The gaming world thought for a few hours on Monday that speedrunner Kosmic broke “Super Mario Bros." three-decade speedrun record by 0.017 seconds. The 4:57.227 speedrun record he established broke Darbian’s speedrun of 4:57.244.
However, upon review of Kosmic’s speedrun, it was discovered his time was actually off by one frame, Kotaku reported. That meant his speedrun was 4:57.244 and he is sharing the world record with Darbian.
Kosmic discovered the difference and wrote: “Basically we know the exact time of the run by the pattern bowser does. His patterns change every frame from power on, so the pattern he gave me is the pattern for 4:57.227.” However, Kosmic pointed out that frame of lag he got when he did the bullet bill glitch in 8 - 2.
And since the lag is not like an official frame which the game tracks, Bower’s pattern is not affected by it. “8 - 4 was 1 time frame faster but 8 - 2 was 1 frame slower so it’s an exact tie,” Kosmic added.
Comparison To Other Speedruns
After he uploaded the footage and reviewed it as well as compared it to other speedruns, Kosmic discovered the lost frame during glitch. Sockfolder, another speedrunner, investigated the issue to find the exact cause, and Kosmic eventually updated the results to reflect the actual time.
A year prior, Darbian, an expert speedrunner, set a new speedrun record of 4:57.627 for the Nintendo classic. But after six months, he broke the record with a new time of 4:57.244. After establishing the record, Darbian “retired,” Gamerant noted.
Kosmic used to be always second only to Dardian in “Super Mario Bros.” speedrun ladder for years. To match Darbian’s record, Kosmic used an actual Nintendo Entertainment System console and its original controller.
