For speedrunners, Nintendo games are very popular to play out. And even with old Mario games, it’s incredibly fast.
Mario, The Legend of Zelda or Pokémon: for many of us, these Nintendo games are among the favorites. Spending hours on the game and balking when it’s finished. That’s not how everyone plays them.
Because instead of enjoying the game for as long as possible, some groups of gamers are busy playing these Nintendo games as fast as possible. These speedrunners play our favorites games faster than you can say “Nintendo.
New world record for Mario 64
Finishing the game as fast as possible or reaching a certain goal. That’s how simple speedrunning can be summed up. And although any game can be approached this way, Nintendo games are very popular in this community.
(image: Nintendo)
In particular, the Mario games. More specifically, Super Mario 64 on the Nintendo 64. There are several categories of speedruns for the game: from achieving 16 stars to the maximum 120 stars. And in the latter category, a new world record has been set since last week.
Canadian player Suigi played the entire game in just 1 hour, 35 minutes and 33 seconds. That’s impressive enough, but Suigi also holds records for a few other categories in Super Mario 64.
Pokémon can also be played super fast
Mario is not the only Nintendo game that is played out at lightning speed. The Pokémon games are also well-known games to speedrun. And those speedruns are exciting because Pokémon is partly based on chance. Still, avid gamers have found ways to twist the game to their liking.
For Pokémon: Blue, they have even found a way to finish the game without even a single Pokémon battle. This so-called “Any%” category, in which anything goes to finish the game as quickly as possible, uses Pokémon’s save system.
(image: Nintendo)
By saving at specific times and immediately turning off the console, Pokémon battles can be bypassed. Thus, the game was completed in an arrow-fast 1 minute and 17 seconds. For the speedrun in which all Pokémons must be caught, the stopwatch ticks a little longer: that record is 1 hour and 28 minutes.
Even The Legend of Zelda doesn’t escape speedruns
Another popular Nintendo 64 game to speedrun is The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Like Pokémon games, speedrunners take advantage of flaws in the game to skip large sections.
There is even a glitch that speedrunners use that allows you to immediately see the credits and thus have “finished” the game. This glitch is particularly confusing to watch, but it works wonders. The world record for playing out Ocarina of Time this way is a mere 3 minutes and 47 seconds.
Did Nintendo really mean for their games to be played this way? We don’t think so. In any case, they have created a fanatical community that plays even the oldest Nintendo games on a daily basis. Personally, I still play the games just a little slower.
