You might be good at some things, but you’ll never be as good at them as this guy is at beating Super Mario Bros. on the Nintendo Entertainment System.
The speedrunner (someone who tries to beat games as fast as possible) Darbian just claimed the world record for the classic Nintendo game with a time of 4 minutes and 56.878 seconds. This beats the previous record by Kosmicd12, who posted a 4:57.194 time just days earlier on October 3. You can watch Darbian’s historic run below.
Super Mario Bros. originally came out in 1985, and many fans, critics, developers, and … well, pretty much anyone who’s ever held a controller consider it to be one of the most important games of all time for its sidescrolling innovations and for helping to resurrect the whole video game market with its popularity.
Naturally, it’s quite an accomplishment to be able to finish it faster than anyone else on the planet, which is why competition for the world record is fierce and often changes hands. Darbian has held this spot before, including October last year.
Speedrunners like Darbian use glitches and tricks to achieve optimal times, some of which just shave off tenths of seconds. But with tough competition for a relatively short game, every little bit helps.