If there’s one way for gamers to really push the boat out, it’s through the challenge of speedrunning, in which, as the name suggests, the aim is to get to the end of the game as quickly as possible, using any tactic that doesn’t involve cheating. There are a lot ofvideo games that players can learn to speedrun, and overtime, it becomes possible to beat world records. However, there is another way to up the difficulty of that, and that’s through intentionally playing without being able to see, as this one person did forMike Tyson’s Punch-Out.
In a video uploaded just a few days ago, YouTuber Summoning Salt has managed to beat the world record for speedrunningone of the most famous boxing games of its era, whilst blindfolded. The video registers that they were able to finishPunch-Outin a time of 19:41.75. The webcam image in the corner shows that they achieved all this while wearing what appears to be some sort of tote bag on their head.
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Likespeedruns of other classic games likeMario 64, it’s likely that Summoning Salt used audio cues to gain some idea of what’s happening on-screen. For example, the sound of the referee counting to ten when the opponent is knocked down, or the noise the other boxer makes when they’re hit. Of course, that’s not to say that defeating the world record is easy by any stretch of the imagination. Speedrunning takes hours and hours of practice, and only the really determined will be able to set new barriers for others to beat. Again, this was all done while Salt was blindfolded, which is that extra bit impressive.
Speedruns are often about personal challenge, as well as for community kudos, but there’s some good that can be done through them as well. Thecharity stream channel Games Done Quickoften hosts speedrunning events which go towards raising money for charity. Recently, the organization was able to raise just over $3.4 million, which all went towards Prevent Cancer.
As for the game itself,Mike Tyson has expressed interest in a new Punch-Out title, which surprisingly had a release back in 2009, after a 15-year hiatus. Whether or not a new entry in the dormant series will ever see the light of day remains to be seen, due to some conflict of interest his company may come up against. But there may be many older gamers out there who would enjoy seeing a newMike Tyson’s Punch Outgame, and maybe someone will speedrun that as well.
