#mario speedrun

4:53.111- The Unexpected, Seemingly Impossible Mario Speedrun That Changed The Game Forever

When a player named “Kosmic” completed Super Mario Bros in 4:55.646 earlier this year, some claimed it would be the final record set for the game, owing to the impossibility of speedier play by human hands. Others calculated that slightly faster runtimes might be possible, calculated by the summary of previous level records and the tool assisted runs of player HappyLee. But nobody- Absolutely nobody thought a speed under 4:54 was even theoretically possible.

Then came September 22nd, 2020.

Speedrunner “ButtPlugLicker0X0” had streamed several attempts at the record that day, and his 23rd attempt seemed to begin no differently. But then, in the midst of Level 4-1, something happened. While reaching for some coke and pizza, “ButtPlugLicker0X0” jumped over some bricks, and landed on Lakitu.

Lakitu, the cloud being who throws shiny eggs at the player throughout the level, is normally possible to kill with such a jump, but this time, a previously unrecorded glitch moved Mario nearly a quarter screen to the right. Normally impossible, this displacement of Mario from his normal zone in the screen resulted in a nearly two second gain, and in the world of single frames and sub-pixels, this was a revolution.

The run was witnessed by hundreds, and quickly confirmed by user “PepticUlcer666” as genuine. User “ToenailFungusUpYourNose” quickly analyzed the game code and found the source of the 4-1 Lakitu glitch. To summarize, the glitch can only be performed on a genuine NES system when Lakitu is hit at the same time an egg leaves the screen and a shrub enters the right of frame during a run where Level 2 was glitched near the end of the level within two sub pixels on the 19th frame of the 22nd second on a Tuesday when the Moon is in the Seventh House and Jupiter aligns with Mars.

Not only does this make the glitch an extreme rarity, it makes it one that will not be duplicated until March 19th, 2223 at 1:30PM to 2:15PM in the Western Hemisphere. So mark your calendars, speedrunners and astrologers alike. It will be a long wait before the record of “ButtPlugLicker0X0” is defeated.

Mario 3 runners however have been checking related code and have discovered that in November of this year, it may be possible to recreate, for only two minutes, a similar glitch in which the Sun from Level 8-2 will not appear due to an eclipse, making that level more reliable to run.