After a tense and tumultuous run of Super Mario 64 last night, Twitch speed runner Puncayshun miraculously achieved the impossible. A new 120 Star World Record for Super Mario 64.

1:43:42

One hour, forty-three minutes, and forty-two seconds.

The N64 classic Super Mario 64's world records are coveted by many speed runners, including the previous 120 star world record holder, Siglemic. He is a popular and almost inhumanly-skilled speed runner, and until today, he held the world records for both 70 and 120 star Super Mario 64. (in the game, you can potentially finish with 70 stars or try to get all 120 stars) His recent 120 star record of 1:43:53 seemed near unbeatable, but through dedication and a little luck, Puncayshun kept pulling closer and closer to the world record.

He struggled early on in the run, and it seemed that a Personal Best, let alone a World Record, was far from his grasp. Still he kept going, and again and again, the time got better. Near the end, while still on WR pace, he tragically missed a jump and fell to his death. Many in the online audience watching him were dismayed, and I worried that, once again, a promising speedrun had fallen near the end. Yet, even in the face of death, he hung on and pulled off nearly perfect final levels to save the run. He wasn't about to give up.

As a fan of the game, it was awe-inspiring to watch, and if I hadn't seen it live, I might have not believed someone could perform so perfectly. It stands as an ode to Puncayshun's relentless dedication and the timeless appeal of Super Mario 64.

Congrats to Puncayshun on his new World Record!

You can watch a Twitch archive of it here:

http://www.twitch.tv/puncayshun/b/531008420
(WR run starts at 23 minutes in)

Wow that was cool! Thanks for the link @truthtellah. Why was he playing the Japanese version of the game? Is there quicker routes or shortcuts in that one?

Man that Rainbow Road section and final Bowser fight was clutch! And geez he did it after 4 hours of failing.

Speed runners always amaze me. Their skill is something is nearly unfathomable to me, the ability to memorize so much and execute to near perfection over multiple hours is just nuts!

I don't want to know how much they have to practice to get that good at a game. (looks like it took this dude 4000 Hours?!)

70 stars? I always thought it was 60 stars (but I know they increased it for the DS version).

I'n not an expert in regards to speedrunning, but my general understanding is that the reasons for using Japanese versions of games are

a) Bugs and exploits got fixed for later releases

b) In some games there is less text to skip through in Japanese compared to other languages

Whoa, this is really cool and totally crazy. Ever since I got into the GDQ charity events, I've taken a lot bigger interest in things like people actually breaking world records on speed runs. I'll have to go and check out the archive later when I have some time, but, I'm excited to watch it.

I know that for a lot of games people go with Japanese versions of games due to time saved on text. Japanese characters take up less space and thus scroll by faster. We're talking something negligible for the average person playing a game, but, when you're going for a world record, saving fractions of a second each chat box can add up to several seconds saved over the course of a run, and since even one second can be the difference between a world record run and not, that's a big reason why you'll see most people go with a Japanese version of a game over an English version. Otherwise the other main reason you might see someone use a Japanese version of a game is because of glitches that exist only in that version of the game (and is also a reason why you may see someone use an English version of a game over a Japanese one if the English version has speed saving glitches that don't exist in the Japanese versions.) I'm guess for SM64 it's mostly due to text scrolling though.

Wow! Awesome that even after all those missteps he managed to pull it off.

@slag: They switched to running the Japanese version simply because the Japanese text is a bit quicker to skip through. Using the Japanese version vs the US version saves a few seconds. Which, in a less than 2 hour time makes a difference.

@fateofnever You are totally correct about the text scrolling! And I think you'll enjoy the run. Especially near the end. The last 30 min are something to behold.

@video_game_king Yep, it's 70 stars for the N64 version. That's the limit to win without major glitches. With big glitches, there are 16 stars and 0 star categories. 120 stars is my personal favorite, as you get to see the whole game done surprisingly fast. :)

Oo, I love an excuse to watch a speedrun