Speedrunners have found many ways to show off their skills in a wide range of games, but few games are as popular in this regard as Super Mario 64, with runners achieving all sorts of insane speed records in the classic platformer throughout the years. However, as impressive as those are, this latest feat is arguably in a league of its own.
It’s one thing to be able to beat a game in an impressively quick time, and another to be able to do it using unconventional controllers. Skilled speedrunners complete runs like this all the time, using things as weird as Guitar Hero guitars and bananas to beat games as challenging as Dark Souls. But it’s something else entirely to do both at the same time, as Twitch streamer CZR did this week by speedrunning SM64 using an electric drum kit where the drums, pedals, and cymbals were mapped to the Nintendo 64’s controls.
CZR has already proven himself adept at speedrunning this way, having successfully completed another N64 classic, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, in under 30 minutes using this musical setup. With that under his belt, he moved on to attempting a “Drum%” run of Super Mario 64 in the 16-star category. This older category of SM64 speedrunning calls for players to beat the game with just 16 stars, instead of the 70 normally required to reach the final area, through the use of glitches.
This is typically hard enough to achieve with a regular controller, and yet CZR managed to pull it off with his drums, clocking in at 1:25:15 in his first completed run. That record was broken earlier this week, when he managed to shave off nearly a full half-hour off his time and complete Super Mario 64's 16-star run in 56:36, bringing it in under an hour.
As objectively impressive as that is, what’s wild is that CZR made enough mistakes that it’s clear he could’ve gotten an even better time with a cleaner run. That cleaner run took place just yesterday, when he managed to whittle his time even further to achieve his current Drum% speed record of 45:16.
While that’s a far cry from the current record for the fastest completion of the 16-star run, a 14:59 time set by speedrunner Akki back in May, CZR believes he'll be able to improve even more and get his time under 45 minutes soon. Whatever the case, it's a praiseworthy feat and perhaps the most exciting thing to happen in Super Mario 64 since fans finally discovered Luigi in the game.
Super Mario 64 is available for Nintendo 64, Wii, and Wii U.