In the mid 1980s, Nintendo released Super Mario Bros. and it quickly took the video gaming community, and the world, by storm. The game is still extremely popular today, and it seems like every couple months it makes headlines. This week, it’s in the news because a player who goes by Darbian has beaten the game faster than anyone else in recorded history.
In fact, Darbian beat the game so quickly, he apparently has decided to retire from playing the game.
In just 4:57:260, Darbian beat Super Mario Bros.. In just 4:57:260, most players probably pass the first level.
Darbian holds the record for second fastest time as well at 4:57:427.
The tricky thing about Darbian’s run through the game however, is that it’s slightly engineered to help players “speedrun” through the game. It’s in the “any percentage” category of the game and allows him to complete the run without going through every part of the game. For example, he can skip the castle walk at the end of each level, thus shaving off a couple seconds on his official time.
“I have reached my potential in this category—I’m done!” Darbian wrote in the YouTube description of his world record video. “My quest is over.”
Kotaku goes into detail about how different players shave off time here. So if you want to try and improve your 4:57:260 first level time, just follow what Darbian does. We all know this guy needs his help.
[Kotaku]
