Speedrunner breaks the once unthinkable 100-minute barrier in ‘Super Mario 64’

By Steven Petite May 6, 2017

Mario and Bowser about to fight on a blue circle. — Image used with permission by copyright holder

One of the most sought after marks in the speedrunning community has been reached. Cheese05, a popular runner, has broken the 100 minute barrier in Super Mario 64. He completed the N64 classic on Twitch in one hour, 39 minutes, and 57 seconds, as reported by Polygon. Fully completed, as in, he collected all 120 stars. Sounds unfathomable, right?

In doing so, Cheese reclaimed sole possession of the world record just one day after Batora324 had tied his mark of one hour, 40 minutes, and five seconds. Shaving off eight seconds may not sound like a lot, but Mario 64 runners have been whittling down runs for years, but the 100 minute plateau was often viewed as insurmountable without the discovery of new glitches and tricks.

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A plethora of Mario 64 glitches that help shave off chunks of time have been found since the game launched in 1996. In 2015, a group of runners offered a $1,000 reward for anyone who could duplicate a ceiling skipping glitch. And just last year, a group of runners finally cracked the case of Moat Door Skip, which granted entry to the basement while it was still underwater. The discovery was dubbed the “holy grail” of Mario 64 glitches, and seen as the most important development in the speedrunning community since 2007.

That’s how important Mario 64 is in the world of speedrunning. It’s the most popular game for speedrunners for a variety of reasons. Not only is it a classic, but it’s an expertly designed platformer, making it a perfect test of skill and memorization for the most dedicated of players.

Mario 64 speedrunners have developed their craft over the years, and within the first few minutes of watching Cheese’s record breaking run, it’s easy to see how well he and others in the community know iconic game.

Cheese’s achievement comes just a month after he almost broke the 100 minute mark before slipping up while someone in the chat was spamming a text-to-speech bot.

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Former Digital Trends Contributor

Steven is a writer from Northeast Ohio currently based in Louisiana. He writes about video games and books, and consumes…

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