without ever needing the subtitles !) Also, the timeline was a cool idea ! ^^

End of this video made me cry. Not going to lie. You're a remarkable content producer. Thanks for everything.

The way you seamlessly introduced the various fighters into the narration, all the meanwhile building up the story and building tension around them and each run's finale was nothing short of masterful. Additionally, your transition to first person was moving. I find myself experiencing very many unexpected emotions from your videos, and in that moment I felt like I truly understood how gobsmacked you must have felt watching that run. It was such a good idea to emphasize the odds there, and to offer understanding for the runner's mental state. I hope you keep finding great joy in making these videos, and as long as you do, I will do the same in watching them. Thank you.

Love the new time board in the editing. That Red made it real heavy and I felt it was a break in the hope. Don't know if this comes across clear but I really like it!

The graph motif was a really nice touch and through line. It added almost a visual narration that paired well with your usual flow. Always growing, great work!

Might be the best video yet. Incredible job detailing the incredible difficulty, luck, and skill that goes into a run. Extremely insightful analysis for people who don’t know anything about every single obstacle and kept it interesting.

I appreciate the variation on the HOME/Summoning Salt emotional theme. I also love it when you use different songs than the usual ones, cause it gives a nice little break that also keeps us expecting and waiting to hear the classics, which is why I rewatch videos like the DK one. It always makes videos like this one much more special. Thanks man

Never a dull moment in a video. Masterpiece after masterpiece.