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The Strategy Section - Soda Popinski

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Hearts: 8

Dodge and counter attack is boring. Everybody should be able to TKO the drunken Soviet within the three rounds...
The upper level of Soda punching is the "block-for-astonish routine":
Learn about two ways of Soda punches, the straight ones and the more impressive bottom-up punches.
So what Little Mac has to do is to block when Soda begins his bottom-up move. This block causes Soda Popinski to be interrupted in his action. Watch his face. He looks very astonished. Use this moment to give him a fast left stomach jab. Little Mac should get a star by this move. Then standard dodge the next punch, stun him and deliver the star. Soda should kiss the mat immediately.
Twice repeat the "block-for-astonish" routine to TKO the alcoholic within seconds.
Bear in mind that this routine only works if Mac has full stamina. So please prevent Soda from hitting Mac.

As you probably know by now(if you read my post at the record topic), I have discovered a way of beating Popinski in 1:00 or less. I set the record of 0:56.48,R1 with this srategy, which I discovered by accident to tell you the truth. Remember Soda Popinski is very unpredictable(that is why I don't like facing him), so you may have to be patient in order for this strategy to work. I say this because Soda does not always kneel down he has different patterns. However, if you want to beat him in 1:00 or less you must be patient and keep fighting him until he kneels down the required three times so that you can get a star by punching him in the chest each time.

Here is the key to success against Soda Popinski. As he is coming down to fight, look for him to make some movement(beginning to extend his arm back) this indicates that he will throw a swinging hook. Instead of dodging it, prevent it by standing and quickly punching him in the chest with a right, follow immediately with another right to the chest which will automatically eliminate his other swinging hook. Now hold the down key and hope that Popinski kneels down. As soon as you know that he is in a kneeling position and is not moving, let go of the down button and punch him quickly with a right to the chest to get a star. Then quick dodge his uppercut (and stun him with a right to the face) followed by a star uppercut punch. This will send him crashing to the mat from anytime of 0:18 to 0:21 depending on how quickly he began to kneel.

As he gets up and comes back down to fight, look for that bit of movement in his left arm and then punch him in the chest with two rights in a row as done the first time, which prevents Soda's hooks form even coming at Mac. Now hold the down button and as soon as you see that Soda is remaining in a kneeling position, let go of down and punch him with a right to the chest to get a star. Quick dodge his uppercut (and then stun him with a right to the face) followed by the star punch. He will now go down at some point from 0:36 to 0:41.

When Soda comes back to fight repeat the same steps as above. Look for the movement in his arm, then punch him twice in a row with rights to the chest. Now hold the down key and release it once you know that Popinski is going to stay kneeling down, then punch him with a right to the chest to get a star. Now instead of quick dodging his uppercut, prevent form even coming your way by punch him with a right to the chest once you see him bending his legs to begin the uppercut. Follow immdediately with a star uppercut and he will go down at 1:00 or less! (dodge, stunn with some speedy ones and deliver the star instead if you do it without the method in brackets above!)

How about that! Now the secret is out and I still can't believe I discovered it. It happened by accident when I was getting frustrated by Soda, since he was not doing the kneeling as he should. So at the beginning of one fight I prevented his two hooks out of frustration and I realized that this saved a lot of time. From then on I discovered the strategy. Also the fact that Mac starts off with 8 hearts was also a hint, because if you execute the above strategy correctly you will only have 1 heart remaining at the end of the fight.

"Hey Tom, this is Chrome Virus I got a new Soda Popinski record: 0:52.48(R1,TKO). I was fortunite enough to be playing on my NES when I got this time, so hopefully it can go on the world records part of your site. As you probaly guessed I did this on the American version of MTPO .... If your wondering how I did this I just gave him two jabs when he went to throw his hook, then I held on down and when he went down to do an uppercut he paused and looked at then I let go of up gave him a body blow for a star, then I waited for him to throw another uppercut. I hit him just as he drops down into position and then used my star to knock him down. I did this two more times for a TKO. Sometimes this same strategy will only get you a time like 0:57.00. It all depends on how fast he goes down to do his uppercut after you give him two jabs in the face. Incase you were wondering my first knockdown was at 0:17 the second knockdown was at 0:35 and the final knockdown time was 0:52.48 . So basically this strategy is more luck then skill. Well, keep up the good work on your site!! See ya later."

Phase 1:
When the match begins wait until Soda moves, then quickly throw two jabs at his face. After that immediatlel press and hold on down so that when Soda kneels down for his uppercut he pauses and looks at you. When he pauses let go of down and give him a body blow. Now for the tricky part, after you hit him with the body blow you have to wait a moment and then throw another body blow. If you timed it right the second body blow should hit Soda just as he goes to kneel down for his second uppercut. Now immediatley use a star (you should have one by now) to send him to the mat.

Phase 2:
When he returns you must repeat this ENTIRE process another time to knock him down a second time.

Phase 3:
When he returns repeat the entire process again and he will go down for the third and final time. If everything goes right you should be able to get a time around 0:53.00. Although your time will vary quite a bit depending on how fast Soda kneels after you hit him with the two jabs.

Prologue- Soda Popinski is one of the toughest fighters in the World Circuit due to the face that his hooks and uppercuts are slightly delayed which throws off Mac's timing. Chrome Virus wrote the best strategy for Soda Popinski entitled "The Russian Attack TKO" that has a low of about 0:49. It seemed that breaking the 0:49 barrier on NTSC was impossible. MTPO has always been considered a very tough game due to the fact that it does not suffer from very many serious glitches that players can take advantage of. Other than the Sandman glitch the game is pretty much glitch free. However this past January I discovered a major glitch and it used to exploit several characters. The following is the story of how I exploited a major glitch to beat Soda Popinski under 0:40.............
 

Phase 1- As soon as Mario starts the fight throw two consecutive right body blows at Soda to stop his hooks. After a short pause (1-5 seconds) Soda will hopefully bend down for an uppercut. Dodge his uppercut attempt and answer with one quick face jab followed a delayed face jab for a star. Note: The second punch must be one of Mac's speedy face jabs to produce the star. You must time the first punch correctly in order to get Mac to go into his speedy deliveries on the second punch. The combination is therefore 1+1 delayed speedy. If you notice after the speedy delivery lands for the star the clock will stop moving altogether and will stay at a fixed time and not move. All you have to do than is press down to bring Mac's guard up and freeze Soda in his squatting position on his second uppercut attempt. Then give him a right or left to the gut and press Start just as Soda raises to his feet again to deliver a star uppercut which which will he will accept and go down. While all of this has happened the clock will not have moved. I puased the clock as early as 0:12 when I got the record. Note: Once the clock has stopped moving Mac is free to do whatever he wants to do to Soda to knock him down. Remember these few rules though is you choose to take that path. I will call these The Rules of Engagement. Do not do any multiple punch combinations to Soda's head. If you do so the clock will move again. Also do not throw any errant star uppercuts which Soda might dodge. If Soda dodges the clock will move again also. However you can still do delayed single punches for stars off his hooks and uppercuts and the clock will stay stopped. Whatever you do just make sure you put him down without the clock moving again. The clock should read 0:12-0:15 for the first knockdown depending on how long he pauses. Mac should have 0 or 1 star in reserve.

Phase 2- The clock will move again when Soda gets up. Repeat phase 1 to pause the clock and knock Soda down again. I paused the clock at 0:25 when I got the record. The clock should read 0:25-0:31 for the second knockdown. Mac should have 0 or 1 star in reserve.
 

Phase 3- Repeat the entire process again for phase 3. If you did everything right then Mac should finish with 2 hearts remaining. The TKO time can read anywhere from 0:38-0:49.

Well you did it. You TKOed Soda under 0:50 by exploiting the biggest glitch in the game. You showed those programmers who is boss. I got a 38.82 TKO using this strategy. Can you beat that?

Dedication- I would like to dedicate this strategy to Chrome Virus who recently retired but came up with the original fast Soda strategy and recorded a 50.25 TKO with it. I also want to dedicate to RedTom for testing this strategy out on PAL MTPO.

Well there you have it. The biggest glitch in the game has been revealed. You do not have to be a skilled player to execute this strategy at all. It can be done in as few as 2 tries when you get the timing down for the second delayed speedy punch. The strategy almost alway produces a time below 0:50 no matter how long Soda pauses on the uppercuts also. To tell you the truth this strategy is really just a big joke and totally unlike any of the other MrTurk strategies that have come out. Also this opens the door for someone to take the Soda points record also. I did not even make a file for this strategy as it is so straightforward. Just practice a little and you will have that sub 0:50 victory in no time. Just be sure to get the timing down and always remember to have fun playing this great game. Time to go get Soda "punch drunk".