Speedrunning a game is old news; speedrunning a game within a game is the new meta.
Kosmic, the famed Super Mario Bros. speedrunner who retired from the Any% category after claiming the world record, has moved on to a variety of different things with his stream: he can be found speedrunning Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels as well as playing around with Super Mario Bros. level randomizers and other mods.
None may be more fascinating than his attempt at speedrunning the original Super Mario Bros. in the classic game Animal Crossing.
How is this possible? How does he do it? We’ve got it all right here.
Super Mario Bros. in Animal Crossing
Playing Super Mario Bros. in Animal Crossing isn’t as far fetched as you’d think when you realize that the game had a ton of NES games which could be played in full. Players could gather up to 15 games that could be played through emulation, including Donkey Kong, Excitebike, Punch-Out! And more.
Super Mario Bros. was one of the games that was only playable through a cheat device on the GameCube version, which is probably why this hasn’t been done before or as often.
Because of all this, Kosmic had to speedrun the game using a GameCube controller instead of his usual NES controller, and the controls are slightly…off. But as a professional, Kosmic set out a goal to speedrun Super Mario Bros. within Animal Crossing in under five minutes; only five seconds off from the NES world record.
How did he do? Well, the full video is here:
As the game is a copy of the original Super Mario Bros., all the glitches and techniques that speedrunners use are still doable in this version, unlike the All-Stars version of the game, which featured updated graphics and gameplay tweaks that change the meta completely.
It’s very impressive that Kosmic was able to get such a solid time on an unfamiliar console and using a controller that is way different from his normal one. Be sure to check out his stream for more unique runs and Super Mario gameplay!
