For some people, getting to the end of a game is not just about wanting to finish a story or collecting in-game achievements, it's something of a personal goal. Speedrunners are a dedicated bunch and there is a whole roster of games that newcomers can start running like Undertale or Portal. While sometimes, runs are practiced over and over again to achieve a personal best, there are plenty that go that one step further and smash world records, usually to the surprise of the player. One Twitch streamer did just that when they managed to finish Super Mario 64 in the fastest time.
At just over 28K followers, Liam has devoted his channel to running Mario 64, and recently he was able to beat the previous 120 star world record. A brief clip was uploaded to Reddit recently, which shows the final moments of him beating the last incarnation of Bowser on the Nintendo 64 classic. Dumbfounded, Liam managed to get to the closing credits of the game in 1:37:53 with his community showing support all the way. According to a commenter in the Reddit thread, this just beat his previous record of 1:38:13, which was achieved not that long ago.
While the clip is short, it gives a brief overview of just how impressively fast the streamer must have been going in order to shave off those precious milliseconds. It's an impressive feat, made more so perhaps by the fact that the record-beating time was achieved live on stream, similar to how Twitch user Summit1g was able to beat Max Payne 3 live. Speedrunnning a game is challenging enough, and requires hundreds of hours and countless replays in order to perfect a run, but setting a new world record on air is a particularly special moment, for both the player and those who were there to catch it as it happened.
Mario 64 is also considered one of the hardest games to speedrun, with a slew of attempts being conducted over the years. While there are numerous categories for doing a run on the 25-year-old title, collecting all 120 stars in the fastest time is probably the most difficult challenge for anyone looking to run.
No matter how old a game like this one gets, there will always be people who are willing to go back over it and see how fast they can get to the end, either with 120 or 70 stars. Recently, one Mario 64 fan managed to beat the game using a drum kit, which goes to show just how keen runners can be to try new things. That's not to say Liam's run isn't impressive. Setting a new world record live is an amazing feat.
Super Mario 64 was released in 1996 for the Nintendo 64.
Source: Twitch clips