Super Mario Bros. Any% category is probably the most impressive in all the speedrunning world because, well, this is a game that's four whole decades old and people are still finding ways to break records. This year alone has seen multiple world records broken as speedrunners inch ever closer to literal perfection.
In the case of Super Mario Bros, perfection is actually a 4:54.26 tool-assisted speedrun. Essentially, it's mathematically the quickest way of beating the classic platformer (so far) if certain inputs are executed at exactly the right frames. And the closest speedrunner to perfection is Niftski, who has just broken another Any% record for the third time this year. (Again, this is a game that came out in 1985... mind blowing.)
Niftski previously got just 18 frames away from the TAS run back in January, beating his own record. Then, in a dramatic twist, speedrunner averge11 broke his four-year-long streak with a time only 15 frames away from that TAS goal, before the record flip-flopped back to Niftski a couple weeks ago.
And, now, he's only 11 frames away as he just knocked out a 4:54.448 run in last night's stream. "Oh my god, dude," he yells after leaping over Bowser's head in record time. "Not dot three, dude, I really wanted that to be dot three. Or I'd be popping off so much harder right now. But let's go!"
Niftski seemingly has no plans to just let the TAS goal go, either, as he streamed his attempts for another hour after breaking his own record. "This is only the beginning, more to come soon," he tweets.
