Speedrun Fast: Super Mario RPG

What do you get when you cross a plumber with a Square? A squmber? No no, you get Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. In this SNES adventure, Mario teams up with friends, enemies, and some rather oddball newcomers in order to rebuild the Star Road before the Smithy Gang gets its metallic hands on all the broken pieces. It’ll take all of Mario’s running, jumping, and pantomiming skills to get through this outing in one piece. Luckily, he’s got speedrunner Checkers at the helm, along with some beautifully insightful commentary on the multitude of hidden mechanics at work in the game. Now, prepare yourself for the great beyond!

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Super Mario RPG was chosen this week in part for those hidden mechanics, which govern things like enemy behavior and even some of the secrets hidden throughout the game’s world. The run officially starts at the one-minute mark with a resounding oopsie that sets the crowd a-guffawing (it’s a chain reaction!). It does a nice job of setting the mood, however, and inserts itself seamlessly into the playful silliness of Super Mario RPG. Even veteran players will find themselves constantly learning new things about the game as they watch. We’ll even get to see the legendary 100-jump challenge to acquire the Super Suit. It’s a tense, gut-clenching moment as we watch Mario bouncing up and down, reverently counting the jumps through anxious whispers.

It’s nice that viewers have so many options for watching speedruns. Silent, non-commented runs, tutorials, races, different categories, and ones like this that follow the runner and explain step-by-step how things are done and why. Super Mario RPG is one of those versatile games that makes you wonder how they fit it onto such an old system with all the things going on in its background, and how anyone figured out what those “things” even are.

Falling behind on Speedrun Fast? You might want to hurry and catch up before the zombies of Resident Evil 4 make a Megasmilax-sized meal out of you.