Over the past few years, a speedrun accomplishment that once seemed impossible is starting to look inevitable: a perfect run of Super Mario Bros. is in sight. Two speedrun legends are inching ever closer to that fabled goal, and a new world record is the first step in what might be the biggest accomplishment in speedrunning history.
If you've ever checked in on the Super Mario Bros. speedrun scene, you know the basics, but here's some background just in case. In extremely simplified terms, the classic NES platformer only checks every so often to see if a given level is completed, which means there is an absolute minimum time in which you can complete each stage. Tool-assisted speedruns (or TASes), which are created by programming inputs into emulators, show us that the perfect Super Mario Bros. speedrun would be a time of 4:54.265.
In most cases, TASes do things that are impossible for human players – but top Super Mario Bros. players have been making the "impossible" seem real. We've been covering a runner called Niftski for years as he's shaved the world record down ever closer to that theoretical perfect time. Even in 2023, we were no longer talking about the difference between human performance and machine-engineered perfection in terms of seconds. Instead, the difference was measured in frames.
Back then, it was 22 frames. Now, it's just 4. Niftski has set a new world record of 4:54.332, which you can see in the video below. It's worth watching the final moments alone, where Niftski pops off and shouts out his "W mom cheering me downstairs."
Runners have already perfected each individual part of the game, but the problem is stringing it all together. The final stage, 8-4, is not governed by the same rule that sets the minimum possible time for the earlier stages. This one is loaded with tricks that require button inputs timed down to the individual frame, and many of them have to be done back-to-back.
But now, "we are now only 4 frames / 0.06 seconds away from No L+R TAS tie, and it is completely inevitable at this point," Niftski explains in the description of his world record video. "As proud as I am to finally achieve my well overdue 4:54.3xx, I will make sure to not stop this grind until I put this category to rest with the perfect SMB1 Any% speedrun of 4:54.265."
Niftski has committed to the grind, and he's not alone. Another runner named LeKukie tied Niftski's previous record, and he's also set himself on the grind to get the perfect run. He learned how to speedrun Super Mario Bros. using a homebrew emulator for PS2 that was plagued by input lag, unable to afford better equipment. He eventually got an NES, but it was one made in his home country of Brazil – a model which, it happens, runs a tiny bit slower than its worldwide counterparts.
LeKukie was a dedicated runner, still managing to post great times even with the limitations to his hardware. And with each upgrade, it was as if he was dropping another layer of training weights, like he was the Goku of Mario runners. His full story is wild, and it's explained very well in a recent video by Kosmic. The community eventually decided to "free LeKukie," pitching in to provide him an NES that ran at full speed, as well as equipment for streaming. Among the donors? Niftski himself.
Now LeKukie is a legitimate contender for that perfect run, and he's inching closer right alongside Niftski. Either of these runners could be the one to do it, and it'll be a massive milestone once it finally happens. SummoningSalt, who you might know from his excellent YouTube documentaries on various speedrunning scenes, puts it simply in a tweet: "This will be the greatest speedrun accomplishment of all time."
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