Since the series first inception back in the early 90s, Mario Kart has pulled in a dedicated and passionate fanbase that has learned the ins and outs of every track from each iteration of the massively popular Nintendo racer. In the same vein, the games have also amassed a significant speedrunning community, with fans coming together to plot the quickest ways to conquer any course.
The community's most recent achievement came yesterday, with Twitch Streamer ArthurMKW making history live on steam by being the first player to pull off Mario Kart Wii's seemingly impossible Rainbow Road super-shortcut. Before now, the feat had only been achieved through a TAS (tool-assisted speedrun), with there even being a bounty placed on the trick by dedicated members of the Mario Kart speedrunning community.
As for how Arthur managed to utilize the infamous super-shortcut, playing as Baby Daisy on the Quacker, he drives down the first stretch of Mario Kart Wii's rendition of Rainbow Road. Before hitting the first boost, he stops the moped, spinning the vehicle around and moving to the very edge of the track. Slowly reversing, Arthur hits the boost, sending himself back up the edge of the course and alongside the opening barriers of the level. While it seems he'll be catapulted off the edge, he uses three well-timed mushroom boosts to realign himself with the barrier and eventually launch himself to the final stages of the course, navigating up the final stretch of road and crossing the finishing line in 22 seconds.
After nearly 5 years and hundreds of hours, Arthur becomes the first person to land the Rainbow Road ultra shortcut from LivestreamFail
The end of the run is capped off with Arthur excitedly exclaiming "I did it" repeatedly, making for an exceptionally wholesome moment as the streamer claims the bounty on the speedrunning trick. For those who aren't aware of Mario Kart's super-shortcuts, its a name given to tricky speedrunning techniques players can use to skip large chunks of a track. Although a number of the series' most notorious courses have already been conquered by avid speedrunners, Mario Kart Wii's Rainbow Road has been a thorn in the community's side for a long time. Thankfully, Arthur has shown the world that it's possible, opening the door for speedrunners to blitz through Rainbow Road going forward.
As for other speedrunning accomplishments in recent months, one player set the record for Spelunk 2 back in October, beating the game in under 3 minutes, while another managed to speedrun all of Super Mario 64 only using a drum kit. Meanwhile, popular YouTuber Dream faced accusations of cheating after a recent speedrun of Minecraft, with the Minecraft Speedrunning Team claiming the content creator's high-ranking run may have been tampered with.
Mario Kart Wii is out now for the Nintendo Wii.
Source: Twitch - ArthurMKW