(Boss 4) Trayvon Tyson's Punch-Out!! Strategy Guide!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Now republished and rewritten.

It's part of Punch-Out!! culture to sit around on the playground exchanging tips to progress further in the game. Because I'm the kid everyone on the playground wants to be around, I'm taking it upon myself to be the definitive source for all things Trayvon Tyson's Punch-Out!!. So there are five bosses in the game, and I'm going to tell you all how to succeed against them. I'll only detail their moves — I don't want to spoil the entire experience for you! And note, that this article DOES spoil the game.

BOSS 4: TRAYVON TYSON

Round 1 HP: 50
Round 2 HP: 41
Round 3 HP: 33

This is it. The titular character of the game, Trayvon Tyson. He's not the final boss, but the game is coming to a close. Let's look at his moves. Oh, one thing to note about Trayvon. The audio cues for his "Concrete Smash" and Skittles-based moves will only occur every 1 in 3 times. Trayvon doesn't want to run his mouth all day. Trayvon is also vulnerable at all times except for his last real attack.

"Concrete Smash".

Cues: Trayvon spawns the concrete block in his hand, turns on his side, and calls you a "creepy ass crackah".

Damage: If Trayvon hits Mac with the concrete slab, Mac will find himself missing 12 HP.

Description: Trayvon stands there with his concrete block for .3 seconds, and then goes on his side and charges towards Little Mac. If Trayvon has been knocked down 0 times, he'll take 1 second to reach Mac. If Trayvon has been knocked down already, he'll cut that time in half. There is no end lag for Trayvon after he uses this move, so he can string several of these at a time.
Round: 1 and 2.

Evasion: Mac should block like in the screenshot, because Trayvon is too lazy to take the extra effort to go all the way. Mac could also dodge in either direction and still dodge either way.

"Skittles".

Cues: Trayvon spawns a bag of Skittles in the hand that's on Mac's left, and declares, "I'm a NO_LIMIT_NIGGA!"

Damage: If Mac dodges into a Skittles pile, he'll be hurt for 4 damage.

Description: Trayvon will throw a small pile of Skittles to either Mac's left or Mac's right (50-50 chance of each). Upon landing, the Skittles will grow in size. They'll stay there until Mac dodges into it, Mac is knocked out, Mac is hurt by another move, Trayvon is knocked out, or Trayvon throws another Skittles pile. It's important to note that Trayvon will never create an undodgeable situation with the Skittles and his Tea Blast attacks.
Round: 1 and 2.

Evasion: Mac should avoid dodging into a Skittles pile. Then he won't get hurt.

"Tea Blast".

Cues: Trayvon's arm becomes an Arizona Iced Tea cannon. He mutters "I'm Obama's son. Who the fuck are you?" and "It's no use! Take this!" for Tea Blast Left and Tea Blast Right respectively.

Damage: The tea will do 4 damage to Mac, and it has one other effect as well: It forces Mac's punching cooldown to kick in whether or not he actually has punched, disabling Mac's punching for 2 seconds.

When the cooldown is in effect, Mac's gloves turn orange.

Description: After Trayvon is done saying his quote, his Arizona Iced Tea cannon launches the attack. The graphics are that of the actual drink, by the way. For Tea Blast Left the tea will remain for .4 seconds before evaporating, or .6 seconds for Tea Blast Right.

Round: 1 and 2.

Evasion: Mac should dodge after Trayvon says the final word of his quote. It's important that when Trayvon's cannon is on the left side, to dodge right, and vice versa.

"Swastika".

Cues: As soon as Trayvon gets up for Round 3, his body turns swastika-shaped. He then starts spinning all over the place while screaming.

Damage: Every time Trayvon touches Mac, he'll do 2 damage.

Description: Trayvon spins 60 to 100 times, moving some distance every time. If Trayvon is going to end up below Mac (in terms of vertical coordinates), he'll immediately get back up. If he's on the edge of the screen, he'll bounce back. Trayvon will rotate quite often. Once he's done, he'll enter his whack-a-mole stage.

Round: 3.

Evasion: Mac shouldn't try to dodge traditionally: He should block. Repeatedly. When he does so, Trayvon's posture becomes "straight" and he is repelled upward a bit.

"Whack-A-Nazi".

This isn't an attack... really... but it's the after-effect of Trayvon's Swastika move. Every .8 seconds for 8 times total, Trayvon will swap between his left hand, left foot, right hand, and right foot to expose a purple targeted spot. (There are also giant red arrows pointing to it.) Mac's job is to then punch the targeted spot with the corresponding punch: Upper-left for left hand, upper-right for right hand, side-right for right foot, and side-left for left foot. If Mac is fast enough, he should be able to beat Trayvon in two cycles, because after 8 times, Trayvon will use Swastika again. When Trayvon changes targets, he'll gasp a weird-sounding noise. Trayvon's head will also turn to face the body part that has the target. What's the cause of the purple spot as well as such an outlandish forme in its entirety? Perhaps it has to do with the means by which Trayvon is back in our world...

Trayvon makes sure that the player knows how to use the right punch at the right time, something the player was trained for by the previous boss. Also it's important that the player doesn't move haphazardly, or else they might get hit by Skittles. Trayvon's fight style is to debilitate and limit Mac's options, and then finish him off with a very intimidating closer. However, the final boss is on a whole other level...

Hopefully with the help of this guide, you can move on and finish the game. ...And if you're here to take offense at the game, don't. There's a non-terrible reason it's made this way.


You can see the guide for Boss 3 here.
To see how to beat Boss 5 — the FINAL boss — click here!