In 2021, when speedrunner Niftski became the first person to complete Super Mario Bros. in under 4 minutes, 55 seconds, we used the four-minute mile as a metaphor for the difficulty and importance of the achievement. But now that Niftski has pushed that time even lower—setting a new world record of 4:54.631 for a live, human-controlled full game run—we’re left grasping for metaphors that accurately capture the performance.

Niftski’s new record perfectly matches a “perfect” TAS of the game (i.e., a “tool-assisted speedrun” that uses frame-by-frame input recordings using an emulator) through seven of the run’s eight levels. His best time is now running ahead of the “theory limit” of 4:54.798 that runner Bismuth set back in 2018 as the ideal human performance standard.

In the battle of man versus machine, Niftski is now just 0.35 seconds away from standing up, John Henry-style, against the standard of machine-made automation. Hey, I guess I did come up with a good metaphor after all.

“Lightning” in a bottle

Most of the tricks Niftski uses to shave off precious milliseconds in this new world record run will be well-known to speedrun fans and are outlined in our writeup of Niftski’s 2021 world record performance. The major breakthrough this time around, though, is a full-game run that integrates a “Lightning 4-2” performance, which was thought to be humanly impossible until relatively recently.

Pulling off a “Lightning 4-2” requires a pixel-perfect execution of the level’s famous “wrong wrap”—where going in a pipe takes the player to a warp zone that would usually require a slow climb up a vine. Pulling this off quickly requires “bumping” Mario against various walls and barriers mid-jump, slightly altering his position on the screen and enabling the precise positioning needed to activate the glitch.

For years, the TAS of the level was just a few frames ahead of methods that were considered human-viable in a “real-time attack” (RTA) speedrun. But that small difference was enough for the TAS to save an entire “frame rule” over the best RTA times on the level, leaving humans a full 21 frames (about 0.35 seconds) behind mechanical perfection on the level thanks to the vagaries of the game’s loading times.

In 2018, runner HappyLee used emulation tools to lay out a new, theoretically human-viable “Lightning 4-2” strategy that matched the TAS’ time down to the frame. But in early 2021, Niftski used a slightly different method—integrating a pair of backward jumps over piranha plants into a wall jump off the edge of the crucial “wrong warp” pipe—to become the first human to match the TAS time of 25.34 seconds in an RTA of the level.

Just because Lightning 4-2 was technically possible for a human didn’t mean the extremely precise sequence of inputs was reliable enough to start integrating into full-game speedruns, though. But that changed recently as runner KingOfJohnnyBoy helped develop a more consistent Lightning 4-2 method that involves bumping off of a question-mark block, rather than a moving platform, to quickly set up the crucial wrong warp” positioning.

With that new method in place, “this framerule that was once thought to be impossible has now been implemented in runs,” as Niftski said on YouTube. But to get the new world record, Niftski would have to pull off the extremely tricky Lightning 4-2 in a run that also included multiple “fast acceleration” starts and punishingly precise glitches to skip the flagpole animation at the end of each level (including an exceptionally hard one in 8-2 that requires bouncing off a precisely placed Bullet Bill).

The push for perfection

The full video of Niftski stringing all that together includes a lot of extremely loud exclamations, especially after he realizes he’s pulled off his second “Lightning 4-2” in a row during a run that has been otherwise perfect. His heart rate, as displayed on screen during the livestream, starts increasing before topping out at 188 bpm by the end of 8-4 (“I am completely healthy and do not have any heart condition!” he assures viewers in the YouTube description). When the run is complete, Niftski pops off into a tearful, repeated exclamation of “Oh my god!” and tells himself to “Get oxygen, dude” as he realizes the enormity of what he’s done.

With seven “perfect” levels strung together in a single run, Niftski’s last remaining hurdle is to put it all together with an 8-4 that is just 22 frames faster to match the TAS. That would set a record that would be literally unbeatable, even by a machine, until and unless some currently unknown strategies were discovered to save even more time.

“As much as I’ve stressed how amazing this run is to me, this is not my end goal, and I will not be stopping here!” Niftski writes on YouTube. “I plan to take this category as low as possible.”

https://arstechnica.com/?p=1966742

Charles Martinet will no longer serve as the voice of Mario, Luigi, Wario, and Waluigi, Nintendo announced via tweet today. The announcement ends Martinet’s three-decadeslong career in one of the most iconic vocal roles in video games.

Martinet will be “moving into the brand-new role of Mario Ambassador,” Nintendo writes, a role that will see him “continue to travel the world sharing the joy of Mario and interacting with you all!” Nintendo didn’t provide a reason for the transition, but the company promised a video message featuring Martinet and Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto “at a future date” that might have more details.

“My new Adventure begins! You are all Numba One in my heart!” Martinet said in his own retweet of the news.

A storied career

Martinet, who turned 67 this year, has been voicing Mario for over half of his life at this point. While Martinet first rose to prominence for his iconic “It’s-a-Me, Mario!” performance in 1996’s Super Mario 64, he is first credited as the “Mario Voice and Personality” in the 1994 CD-ROM release of Mario Teaches Typing. He also voiced “real time” 3D-animated versions of Mario and Wario to entertain line-waiters as far back as the 1992 Winter Consumer Electronics Show (clips of which may have been used for a 1992 Super Mario Bros. pinball game).

Since those early roles, Martinet has voiced Mario and his family members in dozens of games, earning a Guinness World Record for the most performances as a single video game character. Martinet hasn’t been pigeonholed in the Mario universe, though, with roles in games ranging from Space Quest 6 to Skyrim and occasional bit parts in TV and film (many of which are noted on Martinet’s charmingly retro website).

Martinet’s heavy Italian accent is so closely associated with Mario at this point that Chris Pratt’s very different take on the character for the recent Super Mario Bros. Movie drew a lot of confusion and criticism from sources, including my young daughter. In a nod to Martinet’s history in the Mario role, though, he filled cameo roles in the film as Mario’s Dad and pizza parlor customer Giuseppe.

Nintendo hasn’t officially confirmed whether or not Martinet’s voice is present in the upcoming Super Mario Wonder, leading to some rampant speculation that he has already been replaced, based on a few voice clips in the game’s June trailer.  [Update: Nintendo has confirmed to Gamespot that Martinet’s voice will not be present in Super Mario Wonder. “While Charles is not involved in the game, we’re excited to honor his legacy and contributions, including looking ahead to what he’ll be doing as a Mario Ambassador,” the company said.] And as anyone who has watched recent Simpsons episodes can attest, the timbre of an actor’s vocal performances can change dramatically as they get older.

We’re looking forward to seeing Martinet in his new ambassador role, even as we wonder what this move will mean for Mario’s in-game vocal appearances going forward.

https://arstechnica.com/?p=1961983

On Friday, Nintendo and Universal Studios Japan took the veil off a years-in-the-making project: the very first Nintendo-themed theme park, appropriately named Super Nintendo World. And who better to introduce the world to this life-sized walk through all things Mario than the character’s creator himself, longtime Nintendo developer and designer Shigeru Miyamoto.

The 15-minute video, embedded at the end of this article, revolved largely around the park’s introductory moments, which are full of Super Mario melodies and interactive elements. Many of the park’s decorations and objects can be interacted with by park visitors who wear a special wristband, dubbed the Power-Up Band, which includes an Amiibo-like NFC chip. Press its sensor near park objects like a Super Mario coin block, and a new virtual item will appear in a synced Super Nintendo World app on your smartphone. Exactly how these virtual items will affect your visit to Super Nintendo World remains unclear, but Miyamoto-san hinted to surprising attractions and hidden interactable panels for park visitors to discover in person. (Additionally, those Power-Up Bands will double as Amiibo for compatible hardware, like Nintendo Switch.)

Only one “ride” received a showcase in the video, albeit a brief one: a Mario Kart race against Bowser. It’s hosted inside a replica of Bowser’s castle, and visitors will sit in one of a series of Mario-styled go-karts that appear to be linked on a rollercoaster-like track, as opposed to freely controllable. Exactly what visitors will see on that ride remains unclear, but previous news about the ride’s augmented reality (AR) elements was reinforced with the first official look at the park’s AR glasses, which come attached to a Super Mario hat.

Unsurprisingly, the theme park will include a robust gift shop, which Miyamoto-san confirms will include exclusive Nintendo merchandise—particularly a robust Super Mario toy whose legs articulate in a walking motion with no batteries needed, just the push of a hand. (It’s easy to forget that Nintendo’s history as a game publisher was preceded by an incredible variety of cleverly designed toys, largely thanks to former Nintendo designer Gunpei Yokoi, who eventually masterminded the first Game Boy.)

Miyamoto-san also walked viewers through one of the park’s restaurants, which is Toad themed and includes “windows” into its kitchen (though these are just high-res LCD panels with pre-rendered CGI animations of Toad characters making food). A few of the park’s food options were shown off, and anyone who’s been to a themed Japanese café knows that the nation takes its quirkily designed food very seriously—which is immediately apparent in the weird-looking food shown off in today’s video.

However, today’s video didn’t reveal any other branded experiences at Super Nintendo World, particularly ones that are reported to revolve around the famed Nintendo character Donkey Kong or the previously teased Yoshi’s Adventure ride. We’ll apparently have to wait until the park opens in Japan on February 4, 2021, to see if non-Mario content will be open to the public during its launch window—and even longer for the Nintendo-themed park to get launches at Universal Studios’ locations in Orlando, Los Angeles, and Singapore. (Unsurprisingly, today’s reveal included multiple warnings about COVID protocols for the Japanese launch.)

Though I was eager to highlight the video’s details in gallery form, any Nintendo fan worth their salt owes it to themselves to watch Miyamoto-san giddily introduce everything in this park. I personally cannot remember the last time I saw the man this excited by a project, and based on what’s been shown so far, I do not blame him.

Listing image by Nintendo / Universal Studios Japan

https://arstechnica.com/?p=1730919

After a Mario-filled game-rumor bonanza earlier this year, Nintendo appears to be paying those rumors forward with its first Mario game announcement of 2020. Thursday morning saw Nintendo issue a YouTube announcement—without its usual 48-hour tip-off to fans—for its first Paper Mario game in four years.

Paper Mario: The Origami King is slated to launch digitally and physically on July 17 for Nintendo Switch consoles, and it sees the series wildly expand upon its action-RPG roots—as opposed to the more straightforward 2016 Wii U game Paper Mario: Color Splash.

Unlike a “mainline” Super Mario action game, Paper Mario games stand out with an emphasis on plot, dialogue, and family-friendly humor, and today’s Origami King reveal sees the series continue that streak. One minute, a “flat,” sticker-shaped Mario is leaping and flying over an overwhelmed Mushroom Kingdom castle, which is being attacked by an origami warlord set on “folding the world,” along with Bowser as an unlikely ally (apparently already origami-folded to assumably tamp down his evil abilities). The next moment, Mario is chilling on a train while a classic Bob-omb sits near him as a passenger, dryly remarking, “Me? Well… I’m Bob-omb.”

The above gallery includes a look at the varied traversal you can expect in the upcoming game, which includes JRPG tropes like an airship (only this one is attacked by rival paper airplanes) and hints of the series’ first “open-world” sections, which range from a desert-romping wagon to an ocean-spanning boat. The latter looks remarkably like something out of Nintendo’s classic GameCube game The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.

Meanwhile, the below gallery, captured from a pair of Nintendo videos, shows off a new battle system. Like in prior Paper Mario games, Mario is controlled in classic run-and-jump fashion in the “overworld,” but when he bumps into a bad guy in those moments, Mario is transported to a JRPG-styled, turn-based battle but with button-timing twists. This time, Mario will contend with enemies surrounding him on all sides, and he’ll get the option to rotate those enemies’ positions on a disc. Should any enemies be lined up front to back, then Mario can use a “jump and keeping jumping” maneuver to hit them all at once (assuming you perfectly time a tap of the “jump” button when landing on each one). Other games in the series included many other attack types, and we imagine those will have additional clever impacts on this rotating-grid interface (perhaps a fireball that scorches all enemies standing side by side).

Paper Mario originally launched on the N64 in 2001 as the spiritual successor to the unlikely smash hit Super Mario RPG, an action-RPG series co-developed by Nintendo and Square for the Super Nintendo. Super Mario RPG (and its cast of original characters) has been dead and gone ever since, while Nintendo has since maintained two of its mascot-filled action-RPG series: the console-minded Paper Mario and the handheld-minded Mario & Luigi. Now that Nintendo has streamlined its hardware business with a single console, instead of a home/handheld split, it remains to be seen whether Mario & Luigi has also been retired as a concept.

Today’s reveal included a possible hint of Nintendo’s next announcement: a cheeky moment in which paperized Mario dons a Samus Aran helmet from Metroid and fakes like a gun-toting hero. Whether this means Nintendo is ready to reveal a new Metroid game, either the long-in-development Metroid Prime 4 or a rumored 2D Metroid callback, remains to be seen. Either way, the reveal did not hint to any other rumored classic-Mario launches in 2020, particularly remakes of popular 3D platformers like Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Galaxy.

Listing image by Nintendo

https://arstechnica.com/?p=1675913