Video: An impressively unimpressive completion of Super Mario Bros.
YouTube user NotEntirelySure has achieved the lowest possible score in a beginning-to-end, warp-assisted playthrough of Nintendo's 8-bit Super Mario Bros, finishing the game with an impressively unimpressive 500 points.
The recent run beats NotEntirelySure's previous anti-record of 600 points. A low-score playthrough of Super Mario Bros. involves avoiding almost everything that isn't a platform, as stomped enemies and collected coins award points. The run also requires the player to remain in Mario's default small state throughout -- collecting Super Mushrooms and Fire Flowers add points to a player's score, and is thus forbidden.
Other logistical issues make a low-scoring run even more difficult than one might think. Players are given points for every tick remaining on the game's timer after completing a stage, meaning that NotEntirelySure had to wait until the last possible second to grab the flagpole at the end of each level. A specific jump in world 8-1 (seen at 4:00) also proves troublesome, requiring the player to make a low hop followed by a pixel-perfect, frame-specific wall-jump in order to avoid collecting coins suspended above a bottomless pit without dying.
Note that NotEntirelySure used an emulator to record the feat, meaning that it's difficult to verify if tools or cheats were used during the playthrough. An unintended death lends some credibility to the recording, however, and it's difficult to imagine anyone having the patience to wait for the timer to drain in every level without the aid of an emulator speed-up key. Congrats, NotEntirelySure!
[Image/Video: NotEntirelySure]
