Mario Kart 64: The Quest for World Record Perfection

in mario kart 64 being the world champion is the highest accomplishment you can obtain it's a community of thousands of players with 16 courses you can get a non-shortcut world record in there's records for both the fastest single lap and the fastest three laps making for a total of 32 world records for years various champions would come along sometimes holding a fairly large portion of the 32 records players like kevin booth and alex penev were on top in the late 90s usually holding around half of the 32 records in the early 2000s mj reached new heights for a champion at times amassing over 20 of the 32 records at once and that was incredible given how many top level players there were actively playing the game holding close to two-thirds of the records was astonishing but in january 2011 an up-and-coming german player posted his first world record his name was matthias rustemeier two years later he would become the non-shortcut champion holding 12 out of 32 possible records but as the months passed it quickly became clear that matthias reign as the champion was going to be different from any that came before him by october 2013 matthias had extended his lead to 20 out of 32 records a week later he was at 24. by november he hit 26 and at that point he spelled it out he was gonna go for 32 out of 32 possible world records that had never been done before nobody had even been close before and it would be an embarrassment to the rest of the community if he actually pulled it off so the other players formed an alliance it was made up of the last few players clinging on to non-shortcut records and some other top level contenders their goal was simple stop matthias from achieving 32 out of 32 only problem was the man they were trying to stop was perhaps the greatest mario kart 64 player of all time and what happened over the following years nobody could have predicted this was their quest to stop matthias [Music] now there's a couple things that need to be cleared up first mario kart 64 is known for having large skips or oversights from the developers that allow the player to skip massive portions of the track shortcuts like the weather tanko on choco mountain the big jump at the start of rainbow road or the wall jumps on wario stadium however the mario kart 64 community has separate leaderboards for shortcut time trials and non-shortcut time trials the shortcut records have their place in history but we're going to be focusing on the 32 non-shortcut records it's also worth mentioning how times are converted between ntsc and pal pal versions of games are released in most regions of the eastern hemisphere while ntsc versions come out in north america and japan pow mario kart 64 runs at 25 frames per second while ntsc runs at 30 frames per second that means that the pal version runs in slow motion running at 5 6 the speed of ntsc an identical race would be 17 slower on pal than ntsc the mario kart 64 community created the combined leaderboard to account for this which adjusted ntsc and pal time so they could be compared to each other matthias and most other top level players play on pal since playing in slow motion makes driving a bit easier so all times you'll see in this video will be listed as their pal equivalent which might be slower than times you're used to seeing if you live in north america or japan anyway let's go back to december 5th 2013. that was the day the a1a alliance was born from a forum post by zorin one of the best mario kart 64 players around a1a stood for the anti-1.0 alliance with 1.0 referring to matthias's average ranking if he got 32 out of 32 records on december 5th matthias had just taken the calamari desert lap record from mj meaning he now had 28 out of 32 possible records the only four he was missing were moomoo farm lap mumu farm 3 lap dk jungle parkway 3 lap and toad's turnpike lap being only four records away from 32 out of 32 was enough to mobilize the a1a into action one member in particular saw a weakness in one of matthias's times so he got to work grinding to beat it this runner's name was vaj yeah [ __ ] yeah yeah 48 that was like what else [Music] one of the reasons vaj is legendary is because of his epic celebrations but the other reason he's legendary is because he's really really good at mario kart 64. he's held dozens of world records dating back to 2006 and still plays to this day on december 5th 2013 he was tied with matthias on koopa troopa beach lap so he did attempts to break the tie and sent matthias back to 27 records and on december 8th he did he beat the tie by .02 putting matthias at 27 out of 32 however later the same day matthias tied vaj again to get back to 28 and then he got the toad's turnpike lap record and then the moo moo farm 3 lap record matias had 30 out of 32 possible records the a1a was floundering other than the one record from vaj they hadn't done anything to stop matthias but they did have one big advantage the last two he was missing were two of the hardest to achieve in the whole game let's break them down we'll start with moomoo farm this record was 27.82 by tjl set in march 2013. first the obvious tjl played as yoshi the three fastest characters in the game are yoshi toad and peach with no major gameplay differences between the three of them so every record you'll see in this video will be played as one of those characters tjl also performed mini turbos all over by drifting with r and wiggling the thumbstick back and forth twice you can charge up a boost that can be released for a burst of speed when the smoke turns orange by performing these in specific places all around the track you can move through it much quicker than normal the mini turbos and character selection hold true for all 16 courses but moomoo farm has something in particular that makes it unique it has the only random element in any of the time trial courses moles that randomly pop out of their holes the optimal path around the course involves going over the holes and if one pops up while your card is over it it'll hit you and force you to reset the record holder here was tjl he's what you might call a course specialist he set a total of 19 mario kart 64 records over about 5 years 14 of those 19 records were improvements to moomoo farm he was able to master this course in ways that nobody else could subconsciously understanding technicalities about ways to drift and angles to take after years of on and off attempts he got a 27.82 a time he described as a once in a lifetime record when matthias did attempts to replicate this time he found himself unable to emulate many of tjl's subtle strategies he had trouble approaching the slope where he used the first mushroom and usually lost time there the other record matthias didn't have dk jungle parkway 3 lap was held by william lacy lacy was even more dominant at this track than tjl was at moomoo farm he had held the record for over 10 years lowering the record 14 times in a row ultimately ending with a 213.08 dk jungle parkway is a bizarre course to go for records on you have to drive through the jungle while twisting and turning your way through the grass near the start is a big ramp you have to precisely jump off of the farther to the left you go the faster however go too far left and you'll fall in the water there's also a cave at the end where the fastest way to get to the top involves mashing r to hop up a steep slope doing this fast is incredibly precise but after years of playing lacy was an expert at it since the record holders for moomoo farm lap and dk jungle parkway 3 lap were so dominant on their respective courses matia struggled to catch up while also holding his other 30 records so the alliance was eventually able to make a dent in his record total throughout late 2013 and early 2014 players like jaime zorin and mj were able to chip away and take a few records from matthias they weren't quite on the same level as him but they each had the potential to set a record if they grinded it out but unfortunately for the alliance whenever someone took one of matthias's records he would almost always beat it back in a matter of days so with his record total sitting at 29 it was unclear if the alliance's plan was sustainable they had players who could compete with matthias but nobody who could keep up with him but then in may 2014 a new player came along to join the alliance his name was dan burbank [Music] that may dan got his first world record by beating matthias frapp snowland lap record of course matthias quickly beat him back a week later but then dan did something that everyone else in the community struggled to do he beat matthias back there were no new strategies no revolutionary new mechanics dan simply drove better than matthias this pattern continued over the following months and it soon became clear dan actually had the skill to keep up with matthias on certain courses so as 2014 went on even though matthias was actively trying to defend his records dan was able to help push matias total into the mid-20s with so many players in the community actively working against him now getting a 32 out of 32 seemed nearly impossible the course he really needed help on was dk jungle parkway if he could just get those two records he felt confident that he could pick up the rest to get close and in july 2015 he would get some help from a new dk jungle parkway strategy by lacey the old lap strategy involved using two mushrooms shortly after the ramp to cut over a section of the grass lacy recognized that it was actually faster to use only one mushroom here and save the second mushroom to use over a later grass patch improvements in non-shortcut strategies are typically similar to this very small changes to precise paths to take while driving this new mushroom spot meant there was now more time to save over the lap record matthias had a realistic shot at getting it and by october 2015 he had done it matthias had beaten lacy on both the three lap and lap records two of the most problematic world records were out of the way now all he had to do was keep grinding to pick up the rest on november 20th 2015 matthias posted his fifth record from the past month a 27.68 lap on mario raceway that meant for the first time in history a player had reached 31 out of 32 possible records the only record he was missing was moo moo farm lap the 27.82 by tjl it was the only record in the game he had never held before and we've already gone over how much he struggled with it in the past but now that he didn't have any other records to worry about matthias could focus all his efforts there the a1a was on its last legs they had put up a good fight for the past several months but eventually matthias alone had been able to outmatch all of them matias is a really nice guy and nobody in the alliance had anything personal against him but hardly anyone wanted to see someone hold all 32 records at once it would be an embarrassment to all the other record contenders matthias said in a forum post that he was gonna be unable to play until november 23rd so the alliance at least had until then to try to take a record from him so over the weekend the alliance got to work dan zorin v aj and others were trying to take at least one of matthias's records but as the days passed nobody was beating any even with the alliance members spending hours each day grinding courses nobody could take any of matthias's 31 records that's how good he was that's how far ahead his records were and sure enough on the morning of november 23rd 2015 the day matthias came back to try to match tjl's moomoo lap time a new record was posted this is abney317 he's one of the best in the world at mario kart 64 but his area of focus isn't with non-shortcut records instead he's held dozens of shortcut records and the coveted 150cc large skip speed run record for years but he's had the skill to take some non-shortcut records too and on november 22nd 2015 he came to the community's rescue a 212.61 on bowser's castle a new record by 7 100th of a second abny went after this record in particular because it was one of matthias's oldest records being more than two years old quality of play had gotten slightly better since then so abny perceived it as weaker than most of matthias's other records and apparently he was right he was able to use different paths around the swamps to go faster but unfortunately for him that also meant that the very next day matthias was able to beat apne's record to get back to 31 out of 32 all he needed was to shave 900 of a second off his mumu farm lap to get 32 out of 32 he was so close and he kept pushing but then [Music] it was aveny to the rescue again this time on calamari desert 3 lap this record wasn't nearly as old as bowser's castle it was set only a week prior but it was unoptimized just a month ago a new strategy called hill hopping was first used by a player known as dotman by hopping off the hills on the sand at specific points you get more air time and don't slow down nearly as much as normal abney used this to his advantage and for the second time in just two days he was able to stop matthias dead in his tracks at 31 out of 32 but that wasn't enough to feel safe matthias could casually pick up new records seemingly whenever he wanted and abney didn't have as much experience with non-shortcut records so just to be safe abney figured he should probably go on the attack abney was actually standing up to matthias he wasn't just looking to defend his own records he was actively looking to take records he didn't have and it was working during one crazy stretch in january 2016 he set four new records in five days it put matthias down to 27 out of 32 his lowest total in months abney had once again proven that matthias was beatable but as always matias came back to racing later that month four records down from where he was just weeks prior but rather than be intimidated by what abny had just done he saw four records that were well within his abilities to beat two of them were on long courses with room for optimization wario stadium and rainbow road because of matias ability to take just slightly better lines and optimize his driving he knew that there was room for improvement over abney's record and he was right picking them both up in a matter of weeks the other two calamari desert and bowser's castle each had new strategies that matthias hadn't implemented yet the hill hopping on calamari desert and different swamp paths on bowser's castle once he did two more quick world records putting his record total right back to 31 out of 32 his third time achieving that total it was miraculous how he could do this if someone took matias records he would just immediately grind to beat them back people could temporarily beat him but he would always prevail in the end the one exception of course was moo moo farm for the third time he just needed that one record to get 32 out of 32 and for the third time abney took the chance away from him [Music] it was calamari desert this time beating matias by six hundredths of a second mathias only had the chance to grind mumu farm for about 12 hours because that's how long it took abney to get the record that made it three times that matthias had made it to 31 out of 32 with just mumu farm standing in the way only to be stopped by abny at the last minute just remarkable matthias typically plays less mario kart in the summer so in the middle of 2016 he took a step back from the game who could blame him after coming so close that many times so for several months he didn't make any progress in his quest for 32 out of 32 the summer came and went by october he came back and when he did this is what he saw dan had just made a major statement matthias was down to just 24 out of 32 records his lowest total in three years this is what the community was capable of doing in just a few short months if matthias wasn't there to aggressively defend his records in the past dan had focused his world record efforts on fraps snow land and mario raceway but since he had the time in mid-2016 he got a lot better at other courses too and picked up records on courses like wario stadium and yoshi valley again it was nothing revolutionary just learning the right lines to take how to take each turn and other small driving mechanics but regardless the end result was there matias was far away from perfection and it seemed like maybe just maybe the community could take it easy and not have to worry about 32 out of 32. but then in october matthias did this [Music] yes 212 67 clutched it with a cave water cave yes 23. can you believe it [Music] over the course of just four weeks in october 2016 matia set seven new world records all of the months of work throughout 2016 done by dan abney and others were undone in a matter of weeks world records on wario stadium mario raceway dk jungle parkway calamari desert yoshi valley all by simply out driving the other record holders and that meant that for the fourth time matthias was at 31 out of 32 records once again the one that was missing was moo moo farm lap let's take a closer look at that record it was 27.82 by tjl whereas matthias's best time was 27.91 tjl's record was one of the oldest records still standing at this point being set all the way back in march 2013 shortly after matias first became the non-shortcut champion mumu farm is a very unique course with slopes you have to go up and a fence you have to drive as closely to as possible there's three very particular spots you have to use your mushrooms hugging the inside fence and driving over the moles while you do tjl had been able to completely master it back in 2013 but since matias had 31 other records to worry about he just couldn't quite figure out how to do this course optimally well until now 87 i felt the pr i felt it it was a personal best by 400th of a second meaning mathias was now a 20th of a second away from 32 out of 32 his other 31 out of 32s only lasted for a day or two at most but this one was different five days later by halloween night he was still alive at 31 out of 32. abny wasn't there dan wasn't there the alliance had gone radio silent the only thing there was matias grinding mumu farm closer to the record than ever and then lacey came to the rescue [Music] on october 31st 2016 lacy got a 212.50 on dk jungle parkway 3 lap this course especially on the 3 lap side really was lacey's specialty it was his 23rd world record there and this one couldn't have come at a bigger time the thing is matthias definitely was the better driver of the two of them lacey just knew this course inside and out and he was still a really good driver he knew exactly where to go on the ramp exactly how to take the slopes through the jungle exactly how to mash on the cave at the end this one course took up a ton of his mario kart 64 playing time whereas it was only a small fraction for matthias as expected the community was elated four times now matthias had been at 31 out of 32 and four times he had been stopped at the last minute and you might be noticing a pattern at this point matthias would get really close to 32 out of 32 then someone would stop him at the nick of time matias would stop playing for a while and then the community would grind together and take his total down lower well that would happen again now in 2017 but this time the community took it a step further by november 2017 matthias was at 21 out of 32 records his lowest total in four years there were two reasons his total got this low the first was the usual period of inactivity from matthias he didn't completely stop playing but he wasn't aggressively defending his non-shortcut records and second dan took his gameplay to the next level at one point in july 2017 he had 11 world records the first time someone other than matthias had had that many records in years this was matias's lowest point since his quest for 32 out of 32 started he knew he could get most of those records back but what would it matter we've seen it time and time again matthias would get his total up to 31 out of 32 with some effort only to be stopped by one course in particular moomoo farm lap was always in his way the 27.82 by tjl was his nemesis and it was just too good for him to beat but then [Music] [Music] he did it on november 27th 2017 matthias tied tjl's legendary 27.82 the key to getting it was playing the course a ton it came at the end of a several week long grind where he had dozens of laps in the 2780s during that time he mastered everything there was to know about moomoo farm and ultimately it all came together on one magical run his shrooms were clean his mini turbos were perfectly timed on the slopes his driving was tight in march 2013 tjl set a magical run with his 27.82 it took matias four and a half years but finally he had replicated it and it changed everything this was the one world record matthias had been unable to hold the one record preventing him from getting 32 out of 32 for the past two years now he had it out of the way he stood at 22 out of 32 records he had gotten each of the remaining 10 records before and he knew he could get them again it was time once and for all to get 32 out of 32. [Music] oh yes that should be enough yes 4 25 [Music] [Music] sure enough three months later despite some resistance from dan matias was back to 31 out of 32 the last record he needed was dk jungle parkway 3 lap a course he had struggled with at times but still a record he had held on four separate occasions in the past his best time was 212.58 the record was 212.35 by lacey he was behind but this record was certainly within reach time to finish the job [Music] and then on march 13th 2018 matias made history [Music] he was beaten by abney on calamari desert at the last minute for the third time this was starting to get absurd it was the fourth time abney had prevented 32 out of 32 the third time on calamari desert and of course matias congratulated abney on the mario kurt 64 forums only to beat him the very next day right back to 31 out of 32 without a chance for the alliance to gain any ground so matias was back to playing dk jungle parkway .19 behind the record and once again he got results right away getting a personal best that pushed him to just .15 behind lacey's record this strategy from the alliance clearly wasn't working even if someone beat one of matthias's 31 records he could usually get it back within a day or so that wasn't a good long-term solution dan recognized this problem so he started doing a strategy that few others dared to he grinded dk jungle parkway 3 lap alongside matthias [Music] this method certainly had its positives and negatives on the upside if he beat matthias to the punch it could make it harder to finish the job and get 32 out of 32 but dan had only held this record once before and matthias certainly had the upper edge if he failed to beat him that would be a lot of time wasted he could have spent on any of the other courses this certainly was a gamble but it paid off because on march 16th 2018 dan set one of the clutches records in mario kart 64 history [Music] this beat the record by almost two-tenths of a second it put matthias back to .34 behind the world record but its true dividends would be paid the next day when matthias got this time it missed being the world record by 24 hours had he gotten at the prior day it would have been 32 out of 32. but thanks to dan's brand new record he was just barely behind by a matter of 0.08 still they were clearly playing with fire matias was less than a tenth of a second from 32 out of 32 and had proven he was capable of taking time off his dk jungle parkway time fairly easily this wasn't moomoo farm any day he could take this record and he was constantly trying the community watched in anticipation waiting to see when they would have to crown matias as the ultimate champion but on march 23rd they breathe the collective sigh of relief that sub oh man how was amni able to keep doing this well the record still hadn't completely been optimized from the hill hops but on matias's last calamari desert record he had been able to go under the first train gap on lap 3 whereas all previous records were too slow and had to make the second one so aveny's goal was to hill hop effectively enough and drive fast enough to match matthias and make the first train gap he was able to do it and thanks to just slightly better driving overall he shaved enough time off to beat matthias and once again send them back to 30 out of 32 but with how close matthias was abney thought it might be best to keep going so he set his sights on a new target both the three lap and lap records on rainbow road he targeted these in particular because a they were each over two years old meaning the community's overall quality of driving had improved since then and b they were on the longest course in the game meaning there was likely room to optimize them and within a matter of days he nonchalantly picked both of them up let's go straight into the chops so that put matias back at 28 out of 32 records in one quick swoop from abney momentum was back in the alliance's favor things were looking up for them so matthias got back to work and this is what he did over the next week [Music] come on yes that's it 71 on the last lap yes [Music] yes yes he was back this was now the seventh time matias had 31 out of 32 records he had more determination than ever now to finish the job the record was 212.14 by dan and he was right behind him with a 212.2 he quickly found results with a small personal best but on may 1st disaster struck for matthias zorin the founder of the a1a beat the dk jungle parkway lap record that meant that now matthias was missing both records on this course and what occurred throughout may 2018 can only be described as a mad scramble on dk jungle parkway dan was grinding the three-lap record zorin was grinding the lap record and matias was grinding both but ultimately even though matthias was lowering his best times having to deal with both dan and zorin was just too much for him despite coming insanely close he couldn't get either record and eventually he stopped trying and his record total began to fall into the 20s months passed and as more of matthias's records were taken reality began to set in his window for perfection was probably gone he had had seven opportunities to get 32 out of 32 all of them were foiled at the last minute moomoo farm was his nemesis for a long time with tjl's ridiculous lap being too hard to beat after finally conquering that record dk jungle parkway stood in his way lacy's expertise just barely kept him ahead and once zorin got involved on the single lap record it was just too much for him matias was probably the greatest person to ever play mario kart 64. but even for him holding every record at once was just too big attack i can't believe it is this real guys is this real or am i dreaming to 1172 out of nowhere at least that's what everyone thought but on november 20th 2018 matias pulled off a miracle on dk jungle parkway 3 lap he took almost half a second off his personal best to crush the world record matias himself didn't see this coming nobody did but it meant he might be able to make one last push of this now he just had to pick up the rest of the records he was missing that took him all of about two days one record left dk jungle parkway lap the record was 42.07 by zorin prior to zorin taking it in may 2018 matthias had held the record for the past two and a half years so he certainly knew what he was doing but to beat the time that zorin had put up was going to be asking for a lot there were two big tricks he had to focus on first the ramp jump there's a very specific place you want to land just to the left of this tree lining yourself up when you go off the ramp is super tough but zorin's record did so perfectly and second the cave jumps at the end we saw before how important these were but lap runs at a mushroom in here to take them even faster there's a very specific way you need to hop up to the top as far to the left as you can be but too far left is too steep and you'll tumble all of that was a tall order but luckily matthias was the best the world had this one was within reach his thousands of time trial attempts his seven other times at 31 out of 32 they all came down to this it was time to finish off his dream 32 out of 32 world records [Music] oh oh shocking shocking [Music] hmm oh no so close oh that's so so tough to swallow how close can you get [Music] [Music] no ouch oh god what did i do [Music] oh my god dude a dream-crushing record from abney how close had matthias come well he tumbled in the cave because he was just barely too far left as in half the width of a cart too far left had he not tumbled it almost certainly would have been either tied with or ahead of zorin's record meaning 32 out of 32. five years of trying and thousands of hours playing mario kart 64 came down to one tiny failed motion he just held the control stick slightly too far left that was the difference between 32 out of 32 and another failed attempt following this matias's record total would never recover instead it was dans and abney's turn to celebrate pushing certain time trials to levels they had never seen before [Music] yes yes there we go boys yes 54. [Music] yes [Music] and that's where this story ends at least for now [Music] matias may have never accomplished his goal but what he did do is honestly just as impressive 249 total non-shortcut records eight separate times at 31 out of 32. he just never got the last one to finish the job but the thing is he might not be done yet matthias still plays mario kart 64 actively to this day his potential remains right there he might still be in the middle of his quest for 32 out of 32 but wherever he goes in the future we know he'll have tough competition along the way thanks for watching [Music] you

Channel: Summoning Salt

Views: 766,844

Rating: 4.959878 out of 5

Keywords: world record, speedrun, mario kart, mario kart 64

Id: D6cpa-TvKn8

Length: 47min 34sec (2854 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 30 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/SeastoneTrident]

This one hurt, gotta say. Dude worked so hard for so long.

Amazing video as always.

[u/Derexise]

I'm so weirdly disappointed that he never got the 32.

[u/Allig8rSk8r]

Your best video by far imo. Unreal

[u/Punziee]

It speaks to how amazing of a narrator SummoningSalt is that he made me root against Matthias for the first half of the video but still cry out in pain as he tumbled near the end. Absolutely amazing video.

[u/6000j]

This video is a masterpiece. Your other videos are amazing, but this one is just a whole new level of storytelling and weaving a tale that the viewr gets so attached to.

[u/its702]

Going in knowing he never clenched that 32 didnt do anything to prepare me for that heartbreaking tumble.

As always top tier stuff, slyguy

[u/cabbius]

I was really hoping Matt Turk would show up and take half a second of a Moo Moo Farm lap at some point.

[u/GMcFlare]

Rooting against matthias for half the video and then rooting for him the other half is some of the summoning salt magic.

Thanks for the awesome content !

[u/s32]

OH BOY NEW SUMMONING SALT YES YOU MADE MY WEEKEND