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“A speedrunner has become the third person in the world to have completed Super Mario Bros. in less than 4 minutes and 55 seconds.
Getting to the third room of 8-4 in 4:54.948 means Nebula_Composer – who has their eye on the world record – played a “perfect water section” and got past a Bowser pattern in time, but entered the water second four frames – just four! – behind the world record, a delay he just couldn’t catch.
Here is the personal best run in all its four-minute-54-second glory:
“Nebula_Composer got 4:54.948, which is the fifth 4:54 ever played and makes him the third person ever to get below the 4:55 second barrier!” explains the Reddit post (opens in new tab) commemorating the speedrun (thanks, TheGamer (opens in new tab)). “This run ties the current Any% WR to the third room of 8-4, but a slight inaccuracy in Nebula’s fast accel inputs caused him to lose a handful of frames, entering the water section 4 frames behind the world record. He then played a perfect water section and got past a Bowser pattern that required jumping within a window of 5 frames to survive.”
Knowing where he went wrong, though, means Nebular still has a shot at securing the world record. Speedrunners Niftski and Miniland currently hold the first and second world records respectively.
“If I had told myself back in February of 2020, when I first started speedrunning this game, that I was gonna get a 4:54 in SMB1, I would’ve told myself that I was crazy,” Nebular himself said in the video description. “Well, nearly 2 and a half years later, here we are. After nearly six months of grinding, I have finally broken the final second barrier for Any%! I have everyone to thank in the SMB1 community for never giving up on me and always keeping me motivated. Without y’all, this wouldn’t have been done.”
“I’m not done with this game yet,” he adds. “I’m only 4 frames away from the WR, and I plan on grinding for it. The 8-4 in my run wasn’t perfect, and I can easily improve the turnaround room with a better fast accel. Hopefully soon I can get myself a 4:54.8XX, or even WR.”
ICYMI, Summer Games Done Quick (SGDQ) 2022 – a week-long celebration of speedrunners from across the world – finished up last weekend by raising over $3 million for charity (opens in new tab). 134 speedruns were broadcast as part of the show and featured pretty much every game you can think of, from Spyro the Dragon to Crash Bandicoot 2 to ICO, Portal 2, and Elden Ring.
Few speedruns impress me more than Elden Ring, by the way. Someone recently completed a full three-hour run without getting hit (opens in new tab), while someone else brought the world record down to less than seven minutes (opens in new tab). That’s right: Seven. Minutes. Six minutes and 46 seconds, to be precise.
Read up on our new games 2022 (opens in new tab) guide for a complete look over all the other games launching over the next few months.
