Super Punch-Out!!(arcade) FAQ version 1.1.0 copyright 2004 by Andrew Schultz schultza@earthlink.net Please do not reproduce this FAQ for profit without my prior consent. However, if you write a polite e-mail to me referring to me(and this FAQ) by name, then I will probably say OK. But if I ignore you that means no--and I am bad about answering e-mail. Sorry. **** AD SPACE: **** My home page: http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Exhibit/2762 **** Note: this FAQ only covers the first time through. I'm very shaky about the second. I can barely beat Bear Hugger. But I'm sure about the initial challenges. I'm sort of fishing for advice on later stuff with this guide but it should still be useful. ================================ OUTLINE 1. INTRODUCTION 2. CONTROLS AND STRATEGIES 2-1. ORIGINAL MACHINE 2-2. MAME ADJUSTMENTS 2-3. GENERAL STUFF TO WATCH 2-4. THE KO METER 3. POINTS 4. OPPONENTS 4-1. BEAR HUGGER 4-2. DRAGON CHAN 4-3. VODKA DRUNKENSKI 4-4. GREAT TIGER 4-5. SUPER MACHO MAN 4-6. THE NEXT GENERATION 5. VERSIONS 6. CREDITS ================================ 1. INTRODUCTION Super Punch Out continues in the tradition of Punch Out. You've got one less guy to fight through as you try to defeat potential challengers and become world champion in Nintendo's little video boxing league. You have jabs, body blows, uppercuts, hooks, and now a special crouch move. You can also duck and defend(which affects if you throw jabs/body blows) against your colorful opponents, who have some seemingly unstoppable--and illegal moves. But it's all a fun challenge and once you think the opponents are too predictable on the first circuit, note that the second really requires perfection. And Super Macho Man is rather tough too. The five opponents you face are: Bear Hugger, champion of Canada, who is invulnerable in his stomach but limited in what he can do. Dragon Chan, champion of Hong Kong, who blocks spastically, always leaving one side open for you to hit, but he has a knock-you-down flying kick from the ropes. Vodka Drunkenski, champion of the USSR, who is impossibly buff beyond the surrealism that made Punch-Out enjoyable and really a bit predictable--a lame mishmosh of Punch-Out!! characters. Great Tiger, champion of India, with no special moves except one where he scurries around the ring for ten seconds before a huge combo punch--unless you swat him at the right time Super Macho Man, champion of the USA, and the world. He has a swivelling punch that really makes him look like a 6 year old girl imitating a ballerina--except for his platinum hair, general George Stewart vibes and physique in line with Vodka Drunkenski. He has several moves that are distinct but it's tough to tell them apart right off the bat, which makes trouble for you. He can knock you down embarrassingly quick and the only way to get him consists of waiting for and then ducking his silly special move and whaling away. Not only are there fewere opponents but there's less variety between them, and also the difficulty level is not the same as Punch-Out. Or perhaps I got too good at Punch-Out for SPO to provide much of a challenge up to Super Macho Man. Although Dragon Chan is wonderfully spastic with his blocks and Bear Hugger is funny with his sticking his tongue out and barking, Vodka and SMM really seem too similar. Great Tiger is also pretty cool but feels like a conglomeration of Piston Hurricane and Pizza Pasta. But with a cool handlebar mustaches. Too often though I feel I won only because I hammered home my opponent's weakness and got a bit lucky at how often it happened. And after Punch-Out I breezed through fights 2-4 on no worse than the second try once I knew what to do. Still if you liked Punch-Out or any of the NES progeny I think you'll like this. The characters are fun to watch and slug into the corner, and I even enjoyed some of the new features--record time stuff--while playing this game. It's just not as original as I hoped although if a third punch-out were out there with even more countries and cool folks that make for inoffensive caricatures of stereotypes, I'd be glad to give it a try. The closest out there is Arm Wrestling, which often hardly feels like a game. Terminology for this faq: I'll try to use "crouch" to describe the new direction of dodging you have and duck/dodge left/right for regular dodging. But when I say 'dodge a body blow' I mean go left/right and 'dodge a super punch' equals use the new duck button. 2. CONTROLS AND STRATEGIES 2-1. ORIGINAL MACHINE The original machine had a left punch, right punch, and power punch button. You could also move your joystick up and down to change where your fists were. This allowed you to change between body blow/uppercut and jab/right hook. You could also pull the joystick up, which made your player duck. This is useful against some opponents and necessary against others. So here's the table: | Block up | Block down -------------+-----------+------------------ left button | left jab | left body blow right button | right jab | right body blow ko punch | hook | uppercut (no difference in damage but UC=200pts more) You can crouch in any case. It's quicker than ducking but doesn't allow protection from body blows, only vicious uppercuts you couldn't avoid in Punch-Out!! You can also continue the game once. You get bandaged when you lose and if you were world champion you become the challenger and your opponent the champion in the scorecard. 2-2. MAME ADJUSTMENTS On MAME, you can hit P to pause and see the context menu. Hit TAB and go Input(this game) to see the options: Use the up/down arrows to block up and down. LEFT-CTRL goes with a left punch, LEFT-ALT with a right. SPACE for uppercut/hook. This generally works OK...BUT I've found in the heat of the moment my finger can slip and I will hit the 'windows' button when fighting. You know what that does? Disables the MAME screen. Which is critical in a game like this. So maybe you can align things as follows: Up/down arrows can remain the same but I/K allows for regular keyboard usage S for left (Button 1) D for right (Button 2) Space for knockout(use thumb) (Button 3) A for crouch (Button 4) Edit these in the input(this game) context menu by hitting return on the option and then holding down the key you want. If things go haywire-- sometimes you wind up getting very weird options listed for each key--delete cfg\spnchout.cfg and try again. If that fails zap nvram\spnchout.nv and try once again. Incidentally save states on MAME may be a bit messy. That's because save states retrieve the memory but not the graphics on the screen. It can recreate the graphics from the memory but does so a piece at a time and only when it thinks it needs to. So for instance if you save a fight with Bear Hugger to state 1 and go to Dragon Chan and recall state 1, you'll see Bear Hugger's picture, but if you win Bear Hugger will be replaced by Vodka Drunkenski. Also you'll note Dragon Chan's fastest times are on there and score digits are only filled in as they actually change. So if you went from 28980 in state 1 to 30000 and reloaded state 1 threw a successful punch your score might read 39020. But the computer knows what it is. If you restore a game save state from the demo then you will see the zeros cut off from your score. Also note that reloading a state before a game is finished means that best times and high scores are not kept. MAME cheats--pugsy's cheat.dat file--are also amusing but not as iron clad as in most games. You can drain your opponent, get permanent KO capability, and become invincible. And yet you can still lose! Bear Hugger's roaring can get you, and if you don't hit your opponent, tough luck. Sometimes it's best to get hit by a regular punch with all cheats on to get KO capability again. With Dragon Chan later on you pretty much have to duck one of his kicks because he can trade knockdowns and win--you'll only get two but he gets three. Use hook/uppercut to be sure you hit your opponents. 2-3. GENERAL STUFF TO WATCH First of all, when bad guys' eyes turn yellow it means they are about to strike. At least on the first wave. Bad guys only have so many different moves. Be comfortable with avoiding them. Bad guys play some attacks at specific times. After knockdowns bad guys do tend to become tougher. Recognize that sometimes a bad guy will have the initiative and any punch you throw will result in them throwing one back that connects. You can tell this because your usual dodge doesn't seem to work. In that case, look to avoid something. Often you need to react to what your opponent does. It's no good trying to initiate a skirmish. They'll just block you or even throw a jab while you're undefended. A lot of times if it seems you just need a bit of timing, you may need to work on it. But if some punch that seemed to work a few seconds before doesn't, the opponent has 'learned' from it and you need to distract him before he forgets and falls into his old pattern again. Watch which way your opponent crouches. And how low he crouches. Kneeling punches take more time to develop and you can anticipate them too soon--but you can crouch. Plan punches and ducks ahead if you know there's no--or minimal-- retribution for a poor punch. If you know a punch will connect, throw it before you're back in place, or you may lose one jab in your combo. Similarly, ducking early may ensure you get a punch in and may help you get that much closer to a personal record. With Super Macho Man ducking early may allow you recovery time to crouch for his punches in case you guessed wrong on what he'd do next. 2-4. THE KO METER For the first punch in a combination you get 2 arrows. For any subsequent ones that fall you get 5. For ducking a punch you get 1. For getting a punch blocked you get -1. Note that it doesn't all come at once but slowly adds on, so you can't just calculate what you need and get it directly. For getting hit you can lose ten or more arrows. There's also a hidden KO meter the computer has to determine when an opponent will go down. KO punches tend to cut this down unless they're the final one in the combination. You can guess at it by the count as your opponent is knocked down before he gets up. Good jabs increase it but about everything else decreases it. Your opponent's health seems to recover after a knockdown based on how badly you pushed him around before. On a knockout you have counts to 3, 5, 7 and 10 and nothing in between. 3. POINTS 3-1. HOW TO SCORE --40 points for your first punch. --200 points for each subsequent punch in a combination. --300 points for a hook that connects. --500 points for an uppercut that connects. --500 points for a knockdown. --1000 points for ducking to avoid Bear Hugger's special attack. You don't get this for other opponents AFAIK. --30000 bonus points for winning, minus 130 points per second, counted down in intervals of 30. You continue to lose bonus points when you are knocked down but not when your opponent is. The minimum you can have remaining is 30000-130*180+30-7*130*2(2 knockdowns, 7 seconds)=4810, wlel 4800 or 4830. You can often get >30000 for the first three rounds if you are as efficient as possible. Future ones are a bit more troubling. 3-2. DEFAULT RECORDS The game keeps track of several records: points, fastest knockouts and hit average. For points, the original scorecard is as follows: POINTS 1. NOA 88700 2. JNQ 87700 3. GEO 86700 4. DNF 85700 5. NNT 84700 6. UDQ 83700 7. ZVT 82700 8. HIN 81700 9. GQO 80700 10. AIC 79700 11. OBG 78700 31. OBG 46000 12. VPB 77700 31. VPB 45800 13. HNE 76700 31. HNE 45600 14. VNQ 75700 31. VNQ 45400 15. BXR 74700 31. BXR 45200 16. SWB 73700 31. SQB 45000 17. DAN 72700 31. DAN 44800 18. QOT 71700 31. QOT 44600 19. ODN 70700 31. ODN 44400 20. QSA 69700 31. QSA 44200 21. NCL 48000 31. VJM 44000 22. JNQ 47800 31. BVI 43800 23. GEO 47600 31. IXN 43600 24. DNF 47400 31. JVF 43400 25. NNT 47200 31. UPD 43200 26. UDQ 47000 31. LPW 43000 27. ZYT 46800 31. AJL 42800 28. HIN 46600 31. ICX 42600 29. GQO 46400 31. JWA 42400 30. AIC 46200 31. MOG 42200 You can get to the top of the list by getting to Great Tiger and landing a few punches. With some practice Bear Hugger can net 30000+ points, and if Dragon Chan is in a move to flying kick you, you can repeat the task. Vodka Drunkenski goes down easily enough once you learn his tricks, too. Record times are all eminently beatable, especially if you've worked your way through Punch-Out, although sometimes you need to take advantage of an opponent's special weakness first. The time is always listed as time taken. After some point, it's pretty much random whoever gets the best time. For the later fighters, pretty much any win will get a player on the list the first time. I've managed to beat all the records and it rarely requires perfect play. BEAR HUGGER 1. DWD 0.59.03 2. NTU 1.13.45 3. QHP 2.21.10 My personal best here is 28:54, although I've gotten 52:00 without the special block that avoids Bear Hugger's roar. How quickly he punches determines how fast you win once you know how to crush him right off the bat. You can maybe save second fragments by anticipating the left body blows of his that fail so miserably and of course punch before you're set. DRAGON CHAN 1. HBP 1.15.00 2. BTU 1.43.83 3. JRQ 2.59.72 My personal best here is 39:90, where I got a few hits in early, he started flying around the ring, I clocked him with two six-jab combos and then put two hooks in for finishing touches. On the second knockdown there's a huge gap in timing. I've beaten the default record with 1:11:34, as he flew around the ring quite a bit early on, which saved me a lot of effort, although my initial punching wasn't the greatest. But more you hit him early, the sooner he flies around, but a lot is random. VODKA DRUNKENSKI 1. SDO 1.54.10 2. PLB 2.29.29 3. OBS 2.56.50 With VD(heh, nice initials) you can break the current record even getting knocked down. Using the proper combinations, you can dust him off in quick order, on the second knockdown. My time was 37.86. But usually I can get 1:00-1:30 if I am on autopilot. GREAT TIGER 1. ZDE 1.30.67 2. OCN 1.57.99 3. QOC 2.48.55 Great Tiger's big bane is if you knock him down when he makes his Piston Hurricane style charge. He has two of these, so winning is quite possible, although he may miss the 1:30 rush if one of the two of you gets knocked out. Then you can beat the record. If you've got him at KO and nail him on the rush you should get just under 1:30. With save states I can get to :57.30 but that was with a bunch of lucky rights followed with a hook. I've only been able to do that once. Without this combo I can get 1:00:[various]. SUPER MACHO MAN 1. RSN 1.59.99 2. QSP 2.11.01 3. SGQ 2.59.99 Super Macho Man's secret punch is his Achilles heel and if you can get a few of those early, you can knock him down quickly. I've gotten 1:21.81 after perfect play having to make only two knock-downs. But this can be very random as you may either get a punch or two in or a whole bunch, depending on his moves and how he leaves himself vulnerable. Reasonably accurate play should let you break the record but the game is nice and gives the first person to beat Super Macho Man a bronze. Note the initials in the KO time don't match up with the high score initials, so this is set up a bit fraudulently, probably just to get programmers' initials on there. But it's still fun to replace the high scores. You determine your initials at the start and your record is placed on there. Hit average is originally 1. SAQ 49.26% 2. SWQ 32.18% 3. JBR 21.44% 4. QHA 17.53% 5. RNH 10.22% Of course to get 100% you can just fight Bear Hugger and beat the you know what out of him. Then surrender to Dragon Chan. But that doesn't get you on the high score list. You need to win all five fights. Then the fastest time list is replaced with a hit average list. I generally get 60 to 70 percent after having beaten Super Macho Man, so the entries above are just placeholders. To get rid of high scores and records in MAME, erase nvram\spnchout.nv and, just in case, cfg\spnchout.cfg. 4. OPPONENTS 4-1. BEAR HUGGER Bear Hugger is a rather easy opponent to start off. He has only two main moves until you try to nail him with a knockout blow. When he lets his guard down you can hit him with a jab, but in fact there are ways to sucker him even better. --leads with a right jab or two and then crouches to throw a left body blow. Dodge left and jab him five times, starting with a right. --throws a left body blow without the two jabs. Again dodge left and jab him five times, leading your right. He may decide to crouch and hit you with a big blow if you've hit him with a KO punch, so don't hit him with one until you know it will knock him down --big right knockout punch/uppercut. Duck it and jab five times. Often I get the first, second and first. When going up against Bear Hugger, I generally throw a KO punch after his second failed attack and a KO punch after four punches in the third missed attack. That should knock him down. Then when he gets up, duck, throw a left, and throw a right hook. He'll be down for good. Sometimes he will get you with a big kneeling punch but if you are going for the record you shouldn't delay trying to avoid it. And if you are He basically leaves his gut open, and if you try to hit him there he just sticks out his tongue at you. When he drops his guard it's pretty obvious he'll attack, and if you like, you can avoid the left jab(eyes go yellow but he stands still) to get additional KO karma. But it's probably not worth it. During the fight you will find that, if you knock Bear Hugger down, he will get up, extend his arms, and roar. This will knock you down regardless of the strength you had. Fortunately there's an easy way to dodge this. The new duck button! About a half-second after he flings his arms out, duck. You'll miss his roar and thus not be knocked down, and the fight will continue with your KO mojo intact. This shouldn't be hard to master, but Bear Hugger telegraphs his moves transparently enough that with a little practice you can beat him even if he gets you back every time you knock him down. Still, why not go for the big results? To get the best time, buffet him with 3 jab combos after a missed left body blow, and use the hook at the end of the third to knock him out a bit quicker--after fifteen punches he should have a sliver of health, which the unstoppable hook disposes off. Then when he gets back up, you can sock him twice after you duck his roar. If you miss the timing here, one more duck- and-jab should do the trick. It should be three jabs, but you can get away with a hook on the second to cut even more time off. He won't get up if you managed not to get hit. Bear Hugger really gets in there and laughs at you when you lose. 4-2. DRAGON CHAN Dragon Chan has a flying kick move which initially flummoxed me, but then I realized what to do with the controls and I realized his fight wasn't so bad. Here's the key: when he starts making those 'whi-jah!' sounds and flying around the turnbuckles, be sure your fists are up and then wait until he lands and then duck just before he starts the jump. He'll remain frozen in midair. Whatever side his face is on, jab with that first. You get six free jabs and of course you can throw a hook with the sixth, or after it if you haven't used a KO punch yet. Often when you're about to land a punch after that, he'll go on the turnbuckles, and you can repeat the whole melodrama. Giving him a hook or uppercut early in the combo isn't recommended as he seems to sober up rather quickly, although the sixth punch--or after the sixth punch, if you've previously KO punched him--is OK. You can even get him twice after the first six jabs if he's in really bad shape. It can often be the coup de grace you need for a knockout before the third time. However, to get Dragon Chan to jump on the turnbuckles you either need to wait 30 seconds or get to him quickly. His defense is spastic and you need to take advantage of this. Although he jerks between positions he often can't react to if you shift your fists. If he has his right hand up and his left across his body, fire a right(i.e. the side of his face not protected. Vice versa if the hand positions are switched. He'll drop his guard at other times(two jabs, at least) and leave one hand way too high at others(body blow, and then expect a weakness that allows jabs.) Defense against him shouldn't be too hard as although he hides his hands a bit, they're completely hidden for a body blow and slightly visible for jabs. Often Dragon Chan will jump on the turnbuckles to escape a potentially successful punch, and it seems he doesn't jump around unless he's in a bit of trouble, but overall it's a bit random. Don't be dazzled with how he shifts his hands around. It ultimately turns against him. The quick way to beat up Dragon Chan is not to suffer any hits--just slam him with lefts and eventually you'll get through for an 8-hit combo. Well, this is a bit tougher than it sounds. You'll want to hit him with a body blow and then move up top to finish him off. For general strategy duck when his eyes turn yellow and wait a bit to see if there is an opening. Often he'll just leave his hands in one position and you can move and attack where they ain't. One eight-combo, with a few other punches thrown in, should be enough for you to finish him off on his first trip around the turnbuckles at around 30 seconds. But if not he'll just do his suicide-jumps again. Dragon Chan celebrates his victory by doing all kinds of weird pseudo- karate blocks in your face. 4-3. VODKA DRUNKENSKI Vodka Drunkenski looks big but is really a lot like Bald Bull with maybe a bit of Mr. Sandman. He doesn't have too many moves, and they are easy to detect. However throwing a punch you know is not going to connect often results in your boxer getting socked, so resist the temptation. Also from VD on, if you try for more than one hook at a time when your opponent is not dazed, you'll likely get nailed. And exception is Great Tiger after he's knocked down. But this goes for Bear Hugger and Dragon Chan on the next circuit, too. --when he jabs with his left and comes with a body blow from his right. When he does this, duck right and come back with a left, right, left and right jab combo. If you got the duck in quickly and threw a punch early you can give a body blow as well. Otherwise both sides will be dazed from a simultaneous punch. --when he jabs with his left twice he will come with a body blow from his left. Duck left and come back: right, left, right, left jab. Again you can get a body blow in if you preempted your duck--and your punch --a super big punch from down below where he delays a bit. This may cause you to return into the punch when you duck. You can use the special dodge to avoid this, or if "KO" is flashing you can fire away with an uppercut. It may get him twice. Of course you can just duck and paste him with a left but that's a bit boring. --a left, a delay(dancing a bit) and the super big punch from the right. See above. Just remember, if he doesn't crouch after a left but dances around, you know what to look for. You can get a body blow in in the meantime actually. If you mix up signals you'll need to duck a punch before returning to your strategy. His punch and body blow act makes him pretty easy to figure out and often you can punctuate a combination by tacking on a hook after the regular stuff is no longer effective. For best play I've found you need to duck and get the 4 jab-1 body blow combo twice. Then you can get 4 jabs in. Throw a hook after them to knock him down. Now here is the tricky part. When VD gets back up again there is a small window of time to throw a left. If you hit him then, you just need one more duck and jab to get what I see as the best time. You can of course dodge his big punch, but that may let an extra couple of seconds tick off the clock. Vodka Drunkenski winks weirdly on defeating you. 4-4. GREAT TIGER Great Tiger eats up a lot of time if you're not careful. His big move is to zoom from left to right and back again, which is very disorienting at first, but once you play through the game a couple of times you'll realize that this is the same sort of move Piston Hurricane from Punch-Out pulls but with a lot of dance steps beforehand. Similarly, if you don't hit him right at first, you'll have to dodge him the same way you dodge Piston Hurricane--after blocking a punch, immediately duck, and eventually you'll be able to dodge every other punch. Then Great Tiger winds up for a big one you need to get out of the way of. If you're low on strength and confused it's better to be knocked down sooner than later. Great Tiger is in general a lot like Piston Hurricane, but you need to be more precise, and he has more nasty moves. He's also got a bit of Pizza Pasta in: powerful slow punch, susceptible to lefts afterwards. His jumps occur at :30 and 1:30, and you can get two cheap knockdowns that way. But if you miss both, you may be in danger of losing on time. Starting out against Great tiger, throw two immediate rights when he drops his guard. Then you can throw another right to provoke a right body blow from him. Throw two lefts and then a right 'til it's blocked, duck the return punch, and you may be able to get in a cycle here. Whenever you throw a right, he blocks and goes in with a right of his own which you can duck. Then start with the lefts. After a while this may not work and I recommend shaking things up with a body blow then, but more importantly you want to make sure you clock Great Tiger as he makes his jumps. So for that you need to waint until RIGHT when he jumps--about a half second after he lands and seems to stay put. He'll go flying into the corner. As for other mechanics against Great Tiger--a lot of times he will catch you with a punch and if you throw one back he'll just deck you. In this case you'll have to duck one of his punches before you can return the favor with interest. The old habit of just jabbing right and then loading up with a left works well but I find, after he's knocked down, you can get him with several rights in a row sometimes and then finish him off with a hook. That's how I got my record time. It seems you can nail him with rights a bit more after the first knockdown or run-up, and I find it also encourages his moves that lead to your more pedestrian forms of attack. You can get 4 or 5 uppercuts in after the first knock down if you have the knockout symbol flashing. You can risk 5 if you are going for time but you do need to check his eyes to see if he wants to strike you again. Otherwise he will get a free hit. If you don't have the KO going, Great Tiger will throw four uppercuts in a row and you will need to duck them before they seem to get started. This is just anticipation and when he approaches you, you'll need to duck. If one catches you then you can use your super-duck to avoid the rest. To get a record time you may need a bit of luck. Starting off well makes the difference between 4 and 5 uppercuts--if you can indeed get to him that quickly. Great Tiger blinks a lot after beating you. 4-5. SUPER MACHO MAN Super Macho Man has several moves that start out similarly and end very differently. His secret move is a 360 degree punch which he may swing twice which seems very girly and ballerina-like to me. He also has a kneeling punch and several other tough moves. The only way to avoid the super macho punch is with the duck, and you may have to duck twice in a row. He usually starts out with a two left jab combo. Then, if he dances around a bit to the right, he'll be executing his super macho punch. To avoid this, you have to wait a bit and then duck. Then you can't hit duck immediately-- wait a split second and duck again. You may need some time to learn the timing, but once you've ducked the punch twice you can hit him. Also sometimes he stops after one punch and you can tell when he pulls up--but just barely. You also want to preempt moves as quickly as possible. For instance sometimes after a two punch combo he will come in with a right kneeling punch. If you wait too long to dodge it then he may jump over and give his super macho punch and you can't defend it--otherwise he just barely can. You can duck it(push up on controller) right away or preemptively and probably be in good shape. Crouching takes less time than left/right ducking. And in general if you are going to duck do so right away or you will walk into the opponent's next move for sure. Other stuff: If he connects one kneeling punch he'll try for another right away. Sometimes he'll just wait around and all of a sudden just fire off a punch. Again watch for the dancing feet. He should only go around once this time and you need to punch him quickly. After he misses with a super macho punch you can get four of your own in including a hook afterwards if the KO bar is flashing and a hook for all 4 if you've already used the extra hook. Be sure to get the hook in preemptively as it's possible he will twirl around again twice. Super Macho man can also lead with just one left and give a right body blow. It's difficult to remember all these moves and know when to react but for this one, watch after the first punch. If he shifts to your left then you know to duck as a blow is coming. Otherwise wait a bit longer. The first time this happens you may be able to throw four punches back but your counterattacks wear down as the round goes on. Remember not to be too eager to duck when a super macho punch comes after two jabs, but be quick if it's out of the blue as it's probably only one punch. Also don't be too eager to dodge after a jab as he will hit you with a jab for ANY reason other than that you're standing still. After one one-spin punch where he stalls he'll throw another, so you can get him back if you keep your head. He may also go with two double spin punches in a row, but you should have time if you preempted your punches. If you really have trouble, defend more heavily against the super punch. If you get hit with a kneeling punch you can always get it back but the super punch is very deadly. You also want to lean towards guarding vs. the super punch if you have a lot of health left and have started off well. The key to this is recognizing the first tiny moves Super Macho Man makes. If he drops to the left or right, you need to see it, and you need to know what that means. BRIEF LOGIC CHART: 1 jab -- 1 jab -- super punch(duck 2x, jab 4x) | | | kneeling punch(dodge/left jab) | right body blow (dodge/left jab) (make these moves quickly, or else you won't have time to dodge a subsequent super macho punch. They can come at any time. Also note that a single super macho punch without a big back-up should give you a chance to rebound a short time later. If you get hit once you can just anticipate the next one. And if he backs to the right in any case, be prepared to duck.) 4-6. THE NEXT GENERATION The outline for this is as follows: 1-2-3-4-5, then 2-3-5-1 repeats AFAIK(and I used MAME cheats for quick wins) where X=# of fight in the first circuit. Basically, enemies are harder, their special moves are more complex, they do more damage and can even knock you out on the first blow. Only Bear Hugger seems reasonable here but then again I once thought Dragon Chan was impossible so maybe I'll update this guide much much later. Throwing a punch into a block often means you get hit immediately, but instead of record times at the top you have Hit %. Which sinks with each fight here I think. Two knockdowns before you lose is the rule and not the exception--you don't seem to recover as quickly, but your opponents seem to do a bit better than before. Also the opponent's eyes don't turn yellow before he strikes so you have to rely on body language. Like real fighting I guess. 4-6-1. BEAR HUGGER I've had no end of problems trying multiple punches in a combo after this guy misses with a right. Sometimes he gets dazed, but it is very rare. You want to keep your guard up, duck his punches from the right(either way) and telegraph a right jab after each one. Beware that he may try several dangerous punches in a row. You will eventually be able to take a hook at him if you get him to miss long enough. Do that. He'll again burst up and roar when you knock him down, but you know how to deal with that. This is very repetitive and there's a serious chance you may run out of time even if you seem to be doing decently well. You need to avoid him every chance you get and throw a punch at every opportunity. 4-6-2. DRAGON CHAN This guy's a mess to fight. Basically you need to note he has a new move-- he only jumps off one turnbuckle before he comes in for a kick. You need to crouch just after he says "Hiya! Iya!" There's not much time to get the timing right, and then you have to do the same thing: crouch again when he comes from the other way. You can't hit him until after the second jump. This is of course another good way to run down the time. You want to throw left and right jabs from the direction he originally came in since he's jumping back and forth. 4-6-3. VODKA DRUNKENSKI Here a lot of punch combos you threw before won't work in such detail. But you can still get him to overextend and clobber him when he does. You can't throw quite as many punches, though, so he takes a bit more time. 4-6-4. GREAT TIGER Great Tiger doesn't dance around any more before he comes in to get you. But he still has his old moves and is a bit tougher. This fight is really not so bad. Probably the easiest, which is why he was removed from the third circuit. 4-6-5. SUPER MACHO MAN Super Macho Man is much quicker here and loops around four times before falling down. He seems much too fast for my reflexes or concentration. If you want to beat him sort-of honestly, then you need to use save states and see how he'll strike next and guess in advance. 4-6-6. DRAGON CHAN 2 Here Dragon Chan tends to sit on his butt if you jump the gun crouching, and you have to react instantaneously to his jumping around. Oh, he hits harder too I think and doesn't leave himself open so egregiously. Perhaps you have to duck at the instant he comes flying forward. 4-6-7. VODKA DRUNKENSKI 2 I didn't find him quite so bad, compared to the other fights, as you must just be a stickler for the rules that beat him the first time. 4-6-8. SUPER MACHO MAN 2 Now he loops up to six times, which is exhausting to figure out. I used save states. 4-6-9. BEAR HUGGER 2 You need even more perfection here or you're toast. Bear Hugger's not hard to know how to defeat, and he doesn't do much, but he can be tough. At least you don't have to watch for punches from the left too. End of FAQ proper ================================ 5. VERSIONS 1.0.0: sent to GameFAQs 8/8/2004. One circuit complete. Notes for the second circuit. 1.1.0: sent to GameFAQs 8/22/2004. Updated some times and strategy. 6. CREDITS The usual GameFAQs gang. They know who they are, and you should, too, because they get some SERIOUS writing done. Good people too--bloomer, falsehead, Masters, RetroFreak, Snow Dragon/Brui5ed Ego, ZoopSoul, and others I forgot. klov.com for having screenshots and basic tips which helped me work my way through. War Doc for giving me something to make a futile attempt to catch up to--# of arcade guides