Last month we brought you the news of one of speedrunning's most sought-after secrets being uncovered after years of effort, when the fabled "barrier skip" was completed in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. Now, we have news of a more conventional, yet still equally exciting, nature.
Just as most people will be able to tell you where they were when Usain Bolt smashed the 100m record at the 2008 Beijing Olympics (a record that he's subsequently beaten), most in the speedrunning community will remember the day of May 5th, 2017 for a long time to come.
Nintendo's legendary platformer Mario 64 is, according to Speedrun.com, the most popular game in the speedrunning community. It's beloved not only as a classic game in its own right, but because its intricate level design and the presence of certain glitches mean it offers runners the perfect combination of route optimisation possibilities and incredibly precise accuracy.
Of the various categories popular among Mario 64 runners, the toughest is 120 star, which requires players to complete every single "mission" within the game's numerous levels before finishing off Bowser. Known for its brutal difficulty and incredibly harsh learning curve, the progress of the record has been charted here:
The record has long been contested between several players, with one runner, Cheese05, rising to prominence as the one to beat in recent times. Yesterday, on May 4th, a Japanese runner by the name Batora tied Cheese's world record of 1 hour, 40 minutes and 5 seconds, meaning the next person to break the record was also looking to get below the 100-minute mark for their run, something that many thought impossible a short time ago.
Today, on May 5th, Cheese05 finally proved those people wrong, recording a time of 1 hour, 39 minutes and 57 seconds. You can watch his full run here:
For proof of just how much of an achievement this record is, you need only to skip to the end of the run in the embedded video above to see Cheese's emotion at finally beating the 1 hour 40 minute mark, and the support of his family when they learn he's broken the record.
