Record for lowest-scoring Super Mario Bros. run broken

by Jordan Mallory on Jul 10th 2011 10:30AM

You guys are still doing speed-runs? Psh, speed-runs are so 2005. These days, it's all about low-score runs; baffling attempts at calculated badness, wherein highly-skilled gamers do everything they can to do as little as possible.

No one does better at doing poorly than YouTube power-gamer NotEntirelySure, who recently completed the lowest-scoring no-death game of Super Mario Bros. ever, finishing the entire game with a trifling 600 points. As a spectator sport, we think the low-score run has potential, although we're still not sure why our "average-score" runs never took off with the precision gaming community.

[Thanks Gishman!]

Source: YouTube

Tags: low-score, low-score-run, lowest-score, record, record-breaking, smb, Super-Mario-Bros, YouTube

Reader Comments (58)

nice job, although they probably used save states at the end of every level... can't really tell since they cut out the video :P

@emperorzeroxx they probably did it quite a bit throughout the video and stitched it together. that's my main problem with old game videos, emulators make it too easy. it was kind of fun to see, but a lot of those jumps, especially in the second half, took way too much precision to complete one after another without hitting any coins all in 1 go without quicksave.

neat idea, but emulators suck :-/

@emperorzeroxx
Actually, if you take his description at face value, he says it was one run, using no save-states or slowdown. He only frameskipped the countdowns at the flag pole.

@Lazyboy
Whilst it does make things easier, it's more time saving. Theoretically, anything done with save states can be done in a single run, it just saves time. And judging by the way he reacted in certain parts of the run, if he was save-stating it was just between levels for convenience.

@emperorzeroxx

He says in the description no save states or slowdown was used, but he increased the frame skip a lot when waiting at the flag poles.

@emperorzeroxx Tool assisted play-through. all speed runs are run using emulators/exploits.

@Viiral All speed run videos are emulators and exploits? Get your heard out of your ass.

@emperorzeroxx

Can I ask what he did at 2:20? I thought you needed to use the vine, or can you do either?

Has anyone ever cared about the point in Super Mario games? :p
I collected coins and all that, but that was more for the obsessive nature of collecting everything, and getting the satisfying "pling" sound.
But the points? Never cared for them...

@Digital Viking

The guy in the video broke the record for "not caring about the points"

@Digital Viking

The points in the Mario bros. games are a carry over from the old school arcade games that thrived on little more than high scores. After a few Mario games it probably became apparent to the developers to go ahead and leave out points altogether as it really didn't hold any value or true purpose in the games. It didn't even ask for your name when you died to enter in your score.

I most definitely cared about the points, it's one of the reasons it's still among my go-to games for 'co-op' play. Only the original SMB though, as it is the only two player Mario game that didn't combine player one and player two's progress. It's a lot of fun taking the different shortcuts to try and get the better score.

@Co A few? It was all the Super Mario Bros. games, every one of them had a point system, SMB through SMW. Personally, I never cared much for the points in SMW until the GBA version when it kept a running total on the launch screen.

@Digital Viking
Gotta admit, that "pling" sound is/ was really addictive. Heck, I even have a widget on my phone for it !

@Digital Viking also ever notice why there were fireballs in water?

That guy has some serious jumping skill.
I forgot that you have to get at least 100 points at the end of a level even without the time bonus.

That was pretty great, but I want to see this done on actual hardware, not an emulator. I admire the skill involved here though. I've been playing SMB since I was 5, know the game inside and out, and I could never in my lifetime do this.

@SurlyDuff "I want to see this done on actual hardware, not an emulator." Why? They're probably using a controller anyway. What's the difference?

@chicgods45 Go die in a fire

Interesting that my comment seems to have gotten deleted...

The description on youtube specifically mentions that he did it in one run, and DIDN"T use save-states or slowdown. The only thing he did was frame-skip the countdowns at the flag poles.

@Celicynd
Interesting that your comment seems still be up there and not deleted...
Don't be so suspicious.

@Celicynd Your comment didn't get deleted. You're like the third reply to the first comment.

And he can say anything he likes, people lie, and it's hard to accept his words after seeing this video.

@Hoops

Yea, it was odd, the comment showed up then went away until about a minute after I posted the second comment. Must have been a weird glitch or something.

As for people being able to lie... yes, but automatically assuming one is lying because you don't want to believe it, is your own issue. The guy explained exactly what he used or didn't use. He even talks about how he was showing off on the early worlds, then had to start actually taking his time on world 8, and almost got killed.

It's a pretty impressive feat, and unless someone can actually prove he save-stated, when he says he didn't, people need to stop acting so cynical over everything and actually enjoy someone doing something cool.

@Celicynd

Um... isn't the burden of proof on him? He's the one bragging on the internet.

This video makes me realize that I've conditioned myself to collect every coin and stomp every goomba. I keep thinking "Why didn't he grab that- oh, right."

I like how it's so easy until 8-1 and then all of a sudden it's all mad skillz.

So Joystiq allows its writers to make fun of entire gaming communities in the first line of articles?

@(Unverified)

Relax, buddy

@(Unverified)
Wow, learn to take a joke, jerk.

@(Unverified) So... everyone in the gaming community does speed runs? I think you need to settle down a bit.

@(Unverified)
It's kind of like South Park and Family Guy here: I'm pretty sure, at some point or another, they've made of pretty much everybody.

Besides, it's not like it's not true :P

@(Unverified)
i dont see any fun

Well he left the window open for somebody to beat him if it's possible to make that one jump without hitting the goomba or the coins.

@zerosuitsammich

The way he lands, I'm thinking it's not.

Man 20 years later and I'm STILL learning stuff about Super Mario. I had no idea there was a warp pipe before the vine in world 4-2.

@NaeemTHM @BananaBoat

Yeah, I didn't know there was a pipe either. I've been going for the vine this whole time....

@NaeemTHM

That got me too. And level 8-4??
wow!

That was pretty impressive and cool.

I would love to know how much time this guy has clocked playing Mario Bros.

Personally, I'm surprised my "finish with below average score" and "only make it about halfway through or so" runs didn't take off.

My mind just got blown by that warp the guy took through the pipe. I never knew that existed, because I always climbed up the secret vine right before it.

@BananaBoat - I did some investigative journalism (I played the game. It's like 110 out, I'm not going anywhere), and it turns out that the pipe in question isn't a warp pipe (at least not in the NTSC version of Mario Brothers).

You can go down that pipe, but it's a coin room down there, not a warp zone. It looks like he took the wrong pipe, loaded a save state, and then took the vine and edited that part out. Unless the game is different in other regions...

I'm calling shenanigans.

@BananaBoat

On the youtube video the uploader put this in the notes section below the video

"I pull off a couple interesting tricks and glitches to make this work. In 4-2, I backwards jump into a few obstacles to scroll the screen without Mario to trick the pipe into taking me to the vine's usual location."

@BananaBoat That's a known glitch in Mario (every version). Basically there can only be one warp zone on the screen at a time. That's why he's making these elaborate jumps to make sure that he's still in the "area" of the previous beanstalk zone before. That's how entering Minus Worlds work as well - you enter a pipe that's supposed to be a warp zone but it's not assigned the proper flag yet.

@BananaBoat
What benefit would doing that grant him? It didn't reduce his score or anything else beneficial to a low score run. It's not like this is a speed run or anything. He took advantage of a somewhat known glitch in the game that has plenty video documentation supporting it.

@Dark Archon PSN Archonik XBL Dar - Mind blown again.

@jzbluford

In order to get to the vine, you have to hit an invisible coin block. That's 100 points he didn't want.

Huh, this makes perfect sense too in-game:

http://brawlinthefamily.keenspot.com/

I guess Pikmin 2 collect-all-treasures speed runs haven't caught on. Too bad, quite a worthy cause.

I miss how the coins looked back then

Alright, correct me if I'm wrong. I've never replayed this from an emulator only on my NES albeit years ago at this point. But during the vid, he takes a warp pipe to the level 8 warp zone, when if I do remember right you take a vine there not a pipe. Plus after taking this pipe he just pops up up there. Don't believe that is possible in the original game at all.

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Record for lowest-scoring Super Mario Bros. run broken

Reader Comments (58)

Posted: Jul 10th 2011 10:36AM emperorzeroxx said

Posted: Jul 10th 2011 10:48AM Lazyboy said

Posted: Jul 10th 2011 10:49AM Celicynd said

Posted: Jul 10th 2011 11:06AM lSpam said

Posted: Jul 10th 2011 2:18PM markcorey97 said

Posted: Jul 10th 2011 3:13PM Viiral said

Posted: Jul 11th 2011 10:25AM Leafhopper said

Posted: Jul 11th 2011 11:44AM DBuckEye said

Posted: Jul 10th 2011 10:41AM Digital Viking said

Posted: Jul 10th 2011 10:54AM FuriousMailman said

Posted: Jul 10th 2011 12:09PM Co said

Posted: Jul 10th 2011 1:09PM Epoque said

Posted: Jul 10th 2011 1:11PM Epoque said

Posted: Jul 10th 2011 1:51PM Trogdorwhore said

Posted: Jul 10th 2011 2:55PM hapa77 said

Posted: Jul 10th 2011 10:46AM Timerider said

Posted: Jul 10th 2011 10:47AM SurlyDuff said

Posted: Aug 2nd 2011 5:53AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 10th 2011 10:52AM ployer said

Posted: Jul 10th 2011 10:53AM Celicynd said

Posted: Jul 10th 2011 11:13AM Seasick Pirate said

Posted: Jul 10th 2011 11:21AM Hoops said

Posted: Jul 10th 2011 11:51AM Celicynd said

Posted: Jul 10th 2011 11:48PM Xoonaka said

Posted: Jul 10th 2011 10:53AM Roto13 said

Posted: Jul 10th 2011 11:12AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 10th 2011 11:33AM Funkmaster General said

Posted: Jul 10th 2011 11:36AM twocows said

Posted: Jul 10th 2011 11:38AM badkins1102 said

Posted: Jul 10th 2011 12:39PM mietha said

Posted: Jul 10th 2011 12:58PM gevenstaines said

Posted: Jul 10th 2011 11:14AM zerosuitsammich said

Posted: Jul 10th 2011 12:39PM mietha said

Posted: Jul 10th 2011 11:15AM NaeemTHM said

Posted: Jul 10th 2011 12:53PM killias2 said

Posted: Jul 10th 2011 4:55PM Istari Spartan said

Posted: Jul 10th 2011 11:19AM isotrex said

Posted: Jul 10th 2011 11:35AM badkins1102 said

Posted: Jul 10th 2011 11:42AM twocows said

Posted: Jul 10th 2011 11:49AM BananaBoat said

Posted: Jul 10th 2011 1:47PM BananaBoat said

Posted: Jul 10th 2011 3:17PM Grey said

Posted: Jul 10th 2011 4:31PM Dark Archon PSN Archonik XBL Dar said

Posted: Jul 10th 2011 5:48PM jzbluford said

Posted: Jul 11th 2011 1:53AM BananaBoat said

Posted: Jul 11th 2011 11:04AM Uphillbothways said

Posted: Jul 10th 2011 11:55AM Qehb said

Posted: Jul 10th 2011 12:37PM Dooliss said

Posted: Jul 10th 2011 1:08PM Dance Mofo said

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