A Super Mario 64 speedrunner has finally found a way to obtain the "impossible" 1-Up without throwing Mario into the void afterwards.
It's only taken 27 years (yes, it has been that long since Super Mario 64 was released) but one very dedicated speedrunner has managed what was previously thought was impossible. YouTuber PaLiX _ has shared footage of them obtaining the 1-Up mushroom found in the Cool, Cool Mountain slide level of the Nintendo 64 game.
As explained in the video's description, in the slide shortcut in the Cool, Cool Mountain level of Super Mario 64 there's a 1-Up mushroom that clips out of the tunnel before players can reach it. There was a way to get the tricky power up but no way to survive the rest of the level, as Mario needed to throw himself off of the slide and into the depths to catch the 1-Up. That is, until now anyway.
- Super Mario 64 speedrunners thought a trick that requires landing on a spot "the width of a red blood cell" was virtually impossible - now it's been done blindfolded
- Behold, Super Mario 64 speedrunners can do "an absurdly lengthy and precise series" of 41 button presses to make Mario stand underwater: "This has no known practical purpose"
In PaLiX _'s video, which can be seen below, the speedrunner immediately throws Mario beyond the game's level and lets him free fall to the finish line of the course. It's here where the YouTuber's patience must have been tested as they needed Mario to wall jump several times over a period of an hour and a half. That's an hour and a half's worth of "whoop!" "yah!" "hoo!" from the Nintendo mascot - I can still hear it well after watching the video.
If you manage to withstand the hour and a half of wall jumping though, Super Mario 64 will then glitch and allow the player to position Mario in the perfect place to grab the 1-Up and finish the race. It's important to note though that, as the video's title explains, this was a 'tool-assisted speedrun,' so it's still not clear if this is able to be done without any assistance.
This doesn't take away from how impressive this almost 30-year-long achievement is though, as demonstrated by the comments of this Reddit post, and the comments of PaLiX _'s video, fellow Super Mario 64 fans are just as amazed by what the speedrunner has managed to achieve.
Take a look at our upcoming Switch games list to find out what we can look forward to playing in the near future.
