At this point, Super Mario Bros. any% might just be the most notable category in speedrunning, with a small but absurdly dedicated group of runners pushing the time, frame by frame, ever closer to literal perfection. A $5,000 bounty offered by – of all things – a woodworking company has injected a whole lot of fresh energy into the scene, bringing a runner called Niftski back to the category to prove why he's such a legend.
The Super Mario Bros. any% speedrun category is especially competitive both because the runs are so short – under five minutes, now – and because of what runners call the frame rule. In the most basic terms, the frame rule puts a hard floor on how fast you can beat each level, and the gulf between the theoretical perfect run as determined by tool-assisted speedruns isn't so far from what a human playing the game in real time could accomplish. (If you want a more thorough explanation of the frame rule, this video from Kosmic will give you a detailed understanding.)
