Game news This video game has been driving them crazy for over 25 years… This new record on Mario 64 goes from 25 hours to 1 minute, it's unheard of!
Published on 03/24/2024 at 10:05 p.m.
Share :
In the Super Mario 64 speedrunning community, there are always some crazy practices. Due to a specific challenge, a level took up to 26 hours to complete. Fortunately, speedrunners have just found a technique to complete it… in less than a minute.
Originally released in 1996, Super Mario 64 is surely one of the most speedrun games in the world. Beyond the popularity of the base game, Mario's first 3D adventure lends itself particularly well to practice, which explains why it is so popular with speedrunners. In addition to finishing the game as quickly as possible, players gave themselves additional constraints over time. Collecting all the stars, just one or none, these are some of the challenges that the most determined speedrunners have taken on. But among all the categories, there is one that stands out because it seems completely crazy.
Buy Super Mario Bros. Wonder on Nintendo Switch on Amazon
The most absurd challenge in Super Mario 64
The “A button challenge” is a category of Super Mario 64 speedrun which consists of completing the game as quickly as possible… without ever jumping. Suffice to say that this is an aberration since jumping is the basic movement of Mario, and even the basic movement of the platform game genre without which it is normally impossible to do anything. And yet, players managed to finish the game like this and are now looking to get there as quickly as possible.
Well, obviously, this completely absurd challenge is unachievable in real life, which means that it is a playground for TASers, that is to say those who do TAS. As a reminder, TAS, for Tool-Assisted Speedrun, consists of creating a speedrun using a tool that allows you to define the controls frame by frame. In other words, it cannot be done with the controller. And yet, despite all the tools at their disposal, the “A button challenge” of Super Mario 64 remained particularly long, notably because of the Lethal Lava Land level to collect the star named “Elevator Tour in the Volcano”.
To succeed, TASers had to push an enemy for 26 hours in a position outside the limits of the map until the enemy obtained a certain speed which allowed Mario to be propelled so that he achieves his goal. In other words, a huge waste of time, but for which a solution was finally found recently.
Now, TASers trap an enemy in a specific wall to propel Mario into a conveniently placed post, which causes him to bounce into a waterfall of lava that takes him to the star. An absolutely spectacular sequence to see which allows you to go from 26 hours of manipulation to just one minute, a major step forward in this completely crazy project. So, almost 30 years after its release, Super Mario 64 remains a fantastic playground for speedrunners.
About Super Mario 3D All-Stars
Test
Super Mario 3D All-Stars: Three cult games for a very academic remaster
Gameplay
Super Mario 3D All-Stars: Race under the sun, wild plant fight and space travel
Chronic
Super Mario 3D All-Stars: We compare the original versions to the remaster
Wiki
Super Mario 3D All-Stars, complete solution
This page contains affiliate links to certain products that JV has selected for you. Each purchase you make by clicking on one of these links will not cost you more, but the e-merchant will pay us a commission. The prices indicated in the article are those offered by the merchant sites at the time of publication of the article and these prices are likely to vary at the sole discretion of the merchant site without JV being informed. Learn more.