Piston Honda (ピストン本田 Pisuton Honda)/Piston Hondo (ピストン・ホンドー Pisuton Hondō) is a boxer from Tokyo, Japan. His quirks include the fact that Piston Honda's name and trademark Banzai Rush Attack (also known as the Piston Rush and the Honda Rush) are reminiscent of Piston Hurricane from the earlier Punch-Out!! arcade game and later Super Punch-Out!! Super Nintendo game. The theme music played for Piston Honda is a quote from Sakura, a Japanese folk song. Also, derived from Honda's quotes; NHK is an actual broadcasting company in Japan (but is replaced by "my camera crew" in Virtual Console version) and "Sushi, Kamikaze, Fujiyama, Nipponichi..." is genuine, if randomly babbled, Japanese.
Piston Honda has also appeared as a Hasbro Action Figure and in a Topps trading card series. Honda also appears in the pages of the Nintendo Comics System in a story called "Outsiders" where, despite his fearsome demeanor in the game, he is shown to be an altruist who is a boxer to raise money to build hospitals and schools in poor parts of the country. Piston is one of the 3 fighters that can dodge your attacks, the other 2 are Mr. Sandman and Don Flamenco.
Appearances
Punch-Out!! featuring Mr. Dream (1987–1990)
Piston Honda made two appearances on the 1987 Nintendo Entertainment System game Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! first as the Minor Circuit Champion and later as Little Mac's first opponent in the World Circuit. The first real challenge for new Punch-Out!! players, Honda has a weak defense but is much improved when compared to Glass Joe or Von Kaiser. His jab and uppercuts hit hard and for an unprepared opponent, the Honda Rush (a series of rotating left and right jabs) can be bad news.
After dispatching Piston Honda for the Minor Circuit Championship Little Mac meets up with him again in the World Circuit. Honda returns with increased defense, aggression, a "wiggling uppercut", and an improved version of the Honda Rush. During this, if jabbed at the right time, he can be easily KO'd.
His palette swap is Mike Tyson or Mr. Dream, depending on the edition of the game.
Punch-Out!! (2009)
Piston Hondo made an appearance in the title Punch-Out!! for the Wii. He uses the same attacks that he used in Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!. The only difference from the NES "Punch-Out!!" is that Piston Hondo is the first fighter you see in the Major Circuit instead of the Minor Circuit champion. He is voiced by Japanese anime voice actor seiyuu Kenji Takahashi for this edition of Punch-Out!!. He has only been defeated once, by Mr. Sandman. Small sushi items fly off when you punch him, and they appear again after you knock him down. Additionally, in a rather polite manner, he will bow during the beginning of the match.
Contender
Star Opportunities:
- Jab him when his eyebrows twitch before he throws a jab.
- Jab him when he flashes yellow on his Bow taunt.
- Throw a delayed jab after dodging his right uppercut.
One Hit Knockdowns:
- Throw a Star Punch when he bows.
- Counter the Hondo Rush.
One Hit Knockouts:
- Throw a Three-Star Punch when he bows.
- Counter the Hondo Rush with a Three-Star Punch.
Four Punch TKO
- Counter his first jab to earn a star.
- Throw your star punch on his Bow taunt to instantly knock him down.
- Counter the Hondo Rush to knock him down again.
- When he gets up, counter the Hondo Rush to give Piston Hondo a TKO for Tokyo!
Attacks:
- Bow Taunt: Hondo bows at Mac. Jab him for a star.
- Jab: Hondo's eyebrows twitch, and then he throws a quick jab. Jab him when his eyebrows twitch.
- Uppercut: A strong uppercut that can come from either side.
- Hook: A fast hook, usually coming from Hondo's right. Dodge left or duck.
- Hondo Rush: Piston Hondo's signature move is back and as dangerous as ever. He will throw 3 jabs, and follow up with an uppercut.
Title Defense
Piston Hondo returns to fight Little Mac once again in Title Defense to win the champion's belt. His clothes change from black to white this time, and he gains some new moves from his training (learning how to catch swords, eat without gaining weight and running faster than a bullet train). His existing moves also become faster. When he bows, he can be punched for an easy star. However, this only works if his eyebrows are twitching while he bows and if you punch him with the right timing. Otherwise, he will dodge your punch and counter with a quick jab. However, you will get a star if you block this jab and counter it.
Star Opportunities:
- Jab him when he flashes yellow on his Bow Taunt.
- When you get a star off his taunt, throw two delayed punches. The second punch must be delayed more.
- If Hondo counters you when bowing, block the jab and hit him with a jab of your own.
- When Hondo counters when twitching, block the jab and hit him with a delayed jab of your own.
- Delay a jab after dodging his right uppercut.
- Counter his right uppercut, and land two delayed punches. The second punch must be delayed more.
- Counter his left uppercut, and land two more delayed punches. The second punch must be delayed more.
- When Hondo changes sides for a delayed uppercut, hit him when he's in the centre.
- Mistime a Hondo Rush counter as long as it hits Hondo.
Instant Knockdowns:
- Throw a Star Punch when Hondo actually bows.
- Counter the Hondo Rush. The faster versions have more strict timing.
- Throw a Star Punch when he switches sides for a delayed uppercut.
Instant Knockout:
- Throw a Three-Star Punch when Hondo switches sides for a delayed uppercut.
Moves:
- Bow Taunt: The same as his Contender bow, but rarely will he do a bow taunt that flashes yellow, allowing you to earn a star (provided you don't punch too early or too late). Most of the time when he bows, if you try to jab him, he will dodge your attack and counter with a quick jab.
- Jab: A faster version of his Contender jab. His eyebrows will still twitch, but he will dodge and counter with a jab if you try to hit him.
- Uppercut: A faster, stronger uppercut that can come from either side.
- Delayed Uppercut: Similar to his normal uppercut, but he will delay the attack. He may switch the side where he attacks from up to three times. Watch his punching hand; when he twirls it, he's about to punch. Hondo throws one of these after he gets up from a knockdown, and will switch sides based on the number of times he's been knocked down in the match (i.e. If he's been knocked down once, he will not switch sides; if he's been knocked down twice, he will switch sides once, and so on).
- Hook: A fast hook.
- Hondo Rush: Once again, it's back, and more dangerous than ever. The Rush is much faster, harder to counter, and has more punches than its Contender counterpart. The counter remains the same, though its timing is stricter. Hondo sometimes uses the Contender version of this move as well.
Glitch: If you make him block right before he twitches his eyebrow, he will jab afterwards, but it strangely does no damage (and doesn't even knock you down in Champion's Mode). It only takes a star away. If you block the glitched jab and stun him, the camera angle remains the same, it won't show sushi flying around his head, and you can only hit him twice.
Exhibition challenges Contender:
- Defeat Piston Hondo and land EVERY punch thrown!
- Find both one-punch-knockdown weak spots.
- Win the fight with 34 or more remaining hearts!
Title Defense:
- Knock Piston Hondo down in under a minute!
- Block 44 jabs!
- Defeat Piston Hondo and never lose a Heart!
Super Smash Bros for Wii U (2014)
In this game, Piston Hondo appears as a trophy. He has two different descriptions depending on your console region.
NA: This classy Japanese boxer bows before every match. He's so polite, in fact, that he cues you to his oncoming attack by twitching his eyebrows. Landing solid hits on him will pit him in a daze. He must have forgotten to eat before the match - instead of little birdies, Piston sees sushi floating around his head!
PAL: This classy Japanese boxer bows before every match. He's so polite, in fact, that he lets you know when he's about to attack by twitching his eyebrows. Land solid hits on him, and sushi will fly out from...somewhere... it's just an illusion though, so you can't eat it. Sad times.
SSB4 - Piston Hondo
Quotes
Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!/Punch-Out!! featuring Mr. Dream (NES):
- "I still remember our first fight. Now I'm gonna pay you back.. Banzai!!" (World Circuit fight)
- "I'll give you a TKO from Tokyo!"
- "Sushi, kamikaze, fujiyama, nipponichi..."
- "You should wear a helmet when you fight me."
- "Where is my camera crew? Hello Tokyo!" (In the current version of Punch-Out!! featuring Mr. Dream available for the Virtual Console, this quote replaces "Where is the NHK TV camera? Hello Tokyo!" which Honda utters in NES pressings of the game.)
Punch-Out!! (Wii):
- "Ichi, ni, orya!" (一、二、おりゃっ！！) meaning "One, two, ME!" (before throwing an uppercut - orya also is just a shout)
- "Shimatta!" (しまった！) meaning "Oh no!"
- "Iya na!" (いやな！) meaning "Oh no!"
- "Nani!?" (何！？) meaning "What?!" (occasionally, when he misses with a punch)
- "Dou da?" (どうだ？) meaning "What do you think?"
- "Osoi!" (遅い！) meaning "You're slow!"
- "Yosha!" (よっしゃあ！) meaning "All right!" (Right before the Hondo Rush)
- "Ichi, ni, san, shi, go, roku, shichi, hachi!" (一、二、三、四、五、六、七、八！) meaning "one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight!"
- "Mada mada!" (まだまだ！) meaning "I'm not done yet!" (When recovering from a down.)
- "Sessha, Hondo to mousu" (拙者、ホンドーと申す。) meaning "This humble one is called Hondo." (said in a very humble way, proper of a samurai; sessha is an archaic pronoun used to refer to oneself)
- "Munen..." (無念···) meaning "Regrettable..." (when knocked out)
Doc Louis Tips:
- "Be careful in there, Mac! Watch out for the Hondo Rush! Keep your blocks up, baby! Keep your blocks up!"
- "You're still in this, Mac. Counter punch when you see the Hondo Rush coming!"
- "Hey, Mac baby. It's time to send Hondo back to his dojo, baby."
- "This sucka needs an oil change! Flatten him out with a one-two star punch, Mac! You got it, baby!
- "Hey, Mac baby. It's time to repay the favor... Send him a TKO for Tokyo!"
- "This sucka's got quick moves! Stay sharp, and remember to use your blocks."
Mid-Round Intermission
Punch-Out!! (Wii):
Piston Hondo has six confirmed "Intermissions". They appear in pairs, but only the first two are usually seen, and the others may require certain tactics used in the match, to be seen, such as using "Counters" with Hooks. (unconfirmed stipulaton).
1 & 2: Sitting down and speaking. (Contender)
3 & 4: Standing and speaking. (Contender)
5 & 6: While sitting down again, he holds up one of two items (Sushi Platter, or incense), and speaks, before putting them down again. (Title Defense)
Trivia
- In Career mode, his bio shows that he's the first of Mac's opponents to take his training at least somewhat seriously (Glass Joe is seen spending time around Paris instead of training, Von Kaiser getting thrashed by his young students (and is implied to actually be a nightmare that he experienced before the match, leading to his trauma, Disco Kid would rather be showing off his dance contest trophies, dancing and partying, and King Hippo eats one half of the day and sleeps the other half).
- If Piston Hondo is expecting a star punch in Contender, he will look cautiously at Little Mac and speak before getting hit.
- Oddly enough, his name changed from Honda to Hondo between the NES and Wii versions of the game. Speculations as to the reasoning behind the change are to avoid references to either the Honda line of vehicles or to sumo wrestler E. Honda from the Street Fighter series (despite Honda being a common surname in Japan).
- In Contender, it's possible to dodge the entire Hondo Rush. However, it's not really worth it, as you can only do 3 to 4 hits afterward. Video
- In the NES game, Honda's hachimaki read 日本一 ("Nippon'ichi", which was also one of the words he said in one of his break banters), meaning "Japan's number one"; In the Wii game, Hondo's hachimaki now reads 一番 ("ichiban"), which means simply "number one".
- Notably, in the NES, Honda did not wear said hachimaki during the fights, unlike the Wii.
- In the Title Defense intermission, Hondo is seen reading a manga. While its cover is rather vague and its contents are not shown, it is presumed to be a manga about boxing, since titles with this theme, like Ashita no Joe or Hajime no Ippo, are very successful in his home country.
- Hondo's all-white attire in the Title Defense mode have connotations similar to the black color in Western cultures, like Don Flamenco's ensemble in his own Title Defense bout.
- Counting all games in the Punch Out!! series, Piston Hondo and Bald Bull are the only characters to be featured in the Minor, Major and World Circuits.
- Interestingly, although Hondo is ranked at the bottom of the Major Circuit, he has the best record of said circuit and has only been defeated by Mr. Sandman.
- In Japanese and Chinese cultures, number four is a number of bad luck as it rhymes with the word for 'death' or 'die' ("shi" in Japanese, "si" in Mandarin, and "sei" in Cantonese). This is referenced by the second Exhibition challenge in Title Defense, in which Little Mac must block 44 jabs from Hondo.
- When Piston Hondo bows to Little Mac in the Wii version, he looks him in the eye, which in normal circumstances would be a sign of disrespect in Japan. However, martial arts combatants bow without breaking eye contact IF they are within striking distance. This is simply being prudent and has nothing to do with the etiquette of bowing.
Piston Honda bowing to Little Mac; note the one eye focused on him.
- When Doc Louis says "Send him a TKO for Tokyo!", he's referring to Hondo's quote from the NES version, where he says that he's going to send Little Mac a TKO from Tokyo.