Super Punch Out!! - Heike Kagero [0'09'94] (NTSC WR)

When McHazard dropped the brand new TAS (Tool Assisted Speedrun) back in 2014, this improvement was easily the most impressive and mind blowing one (with the other improvements being Masked Muscle, Narcis Prince, and Rick Bruiser). This redefined the game to me, because by this point, it felt pretty cut and dry that Heike Kagero was a fight that would always be among the list of fights in this game that demanded that you defeat them by TKO... but McHazard found a way.

What's fascinating to me is that this game does have KO animations for pretty much every character (Sandman being the exception), even if some opponents don't actually have any legitimate way to pull it off. Heike was in the camp where theoretically, it might be possible to KO him, but the conditions within the fight were just too strict. McHazard decided to see if it could happen even despite these harsh conditions, and pulled off one of the coolest improvements in the Punch Out series in my opinion.

So the idea here for enabling the KO is to get Heike's HP lower in phase 1 than the usual strategy. The KO has 3 components to it, which involves a unique base refill value that every boxer has, a timer penalty (this has to do with how fast the knockdowns are, with most phase 2's needing to be within 4 in-game seconds to get the best value), and 25% of the amount of HP the opponent has right before their knockdown. The equation for refills goes something like [Timer Penalty + 25% Opponent's HP Before Knockdown - Boxer's Base Refill Value], and if this ever ends up being negative or zero, the opponent gets a refill of 0 (i.e. the boxer is KO'd).

This fight starts with you holding "Up" for the first frame of the fight, and then letting go of "Up" and throwing a right gut punch for the next frame. Follow that up with buffering another right gut punch, a left jab, and two more right gut punches; they should all land without issue as long as the first punch of the fight landed.

From here, Heike is going to attempt to hit you with a jab on your left side, which you will need to counter with a very slightly delayed left jab of your own. As soon as the punch connects and as long as the punch was delayed enough to be a counter punch, you need to pause the game to allow the super meter to fill up completely. Once it's filled, just unpause and buffer a low super for Heike to go dizzy! For the dizzy, you can buffer a right jab into a duck that's cancelled with a low super to hit the instant knockdown window.

For the start of phase 2, Heike is going to attempt an attack on your left, and you're going to need to intercept that with rapid punches within the first 2 frames that rapid punches can come out. The input for rapid punches is to double tap the "A" button pretty fast. You need to make sure that you've tapped the button the 2nd time within 8 frames for your rapid punches to come out as fast as they possibly can. Once they start hitting Heike, then one of two things will happen.

Either Heike will block you, and you'll have to buffer a low super to get the KO. Keep in mind that the KO with this pattern will only work if you did phase 1 within 1 frame of frame perfect. If you get the luck where Heike dodges, then you will have a chance at pulling off the slightly faster KO, which involves throwing a low super right around when Heike is just about centered from the dodge, but not quite there yet.

It's also worth noting that when throwing this punch, Heike has a random chance of dodging your low super if it's timed right. The only situation where you've actually mistimed your punch ends up being when Heike is able to block your super when it's thrown too early. Once it lands, depending on the time, you should be good for a KO as long as your final time ends up being a 10"01 or lower!

Because of how strict this KO is on phase 2's timer penalty, you are only able to attempt with this strategy if your knockdown time is 6"11 or earlier. If you get a time that's 6"13 or later, then it is literally impossible for the KO to work, even with the best luck and frame perfect execution after. If you want the KO to succeed regardless of luck (i.e. Heike blocks your rapid punches in phase 2), you can only pull it off if you are frame perfect (6"03 knockdown) or 1 frame slower at 6"05.

Anyways, thanks for watching!

[jacobyoshi]

Fun fact: This is the only speedrun strategy to use the rapid hook.

[notrick]

I started getting into punch out ~1 month ago and I have got to say you are an absolute legend. I am also surprised you’ve had the same flare for the same games for years. I’m very impressed.

[FusionCyborg]

"Finally, there are six opponents who the player must defeat via a TKO..." -the Wikipedia article for SNES SPO.

Funny how the SNES SPO Wikipedia article was updated for the discovery of debug-2P mode, but was never updated for the discovery of being able to K.O. Heike Kagero.

[JCBro-ygvd]

The *ONLY* World Circuit opponent in Super Punch Out that never gave me trouble.

[ElEsJuan-wnpl]

9 second Heike 💪🏼 let’s go Zallard! I can’t wait to see how low you will get the time to

[jjbb]

Good shit mallard keep up the good work buddy

[jaydensandhu]

Heiki Kagero getting rapid punched is the funniest thing in the game .
Change my mind

[natetwooi]

It's insane how crisp this recording is too btw. Recorded on real hardware? Get outta here, this looks great XD

[nnjahawkssecondchannel]

You make it look so easy I struggle hard

[jordanjones]

Holy cow how did you do this and tie the world record

[thegreatbread]

It’s interesting to see another speed run start other than gabby jay using the pause mechanic

[silverflight]

Man, it's just BARELY within the KO window

[Quaelandys]

Wow, you sure did Punch that guy Out of a victory

[TempheX]

What's the start buffering for?

Grats for the record btw!

[Wrayster]

When I achieved this exact strategy three times today he still got up and made me tko him. Are the changing the roms they offer for Nintendo online services

[nunyabusiness]

What’s the highest score you’ve ever gotten in a single SPO fight?

[matthewmccreary]

I have been stuck on Heike for so long, my best is a 0:09:99. Gotta keep trying tho