For about a decade now, Super Smash Bros. Melee players have been working towards a seemingly impossible speedrunning goal, and now at the beginning of 2020, they've finally achieved it. Thanks to the dedication and hard work of eight particular speedrunners, the total high score for Break the Targets mode was pushed to a sub-3 minute total. In order to achieve this, speedrunners pushed the game, its characters, and themselves to the very brink of their limits. Many made significant contributions to the cause, but these eight were able to actually shave off a few frames and bring the time down to 2 minutes and 59.92 seconds.
For those who don't keep up with the speedrunning community, the general goal of speedrunners is to beat a game, level, or objective as fast as humanly possibly. In this case, the objective is to beat Super Smash Bros. Melee's Break the Targets mode with every character as fast as possible. The game keeps track of the sum total of every character's record, and for a decade now, speedrunners have toiled to get that total high score below three minutes. Their dedication would be rewarded as well, as a "bounty" was set: for each frame (about .0167 seconds) a player manages to shave off the total, they will be rewarded with $31.30. The total value of the bounty then is $1658.90, and all of this money has now been claimed.
Jerry333 (1 Frame: $31.30)
The first to claim money from this bounty and start progress towards the sub 3 minute record is Jerry333. On March 19th, playing as Donkey Kong, Jerry333 managed to shave off one frame from the total, bringing the record from 3:00.87 to 3:00.85. Though this may seem trivial to most, this was the most progress made towards this goal in quite some time, and members of the community were ecstatic. This record opened up the gates and begun the flurry of record-breaking ones which characterized 2019.
sockdude1 (8 Frames: $250.40)
The next speedrunner to contribute to the bounty was sockdude1, and he proved to be one of the most valuable players of the bunch. His first contribution followed Jerry333's, taking yet another frame off Donkey Kong's run, and bringing the total to 3:00.83. He would later go to also remove three whole frames off Samus' record on August 17th and a whopping four frames from Princess Peach's record on November 2nd. sockdude1's contributions sockdude1's efforts brought the scores for both Donkey Kong and Peach to their lowest, and he still holds the world record for both characters. In fact, sockdude1 was the second highest contributing speedrunner of the bunch.
chaos6 (1 Frame: $31.30)
chaos6 heped further the cause by removing a frame off Bowser's record on April 10th. Interesting tactics were used to achieve this record, like allowing himself to get hit in order to cancel the animation on an attack. For about a month, chaos6 held the world record for Bowser's Break the Targets time, until mid May when samthedigital claimed that honor. That said, it is clear that the progress made by chaos6 paved the way for even further advancements.
samthedigital (4 Frames: $125.20)
samthedigital shaved off four frames from the record, one as Roy, one as Luigi, and two as Bowser, and he holds the world record for all three of these characters even still. samthedigital's runs for Roy and Luigi both happened just one day after chaos6's Bowser record, and a month later his Bowser record overthrew chaos6's. By the end of his contributions, samthedigital brought the total record to 3:00.73. Interestingly, his Bowser record plays nearly identical to that of chaos6's, the two frame difference comes simply from slightly better precision and timing, and further solidifies the way these speedrunners build off of each other.
MegaQwertification (1 Frame: $31.30)
Again, while MegaQwertification's contribution may seem small, his efforts result in him holding the world record for Young Link's Break the Targets challenge, and of all the new records set last year, his is the fastest. Young Link's Break the Targets level is incredibly competitive, as seen in the video of his run. It is almost impossible to tell what is even happening, as most of the targets he destroys aren't even seen on screen. Even though MegaQwertification only removed one frame, it was easily one of the hardest ones to remove.
Mario 64 Master (4 Frames: $125.20)
Mario 64 Master took off four entire frames, all of which were from Samus. The first three came in one run during mid October, but that wasn't enough for Mario 64 Master. Instead, he kept trying and eventually knocked another frame off. This persistence not only earned an extra frame and some more money, but also solidified his place as the world record holder for Samus' Break the Targets level, surpassing the already impressive record set by sockdude1. At this point, the total record has been brought all the way down to 3:00.15.
Demon9 (6 Frames: $187.80)
The characters with the most room for improvement were Jigglypuff and Pikachu, and Demon9 decided to try and work on Pikachu. His first success saw a frame taken off Pikachu's record, this being the first record of the new year, but he knew there could still be many more. The following day, January 2nd, Demon9 shaved off five more frames, resulting in the six that he achieved in total.
mudi (28 Frames: $876.40)
By far the most influential speedrunner on this list, mudi knocked off seven frames as Fox McCloud, 17 frames as Jigglypuff, and eight frames as Pikachu, four of which were the final four frames needed to bring the total record below three minutes. mudi now holds the record for all three of these characters, and brought the total record far below the goal to 2:59.92. mudi's incredible work earned him both fame and fortune in the Smash community, and his final January 2nd Pikachu Break the Targets record will be remembered for years to come.
January 2nd was certainly a monumental day for the Super Smash Bros Melee community, and the speedrunning community as a whole. Although some contributions were monumental, like mudi's 28 frames or sockdude1's eight frames, even the single frame contributors played an important role in this moment of speedrunning history. The speedrunning community is not satisfied yet, though, and were swift to point out that the record could go even lower, noting that Super Mario's Peach has the greatest potential for improving the record.
Super Smash Bros. Melee is out now, exclusively for the GameCube.
Source: r/speedrun