Thanks to the wonders of emulation software, speedrunners have discovered that the optimal path through Super Mario Bros. can be completed in just four minutes and 54.032 seconds. This is known as a “Tool Assisted Speedrun” (TAS), which breaks the gameplay down into individual frames and reassembles them to determine exactly what a perfect run looks like.
Normally, human players can’t get compete with the times posted by a TAS, but the speedrunning community is doing their best to match the machines.
Case in point, Niftski just broke the 4:55 barrier for an “Any Percentage” run by completing Super Mario Bros. in a blistering four minutes and 54.948 seconds. Kyle Orland compared this feat to the four-minute mile on Ars Technica in a great primer on the various tricks and glitches the speedrunner exploited to secure the record.
While Niftski is now the owner of the fastest time for Super Mario Bros., his achievement does come with an asterisk. Instead of using an NES console and controller, he set the record using a keyboard attached to a PC running an emulated version of the game. The speedrunning community as a whole considers that a legal option, but many individual speedrunners prefer to stick with original hardware.
The previous “Any Percentage” record for Super Mario Bros. was four minutes and 55.23 seconds, which was set by Miniland in February.
Congratulations to Niftski, who plans to continue chasing Super Mario Bros. immortality in the future. A perfect run is certainly possible, and you can follow all his subsequent speedrunning efforts on Twitch.