Super Mario Bros. players have spent years trying to build the perfect speedrun. The race to be the first to achieve the perfect run has escalated dramatically over the past year, and the now-legendary Niftski has just set a new record that's just two frames away from the entire community's ultimate goal. The catch? He didn't actually want to do it – at least not when he did.
"My supporters donated $1,000 for me to do a Mario impression" for an entire Halloween stream, as Niftski explains in the description of his record run on YouTube. He dutifully completed the stream dressed in a Mario hat and fake mustache while doing what he recognizes as "the worst Mario impression of all time."
The entire video is an absolute delight as Niftski slowly recognizes that he's on world record pace while wearing a silly costume and doing a silly voice. "Finally, I just-a had to-a lock in," he says as he warps into level 4-1. The faux facial hair starts to bother him in 4-2, as he complains that "I want to shave-a this thing off because it's-a literally freaking uncomfortable as hell-a."
"I really hope this run dies, by the way," he says as he enters the game's final stages, still on pace for that record. By level 8-3, the penultimate stage, he's getting desperate. "Please have this-a run die," he begs, "I don't-a like it, I don't-a want to get this larping as Mario."
Yet he does indeed secure the world record while-a doing a Mario voice. "It made me not nervous at all," he recognizes, and that might've been the push he needed to set the new record. Still, there are two more frames to shave away before the perfect speedrun finally arrives, and I can only imagine what lengths Niftski might have to go to in order to calm his nerves again.
