Ranking Every Punch-Out!! Fight Easiest to Hardest

[@calb_honkman]

Hey everyone, I have more information i wanted to share about the rankings that I didn’t include in the video because both my editors were being difficult. With all these numbers, for both characters and games, we can determine (mathematically) the hardest game and most consistent fighter. We do this by calculating the averages of each appearance in the list. When you calculate the averages for each game, you get the following approximate numbers: 1st - Title Defense: 24 2nd - Super Arcade: 27.8 3rd - Wii (combined) = 33.6 4th - Arcade combined: 33.8 5th - Super: 35 6th - Arcade: 38.8 7th - Nes: 38.9 8th - Contender: 45.5 And calculating the average of each fighters positions (excluding the ones who only appeared once) gives you these numbers: 1st - Super Macho Man [11.8] 2nd - Mr. Sandman [14.4] 3rd - Soda Popinski [23.75] 4th - Bald Bull [32.5] 5th - Great Tiger [36.5] 6th - Don Flamenco [38.25] 7th - Aran Ryan [40] 8th - Piston Honda [42.5] 9th - Bear Hugger [45.25] 10th - King Hippo [46] 11th - Dragon Chan [50.5] 12th - Disco Kid [52] 13th - Von Kaiser [57] 14th - Piston Hurricane [59.5] 15th - Glass Joe [60] My takeaways from this data: Its impressive to me as to how snes and wii were able to remain difficult despite their easier engine. While in super you have so much control over your dodges, they make opponents tanky, as well as introducing plenty of combinations opponents can throw, forcing you to start blocking or quick dodging. In wii, opponents are less tanky, and just like in super you can heal while opponents are getting up. Just like the nes you also get 1 free heal that you can use in between either round intermissions. However, you have alot less control of your dodges. and while the game being 3d and a more modern title helps makes cues easier, they take advantage of the animations and your limited dodging ability by making a wide variety of attacks with different timings that sometimes cover more than just your idle stance. The nes can be frustrating because unlike in wii where opponents can be ko'd by countdown if you knock them down enough times, you can only ko using ko tricks. and of course the fact that later opponents are sooo tanky and this game uses the round format makes it even more difficult of an engine. that being said, the large quantity of easy fights in the beginning brings down the average alot clearly. Despite having Tyson, I have it mathematically listed as the easiest game (I think realistically though it's probably harder than the original arcade). The patterns and speed of the characters are really not much to write about. Some characters just keep throwing uppercuts and such over and over again, and you dont really need to think that hard about how to dodge their attacks. It doesn't help that every opponent's attacks are the same speed, so there's hardly any variation of speed to account for like there is in the wii. the speed of your opponent's attacks increases as you get further into the game, but that's pretty much it. The damage output and stamina of the later opponents is what gives this version its difficulty in my opinion. I think the arcade has the hardest engine, of course because its so scuff. having to switch to hi and lo-mode is annoying and not as responsive as i wish. both you and your opponent are super fragile, and the game can be unfair sometimes by giving you little health back after you get knocked down. The first arcade game is so much lower than super arcade because of the bad ai of the oppponents. Glass Joe and Piston Hurricane are mostly punching bags, and the last three fights (if you're lucky enough with Sandman) can all be made much easier by throwing a punch to bait their counters. In super, you can only pretty much do that with Great Tiger, but its not always reliable. only 2 of the 5 fights in super arcade are easy, the other 3 are much harder tho. takeaways from characters: i think this list for the most part makes alot of sense. Macho Man, Sandman, and Soda Pop are all juggernauts way above everyone else (though soda is a tier below the other two). Surprised aran ryan is so high as all of his fights were pretty much all in the lower end of the middle. Honestly everyone above Dragon Chan has at least one hard fight except Ryan. Arcade Great Tiger hard carries the character btw. once again, i apologize for not being able to put this into video format, so the very least i could do is share it in the comments. Thanks everyone!

[@luxthayktest1187]

Dude, I don't believe that Mad Clown is easier than Super Macho Man from snes for me it's the opposite, Super Macho Man seems more like a clown or very easy to me, since Mad Clown was the most difficult For me, another one that I found much more difficult was Rick Bruiser and Hoy Quarlow, they are more difficult for me than Nick Bruiser

[@luxthayktest1187]

another one that I also don't think is easier is Sandman from NES, seriously he is much harder than Super Macho Man from NES and Sandman from Arcade

[@josephharrington2052]

This was fun, thanks for the video. To your comment about NES being harder than the arcade, even though the arcade has the higher average rank per fight, both things can be true. You have 69 fights, but the jump in difficulty between every fight isn’t the same, so I’m guessing the lower level arcade fights are higher in ranking than a bunch of the easier NES fights, but not that much harder in absolute terms. Meanwhile, the jump between the hardest arcade fights and the top tier NES fights is more significant. If you form basketball teams at the Y for a pick up game, and the participants are nine scrubs-the worst of whom is a 1/100 in ability, and the best of whom is a 9/100-plus LeBron James, who is a 100/100. A team of LeBron plus the four scrubbiest scrubs will have an average rank of 7 while the team of the five slightly better scrubs will have an average rank of 4, even though the average player ability is 22/100 for LeBron’s team compared to an average ability of 7/100 for the other team. Not trying to be pedantic, this just got me thinking, and again thanks for the video.

[@jenniferstevens5109]

Actually Super Macho Man on the NES does do less than half damage you have 96 Health when you start it up and if you don't get hit you can survive two cuz each one does 46

[@vizardonator8571]

@@luxthayktest1187Mad Clown was very predictable, and Macho’s insta-kill spin move is harder than the NES if there are over three reps.

[@latexu95]

2:41:15 Fun fact: Little Mac didn't actually have an official name in any of the arcade titles, not until the NES port, where the technical limitations didn't allow the transparent, vectographic player character to be used, so instead they had to make him smaller to make reading the opponent's moves much easier. Thus, he was dubbed Little Mac.🤓

[@TheConns323]

It’s also a joke about Big Macs

[@Postaldude__]

I still prefer the smaller Mac vs the transparent Mac. I think the transparent one kinda makes it harder to see what your opponent is doing

[@Nintentoni]

He is just called "Challenger"

[@QuestOtter]

His real name is also “Mac Little”

[@jtrevor99]

Canonically, Gabby Jay's single win was versus Glass Joe. So the bottom two ranks are interesting.

[@andytaker3073]

At least Glass Joe's single win was against a champion.

[@caper3987]

@@andytaker3073 but he took out the guy who took out the champion so wouldnt that make him the champion?

[@deionpehowdy]

​​@@caper3987 If Glass Joe Beat Someone That was a Champion and he became a Champion now, Then, I Guess it Does Mean Something Like That.

[@toxic_shr00m]

​@@caper3987 only if Joe was the champion when Jay fought him, but that would have required both Joe and Jay to reach the champion which is already unlikely enough for *one* of them to do

[@caper3987]

@@toxic_shr00m oh yeah i see what you mean, but atleast jay technically beat a former champion

[@XquizetBlix]

My friend shared his screen for an hour finally beating Sandman's Contender fight last night, so I was really interested in seeing where he was ranked. But outside of that, we also memorized the attack patterns for the first couple knockouts (we were doing that fight for a very long time), so when I saw the gameplay of Mac getting bulldozed by him, my mind literally went "No, it's weave, weave, wait, weave, wait, weird one, weave, wait, weave."

[@_cfmca]

I had to do the same for champion soda… duck duck dodge dodge duck duck duck dodge dodge…

[@Alex-vl1mk]

2:29:15 Idk if you can call Mr. Sandman slow considering he throws an uppercut that does damage in 4 frames, which is 1/15th of a second.

[@kepabra3782]

I don't know if it's just me but I kind of feel like there's a rivality between Mr Sandman and Super Macho Man outside of the games, like they are always competing into becoming the big shot in each game, with SMM being the toughest in the arcades, Nes (although this is debatable) and Snes, and Mr. S in the Nes (again, debatable), and Wii. I asked Zallard a long time ago about which version was the hardest between the two, and he said that the rematch in the arcade of SMM was by far the hardest fight in all the series (yes, even above freaking Mike Tyson/Mr Dream), so that's interesting. I'm curious of who is gonna be the top dog of these two if there's a new game coming soon.

[@calb_honkman]

They definitely do have a rivalry in a way. They’ve both been on par, better, and worse than the other throughout the series. I would love to see what they would do with them in the future. I have no idea what the next game would look like, but i feel like if its next level games’s next project, i feel like they’ll put sandman on top again because he was much more serious than macho man, and because he’s more fitting to take tyson’s mantle. I didnt rank the arcade rematches because i wasnt sure when the difficulty for each fighter capped, and i felt like it would be a little redundant. And also because to my knowledge MAME doesn’t allow save states for these games so it’s difficult for me to reach them as is. But i imagine that zallard is right about any macho man rematch in the arcade being harder. Those rematches are a different beast that i currently don’t have the patience to learn.

[@kepabra3782]

​@@calb_honkman This is the video I was referring to: kzbin.info/www/bejne/sJXPf6V-rs2qq6M I actually prefer SMM over Sandman mostly because of his special attack, I find the Spin punch to be quite unique compared to others' special attacks, instead of just dodging, you have to duck constantly to avoid it (except in the Nes version). The dreamland express is just a 3 uppercut combo, that's it. Aside from that, this may sound weird but I prefer Mr Dream over Tyson, I just don't like it when real people are put in a videogame series, it's my personal taste.

[@EmmaBonn96]

The matchup I most want to see is Bald Bull vs Don Flamenco

[@gardensaladdude90]

A couple years ago I beat macho man on the arcade version on the hardest match. It’s 16 fights before the difficulty caps and I’d definitely it’s the second hardest fight behind Mike Tyson

[@gogetassjgd17]

​@@EmmaBonn96same

[@latexu95]

43:04 Dos Louis actually makes a nice little reference to Kid Quick in Punch-Out Wii, in the intermission against Disco Kid when he says: "This kid is quick!"😉

[@DevilTheIdiot]

disco kid is a updated version of kid quick so there's good change its last time we see kid quick 😢

[@DevilTheIdiot]

also is it just me or does kid quick kinda look like Michael Jackson?

[@josh6813]

plausible but also seems like a stretch

[@seansmith6255]

I heard somewhere that im the files disco kid was originally gonna be kid quick

[@dragonslayer7724]

@@seansmith6255 idk if this is true but I heard they scrapped kid quick for disco kid because kid quick could be seen as a racist stereotype

[@KoachKrab127]

I can confirm that fighting Tyson on the original NES is much easier than on a Switch or NES Classic because of the input delay. There’s no delay at all on an original NES on a CRT TV. The delay is hardly noticeable on most games on the Switch and NES Classic, but during a fight on Punch-Out, where timing is so precise, even a 0.1 second delay is noticeable. I have been fighting Tyson for over 30 years, and I can beat him easily. However, when I play against Mr. Dream on the Switch or NES Classic, I cannot beat him at all.

[@Ruudos]

True makes a huge difference with this game.

[@calb_honkman]

Makes complete sense. The thought i had came from me struggling using a controller more than a keyboard for this game but yeah that lack of delay from CRTs would make much more of a difference. Side note: Thank you so much for those fighter tutorials. I imagine my plan to deal with Nick Bruiser’s cannon punches would look much different without looking at your guide.

[@KoachKrab127]

@@calb_honkman Did you use my guide to help make this video?

[@BobTheAnimeDude]

most people dont have CRT TVs these days tho Like I have one (i bought it solely for reduced nes lag lol) but the majority of people dont have one

[@Mugiwarastealth]

@@KoachKrab127I play on the NES classic and I totally agree with you. Mr dream is the only fight in the game that I find almost impossible because of the input delay. And also mentioning mr dream is lighter skinned than Tyson making it harder to react his uppercuts

[@TheGlitched64]

I am so used to seeing these games in a speedrun capacity that is it really interesting to see them done and explained by someone still skilled at the game but not going to 20 second knockdowns and showing off the mechanics the characters have that the average player will have to deal with. And rankings are always fun too hahaha

[@jerrym1218]

Nick Bruiser is so awesome, he is very intimidating and scary, everything about him during the fight against him tells us the type of fighter he is, the strong silent type, and when he beats you, he doesn’t mock you, he bows his head and puts his hand to his chest almost looking like he is showing you respect after knocking you out and at least putting up the courage to fight him. All his mannerisms are menacing looking too, his slow undertakeresc walk to his corner and to the middle of the ring, and the way he cracks his neck waiting for you to get up. I wish that he would have been brought back in the Wii version.

[@calb_honkman]

I very much agree, Nick is just as cool as the other champions. I’m sure Nick and Rick will get their chance to shine again one day, i mean what else would Next Level Games have on their plate other than a new Punch Out? Or maybe that’s the copium speaking lmao.

[@AnAverageGoblin]

Disagree he's boring and generic, just some random ass white guy

[@bluemonkjd]

I take that last expression as Nick mourning your concussion, and the sad fact that you were foolish enough to try him.

[@sithlordbok420]

I got Super Punch-Out in '96 when my brother and I finally got out SNES that Xmas. I remember having this, Super Double Dragon and Super Mario All-Stars, so when I couldn't decide punch-out was always my go-to. Played it so much I set my own challenges, first I'd try to go throughout it without losing, then without getting knocked down. When I started trying to do it without getting hit, I changed it to beating everyone in under a minute. It can be done, Rick Bruiser has more openings to be exploited when the match begins, I remember it was a mix of bait-punching and landing shots just as they start to throw a punch.

[@jerrym1218]

@@sithlordbok420 That’s awesome dude, you were creating challenges for yourself in Super Punch Out, making yourself more better at the game in the process. Those old classics sure had a way of making us all better gamers as time went on that’s for sure.

[@latexu95]

1:59:24 He actually says "Release the beast!" if that punch connects.

[@realliftafromthesva]

HERESY! BOGUS IS MORE CANON

[@idkk2316]

RELEASE THE BOGUS

[@piycogames]

MACH BOGUS

[@Galactica62]

1:59:07 *REALEASE THE BOGUS MOTHAF-*

[@FletcherReedsRandomness]

Corrupted Doc Louis would be #0 because not only can he break all the laws of the universe, but he can cause your game to crash, making him completely impossible to beat. Even if your game doesn't crash, you'll probably be laughing too hard at the glitches to be able to actually pay attention and he'll beat your ass.

[@Your_Macedonain_Homie]

Your out of line.. but your right

[@country_flyboy]

"Dodge this!" _Sends Mac into the shadow realm_

[@Your_Macedonain_Homie]

@@country_flyboy "€ømē øñ" rips the fabric of reality

[@TheSizzleDash]

I haven’t watched the whole video. What is Corrupted Doc Louis?

[@JosephMyers-vd6ws]

Block this *reality breaks*

[@birdup1_2]

Good ranking. If I would critique it, it would be that the fight footage is focused on too much, as opposed to the mechanics at play. Good video, though, you’ve earned my sub.

[@calb_honkman]

Thank you, i appreciate the feedback!

[@fanofindiegamesunpopulargames]

HUEBIRD

[@squidwardonachair1852]

Hello huebird of happiness from the hit and beloved game rythm heaven fever

[@ENDERSTYLE74]

@@calb_honkman based KZbinr taking well the positive criticism. 🔥🔥

[@LimeLoaf]

​@@ENDERSTYLE74And it's a smaller channel too! Atleast from what ive seen channels with under 5k subs really can't take criticism.

[@striker6093]

58:53 I love how when Aran Ryan is about to get knocked down Mac just uses the star punch and says we’re done here

[@unofficialmeme5972]

It's so satisfying to land it.

[@NYGiantsfan1029]

Personally I’d put original Don before hippo because of Don’s infinite. Hippo can be a little tricky for newcomers

[@joeboo8626]

Same. Never lost to 1st Flamenco. He just stands there and takes his beating.

[@nocontext400]

hippo is tricky? he's a dang obese dude wearing a goofy looking crown and his pants fall down when you punch him lol (same in mike tyson's punch out, but without the goofy looking crown)

[@weirdooftheyear]

@@nocontext400 how does that affect how difficult he is

[@nocontext400]

@@weirdooftheyear oh i just mentioned all that cause he's one of the dumbest characters in the game (THE dumbest being super macho man) the rest are fine tho, oh but hippo's attacks are stupidly slow, especially in the wii version, giving tons of time to dodge or counter attack (when his mouth is open) so hippo is NOT tricky, a dumb character who IS tricky tho? talk about super macho man

[@ThePenisMan]

@@nocontext400 ok *but to new players* the one singular way to beat him is never explained and is not immediately obvious, ESPECIALLY on the NES None of that matters

[@BoJangles42]

I remember as a kid destroying Mike Tyson routinely on the NES. Of course back then we didn’t have very many games to play so we got ridiculously good at the ones we had.

[@doktawhawee9870]

Nice! Mad respect. Nowadays, he is still really challenging, so I always have respect for those who can beat him, let alone master him.

[@Aaa-vp6ug]

Do you still have it?

[@MarkKatz2772-jg3tc]

I believe you. I'm just a slight bit too young, grew up on the SNES and N64. I remembered that I used to play some side-scrolling space shooter game as a kid, where I for some reason got stuck on the second boss for a bit, and when I beat that one, I beat the whole game in one single run. Many, many years later, I found out how that game was called. Super R-Type. So I decided to grab an emulator, and play it again. The game fucking crushed me. It was crazy. I was struggling so much that in the end, I decided to beat it using save states (so basically cheating), to get through it at least once, and then I'd try to play it legit once more. In the end, I couldn't beat it that way. It was really crazy to me that my kid self was able to blitz through that game relatively easily, but at that point, as an adult, I could not do it anymore.

[@jerrym1218]

What makes it harder about playing on the original hardware nes is if you lose to Tyson, you have to fight Super Macho Man all over again and win just to be able to fight Tyson again. That’s what made the whole fight more difficult.

[@calb_honkman]

The pass key 007 373 5963 sends you straight to Tyson

[@EmmaBonn96]

Bald bull and Doc absolutely had some fights back in the day

[@CenetaurmanE52]

Honestly, I would say Disco Kid's Title Defense should be in Easy for one (apparently obscure?) simple fact : *Everything* he does can be ducked under. If you just duck for all of his attacks, he can't touch you.

[@blaa6]

Von Kaiser is my favorite fight in Punch Out wii. Probably my favorite boxer overall.

[@dragonbloodborn454]

I respect you keeping your stutters and forgetting what to say. Not man people like to keep stuff like that in. Overall good video, it feels like your explaining everything to a newcomer rather than listing the fighters. A good mix. You've earned a sub from me

[@calb_honkman]

Yeah, i felt like it was okay to have this more imperfect and unscripted commentary since i was commentating over pre recorded footage and i already had a good idea for what i was gonna say for each fight. Believe it not tho, there’s actually still a ton of editing i had to do with the commentary since there were multiple periods of silence in there, so i had to minimize those while still keeping the commentary in sync with the footage. The easiest ways you can tell are by me skipping thru countdowns and round intermissions, as well as a couple short periods of time where you cant hear the background noise coming from my mic. I tried to make the fight footage show as much as possible, that way beginners can learn generally how things go in a fight, and then show off ways they can master it too, so that the footage is also still entertaining for more experienced players. Thanks for your feedback! I appreciate it!

[@EE-jl8hv]

I'm watching this video at my grandparents house and I didn't know this had voice-over until now because I muted my phone lol

[@Jakethegr8244]

It's funny how Doc is scared of Mr. Sandman but is better than him XD

[@WeegesWafflehouse]

This is a really great ranking of all of the fighters. I also love the Punch Out series. I pretty much agree with this whole order! Awesome video!

[@latexu95]

1:07:08 If you didn't notice, Sopa Pop also heals himself between rounds when he drinks some of his soda.

[@dogboy8679]

he points that out about 1 minute later

[@MyMom69769]

Pizza Pasta is one of the few boxers in the Punch-Out franchise that actually plays like a boxer.

[@EpicAndrew97]

I like the attention of detail to doc Louis that the color font changes once he rips off his coat

[@latexu95]

1:32:12 It's so cool how Major Circuit fighters alternate their colors from white to black in Title Defense (except Bear Hugger).😊⚪⚫⚪⚫

[@hj-xb2tr]

You need to check out the later fights of the Super Punch Out arcade version. The hardest rematches against those fighters (namely the fourth Dragon Chan, fourth Vodka, and especially the third Super Macho Man......they don't get more difficult after those) are tougher than Tyson or anything else in the series. Zallard talks a lot about that in one of his videos where he'd worked at getting better at the game. The third Macho Man is so insane that it took even him forever to finally beat it for the first time

[@vizardonator8571]

Which Summoning Salt video, was it recent or a while back?

[@hj-xb2tr]

@@vizardonator8571 It was Zallard actually (instead of Summoning Salt). Fixed the mistake. From his video on June 5, 2017 with the mention of his former world record of 1,917,800 points

[@vizardonator8571]

@@hj-xb2tr Ah ok I think I remember something about that but I forgot, thank you though!

[@calb_honkman]

One day, I will for sure. Does the difficulty cap at Vodka 4? As in like after that fight it just repeats every fighter’s hardest fight that’s still in the rotation?

[@hj-xb2tr]

@@calb_honkman Right, except there is no Macho 4. I guess making anything harder than the third one would've been like a kill screen too early

[@CharlieSproul]

21:39 piston Honda (Wii) 22:55 bald bull (SNES) 24:10 dragon Chan (SNES) 26:13 dragon Chan (super Arcade) 29:16 bear hugger (Wii) 30:54 Aran Ryan (Wii) 32:30 great tiger (Wii) 35:21 title defense disco kid (Wii) 37:34 Don flamenco (Wii) 41:59 bald bull (Arcade) 43:04 kid quick (Arcade) 44:25 title defense glass Joe (Wii) 48:46 piston Honda 2 (NES)

[@megaedge2762]

I personally think that TD soda popinski is harder than TD sandman as the hardest fight in WII. Less star opportunities and counters mainly, plus TD sandman’s final phase pretty much ends the fight when you know what’s coming. For an extra bonus soda even heals after round 1 and moves even faster throughout the duration of the fights which makes me restart if i don’t beat him round 1.

[@QuestOtter]

You can punch his bottle to cancel the heal and get a star. If you consecutively dodge TD soda’s attacks, you get progressively more stun time per attack dodged. It starts at 2, then one attack dodges is 3, 2 is 4, etc all the way to 12 o think. You just have to dodge him

[@SansioKongCountry]

​@@QuestOtterit's all the way to eighteen (one challenge on exhibition is to land eighteen in a row)

[@jupitervideos7702]

Really? I personally find TD Bald Bull and TD Great Tiger to be way harder.

[@Realyst]

I lost to Glass Joe as a kid. I remember getting made fun of. Not a good look for ya boy. LOL

[@qwerty52676]

I've never been so disappointed as a father as when my son lost to glass joe on the nes

[@Sonicstillpoint83]

Love to see that you left in all the normal person stuff: like breathing spots and vocalizations. When you got that first Tyson knocked down at two minutes and 44 seconds around one, it’s crazy to think that summoning salt finishes the whole fight in two minutes and seven seconds while blindfolded. That video is what brought me here :-) new sub.

[@GeneGerald925]

even if some of these fights are piss-easy, it just goes to show how well these games were made. they challenge you in such specific ways, never feeling impossible and encouraging thought with how you go about each fighter. like, best example is King Hippo. Yeah, if you know what to do its easy as hell; But if you're a new player you won't know how to deal damage until you take the time to think about his specific animation of him opening his mouth. it's all just amazing lol.

[@YellyOld]

your voice is so soothing brah please make more ranking videos like this ive fallen asleep to this like 12 times total

[@kingrex1931]

Glass Joe on the NES was easier to beat than Gabby Jay. You can literally beat Glass Joe by throwing a single well timed punch. It doesn't get any easier than that. FYI, you dodge slower when you are tired (out of hearts) on NES. This is why you probably struggle to dodge against Don Flamenco.

[@theoncelers1fan]

The timing it takes to KO Glass Joe at 42.00 is only about 2 frames. Because the NES runs at 60 Frames per Second, you only have about 1/30 of a second to land it. While you can still knock him down outside of that window, Joe will always get up at the count of 1. While you can take out Joe in a single punch, it would take practice for you to do consistently. Still an easy fight nonetheless but Jay is still easier IMO.

[@latexu95]

53:20 Here's a good tip for anyone who's struggling with that attack: you can time your counter punch right when the camera flashes on the right ride of the crowd. This secret was actually not discovered until just recently!😉📸

[@Schlebonnes]

1:22:53 I’d like to say that the camera doesn’t flash when he does his bull charge in his rematch but the guy with a beard will nod to indicate when you hit him.

[@waffle.i.am.]

i played nes punch out for switch, and that hint has been around forever

[@MarkKatz2772-jg3tc]

Really, really cool list! I was surprised to see title defense Great Tiger only at number 34. For me personally, when I had reached that point in the game, he felt significantly harder to me than anything that came before. Probably I think the first time I got a bit stuck at the game. Also, I love how powerful Doc Louis is. He's a bit out of shape, past his prime and everything, and yet, he gives Little Mac more trouble than many of the active fighters. Really makes you think that Doc Louis in his prime could have very likely been a contender for the title himself!

[@CharlieSproul]

0:02 gabby Jay 1:00 glass Joe (Arcade) 1:45 von Kaiser (Wii) 3:31 glass Joe (NES) 5:00 glass Joe (Wii) 6:54 von Kaiser (NES) 8:08 king hippo (NES) 9:09 bear hugger (SNES) 10:08 piston hurricane (SNES) 11:24 Don flamenco (NES) 12:32 disco kid (Wii) 13:58 piston hurricane (Arcade) 15:28 piston Honda (NES) 16:49 bear hugger (Arcade super) 17:58 great tiger (NES) 27:29 king hippo (Wii)

[@JaggedBird]

I can't help but notice the boxing infractions with each character and rank it in the back of my head via the infractions Still an interesting list

[@xevioushightower5404]

Can't believe that you only have 885 subs considering how engaging this video is, since it had my attention the whole way through. I guess a major part of it is that I'm a big Punch Out fan, but seriously the video is really well thought out. I wish there was a way to beat Mr. Sandman on the arcade version consistently, but there really isn't. I thought I was doing something wrong for Mr. Sandman but really it was just the engine

[@TheDarkPredator92]

There's a trick with TD Bald Bull that lets you land the star punch without a stun. When he throws his rolling jab, dodge and instead of doing a double jab to the face, do a body blow or face jab + body blow. As he gets back to the center of the ring, there's your chance to star punch him

[@redzgaming6880]

On the NES Great Tiger fight, if you punch him before his uppercut (while he's crouching), you get a star punch, making him even easier than how you described him.

[@HelGlorbtr-pf4qw]

I like Gabby Jay. Only because of the “YAY” he makes at the start.

[@Chris-jl6vp]

Masked muscle in particular is so goddamn hard for where he appears.

[@viewerguy10]

I think the reason why I left punches to the body do so much damage is because it’s simulating liver punches in real life. A lot of TKO‘s in combat sports or from left punches or left kicks to the body since that’s where the liver is located and liver shots are actually worse than getting hit in the head .

[@gstcomputing65]

I think Glass Joe for the NES should be considered the easiest since he can be defeated with only one Punch at 0:40. Before that he doesn't even throw a punch unlike Gabby Jay and the others you ranked lower.

[@timhick6]

Glass joe is undefeated though

[@calb_honkman]

Perhaps, but when i ranked all of these fights, i take into account what it looks like when the player first fights them and when they start to get the hang of them. Not sure if it’s just me but i have a hard time hitting the 1 hit ko on him because i think the timing is really tight. As such i feel like the average player would only have the knockdown rather than the ko by the 40 second mark and we would therefore have to consider the rest of the fight. Because of the heart system in nes, you can’t exactly mash the punch buttons and expect to get away with it. A beginner will probably have to start dodging NES glass joe whereas i feel like in arcade glass joe and gabby jay, they can just keep pressing the punch button and win.

[@BobTheAnimeDude]

18:56 one tip to beat him is when he ducks for his uppercut you can jab him in the stomach. its a free star every time and can be used to beat him before he even does his first super move

[@calb_honkman]

Crazy, he’s even more of a star generator than i thought he already was

[@latexu95]

2:03:30 There's a pretty cool reference to the NES Sandman fight in the Wii version, where you can only do a punch combo on his stomach, just like on the NES.😉🥊

[@nocontext400]

or maybe it's continuity? lol

[@Nut_in_Space]

Something I think people either don't know or forget is that you don't even have to dodge great tigers uppercuts you can just punch his gut on the side he's crouching on and it's a free star (he crouch left throw left body and crouch right is right body) this could be the em I use but I like to think I'm cool for figuring that out

[@whitty9877]

ranking: Gabby Jay - snes Glass Joe - arcade Von Kaiser - wii Glass Joe - nes Glass Joe - wii Von Kaiser - Nes King Hippo - Nes Bear Hugger - snes Piston Hurricane - snes Don Flamenco 1 - nes Disco Kid - wii Piston Hurricane - arcade Piston Honda 1 - nes Bear Hugger - arcade Great Tiger - Nes Bob Charlie - snes Piston Honda - wii Blad Bull - snes Dragon Chan - snes Dragon Chan - arcade King Hippo - wii Bear Hugger - wii Aran Ryan - wii Great Tiger - wii TD Disco Kid - wii Don Flamenco - wii Bald Bull - arcade Kid Quick - arcade TD Glass Joe - wii TD Von Kaiser - wii Piston Honda 2 - nes Aran Ryan - snes Bald Bull 1 - nes Soda Popinski - nes TD Aran Ryan - wii TD Great Tiger - wii Narcis Prince - snes Soda Popinski - wii Masked Muscle - snes Mr Sandman - snes Bald Bull - wii Super Macho Man - wii Don Flamenco 2 - nes TD King Hippo - wii Bald Bull 2 - nes Mr Sandman - wii Doc Louis - wii TD Don Flamenco - wii TD Piston Honda - wii Vodka Drunkenski - arcade Pizza Pasta - arcade Mad Clown - snes Heike Kagero - snes Hoy Quarlow - snes TD Bear Hugger - wii Donkey Kong - wii Super Macho Man - snes TD Super Macho Man - wii Great Tiger - arcade Mr Sandman - nes TD Bald Bull - wii Rick Bruiser - snes TD Soda Popinski - wii Nick Bruiser - snes TD Mr Sandman - wii Super Macho Man - nes Mr Sandman - arcade Super Macho Man - arcade MIKE TYSON - nes

[@jcollins1305]

This is great. I feel like you’re really in depth discussing the boxers and their styles a la real boxing rather than just saying “do this do that” for video game purposes. I remember playing the original Punch Out! In the arcade as a kid.

[@Tromzy]

Great video! If I remember correctly, you can knock down Piston Hurricane if you punch hum in the stomach just when he comes back at you to start his Hurricane Rush. Or maybe you need a Super punch (On SNES, not the arcade version).

[@Rexy_THE_T-REX]

So there two people that do the HONDA RUSH

[@EmmaBonn96]

Heiki Kagero is probably my favorite punch out character and I’m glad he’s ranked so high

[@latexu95]

2:31:29 It's quite hilarious when he says "Come on!" right as the Star Punch connects, and then he screams in pain right after that.🤣🥊

[@Doceli-dg3cn]

Co-WHOOOOOAAAA!!! DX

[@latexu95]

@@Doceli-dg3cn And if you land a finishing blow with the Star Punch, he might even say "Come on!" during the TKO cutscene.😂💫

[@Doceli-dg3cn]

@@latexu95 🤣

[@brassman95]

Nice video, I appreciate the thorough analysis; you won me over with your Von Kaiser contender reasoning. I'm very intrigued that Doc. Louis is as high up on the list as he is. I never got the chance to play that mode back in the day (and emulating it on Wii is trickier since it's a Wii-Ware title afaik), so I always got the impression he was a breeze due to the first 2 modes, and basically being a demo for the game. If only a re-release would come out with him bundled in.

[@calb_honkman]

Vimm’s lair is your friend. Everything you may need for emulation will be there, including wiiware. Hell it’s even got the mii channel and main menu too. The Warm-up and Training fights against him are indeed not hard at all, but get to sparring, and he’s a different beast. He has a large amount of attacks with different timings. Only needs one knockdown but has lower stun combos and at least one guaranteed chocolate bar hear to counteract that. And when he gets angry his damage output is insane.

[@juanon_industries7256]

​@@calb_honkman at last, i find someone who also have fond ideas about vimms lair, is just the superior way to play with wbfs, is trustworthy, and i only finded a bug when i tried to play bully, such a good site

[@ryankohler5066]

i know u said not to lose sleep over the early rankings, but it’s 2:30am and von kaiser was whooping ur ass way harder than those glass joe fights following

[@CharlieSproul]

1:47:50 hoy quarlow (SNES) 1:50:53 title defense bear hugger (Wii) 1:53:36 donkey Kong (Wii) 1:56:42 super macho man (SNES) 1:58:21 title defense super macho man (Wii) 2:00:19 great tiger (super Arcade) 2:02:54 Mr sandman (NES) 2:06:15 title defense bald bull (Wii)

[@The_MEMEphis]

Damn small random channel made the most detailed ranking of the Punch-Out characters in difficulty order of every single fight in the entire series

[@olaolaola122]

When you were talking about Title Defence Ball Bull you forgot to say that the instant nockout only works if you didn't got hit before the 3-strar punch.

[@hudsongillenwater3252]

Gabby Jay - Erik Erling Disco Kid - Bobby Nash Von Kaiser - Vick Rivera Little Mac - Adonis Creed Glass Joe - Luke O’Grady Piston Hondo - David Nez Soda Popinski - Ivan Drago Pizza Pasta - Rocky Balboa Don Flamenco - Leo Sporino Narcis Prince - Ricky Conlan Vodka Popinski - Viktor Drago Mr. Sandman - Duane Reynolds Piston Hurricane - Apollo Creed Super Macho Man - Hollywood Hogan

[@whitty9877]

I see another fan of creed rise to glory

[@KW-12]

Masked Muscle - El Santo

[@Random_idk_whoknows]

​@@KW-12YES!!! YOU KNOW THE DEAL MI AMIGO

[@KW-12]

@@Random_idk_whoknows ¡A huevo compa! And if you look for Ricochet from "Mucha Lucha" you'll notice that he's also quite similar to Masked Muscle.

[@Random_idk_whoknows]

@@KW-12 Ahuevo! Yo siempre he pensado que Masked muscle era una referencia a él jajajaja

[@DanielDLG]

Great video man! It takes a strong work ethic to creat hour long videos like this, keep it up bro!

[@latexu95]

2:50:09 Pretty fitting end line from Tyson: "I've never seen such finger speed before."😉

[@MusicKenComedy]

I think all fights in Super punchout SNES are very simple in comparrison to for example the NES game, you just have such controll over everything, the dodges are super fast and smooth,every hit can be easily countered and there's no real lightning fast attacks unless you count Nick Bruiser's regular attacks and you try to counter, again with Nick, he winds up a LOT even then so you can just dodge and punish. good video mate!

[@TheWonder_OfU]

I think it’s the fact that you don’t have to do anything special for the KO Meter, and it stays around as long as you don’t get hit. As opposed to the Star Punches which are frequently super timing specific and you only have as many as the amount of times the opponent does the specific attack. This is also why I imagine fights like Von Kaiser (Wii) and Disco Kid are super super simple because basically you have infinite Star Punches because all their attacks give them.

[@quentincampbell612]

I agree! That being said,I think Super Punch Out for SNES, there's chances for a quicker flowing fight where you're countering and dodging each other's punches and attacks. For example,Mad Clown. I've tried to Super Punch him only for him to dodge it,then he does that backhanded slap attack which,I dodged and then I was able to punch him a couple of times. It felt like it was a give and go fight.

[@dali-dog]

Fantastic video! At first I was apprehensive about the unscripted style, but I actually totally came around to it. It makes it feel a tiny bit like watching a real commentated match, with somebody who knows all the boxers moves and stuff, I like it. Also as somebody who only played a bit of Mike Tyson’s Punch Out for the NES years ago, I found this video entertaining and pretty easy to watch and understand! Very nice.

[@qbtc]

Not only is Mike Tyson the toughest opponent in Punch-Out!!, he might be one of the toughest Boss fights in all of video games.

[@evilmakr7981]

Dam this must have took a lot of effort great video the punch out wii is my childhood and ive completed that game atleast 6 times now

[@calb_honkman]

Thank you! I think most of the effort for this video comes from putting thought into the list itself rather than the footage and commentary. There’s a ton of things i took into account when making the list. I also grew up on the wii game as a kid, im glad we’re the same in that regard!

[@CapcomFanBoy]

Every other fighter: Putting their effort to win, actually. Aran Ryan: *let me just download these cheat codes*

[@dannynhl9441]

Beating Mike Tyson's Punch Out may be my all time favorite personal gaming moment. I beat it sometime in the mid 90's and then went on to get so good at beating him I was able to look away from the screen and time everything. While I had a few friends that were much better gamers than me in just about everything this was the one game I could beat none of them could and they would spread word in the neighborhood to others to come watch me beat Tyson. Fun times. I just started purging a lot of my old game collections again but this game and Tecmo Super Bowl are two NES games I won't part with.

[@alecrutz956]

I would put the first flamenco fight from MTPO below king hippo, you only are required to dodge two punches, as he's vulnerable to an infinite of just hitting him back and forth until he goes down. Meanwhile Hippo requires you to react to either an overhead or a jab.

[@YesIAmTheFiend]

i did not see that this was a 3 hour video when i clicked last night but i will still finish it

[@YesIAmTheFiend]

good video

[@MikeDoesStuff_0]

The reason mr.sandman dodges your super punch is because in super punch-out weak attacks have a lower stun time which results into super punches being too slow so the only way to land one is if he does an uppercut,dreamland express or some stronger move (or so i think.)

[@cyanideytcuriousseadoggo]

About MTPO Soda Popinski the instant knockdown from star punches only applies if you counter the uppercuts with a gut punch

[@zedricquick6793]

Donkey kong, King hippo and soda popinski gave me the hardest time on title defense.

[@DT64]

Von kaiser in wii is so easy that you can knock him out with only 5 punches

[@OmegaTyrant]

Should have mentioned Tyson's round 3. Sure he can't knock you down in one hit at that point, but his pattern gets pretty damn random while he is hitting harder than in round 2 and his punches remain barely in human reaction time. Also when he does his Dynamite Rush, he can just hook infinitely until he knocks you down if you don't block all the hits to begin with. Whenever I fight Tyson, if I don't get the round 2 TKO, I will usually lose in round 3, even if I make it into round 3 with being able to take two knockdowns intact. Also big agree on NES Super Macho Man being harder than Sandman. Super Macho Man not only took me longer to beat the first time, but on replays, I will almost always beat Sandman unless I'm on a setup with heavy input delay, whereas I can still lose to Super Macho Man, especially if it has been a while since I last played (though when unrusted, I am consistent against him). Another thing you didn't mention with Super Macho Man is how star punches don't do a lot of damage to him _and_ he starts dodging them after you just hit him twice, while the opportunities where he won't dodge are limited (I think it's only after a missed spin punch, and when you get three stars in a row).

[@CharlieSproul]

46:07 title defense Von Kaiser (Wii) 50:03 Aran Ryan (SNES) 51:50 bald bull (NES) 53:33 soda popinski (NES) 56:09 title defense Aran Ryan (Wii) 58:59 title defense great tiger (Wii) 1:04:04 narcis prince (SNES) 1:05:18 sods popinski (Wii) 1:08:58 masked muscle (SNES) 1:10:36 Mr sandman (SNES) 1:12:17 bald bull (Wii) 1:15:15 super Macho man (Wii)

[@fyra_cat2119]

The thing i always found hard about Don Flamenco 2 (NES) is that his defensive play style often led to desision wins, but the bastard that mario is, always gives it to Don

[@DesmondShannon87]

I honestly would love to see a second punch out where you have an opportunity to play as a young Doc Louis.

[@fdrdevotee]

Completely agree on TD Disco Kid. Of all the Title Defense matches, Disco Kid was the only one I beat on the first try.

[@BlueCoreBard]

something that makes Nick Bruiser easier is that he often just lets you get free punches on him and only blocks right before he throws a punch. Not only that but before he breaks your hand you can actually dodge the elbow.

[@poppinkringles]

To be honest none of the nes fights should be that high the hard part is learning them. Once learned their fairly trivial. Macho nes is just a consistency challenge when I learned the the timing for the macho spin the fight was trivial. Sandman seemed impossible but I ended up dominating him very early on, soda hard until you learn the trick. I'd say td soda pop td bald bull and td sandman are harder than any nes fight(excluding tyson). Td bald bull and sandman are not substantially easier than even Tyson for me (Tysons still much harder). Edit I no longer agree with this comment after learning mike Tysons punch out better I can say with a decent deal of confidence that mike tyson isn't as hard as TD bald bull in punch out wii.

[@hairysoup818]

Same can be said for every one of the Super Punch Out fights like Bear Hugger, Mad Clown, Narcis Prince, and even Nick Bruiser can be beaten in less than 15 seconds, Nick can be beaten in 7.52 seconds, Rick can be beaten in 10.65 seconds, you get the gist. I’d honestly say Nick is easier than Rick since you get free hits a lot more often.

[@re_fent]

37:54 so glad I'm not the only one, my friends took the piss out of me for this

[@Dwedit]

I would put NES Von Kaiser as easier than NES Glass Joe. In addition to Star Punches being an instant knockdown, he also has Great Tiger's weakness (body blow right before uppercuts), and Don Flamenco 1's weakness (alternating left-right punches are endless).

[@metarotta]

the scary thing is that if arcade loops were included probably all of super arcade's highest diff loop fighters place far above mike tyson

[@CharlieSproul]

1:17:05 Don flamenco 2 (NES) 1:20:44 title defense king hippo (Wii) 1:22:50 bald bull 2 (NES) 1:24:25 Mr sandman (Wii) 1:27:54 doc Louis (Wii) 1:32:12 title defense don flamenco (Wii) 1:36:10 title defense piston Honda (Wii) 1:40:32 vodka drunkenski (super Arcade) 1:41:43 pizza pasta (Arcade) 1:44:39 mad clown (SNES) 1:46:10 heike kagero (SNES)

[@zemufinman1639]

The bald bull fight is the only one where the in game timer is overall slower than real time because of how many follow up hits and animations play

[@chosenrandomly3230]

This is a very cool video, as a speedrunner for punchout The hardest fighter is your finger speed "at least for me"

[@travis3229]

You can also farm stars off the first great tiger fight by punching his gut in the same direction he leans for his uppercut. :)

[@alextrujillo472]

This was fun! Good work.

[@Btobebone]

good to see ol pizza pasta, the only og character they decided 'nah thats too much for' and didn't bring into the later games, even ol vodka drunkinski was able to sober up and make it.

[@inaviatable118]

I've been a punch out fan for like a decade now and I've NEVER seen the "intended" way of beating TD sandman

[@rubykaylaandogie3334]

69 fights 😏

[@Schlebonnes]

NES Piston Honda on his rematch can delay his uppercut for about 2 seconds to his normal uppercut but your can counter while he’s twitching to get a free star and you can also block his 3rd jab to deal more damage. NES Soda Popinski will do his uppercut but if you block while he’s about to uppercut, he’ll wait and you can get a free star, applies for both directions. You may have known these extra tips but I’d like to point it out.

[@yoshifan33]

51:18 - one small note: you can also counter Ryan's clinch with another super punch (though the timing is definitely more difficult), which locks him in an infinite loop if I'm not mistaken.

[@nivyan]

I love the video! But I feel that context of each game is missing. The arcade version would be spending actual money per attempt, NES fights without the internet or guides for example. I personally see the newer games' faster movement of the fighters as a positive: They're easier visual cues to decipher. The audio cues and vocal cues also help a lot. But I like your list of personal experience with a focus on match mechanics, it was great to lean back and hear your thoughts.

[@italian_weirdo]

This dude has been on KZbin for 10 years and is so worthy of popularity. We NEED to get people to know this guy

[@nocontext400]

wait... i accidentally found one of youtube's hidden gems without even looking for it?

[@italian_weirdo]

@@nocontext400 that’s exactly what I’m saying

[@Chud_Bud_Supreme]

I hated SNES Aran Ryan so much. I could never counter his grab, so I'd avoid power attacks unless his health was low

[@theconsolekiller7113]

Great video. Having completed all the console Punch Out games, I found title defense Sandman to be harder than Tyson. I was really struggling with that fight, even with the head gear. I could tell it would take me a while. Tyson took me about 7 hours to beat legit, recently. Legit meaning I had to beat Macho Man first, then Tyson, since the game never gives you the tyson password, atleast while youre progressing through.

[@saulo_jdyg8565]

Fun fact about soda in wii: If you knock him out twice each round, in round 3 in the second ko he will run out of soda and you'll win

[@Scythescor]

I was caught off guard over the Don Flamenco comment