Why the Perfect Speedrun of Punch Out Will Never Happen

Comments · 1.2K

• TH

  @thepopemichael · 3 years ago

  You sometimes forget that the famous speed running documentarian, Summoning Salt, is also a speedrunner himself.

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• RI

  @rita1525 · 3 years ago

  Mac’s face when he lands a star punch in this game is hilarious to me for some reason. It looks like he’s upset to be dealing big damage.

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• SS

  @SSM24_ · 3 years ago

  <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e9cRgLnSps&amp;t=1672">27:52</a> - &quot;the odds for the fight aren&apos;t too bad, at about 1 in 114&quot;<br>This really set the tone for the rest of the video LMAO

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• AT

  @athenaraines · 3 years ago

  For reference, the odds of getting the perfect speedrun would mean that you have to play perfectly, hitting hundreds of inputs which already brush against the limits of human ability, while also selecting one randomly chosen atom from within <b>*the entire solar system*</b>

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• GF

  @gfdggdfgdgf · 3 years ago

  Fun fact: if you&apos;re a top level punch out player there&apos;s a good chance you&apos;re also good at making interesting videos.

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• ZY

  @ZykoMike · 3 years ago

  Not a single thing in this video will benefit me in any way in life. I absolutely loved the whole thing.

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• EA

  @EarthBound_Fan · 3 years ago

  Don Flamango RNG: &quot;We have you 32,768 to 1!&quot; Little Mac: &quot;I like those odds&quot;

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• JD

  @jdouble006 · 9 months ago

  I&apos;m so confused how so many people are mistaking a recent video by Summoningsalt of beating Tyson in under 2 minutes, which he actually did 10 months ago btw, as him getting the perfect TAS run.

  15

• SW

  @sweetypuss · 1 year ago

  the amount of commentors saying shit like &quot;is that a challenge&quot; or &quot;never doubt humans&quot; in response to 1 in 177 quadrillion odds reslly puts into perspective why the lottery is still popular: a lot of people are stupid. very, very stupid.

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• SA

  @sage.seraph · 2 years ago (edited)

  (Editing this to instead say every new record since this video&apos;s upload (10/26/22), original comment was talking about Summoning Salt&apos;s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e9cRgLnSps&amp;t=136">2:16</a>.48 on Sandman)<br>All records since the upload of this video:<br><b>Piston Honda 1:</b><br>39.61 - Fletcher4 (3/30/26)<br><b>Bald Bull 1:</b><br>53.00 - funkmeister1212 (1/21/25)<br><b>Soda Popinski:</b><br>44.82 - jefeman82 (4/15/23)<br><b>Bald Bull 2:</b><br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e9cRgLnSps&amp;t=73">1:13</a>.82 - Nolan414 (2/18/25)<br><b>Mr. Sandman:</b><br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e9cRgLnSps&amp;t=136">2:16</a>.48 - Summoningsalt (10/1/23) (7th TAS tie)<br>Edit: Honorable mention to funkmeister1212 once again for becoming the second person to get the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e9cRgLnSps&amp;t=136">2:16</a>.48, on 9/15/25!<br><b>Super Macho Man:</b><br>45.00 - drfellx (1/19/24)<br>44.48 - drfellx (4/11/24)<br><b>Mike Tyson:</b><br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e9cRgLnSps&amp;t=120">2:00</a>.61 - Summoningsalt (10/16/23)<br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e9cRgLnSps&amp;t=120">2:00</a>.00 - Summoningsalt (6/1/24)<br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e9cRgLnSps&amp;t=119">1:59</a>.97 - Summoningsalt (2/7/25)<br>Honorable mention for Tyson: funkmeister1212 became the second person ever to complete a Phase 3 Uppercut run, with a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e9cRgLnSps&amp;t=122">2:02</a>.00 on 12/29/23<br>Edit: funkmeister1212 has since improved his PB to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e9cRgLnSps&amp;t=120">2:00</a>.97 on 8/27/25, now just a second behind Summoningsalt&apos;s WR!<br><b>Single Segment:</b><br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e9cRgLnSps&amp;t=894">14:54</a>.71 - Summoningsalt (6/11/23)<br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e9cRgLnSps&amp;t=892">14:52</a>.61 - Summoningsalt (7/8/23)<br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e9cRgLnSps&amp;t=888">14:48</a>.12 - Summoningsalt (7/16/23)<br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e9cRgLnSps&amp;t=886">14:46</a>.48 - Summoningsalt (8/21/23)<br>Honorable mention for SS: funkmeister1212 also became the second person ever to complete a sub-15 minute run, with a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e9cRgLnSps&amp;t=899">14:59</a>.82 on 9/17/24<br><b>Single Segment Blindfolded:</b><br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e9cRgLnSps&amp;t=1009">16:49</a>.99 - Summoningsalt (10/26/25)<br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e9cRgLnSps&amp;t=999">16:39</a>.84 - Summoningsalt (12/12/25)<br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e9cRgLnSps&amp;t=976">16:16</a>.39 - Summoningsalt (12/16/25)<br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e9cRgLnSps&amp;t=957">15:57</a>.76 - Summoningsalt (1/5/26)<br><b>RTA:</b> <br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e9cRgLnSps&amp;t=1114">18:34</a> - KThree (11/24/23)<br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e9cRgLnSps&amp;t=1112">18:32</a> - Summoningsalt (11/25/23)<br><b>90 Minute Challenge:</b><br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e9cRgLnSps&amp;t=858">14:18</a>.35 - funkmeister1212 (11/17/24)<br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e9cRgLnSps&amp;t=857">14:17</a>.26 - funkmeister1212 (9/19/25)<br><b>Tyson Challenge:</b><br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e9cRgLnSps&amp;t=1908">31:48</a> - Summoningsalt (8/1/24)<br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e9cRgLnSps&amp;t=1878">31:18</a> - Summoningsalt (2/8/25)<br>As a bonus, the community sum of best is currently <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e9cRgLnSps&amp;t=799">13:19</a>.79 as of 5/23/2026 (when I&apos;m writing this edit), which is a bit under 25 seconds slower than the TAS time of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e9cRgLnSps&amp;t=775">12:55</a>.12 and a bit over 87 seconds faster than Salt&apos;s current SS WR.

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• ZA

  @zacharyjeffares8158 · 3 years ago

  I’m surprised that animation team for this Nintendo classic was able implement “stance” into the game. By using the slight variations of timing, they were able to show how Mac is using a right handed stance. Very cool!

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• SU

  @superjurppa · 2 years ago

  As a lover of impossible odds, the odds given in the very end for the whole TAS-speedrun are in the same ballpark as taking every grain of sand on the Earth, putting it in a bowl and then picking at random the same exact grain four times in a row. Or, if someone had simulated a full-game speedrun without RNG manipulation million times every second since the big bang, they would not have made basically any progress towards achieving this run yet, since they would be at around 0.000000000000000000000000000000001% of the number of games in which this run would occur.

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