Veteran speedrunner Darbian beats the previous World Record time for a Super Mario Bros. speedrun, taking the record by a seemingly infinitesimal margin of 0.0007 seconds!
It was six months ago that legendary speedrunner Darbian broke the record for a Super Mario Bros. speedrun, with many gamers stating that they believed this would be the definitive record to stand the test of time. The modest YouTuber posted that he thought he had made some mistakes on the run, and figured there was room for improvement. As it turns out, there was.
Darbian beat the previous Super Mario Bros. world record by the insanely slim margin of 0.0007 seconds, which is a fraction of time so small it went by about 428 times in the moment it just took fans to blink. His new best time - and the new world record, for that matter - now rests at a comfortable 4 minutes and 57.260 seconds, meaning the speedrunner has near-robotic levels of reaction time and an absolute zero margin of error.
Gamers can take a look at the (almost) five minute speedrun below, where the streamer keeps his cool until the final time shows up on the screen:
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As pointed out by one viewer, Darbian's new world record puts humanity within fractions of a second behind the efficiency of artificial intelligence when it comes to beating this particular speed run. Darbian's time came in within 1/20th of a second from the record tool-assisted speedrun, which is a run with a programmed input sequence instead of an actual human. Considering robots aren't subject to nerves or simple neurological delays, this makes the feat all the more impressive.
This kind of speedrun is called an "Any Percentage" run, which allows gamers to utilize in-game shortcuts to shave time. Darbian does this by using warp zones to skip over levels, for instance. This is quite different from a "100% Completion" playthrough, which forces gamers to traverse each level in its intended order, and therefore takes substantially longer to complete.
It's been a fun week for people beating games in record times, as one stalwart gamer managed to beat the tremendously difficult Dark Souls 3 in a mere two hours. While nothing can quite compare to the short jaunt Darbian took through all of Super Mario Bros., gamers interested in other impressive speedruns can also take a gander at Fallout 3 being beaten in 15 minutes and Ocarina of Time being taken to the proverbial pasture in less than 20.
Gamers can take a look at the Speedrun records for the game here, where Darbian's new record time is already reflected.
What do you think about Darbian's record, Ranters? Do you think anyone (save for perhaps Darbian himself) can dethrone the King?
Super Mario Bros. is available on the original Nintendo Entertainment System, as well as in the Nintendo eShop.
Source: YouTube