Speedrunner Niftski has been blazing a trail through the original NES edition of Super Mario Bros, and that progression has now resulted in a new world record pace that has left the young runner just four frames removed from TAS perfection.
The Super Mario Bros world record has long been considered perhaps the greatest single achievement available in all of video game speedrunning. The 1985 NES classic is as famous as any game could be, and the twitch reflexes needed to run it combined with its quick timing make it a popular choice among runners and viewers alike.
Niftski has had a transformative impact since the young speedrunner arrived on the scene and set his sights squarely on Super Mario Bros, with that focus now resulting in yet another world record and a further step towards a TAS tie that once seemed near to impossible.
Niftski nails Super Mario Bros world record with new time
Niftski completed a new Super Mario Bros world record run with a fresh time of 4:54.332. That represented an improvement of .024 seconds compared to the previous world record time of 4:54.356.
Niftski has been grinding away at the record for some time, and his reaction to the achievement was understandably emotional. He loudly celebrated with the live viewers watching him across Twitch and YouTube before briefly leaving the stream to share in the achievement with his mother.
The accomplishment wipes out the previous world record established just two months ago by Brazilian speedrunner LeKukie, who finished the game with a lightning-quick time of 4:54.356.
Super Mario Bros speedrunning has come a very long way through the efforts of Niftski, LeKukie, and their world-record chasing peers. It was in 2011 that famous Mario speedrunner Andrew G first broke the game’s five-minute barrier with a time of 4:59. The modern world record has shaved a full five seconds off of that time.
Could Niftski equal the TAS time for Super Mario Bros?
The next big goal for Niftski and other top spreedrunners in Super Mario Bros is to equal the game’s elusive TAS time, which would be equitable to achieving a “perfect” run of the game.
TAS stands for tool-assisted spreedrun, and refers to the use of automated tools and processes to execute maneuvers as quick as mechanically possible. This is often done to test the limits of the game beyond what humans can achieve, and to open up new speedrunning routes for players to pursue.
But Super Mario Bros is so short and its controls are so simple that, in theory, a human player could exactly equal the efficacy of a tool-assisted run. That’s the goal that Niftski is now pursuing. His latest world record run puts him just four individual frames away from the TAS total, an improvement of two frames relative to LeKukie’s June record time that was six frames shy.
The potential to achieve this goal is more than just theory. Niftski and LeKukie have both completed difficult segments of the game with perfect times, equally the TAS run in smaller stages. Putting all of that together in one cohesive run is another matter entirely, but it now seems almost inevitable that one of these runners will manage the feat sooner than later.
And when that happens, it will almost certainly be considered by most to be the greatest speedrunning accomplishment ever achieved.
