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What just happened? Niftski, one of the top Super Mario Bros. speedrunners, has set a new world record with a time of 4:54.565 for completing the classic NES game in an "any%" run. This remarkable achievement is just 0.3 seconds shy of perfection – the theoretical limit of what a human can accomplish.
Super Mario Bros. features a timer system that speedrunners refer to as the "frame rule" - the game only checks for level completion every 21 frames. This creates precise minimum times for each stage, and through extensive study, the community has determined that the fastest possible time to beat the game is 4:54.26.
With Niftski's new record, he is now just 18 frames away from that theoretically perfect time. It's an incredible milestone that showcases the peak of human skill and precision in mastering a decades-old 8-bit classic.
Achieving this new record required a monumental 490-day grind to surpass his own previous world record from 2023, which was already mere frames away from optimal. Niftski celebrated the achievement with an exuberant pop-off, sharing that he nearly ripped his shirt off in excitement - a shirt, he noted, that was a recent Christmas gift from his mom.
Gaming can be as intense as physical sports at times, and speedrunning definitely falls into that category.
In the YouTube description of his record-breaking run, Niftski addressed concerns about his heart rate, which spiked to 188 BPM during the intense final moments. While that's an alarmingly high rate, he assured viewers that he is "completely healthy and [does] not have any heart condition!"
Niftski also provided insight into his setup and tools. He uses an emulator rather than original hardware, opting for input methods like a keyboard. However, he is still bound by the same rules as console players, including a prohibition on illegal inputs, such as pressing Left and Right simultaneously. Interestingly, Niftski argued that the keyboard offers no advantage, claiming it is "actually debatably worse" for speedrunning this game.
While Niftski has pushed the record ever closer to the elusive perfect time, he's already setting his sights on the next milestone: bringing the record down to 4:54.4xx or even lower.
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