One thing that you didn't emphasize: this is the first run EVER to be less than 21 frames - one framesruleworth - behind TAS. (The previous WR reached 8-4 tied with the TAS, but wasted more than 21 frames in 8-4). In my opinion this is the last significant milestone that can be achieved, short of an actual TAS tie!
God I was watching most of his days of attempts. Niftski is incredibly talented. Poor guy’s negative mental energy was really getting to him, but the 8-4 choke really got him determined to set the record same day.
The greatest of all time significance-wise for sure, but there are arguably way harder speedruns than even tying the smb1 tas that have already been completed
It would be interesting if you covered the keyboard conversation during one of the live streams from this 2-week grind. I think maybe he was talking to Lekukie, but not sure. They were talking about how maybe the shifting rainbow lights on the keyboard cost extra input lag, and at a certain point in the grind, Niftski turned the KB lights off, just in case, because he was getting frustrated that so many Lightning bump inputs felt perfect but were not working.
His only real weakness is mental strength. This seems to be his first taste of what most speedrunners experience on a regular basis -- going for weeks, sometimes even months of daily attempts without a new PB. If he can keep his spirits up, he absolutely has the skill to take this run all the way.
I feel like just as any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, any sufficiently optimised human speedrunner is indistinguishable from the TAS. we're really getting to this point in a number of speedruns, not just smb1. aside from hardware limitations that disallow things such as simultaneous LR inputs, and speedrun rules that prevent modification of controllers to allow LR inputs, humans have proven to be able to match TAS in various runs, and this one seems to be the closest one that's also reasonably long. normally, TAS matching is done in runs or segments that are under a minute long to a couple minutes long. this is almost five minutes long. it will be a real watershed moment when it's finally achieved imo
What? This guy has been grinding for only 2 weeks? Another super Mario bros record broken? I really don't recognise who thi- oh it's Niftski, now it makes sense...
A year ago, I predicted that we would never see a perfect run, because Lightning 4-2 + Pl8-1 + TAS BBG was too strong of a gatekeeper to allow for a realistic number of 8-4 attempts. After watching this 2-week grind, I'm convinced that it is possible. Niftski has demonstrated here that with enough serious sessions, he will start to see 20, 30, 40, 50, 100 runs on pace. This is what he needs. With enough TAS 8-4 practice, and enough full run practice, I now think it's possible and realistic.
It's crazy. Think he was getting at least 1 run to 8-4 every day. Some days there were multiple runs to 8-4. I mean perfect is still a crazy thing to think about but I don't want to doubt Niftski at this point.
The guy has an insane muscle memory, that's for sure. However, all of this is probably way too huge of an entry barrier for anyone else to have a realistic shot in the foreseeable future.
@@19Szabolcs91 you say that, but some people are just insane nowadays. we have a new generation of kids that have spent their entire formative years grinding out games. I'd argue something like this is easier to learn than a lot of speedruns because everything is deterministic. Every time you do something incorrectly in this run, you can pinpoint EXACTLY what buttons to press and how to correct it. There's no level of on-the-fly adaptation needed, it's all muscle memory. Not to say it's easy, but it's rather rare for a game to have a completely predetermined set of button presses, AND it's a short run.
I'm always in awe of people who can do these so perfectly when I grew up on the NES and SNES and still have never even beaten the game once because I'm just terrible at platforming.
I still say things like fast accel are easier on a keyboard where there are two distinct buttons you are pressing that are not physically tied together like on a D-pad, where when the left is pressed, the right is up higher and vice versa.
Honestly, this is a great example of how being in good shape can contribute to gaming. Frankly though, when he inevitably pulls this off it will be the greatest moment in gaming history thus far. I would be interested to hear how somebody could argue otherwise.
i saw nif get the record live, my jaw dropped he got the WR even lower, his positive crashout reaction made it 5x better since for 2 weeks straight he was grinding and funnily enough the day before hitting, he was feelin down thinking he probably couldnt hit it.
@@42saram42 ikr not to stereotype but you'd imagine high level speed runners that play for hours most days don't put alot of effort into how they look, but you can tell he definitely does
gotta say, the outro bit really does make these vids 4 me, im a huge dbz nerd and i looove watching speedrun vids from this channel bc theyre always really well made and informative
mario speed runners will need to come up with a new way to compete on this particular run once it is perfected. competition will see a significant drop when its only possible to tie the record. maybe the 'yearly record' or some sort of ladder ranking system to keep competition going. speed runs are great but they will also be their own end once perfected..
For people new to the speedrun, let me talk about just that perfect fast acceleration in 10:14 To get it you need to these inputs, I won't talk about B because it's just held (L = left, R = right and A) Frame 1: L Frame 2: R+A Frame 3: R (just holding it from here) Yes switching from left to right on 2 consecutive frames and also a 1-frame A press, let's call the frame where mario lands on the 3rd step "frame x" because I'm too lazy to check Frame x-1: R (still held) Frame x: Nothing Frame x+1: R Frame x+2: L Frame x+3: R Oh btw if this isn't ridiculous enough, the turnaround room is like wayyy harder than this one, in total a perfect 8-4 has around 32 frame perfect inputs
Are you genuinely saying this doesn't meet your expectations because somebody is using a different controller even though it provides no advantage, he has also gotten 4:54 on an NES controller, he can do it, it would just take slightly longer all for the sake of being slightly more authentic
Abyss, please, don't get so close to mic during the "Abyssoft Z" outro. The dramatic flair is great and all but the contrast in volume is too much. It was perfectly fine when you were just doing the "dramatic line" without getting significally louder. The video itself is very cool as humans are getting closer to perfection in the most important videogame of all time ^^
Almost perfect using the known route. Some day I bet people will find a new method. We already know you can pass through walls if you hit them right. I feel like there is something still there for a new route just nearly impossible to pull off.
SMB1 has been solved since Happylee's TAS in 2011, which uses L+R inputs, finishes in 4:54.032. Maru's TAS is human viable as it does not use L+R inputs, clocks in at 4:54.265. These two times are the effective lower limit on how low the time in SMB1 can go.
Dude this game has been analyzed extensively. The last improvement was a single frame by Maru almost 6 years ago. I mean maybe it's possible some small thing has been overlooked since there are several levels that are very very close to hitting the frame rule but I don't find it a very high chance and I don't think any of the speed runners find it very likely.
Can someone explain "runs" to me? Niftski did 11 runs over 2 weeks, but the runs are really fast, so does that mean he only played like 50 minutes over 2 weeks to get the record?
To be fair, 2 weeks for Niftski is like 2 years for everyone else. The guy's a walking hyperbolic time chamber of Mario speedrunning.
Facts tho
It's easy to make progress when you're cheating by playing on a emulator and using a keyboard. If it's not on original hardware, it shouldn't count.
@@BK00000 nice bait
@@BK00000cool troll pal
Top 10 baiters @@BK00000
0:10 "Niftski saved 4 entire frames in the iconic speedrun. This is a big deal"
One thing that you didn't emphasize: this is the first run EVER to be less than 21 frames - one framesruleworth - behind TAS. (The previous WR reached 8-4 tied with the TAS, but wasted more than 21 frames in 8-4).
In my opinion this is the last significant milestone that can be achieved, short of an actual TAS tie!
*one bus worth!
The bus company should now hire Niftski
Some people: Just do what the TAS does.
Experts: It's not that easy.
Niftski: Hold my beer.
SMB1 speedrunners: 😊
Celeste speedrunners: 💀
Badabun:Hold my Coke and Pizza :P
Not even bus worth of frames left to save in the game.
What a run!
All the frames left are in 8-4, there is literally no earlier buses to catch in this run.
@@platinumhawke Bus is more meant as a unit of measure in this case.
The analogy will not die just because it's 8-4.
8-4 has a bus with 21 doors.. so you can catch the bus anytime you want, but you want to get inside the doors that's closer to the front of the bus.
I feel like at this point we need a side-by-side comparison of these speedruns. I can't even see these differences during a run at full speed.
Because there aren't any outside of 8-4
“It’s over!!!” - speedrunners
“It’s over, for real this time!” -speedrunners, after lowering the record by 2 more frames
It was not in fact over - Speedrun historians years later
@@darthkarl99I can already hear this in Summoning Salt's voice. XD
It just keeps happening
God I was watching most of his days of attempts. Niftski is incredibly talented. Poor guy’s negative mental energy was really getting to him, but the 8-4 choke really got him determined to set the record same day.
Fake. He didn’t even eat any pizza
Badabun reference
When Niftski finally ties the TAS it'll be the greatest speedrun of all time, period.
he said he wouldnt go for it
he said his final goal is 4:54.3x
Nah
The greatest of all time significance-wise for sure, but there are arguably way harder speedruns than even tying the smb1 tas that have already been completed
@@juxoq like what?
12:00 he talks about players pushing the speedrun, when in reality only Niftski is pushing the run.
the reveal that the footage wasn't tas has my jaw on the floor. well done
It would be interesting if you covered the keyboard conversation during one of the live streams from this 2-week grind. I think maybe he was talking to Lekukie, but not sure. They were talking about how maybe the shifting rainbow lights on the keyboard cost extra input lag, and at a certain point in the grind, Niftski turned the KB lights off, just in case, because he was getting frustrated that so many Lightning bump inputs felt perfect but were not working.
RGB lighting does definitely cause a small bit of input lag.
Lmao I didn't even recognize nift's face I guess I assumed he was a sentient keyboard or something
Maybe Niftski IS a sentient keyboard
@@GeovaneSanciniSR This run needs to be filed under 'SAT' as the sentient keyboard is a speedrunner assisted tool.
His only real weakness is mental strength. This seems to be his first taste of what most speedrunners experience on a regular basis -- going for weeks, sometimes even months of daily attempts without a new PB. If he can keep his spirits up, he absolutely has the skill to take this run all the way.
Do you know who niftski is?
@@jimynutrenI don't. Is he used to these kinds of grinds?
@@jimynutren yeah i assume they watched the video
I feel like just as any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, any sufficiently optimised human speedrunner is indistinguishable from the TAS. we're really getting to this point in a number of speedruns, not just smb1. aside from hardware limitations that disallow things such as simultaneous LR inputs, and speedrun rules that prevent modification of controllers to allow LR inputs, humans have proven to be able to match TAS in various runs, and this one seems to be the closest one that's also reasonably long.
normally, TAS matching is done in runs or segments that are under a minute long to a couple minutes long. this is almost five minutes long. it will be a real watershed moment when it's finally achieved imo
What? This guy has been grinding for only 2 weeks? Another super Mario bros record broken? I really don't recognise who thi- oh it's Niftski, now it makes sense...
i knew it was niftski before i clicked on the video
holy shit. the sheer unbridled joy when speedrunners achieve their goals is so amazing
A year ago, I predicted that we would never see a perfect run, because Lightning 4-2 + Pl8-1 + TAS BBG was too strong of a gatekeeper to allow for a realistic number of 8-4 attempts.
After watching this 2-week grind, I'm convinced that it is possible. Niftski has demonstrated here that with enough serious sessions, he will start to see 20, 30, 40, 50, 100 runs on pace.
This is what he needs. With enough TAS 8-4 practice, and enough full run practice, I now think it's possible and realistic.
It's crazy. Think he was getting at least 1 run to 8-4 every day. Some days there were multiple runs to 8-4. I mean perfect is still a crazy thing to think about but I don't want to doubt Niftski at this point.
The guy has an insane muscle memory, that's for sure. However, all of this is probably way too huge of an entry barrier for anyone else to have a realistic shot in the foreseeable future.
@@19Szabolcs91 you say that, but some people are just insane nowadays. we have a new generation of kids that have spent their entire formative years grinding out games. I'd argue something like this is easier to learn than a lot of speedruns because everything is deterministic. Every time you do something incorrectly in this run, you can pinpoint EXACTLY what buttons to press and how to correct it. There's no level of on-the-fly adaptation needed, it's all muscle memory.
Not to say it's easy, but it's rather rare for a game to have a completely predetermined set of button presses, AND it's a short run.
@@SuperAmazingJared I'd love to be the one who underestimates the players again :)
I remember when Niftski stopped at a new pace just because he didn't wanted to kill the run forever.
someone call the ADF, i think he's on 7 prescription drugs at once
And he wasn't even drinking pizza and eating coke...
That's some infectious positivity and determination.
I'm always in awe of people who can do these so perfectly when I grew up on the NES and SNES and still have never even beaten the game once because I'm just terrible at platforming.
I still say things like fast accel are easier on a keyboard where there are two distinct buttons you are pressing that are not physically tied together like on a D-pad, where when the left is pressed, the right is up higher and vice versa.
At somepoint people will tie the tas and no more records are set unless some new trick is found it's just a matter of time
it'll take a longer while to get to that point
I cant remember, is a framerule like a taxi?
Nah more like a trolley
It's like a rickshaw
it’s more like a train
Honestly, this is a great example of how being in good shape can contribute to gaming. Frankly though, when he inevitably pulls this off it will be the greatest moment in gaming history thus far. I would be interested to hear how somebody could argue otherwise.
Holy crap! THAT IS AWESOME! Imagine getting to do a PERFECT speedrun of one of the most popular games ever.
It's not yet perfect
Seeing as no one even thought 4:55.6 was possible just a few years ago, I won’t be surprised if TAS is tied by 2027. lol
i saw nif get the record live, my jaw dropped he got the WR even lower, his positive crashout reaction made it 5x better since for 2 weeks straight he was grinding and funnily enough the day before hitting, he was feelin down thinking he probably couldnt hit it.
That heart rate tho 😮. Even for cardio a sustained 190 is wild.
He drank a red bull before the stream.
But it is for a short period of time
And he's fairly young
So it's not dangerous really
@@OmarAbdulkadirkhaliifI thought he said that day he didn't have any caffeine
7:00 Bro if my heart rate even approached 180 I think I would pass out, lol.
The SMB TAS tie will be even more epic than the Tetris Rebirth.
If and when a perfect run is done, will the smb community move to sum of level times like Sonic, cutting out the frame rule wait?
Seems sensible, that would give the run a whole new lease of life.
7:42 You hit a perfect bus skip! Well done!
7:20 niftski literally flexing on the competition 😂
The insane level of precision when his heartrate is through the roof is mind boggling
See y'all in February when Niftski somehow saves a 19th frame.
I wait for the day, where the TAS tries to match Niftski
I was literally in the mood for speedrun progression video today, couldn’t be more perfect timing 😂
we are getting closer and closer to speedrunning history in general being made as we speak.
I thankfully caught this run live, even though I was playing basketball, i was thankfully taking a break at the time.
Which means that there is still room to optimize. I swear, this category will never be solved.
oh yeah 170bpm is quite high
30seconds later...
7:12 The physical flex XD Usually that'd be cringy in my eyes, but honestly it's deserved for this accomplishment. Congratulations to Niftski!
Upload a video of your guns
May be a bit cringy but dude has hella nice arms.
@@42saram42 no homo, but still would
@42saram42 Agreed 100%
@@42saram42 ikr not to stereotype but you'd imagine high level speed runners that play for hours most days don't put alot of effort into how they look, but you can tell he definitely does
I watched some of Niftski's streams, we say "only two weeks" but I think it felt like years for him!
what's even the point of having the splits on display for games this optimized? It's always going to say '-0.0' lol
checking if he saved the framerule in 4-2 for example (i think)
I love Niftski, he's so intense it's energizing to see him play
a handsome gym-goer nerd. thats what we need more of in the gaming community
Bro ! Bro !!! Brooooooo !
Jacked nerds make the world go round
Honestly I’d settle just for more people showering in the community
...bro. Y u r geh ?
@GameBacardi nah that would be gay
He's getting more aggressive with each outro and i am absolutely here for it
Why is chat sometimes blurred like at 2:11 ?
If there's a single swear in a chat during a clip I'll blur then entire thing since enforcement around swearing is super inconsistent
gotta say, the outro bit really does make these vids 4 me, im a huge dbz nerd and i looove watching speedrun vids from this channel bc theyre always really well made and informative
mario speed runners will need to come up with a new way to compete on this particular run once it is perfected. competition will see a significant drop when its only possible to tie the record. maybe the 'yearly record' or some sort of ladder ranking system to keep competition going. speed runs are great but they will also be their own end once perfected..
This record will never cease to keep impressing me
Really cool hotdog on skateboard
I had no idea Niftski was such a Chad
For people new to the speedrun, let me talk about just that perfect fast acceleration in 10:14
To get it you need to these inputs, I won't talk about B because it's just held (L = left, R = right and A)
Frame 1: L
Frame 2: R+A
Frame 3: R (just holding it from here)
Yes switching from left to right on 2 consecutive frames and also a 1-frame A press, let's call the frame where mario lands on the 3rd step "frame x" because I'm too lazy to check
Frame x-1: R (still held)
Frame x: Nothing
Frame x+1: R
Frame x+2: L
Frame x+3: R
Oh btw if this isn't ridiculous enough, the turnaround room is like wayyy harder than this one, in total a perfect 8-4 has around 32 frame perfect inputs
This is the first time I've watched a speedrun before a video about the run came out! It popped up in my recommended about a week ago 😁
watching this guy play on keyboard is wild to me.
It provides no advantage
question: I've been getting these vid recommendations
of your channel. Cool stuff! Is the outtro a reference to "Next time: on Dragon Ball Z"?
Bingo
I did not know Niftski had such muscular arms
What a time to be alive, no cap
Holy crap, you speak with the same cadence and prose as Karl Jobst
if Niftski can't, nobody can
Frame rule? I'm sorry, I thought Mario ran on bus schedules
I only follow SMB1 speedrunning through videos like this
I did not expect Niftski to be so JACKED but H O T D A M N
His record got recommended to me and i watched the vid but i needed a video like this so I can actually understand what i was watching lol
He will tie the TAS in the future.
Out of curiosity: why is the chat in some stream clips, for example at 0:10, hidden? Is it because of something someone wrote in the chat?
It's always general swear words when I've blocked out someone's chat
idk, what to say, it is perfect
Not quite
4:55.565 vs. 4.54.265
Man I keep thinking we've reached the Human Maximum and then people keep proving me wrong. Ya love to see it! :D
Wait, the sum of best is tied to the TAS? I thought there were 1 or 2 frames left to save in 8-4!
huh.. pretty niftski.
Bro is on the brink of dying on stream with 170bmp Holy shit
Hey, isn't this that Red Ball speedrunner? Good to see he's picked up a Mario game.
He's been speedrunning smb for 5(?) years at this point. Definitively longer than redball.
damn bro got jacked speedrunning smb maybe i should pick it up as my main speedgame
Is there any way to clip into stairs? Not sure if clipping into the 4-2 warp zone is faster
What did Niftski do to his keyboard? lol
I hope more speedrunners use genuine skill, time and effort like this guy did...
I don't care what the "community" says, a keyboard should not be allowed and it invalidates the run for me.
Ah yes, a pastry, the arbiter of all things SMB speedrunning
Are you genuinely saying this doesn't meet your expectations because somebody is using a different controller even though it provides no advantage,
he has also gotten 4:54 on an NES controller, he can do it, it would just take slightly longer all for the sake of being slightly more authentic
No bus jokes? C'mon now, internet.
The internet rides the slow bus, clearly
So 2025: Niftski vs averge11. Road to the 4:54.265
What's the current record for clicking on a new Abyssoft Z?
are there any high-performing speedrunners who do not experience a drastic increase in heartrate during tense moments?
Doubtful
Abyss, please, don't get so close to mic during the "Abyssoft Z" outro. The dramatic flair is great and all but the contrast in volume is too much. It was perfectly fine when you were just doing the "dramatic line" without getting significally louder.
The video itself is very cool as humans are getting closer to perfection in the most important videogame of all time ^^
Really impressive. I really hope we don't find out in a decade this guy was cheating all along.
Didn’t realize tmol did speed runs 😂
stop the abbysoft z at the end man.
lower the volume for screaming pls
wow he got nice big muscles playing that game 😮
Almost perfect using the known route. Some day I bet people will find a new method. We already know you can pass through walls if you hit them right. I feel like there is something still there for a new route just nearly impossible to pull off.
SMB1 has been solved since Happylee's TAS in 2011, which uses L+R inputs, finishes in 4:54.032. Maru's TAS is human viable as it does not use L+R inputs, clocks in at 4:54.265. These two times are the effective lower limit on how low the time in SMB1 can go.
Dude this game has been analyzed extensively. The last improvement was a single frame by Maru almost 6 years ago. I mean maybe it's possible some small thing has been overlooked since there are several levels that are very very close to hitting the frame rule but I don't find it a very high chance and I don't think any of the speed runners find it very likely.
ok, we need a human check on niftski. dude is an absolute beast!
I was all for this video until you said "Almost 40 year old game"
Just.... AHHHHH!!!!
Wonderful!
Dude is cracked
Can someone explain "runs" to me? Niftski did 11 runs over 2 weeks, but the runs are really fast, so does that mean he only played like 50 minutes over 2 weeks to get the record?
That man is a tas bot
Awesome!
Niftski is such a legend at SMB. He’s always getting new records at the most optimized speedrun ever.