A speedrunner has accomplished the monumental goal of beating Super Mario 64 in less than 20 minutes using a drum set as a controller. In the over 25 years since its release, Super Mario 64 remains one of the most popular and celebrated games of all time, particularly in the speedrunning community.

Few games can accurately be described as genre-defining, but Super Mario 64 is widely known for being not just one of the best games of the 1990s, but also the game that showed what 3D games could be. It is jam-packed with secrets that have captivated the hearts and minds of gamers around the world. These secrets are of particular interest to the speedrunning community which has left no stone unturned when it comes to looking for ways to beat the game with seemingly impossible speed. These players have even upped the ante by adding certain conditions or restrictions to speedruns for an extra challenge, such as beating Super Mario 64 blindfolded.

Musician and streamer CZR has taken the notion of speedrun challenges to a new level and completed a 16-star run of Super Mario 64 in 19:48, all while using a drum set to control the game. CZR had previously used his drum set to do speedruns of this and other games such as Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. He calls this latest run his "proudest record to date," having spent over two years working on it, beating his previous 16-star record on Super Mario 64 of 56:36.

My proudest record to date - Thanks for covering this @JakeSucky 🥁👏🏼 https://t.co/usCB3ZfLYi

— czr 🍥 (@czr_drums) December 22, 2022

CZR has made a name for himself through his ability to speedrun games using a drum set, but this latest record is especially notable for coming so close to the times of other world records made by gamers who used standard controllers, such as the current overall Super Mario 64 world record of 6:27. Completion times this short are only possible by using exploits found within the game that let players do things like pass through walls. Access to these exploits sometimes requires speedrunners to play the games on original hardware as CZR did.

Like other popular speedrun games of its time, Super Mario 64 is designed with multiple ways to advance through certain parts of the game which encourages players to explore. For some gamers, these challenges are not enough, and it has thus become a popular choice to implement things like unusual control methods or blindfolded runs, something that events such as Summer Games Done Quick have smartly embraced. Accomplishments like those of CZR are a testament to the ingenuity of the speedrunning community and show that there will always be something more for these skilled players to work toward.

Super Mario 64 was released in 1996 for the Nintendo 64.

Posted: Dec 27, 2022 1:44 pm
Related Forum: Gaming Discussion

Source: https://gamerant.com/super-mario-64-speedrun-drum-set/