This week, renowned speedrunner Kosmic achieved a new world record in the Super Mario All-Stars edition of The Lost Levels. However, his pursuit of an even greater achievement was abruptly halted by a frustrating incident reminiscent of the cartridge gaming era—a sudden crash attributed to dirty connectors.
Super Mario All-Stars is a compilation for the SNES, showcasing enhanced 16-bit versions of classic 8-bit Mario titles, including the early Japanese release of Super Mario Bros. 2, known as The Lost Levels. This game is infamous for its extreme difficulty, featuring a tough set of levels from 1-1 to 8-4. Players who successfully complete these stages without using warp zones can unlock five additional secret worlds, ranging from 9-1 to D-4.
In the All-Stars variant of The Lost Levels, speedrunning encompasses several categories, one of which is the Warpless 8-4. Once completed, runners can attempt the Warpless D-4 category.
Kosmic aimed to break these records earlier this week and succeeded in setting a new Warpless 8-4 world record with a time of 21:42, improving by three seconds over his previous best.
His performance positioned him perfectly for a shot at the Warpless D-4 record, a title he previously held for over three years before losing it to EthanRTA in February. However, just 90 seconds into the secret worlds, during his 9-2 attempt, disaster struck: his console crashed.
Reflecting on the situation in a subsequent tweet, Kosmic noted, “What if massive World Record pace but the universe said no.”
Along with his viewers, he expressed disbelief, exchanging “what?!” back and forth while trying to diagnose the problem. “This cartridge/console can crash the game if bumped, but I didn’t do anything,” Kosmic remarked. “I’m at a loss. It seems like I should clean it thoroughly before attempting more runs.”
This scenario highlights the unpredictable nature of using original hardware for speedrunning—where risks abound due to dirty cartridges or unusual hardware issues. After a moment of reflection, Kosmic lamented, “That’s unfortunate. If I had thrown the run, fine, but I didn’t even get the chance.”
A player of Super Mario Bros 2 recently encountered a game crash, sharing the incident online and inadvertently revealing “the biggest 2D Mario speedrun discovery in years.”