After 7 years, the most infamous meme in the history of Mario speedrunning has been put to rest with a 14-hour time save
Oct. 3, 2023We no longer need to talk about parallel universes in Super Mario 64
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Seven years ago, the internet’s collective mind was blown by aSuper Mario 64speedrunning video which proposed a method to collect one particular star without ever pressing the A button - or rather, only half-pressing A. Now, the creator of that video has put together a new method that cuts out the half-press and saves a whopping 14 hours from the original version.
In that video, pannenkoek took viewers on a journey of unbelievable scope, detailing a tool-assisted speedrun for Watch for Rolling Rocks, the sixth mission of the Hazy Maze Cave level in Super Mario 64. I do not have the space to explain the whole thing here, but the method involved manipulating a scuttlebug into a specific position, then building up Mario’s speed for some 12 hours in order to send him through a series of parallel universes that would eventually deposit him back in position to bounce off the enemy and collect the star.
The video quickly became legendary even beyond theSuper Mariospeedrunning scene, racking up nearly five million views over the years. The line “we need to talk about parallel universes” generated its ownKnow Your Memepage, and the debate over what actually constitutes a press of the A button raged on, despite pannenkoek’s infamous callout of a user named TJ “Henry” Yoshi.
On October 1, pannenkoek posted a newWatch for Rolling Rocks videowith a brand-new route. With the assistance of other speedrunners, a new glitch was discovered that essentially lets you glitch an elevator out of bounds and ride it to gain the height that you otherwise would’ve journeyed through parallel universes to achieve. The scuttlebug is still there, but without dimension-hopping the time has been cut down from the original 14.8 hours to just six minutes.
Unfortunately, since the original method only featured a half A press, there aren’t actually any A press saves for the full 120 star run. For now, you still need to press A at least 13 times in Super Mario 64, but I’ll never doubt the ability of the Mario speedrunning community to get that number even lower.
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Oh, and if you’re wondering if TJ “Henry” Yoshi has learned about these developments, well… Yes.He knows.
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