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Speedrunning’s greatest record just got broken in Super Mario 64

mario 64 speedrun world record

Twitch streamer puncayshun has broken the Super Mario 64 120-star speedrun world record, using a new maneuver aptly named the “carpetless” trick.

While the Mario franchise plods forward with a new voice actor and its upcoming Switch game, Super Mario 64 continues to draw in fans 27 years after its release. This includes a thriving speedrunning community that is still discovering new tricks to beat the game faster than ever. As the second-most popular game in speedrunning, having a world record in Super Mario 64 is a big feat. 

In 2019 a “holy grail” skip was found for Super Mario 64, able to take up to one minute off a speedrunner’s time for the 120-star category. It took four years for “carpetless” to be successfully achieved on a consistent basis and now, speedrunner puncayshun has used it to break the 120-star Super Mario 64 world record.

What is the Super Mario 64 speedrun world record?

The current Super Mario 64 120-star speedrun world record is 1:37:34 and is held by puncayshun.

puncaysun set the new record by shaving a single second off the previous world record, which was held by Weegee. In speedrunning, every movement needs to be perfect. Even a single mistake can cause a run to go from a possible world record to a practice run.

There are multiple categories of speedrun for Super Mario 64. These categories are divided based on the numbers of stars collected before entering the final stage, with 70 stars, 16 stars, 1 star, and 0 stars being the standard. The goal remains the same; to beat the game as quickly as possible.

Super Mario 64 is meant to be beaten by collecting stars to open up stages where players can defeat Bowser. The final stage normally requires players to collect 70 stars, but players can use bugs to access areas they shouldn’t normally be able to reach. 

What is the carpetless trick?

“Carpetless” is a method to skip the last auto-scroller level in Super Mario 64 during a 120 star speedrun.

The carpetless maneuver allows the speedrunner to skip the last auto-scroll portion of Super Mario 64, where the player jumps on a flying carpet to the last star. This remained the last auto-scroll section without a speedrun skip until recently.

Mario 64 Carpet Stage

Speedrunner Krithalith developed a setup called “Orthogonal Jones,” relying on cardinal directions. This both simplified the inputs required to perform the trick and significantly increased the rate of success in performing the carpetless skip. Since the development of Orthogonal Jones in September 2023, speedrunners have been able to consistently execute the carpetless trick.

What does this mean for future Super Mario 64 120 Star runs?

puncayshun’s new Super Mario 64 speedrun world record will likely be broken again, and could see a significant amount of time shaved off.

With continued use of the carpetless trick, more speedrunners will be pressing against the newest record set by puncayshun. In a highly competitive category where speedrunners will practice for hours to shave a single second off their times, a new skip offers a lot for interested players.

Weegee’s previous world record didn’t use the carpetless trick, which can save speedrunners 45 seconds. In theory, future speedrunners should be able to shave more than 40 seconds off puncayshun’s new record without discovering any other new tech.

Written by Cassie Gardner

Cassie Gardner has been playing games since she was but a child, starting with a Game Boy when she was 5 years old. The discovery of Pokemon led to a lifelong interest in role-playing games of both the video game and tabletop varieties.

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