Inhuman Input- Obscure Speedruns: ‘Super Mario 64’ 100 Unique Lives
by Jude Locke
Super Mario 64 was an extraordinary breakthrough at its time and still holds strong in several categories of gaming today. It was the first 3D game to appear on a popular console and allowed players to manipulate their character in an array of astounding new ways. Whether its popularity with modern speedrunners is caused by a deep nostalgia for the classic, or its insane movement allowing for incredible physics-breaking feats, is up for debate. One thing for certain, though, is that it’s around for the long hall.
In Super Mario 64 you play as the titular Mario visiting Princess Peach’s castle upon request to meet her for cake. Mario arrives to an entirely vacant courtyard and castle save for some ominous Bowser groans and the occasional ghostly visage of a toad trapped in the wall. He traverses worlds using the mysterious paintings in the castle in hopes of earning power stars and ultimately saving the princess.
Players begin their adventures with a finite amount of lives to throw cautiously to the wind as you like. The game graciously offers you specific encounters to refill them in the form of 1-Ups.
In the speedrun category extension ‘100 Unique Lives’, runners seek to get 96 1-Ups in 96 different unique ways prior to completing the game. Why 96? Well, of course, we discussed the game does give you a small handful to begin with. This handful consists of four. Thankfully, the rules do allow for mistakes. In this case, if you lose a life, instead of invalidating the run, players are allowed to re-acquire a previously received 1-Up, so long as they beat the game with 100 and meet the other criteria.
The current world record holder in this category is toastrider91 who completed the game in 33m 22s on standard hardware- the native console.
