Super Mario Bros.: Speedrun world record broken, why superhuman

You know sprint ? It is an aiming discipline. Finish a video game as quickly as possible. There are various categories like 100% where you need to recover everything that can be recovered before finishing the game or Any %, where you just need to reach the end. When the performance is done by one person the machine is pre-programmedwe are talking about STONEFor Tool Assisted Sprint. Surprisingly, one of the most “running fast” games is 38 years old: Super Mario Bros. on NES.

On the human side, the player Niftsky world record holder 4 minutes 54 seconds and 798 thousandths. Just beat your own time 4 minutes 54 seconds and 631 thousandths. There you say to yourself: “Is that all? Is only 167 milliseconds better? That’s bullshit!”. But no, it’s far from that. To understand how this development, so weak on paper, was an almost superhuman feat, you have to look at the idiosyncratic workings of Super Mario Bros.

Super Mario Bros speedrun has a new near-perfect world record

Super Mario Bros. includes a system that controls every 21 frames; every 0.35 secondsRegardless of whether you have completed the level or not. In other words, next level won’t load until current loop reaches end of 21 frame. When you want to go fast, hit the end of the level flag at a very precise momentTo avoid waiting too long until the end of the loop.

Niftski managed to finish the game by connecting the levels at an excellent pace. A human can’t do better using the 21 framework rules. The only exception to the latter is the last level 8-4. Once you reach the end, the last is directly triggered, without waiting for the end of the loop. Here’s where speedrunners can hope improve the world record. It stays the same 22 frame advance marginwell 366th of a second.

If someone succeeds, that means: the recording will be absolutely perfectand therefore cannot be eaten by a human. You can see this exploit in the video below. Surprisingly, Niftski comments and responds aloud to his live audience as he plays. Fun detail: At the bottom left of the screen, heart rate displayed in real time. Maybe the player can then break the sprint world record blindfolded in Super Mario Bros.? We can’t wait to see it.