When it comes to speedrunning the original Super Mario Bros, it seems like runners have pushed the game to the absolute limit. The run has evolved over the years, incorporating a couple tricks that many thought were impossible for a human to pull off, like being able to clip through a particular wall. Then it came to tricking the game to warping Mario to a skip without the usual method of going up a plant, requiring runners to push the camera with clever movement just to line up things pixel perfect. Even after the phenomenal work of Darbian who held the record for more than a year, his rival Kosmic continues to push things further, ever proving that few runs are ever truly optimized.
Kosmic is a fantastic Mario player, popping up on several leaderboards in the speedrunning world. Following him putting up a 4mins:56secs:462mil run of Super Mario Bros, we reached out to Kosmic for a quick interview.
Note that this run is at the top of the Speedrun.com Leaderboards. It has not yet been submitted to the Twin Galaxies Scoreboards.
To start us off, Kosmic wanted to wash away the idea of the Super Mario Bros record being perfect, especially in the game’s last stage of the route.
“It's a common misconception that the Mario 1 record is perfect. People hear about something called the '21 Frame Rule', which basically puts a limit on how quickly you can beat each level, but that doesn't include 8-4. There will always be frames to save in 8-4 for a new world record. I improved the world record by playing 8-4 faster than Darbian did in the previous record. It's an extremely hard level just to play relatively fast, let alone near perfectly.”
For those unfamiliar with how the 21 Frame Rule works, Kosmic explains.
“The rule is that the game only transitions from level to level every 21 frames. This means sometimes you can miss your window of opportunity by just 1 frame and lose out on 21 frames. This also means that as long as you go ‘fast enough’ you will get the perfect time for that level. Many records over the years have arrived at 8-4 at the exact same speed as the world record, and then simply played 8-4 a little bit faster to improve the record. Occasionally, though, a new strategy is found or a trick that was previously thought to be impossible is figured out and implemented, and this means the possibility of arriving at 8-4 faster than before.”
That level, 8-4, is what runners are fighting over to push things further. Someone who could figure out a new trick or strategy in 8-4 could potentially shake up the leaderboard.
“It is still possible to arrive at 8-4 two frame rules ahead of the world record, by including two more ridiculous tricks on top of everything that is already packed into the 5 minutes of madness.”
For most, it looks like the player is just exceptionally good at Mario, but there are so many little tricks that were developed over the years, making the 5 minute or so run deceptively challenging.
Kosmic is optimistic that Super Mario Bros will continue to be a competitive speedgame.
“Even after someone finally gets the perfect run to 8-4, it's unlikely that they will ever get an unbeatable 8-4. Despite what you may hear about the speedrun, the game is never dead!”
Kosmic has been around the speedrunning game for a while now. He explained why he went after this record and a bit of how he got into the scene.
“I started speedrunning the game (Super Mario Bros) in 2012 by doing races on SpeedRunsLive. At first I just wanted to get a time like other good racers, around 6 minutes or so. Andrewg had the world record at the time with a 4:58.89 and everyone said it was untouchable. I slowly kept improving, and when I got to around 5:04 I realized that I wanted to be the second person to get a time under 5 minutes.”
Kosmic achieved that seemingly insurmoutable goal in January 2013.
“At that point I realized I could contend for the world record. I got very close many times, but couldn't quite get the run I wanted. The record kept improving and I kept improving just barely behind it for years. Sometimes I would take breaks, because I was getting burned out. Finally I got the run I wanted.”
We then asked Kosmic why he gravitates to speedrunning and what about that style of play keeps him coming back for more. According to him, the vast and uncountable opportunities are a big draw.
“I think it's absolutely fascinating seeing what is possible in games. I started after seeing a bunch of speedrunning videos on YouTube and wanting to try the cool things they were doing for myself. As a hobby, it also has the same appeal as say trying to get less strokes on a golf course. It had even more appeal once I realized I was really good at it.”
While the speedrunning community used to be somewhat of a niche group and varied from game to game, there has been an ever-increasing popularity and awareness of the hobby. Major events and gatherings have united all of those smaller game communities under the speedrunning umbrella. Even though there are gaming communities that can be toxic, speedrunning has been a fairly firm point of positivity and one that sometimes makes a difference in the world with events like Games Done Quick.
We asked Kosmic what he thought of the positivity in the community.
“I am extremely pleased with the speedrunning community and especially the 2D Mario speedrunning community. There are going to be bad apples everywhere, but I feel like I run into them far less in speedrunning than anywhere else. With Super Mario Bros specifically, it seems like the game somehow attracts really nice people. I guess the type of people that have the patience to run this game are also patient with other people.”
When Super Mario Maker came out, a lot of runners like Kosmic, Darbian, Glitchcat, Jaku, and GrandPOObear all helped unite the community with encouragement. After the energy of Super Mario Maker began to slow down, rom hacking became even more prevalent and because a lot of these players were already known for their speedrunning, many of them remained connected.
At the end of the day, there is a love for games that these players are showing in extreme levels, providing entertainment, encouragement, and overall positive vibes to anyone who happens to find their content online. Players like Kosmic are inspiration on many levels. Just how much further can Super Mario Bros go as a speedrun? If Kosmic’s predictions are correct, there is still a ton of potential for improvement and we can look forward to see plenty of competition for the crown of fastest Super Mario Bros runner well into the forseeable future.
If you want to see more of Kosmic in action, you can find him streaming on his Twitch channel.
Want to see more fantastic speedrun goodness? Check out our interview with Darbian about his recent speedrunning achievements in Wii Sports.
