Super Mario Speedrunner In Full Cosplay Comes 2 Frames Shy Of A Perfect Run

Nintendo just recently celebrated the 40th anniversary of Super Mario Bros., and speedrunners are still chipping away at the game trying to achieve a perfect run. Niftski, who holds several world records for the game, got tantalizingly close to hitting the mark over the weekend during one of his livestreams. He did it while dressed as the iconic plumber for Halloween in what he says is going to be “the funniest world record upload of all time.”

While Niftski didn’t get that perfect run, he did manage to set a new speedrunning world record for an “any percent run,” which means completing the game by any means necessary. He managed to improve on his previous world record run by 0.33 seconds, completing the game in a mere 4 minutes, 54 seconds and 299 milliseconds.


This new record is just 33 milliseconds shy of what’s theorized to be a perfect run, which has been set by tool-assisted (TAS) speedruns. This is the equivalent of two frames, so Niftski has his work cut out for him if he wants to attain perfection but represents an opportunity to potentially add two more world records to his name. He’s the most likely to accomplish it because he also holds the fastest warpless and glitchless speedruns.

Nistski didn’t just earn himself a new world record, either. A viewer donated $1,000 USD so that he would put on the Mario costume while performing his best impression of the plumber during the stream. Once he broke the record, he shared that having to do it while not breaking character is what allowed him to relax enough to accomplish the feat.

It’s awesome to see the speedrunning community keep classic games like this one alive decades after its initially release. Although it’ll be interesting to see if interest wanes once when the game is “perfected.”