Speedrunners are, scientifically and objectively, far better than actual runners. Just running faster than someone else requires, what, better drugs? But speedrunning demands a vast combination of dexterity, skill, knowledge and almost no drugs at all. Maybe just weed. These undersung athletes are now just 0.1 seconds away from completing a perfect run of Super Mario Bros., as detailed in a new video from Kosmic. (Thanks Polygon.)
A newer name has begun taking over the scene. LeKukie set a brand new world record run for Super Mario Bros. on June 2 this year, completing the game in 4:54:365. That’s 15 tenths of a second from the previous best set in August, 2025, and just 100 milliseconds away from the theoretical perfect run.
Brazilian LeKukie took the strangest path to setting this record. In 2019 he began playing, but due to poverty only has a PS2 with an emulated version of the Nintendo game played via a laggy controller. By 2022 he got an NES, and almost immediately set a world record in Lost Levels, only to have it taken away after it became apparent that the Brazilian NES, uniquely in the world, had a component change that makes it run a fraction slower. But the speedrunning community, recognizing the player’s ludicrous skill, stepped in and various members kitted him out with an official NES and capturing equipment so he could start to set official records.
The first was equaling the world record on Super Mario Bros., but then things went wrong again. Six months later he’d worn out his NES controllers with no obvious way to replace them, while others in the community were carving away at the record time. But toward the end of 2025, controllers were sorted, and things started turning around. By May, LeKukie managed a perfect run all the way to 8-4, before plunging into lava. And then just a couple of later he did it, setting the current world record. And crucially, for the first time ever, set the record with a perfect run on 8-4, not missing a single frame, and shaving half a second from his own personal best. It was massive. And as Kosmic points out, it opened the door to the possibility that a perfect run is possible.
Framing perfection
The degree of skill required is beyond belief. These players are performing feats that require moving Mario in precise, balletic moves multiple times a split-second. Literally repeatedly changing direction once per frame. The community moved to using keyboards for a while to achieve this, but recent progress on how to complete the most complicated moves on controller have seen the scene shifting back in this direction, not least because of LeKukie’s bonkers innovations in the angle in which he holds his controller, unique flicking tricks and what I assume is sorcery.
LeKukie’s record left just six possible frames of improvement on 8-4, following a perfect run of the rest of the game. Since then, the scene has focused on perfecting 8-4 and achieved this hundreds of times (separately from the rest of the game). LeKukie has also played a run from 4-2 to 8-4 without a single missed frame. Which leads Kosmic to his conclusion that a perfect run—once thought impossible—might only be days away.
English (US) ·