What just happened? One of the world’s top Super Mario Bros. speedrunners has put together a compilation showcasing every new world record-breaking speedrun of the 1985 classic. The kicker is that they are all synced to finish at the exact same moment.
The tribute was recently uploaded to YouTube by GTAce and is meant to highlight how far SMB speedrunning has come over the years. The first video comes courtesy of runner Casion, who laid down a time of 9:51 way back on April 6, 1999.
What’s funny about this record is that it isn’t really a speedrun at all considering the player implemented time-killing tactics like collecting power-ups and killing enemies. In hindsight, it was just a decent playthrough for the period.
The next entry shaved a whopping 3:40 off Casion’s run and would stand unchallenged for nearly five years. Scott Kessler’s run from 2004 lowered the record by another full minute, bringing the time to beat down to 5:10. It’d be another six runs and well over six years before the elusive five-minute barrier was finally broken by AndrewG with a time of 4:59.340.
We’ve seen another 28 lead changes since late 2010, the latest recorded on August 7 of this year yet remarkably, the world record has improved by less than five seconds. In fact, the last four records have only cut the time down by fractions of a second, highlighting just how difficult it is to save additional time in the game at this point.
Niftski’s time of 4:54.798 is currently the fastest ever recorded by a human. To put into perspective just how good this time is, a simulated playthrough of the best possible theoretical time is 4:54.265.
The video concludes with each runner crossing the finish line at the exact same time. When applicable, runners’ reactions are also shown. It’s all a bit chaotic once everyone gets going and the audio is a bit overwhelming, but the video is a great tribute that SMB speedrunners and watchers alike will enjoy for years to come.
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Image credit: Anurag Sharma