Over the past few years, a speedrun accomplishment that once seemed impossible is starting to look inevitable: a perfect run of Super Mario Bros. is in sight. Two speedrun legends are inching ever closer to that fabled goal, and a new world record is the first step in what might be the biggest accomplishment in speedrunning history.
If you've ever checked in on the Super Mario Bros. speedrun scene, you know the basics, but here's some background just in case. In extremely simplified terms, the classic NES platformer only checks every so often to see if a given level is completed, which means there is an absolute minimum time in which you can complete each stage. Tool-assisted speedruns (or TASes), which are created by programming inputs into emulators, show us that the perfect Super Mario Bros. speedrun would be a time of 4:54.265.
