New Punch-Out World Record Set After ‘Exploit’ is Found

There are few games as iconic as the NES classic Punch-Out. As such, based on the nature of how it works, it’s also one of the most popular games in the speedrunning community. With the current record having stood for over a year, however, you would’ve been forgiven for thinking that this game was about as ‘optimised’ as you could hope. It has even gotten to the point that some people can beat the game blindfolded.

Following a broadcast on Twitch, however, user SummoningSalt has just broken his own world record. How? Well, by finding a long-hidden exploit within the code that makes King Hippo have a lot more mouth!

New Punch-Out Exploit Leads to World Record Time

So, how does this exploit work? Well, essentially it all boils down to King Hippo and finding a way to make him play nicely. If you’ve played the game, you’ll recall that he’s the fighter who opens his mouth and has trouble keeping his shorts up. You know, the guy with the plaster on his belly.

Through an exploit in the RAM memory, however, it is possible to make him open his mouth 3 times in quick succession. In other words, you can, using very precise inputs, change the memory to result in a much faster knock-down.

Is This Cheating?

While it is an exploit, since you’re only basically ‘setting up’ the fight via inputs made in the game, this 100% is not cheating. Anyone could do this on any copy of Punch-Out. All it requires is the knowledge of how to make this happen. Well, that and some insanely precise frame perfect timing.

It just goes to prove though that the speedrunning community will always find a way to make games beatable in unexpected ways!

What do you think? Are you impressed with the speed run? Have you ever beaten Punch-Out? – Let us know in the comments!