Twitch streamer and speedrunner CZR has outdone himself again, breaking the 30-minute barrier with a 29:49 time in Super Mario 64. The catch? He did it using an electric drumkit with the drums mapped to Nintendo 64 controls.
On August 30, 2020, CZR broke his own world record in the "Drum%" category of Super Mario 64 speedrunning. CZR had been grinding for this time for a few weeks now, initially breaking the hour barrier earlier this month, so his skill has improved greatly as he's nearly halved his time in three weeks. Unfortunately, because he is not using standard hardware, the time doesn't count officially in the speedrunning leaderboards, but it is incredibly impressive nonetheless.
CZR set a time of 29 minutes and 49 seconds, beating his previous record of 34 minutes and 16 seconds, live on Twitch. This isn't the first time he's beaten a game in under 30 minutes using a drumkit, doing the same with The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time just two months ago with a 29 minute, 23 second time. CZR had originally used his channel for drum covers and speedrunning separately, but decided to combine the two with his Drum% speedruns.
CZR has been running the 16-star category, a category in which players collect just 16 stars in their playthrough. Typically, players are required to collect at least 70 in order to reach the final Bowser fight, but with precise clips and backwards long jumps, players can bypass the barriers that prevent you from advancing using only 16 stars. The world record in this category with regular play is 14 minutes and 59 seconds by Akki, which reigns as maybe the most prestigious minute-barrier break in speedrunning history, as the 16-star category is the most commonly run category of any game in history.
16-star runs are favored for neither being too short nor too long, meaning there's some room for error, but it's also not too defeating if you have to reset. Playing on drums, the game is certainly more physically taxing than playing with a controller, so resets may be a bit more of a bummer, but CZR persisted through the resets and landed his new record time.
While Super Mario 64 speedruns are always fun to watch, and sometimes very wholesome, Drum% may be the most fun of all of them. CZR regularly plays drum fills during loading screens, as well as the gameplay, so there's never a down moment in the run. With two games now taken under 30 minutes with drums, it'll be interesting to see what CZR brings to the table next. Will he continue with Super Mario 64 or is it time for a new game?
Source: CZR