After casually breaking three world records in four days last month, blindfolded speedrunning legend Bubzia has reached yet another milestone in Super Mario 64, having "absolutely obliterated" his old 70-star record by over three-and-a-half minutes. Now, he's moving on to an even more grueling challenge that took him over 11 hours the first time around and which nobody else has even attempted.
Bubzia has now dominated the blindfolded Super Mario 64 speedrunning scene for years, holding world record in every single category but continuing to compete against himself regardless. He's been grinding for new records in the 70-star category for months now, slowly bringing his time down to 1:22:09 then 1:20:12, where the record has stood since March 2.
Today, he's set a new 70-star record and broken then 1 hour, 20 minute barrier for the first time ever with a 1:16:41. Managing a 3+ minute time save in a tough category like this is bordering on absurd, but that's just what Bubzia has done. "70 Star is DEAD!!!" as Bubzia exclaimed in a Bluesky post after the run. "New world record by more than 3 minutes, absolutely obliterated it!"
By the time Bubzia had reached the final battle with Bowser in this run, it was clear the run was something special, and the way he snatched his blindfold off to confirm the time the microsecond the run was over shows how much the anticipation had built. After a few celebratory shouts, there was a long moment of silence.
"I'm done," Bubzia finally said. "I'm done with this shit. I'm completely, honestly done with this shit. Oh, god, dude, my heart. I had like a 150 heart rate for the past half-hour, I think. I'm completely dead. What did I just do? Well, this is, I guess, a sub-1:20 – what we wanted – by a bit of a margin. A bit of a margin, dude."
It wasn't even a perfect run – Bubzia had a couple of major mistakes in the red coin portion of Rainbow Ride that cost him multiple lives and well over a minute of time. He reckons that it "could have been sub-1:15" without that mistake, but he's leaving well enough alone for now.
"I'm so happy with this time," he said after the run had concluded. "I'm so, so happy with this time. I will take this, and honestly I think I'm done. I think I'll put 70-star to rest for now. We said maybe the goal would be 1:15, but I think I'm done. For now. There's still improvement to be done, but... Jesus Christ, what was this run, dude? Three minute barrier skipped in one run."
His next goal is to set a new record in the 120-star category, fully completing the game while – of course – blindfolded. Bubzia's previous record in this challenge was an 11:22:42. Yes, that's well over 11 hours. To date, he's the first and only speedrunner to have attempted it, and I think it's safe to expect something extremely impressive as his efforts continue.
This all helps take the sting out of the webcam tragedy Bubzia suffered in Super Mario 64 last month.
