Piston Hondo



Piston Hondo (Japanese: ピストン・ホンドー; Hepburn: Pisuton Hondō), originally known as Piston Honda (Japanese: ピストン本田; Hepburn: Pisuton Honda) is a boxer from Tokyo, Japan. His quirks include the fact that Piston Hondo's name and trademark Banzai Rush Attack (also known as the Piston Rush and the Hondo 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 Hondo 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 Hondo has also appeared as a Hasbro action figure and in a Topps trading card series. Hondo 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. Hondo is one of the 3 fighters that can dodge your attacks, the other 2 are Mr. Sandman and Don Flamenco.

In When the Cold Breeze Blows Away, he gets hired as a bodyguard of the Supreme Commander of South Japan, Luna Loud, and the Emperor of Japan, Naruhito, and later, including Yamato Kappu.