Rushin’ through the classics
Video game masterpiece Super Mario Bros. is more than 20 years old [correction: 30 years, math is hard], but the very best attempts at playing it have all been fairly recent. The past two years have brought about many new world record speedruns. In fact, last month was when many of the fastest times were recorded.
However, the absolute fastest Super Mario Bros. has ever been played was yesterday. Speedrunner Darbian cleared the game in 4:57.260. That’s 433 milliseconds better than the previous world record. The video of his run is embedded above.
Darbian, who holds a handful of other records in less notable games, was performing an “any percent” run of Super Mario Bros. This means that he simply had to reach the end, not go through all of the game’s levels. His route saw him warp to World 4, then to World 8. Darbian played a total of eight levels.
This isn’t a new summit for Darbian, though. In October of last year, he set the same world record with a time of 4:57.72. However, this seems as if it may signal that he’s done with this particular challenge. In the video’s description, it reads “I have reached my potential in this category — I’m done! My quest is over.” Go out while you’re on top, kid.
