Super Mario 64 Player Sets New Speedrun World Record

It's not often that a new world number one speedrun record is set for a game almost 20 years old, but it's just happened. For those who don't know, a speedrun is completing a game from start to finish in fastest possible time, often still collecting all items or meeting all objectives. The previous world record for Super Mario 64, the first 3D entry in the series released alongside the Nintendo 64 console in 1996, was 1 hour, 42 minutes, and 32 seconds. But a challenger beat that 17 seconds, and by mere accident.

Puncayshun, the previous record setter, held the top spot on the Speedrun.com leader boards for the game for the last two months. Fellow speedrunner Nero decided to challenge him in collecting all the game's stars, a total of 120, in the shortest possible time, on the Japanese version. Only the thing is, Nero wasn't specifically aiming for Puncayshun's time.

You can tell because Nero pauses and quits the game for a break not once, but twice, and that time is still included in his overall run. Nero says that once he finished, he looked as his time only then realized he'd beaten Puncayshun by 17 seconds, and set a new world speedrun record by accident.

Thankfully there's a video of his playthrough to prove his feat, should you have 1 hour, 42 minutes, and 15 seconds of free time. Then again, this record may not stand for long, as Nero, or any other speedrunner, could make another attempt without the breaks, posing an even greater challenge to the leaderboards.

SOURCE Geek.com