// KOTAKU — GAMING
Mario-Dressed Speedrunner Breaks World Super Mario Bros. Record On Halloween Stream: ‘Can I Please Break Character’
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When Niftski, the speedrunner and record holder for Super Mario Bros., kicked off a Halloween stream, he didn’t expect much beyond a fun festive time. Dressed as, and eventually speaking in the distinctive dialect of, Super Mario, he pulled off something unexpected. Besting world 8, downing King Koopa and rescuing the Princess, Niftski shaved 0.33 seconds off the world record. Two meager frames away from a perfect run.
“Hopefully I don’t get this today because that would be very stupid,” said Niftski moments before getting this today.
At just 22-years-old, Niftski has smashed numerous records in Mario’s first side-scrolling adventure. His rule over the leaderboard has made him a celebrity in the speedrunning world. He sits atop the current records for warpless, glitchless, and the most white knuckle of them all, any percent. The latter record he set just a few months back, achieving a 4:54.332 run in August. On Halloween, Niftski broke it again, pulling the clock down to 4:54.299, setting the latest world record. Most amusingly, Niftski did so while dressed like the iconic plumber, doing the voice and trying to keep the mustache glued to his face.
“IT’S MARIO!” hollered the runner upon changing history, “WHAT IN THE WORLD I CANNOT BREAK CHARACTER!”
While his Mario sometimes verges into something more Yakov Smirnoff, Niftski commits to the bit around the middle point of his five hour stream. While at times loathing the stunt, saying fans can blame his mom for buying the facial hair prop, he eventually credits it for his accomplishment. The runner insinuating that the goofy voice took a lot of the edge off. “It made me not nervous at all,” said Niftski, “it doesn’t even feel real. It felt so casual.”
The new record brings the game, released in 1985 and still a hotbed of speedrunning activity, three milliseconds away from a theoretical “perfect” record. Niftski said those two frames were lost in the initial stretch of the game. The game is one of the most competitive in the speedrunning world, with glitches and exploits thoroughly combed through, it has arrived at a threshold of human skill. The record only dipped below the five minute mark around 2010, when Andrew Gardikis reignited the scene with a new blueprint for future runners.
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