Last year, I made a video about the history of Super Mario Sunshine world record speed runs. I exclusively covered the most obligatory and competitive category, any percent; beating the game as fast as possible with no restrictions outside of cheating. But of course, additional categories offer different requirements for their completion. For instance if the only way to speedrun a Link to the Past was through its currently 1.5 minute-long any percent, It would become stale pretty quickly. Other categories introduce fresh ways of speedrunning a game and offer significant replay value. So what is the most notable of Mario Sunshine alternative categories? Well, that would be a 100 percent, currently referred to as 120 shines For those who've experienced mario sunshine during its initial release the idea of 100%ing the game was mystifying. This would surely be Impossible without some sort of strategy guide or online walk through. How many shines are in this game anyway? I mean this game faq's walkthrough says it's 120 But I can't help but notice all these rumors about a 121st shine sprite I've heard about getting a bonus shine if you defeat Manta and have five HP left. Is this true? Because if it isn't Somebody's busted! In the early 2000s These kind of hoaxes were rampant and the supposed 121st shine sprite was no exception That being said, there are only 95 physically collectable shines and one that you obtain from defeating Bowser So where did the other 24 come from? scattered throughout isle Delfino are 240 blue coins. For every 10 blue coins you trade with the tanooki family You receive a shine sprite. Nintendo had the foresight to allow you to trade in all your blue coins at the same time Effectively collecting 24 shines in a single purchase. This immediately became a staple for speedruns. Don't bother trading in your blue coins until you have all of them just to be searching that you didn't miss anything Nintendo will reward you with a postcard But let's be honest; getting all 120 shine sprites in a single-segment speedrun was just a pipe dream. No one was actually gonna do it. then one day someone did it. The year was 2007 YouTube looked something like this "That's MAMA Luigi to you, Mario-" And a player named Doodan became the Trailblazer for mario sunshine hundred percent. When SDA Approved his single-segment run of 5 hours and 10 minutes Tackling this titan of a speedrun was purely a solo effort over the course of many months. He claims to have spent over a week coming up with ideas to minimize the travel time between blue coins and even made maps of some of the levels to help visualize Things. His strategies were mostly basic and relatively safe but some of his movement was surprisingly ahead of its time like performing windmill wall kicks in Bianco Hills episode 2 There were also strikingly archaic strats like his method for Pianta village episode 4 in which he goes across the stage, Places a barrel by the swimming pool entrance, runs back, then makes the chain chomp run into the barrel? Ok one reason in particular solidifies Doodan's run as a legendary speedrun in sunshine history: Zero deaths The thing that amazes me most about this entire run is that I did not die a single time. I've recorded several runs and I gave myself an allowance of five deaths However, every other run I recorded broke that limit. My second-best run had seven deaths I just didn't feel comfortable submitting a run with so many deaths. So I kept trying. somehow some way I didn't die a single time this time. That's something to be proud of in and of itself every Secret stage has an additional red coin secret upon reentry that allows you to obtain a second shine sprite. That would mean putting up with Completing the slot machines int a flipping in the casino twice also while this Amazing skip directly to the banana platform while riding Yoshi was known, it still meant having to ride one of the boats at a snail's Pace to access the lily pad secret. these flow killers combined with the length of the run made for a daunting category Back in early '09, Thiradell finished his segmented any% run of 1:54. That same year, he decided to also tackle 100% and continuing with the segmented format only made sense. He put in the work to make sure that this was a masterpiece Utilizing 43 segments and some tweaks to Doodan's routing his run clocked in at four sixteen forty eight Thiradell cuts nearly an hour off the single segment record submitted his run to speed demos archive and got Rejected. "The horror :(" Apparently this run wasn't quite good enough for mike, uyama or some verifiers or referees for however SDA works basically it came down to the fact that Standards for segmented runs were much higher than those done in a single segment the most common complaint segment fourteen Encapsulating the entirety of pinna Park arguably the most random and difficult stage in the whole run. That's pretty ambitious compared to his segments singing of individual episodes of Bianco Hills The part that sticks out like a fat chick in a Victoria's Secret catalog is the balloon shooting at the end The runner miss is a ton of shots I think it's because it's at the end of a long segment, but I believe he needs to practice this a lot more It's awful." Okay. Well, let me vouch for Thiradell. In the case of Pinna 8, where precision is a huge factor, There was no way to prevent the rocket from firing higher or lower than usual. This gave every shot a pseudo-random element. The other glaring mistake was forgetting to turn Yoshi orange before trying to access the Pinna 6 secret level. Whoops. I Contacted Thiradell about why he didn't use more segments for Pinna Park. He stated that when he was making this speedrun He felt that the time added for additional movement from the default plaza spawn back to the pinna cannon wasn't worth it. Though in hindsight, It was silly to emphasize that [small time loss] so much that basically covers the early history of 100% sunshine runs. heading into 2011, a more modern scene and the era of live-streaming speedruns began to emerge Discoveries like the pinna one cutscene skips, Yoshi Skip, and Casino skip were added to the arsenal along with one other major skip. back in August of 2009 Nintendo Gamer discovered how to skip the boats required to reach lily pad secret. you can clip through this building then jump across the out-of-bounds plane So you reach the point where you can clip back in and walk below the water to the island. This trick must have fallen under the radar as it wasn't used in Thiradell's segmented run However, it is very possible that both of the world records set in 2011 did use this trick there will never be any way of knowing because both of these records, a 4:36:08 by FAXv2=F** and a 4:32:32 by konkuu don't have any available video These runs were likely streamed on Nico live, a Japanese screaming web site. But it seems that neither of these recordings were archived. :( 120 shines would remain untouched for quite some time until a year later, NKiller, AKA NKitten, gave it a shot Hailing from the Netherlands, NKiller spent a few weeks making his own routes using Doodan's SDA run as a baseline. He achieved a 4:25 on March 3rd of 2012. The philosophy behind NKiller's route was pretty clear: Complete Whatever is closest to you while maximizing how many shines you get from a single level visit. It's also crucial to complete Pinna Park early on because unlocking Yoshi is directly tied to episode 4. The blue coins from these Butterflies and the clamber located on this wall all required Yoshi for their attainments 100 coins shines can be completed in whatever episode you so choose. But some are better than others They do Force you out of the level unlike Mario 64 where you can collect a 100 coins star and then continue on from there. To make matters worse, neither red or blue coins count toward your total. However It is definitely worth collecting blue coins along the way whenever possible NKiller switched the episode for Gelato 100 coins from 8 to 2 and also changed Sirena 100 coins from 3 to 4 to take advantage of the slot machines. Only a week later, khΓ΄ng cΓ³ attained his 2nd world record time of 4:21 He completed everything in the plaza requiring Yoshi in one go. This removes the need to find a fruit for the Yoshi egg located next to the left bell tower. Another improvement to the plaza was a faster way to reach the sewer blue coin near the corona entrance. By swimming up and down near This waterfall you can Bonk and end up in the sewer section below. The following week Konku cut a little less than a minute off his time and got a particularly dank world record (tehurn.com/gayweed) An up-and-coming Japanese player named The Chicken brought a lot to the table He improved the record by over 9 minutes with a run that had a total of nine deaths in it, four of which were from the notoriously difficult Shell's secret. This was the first world record to include any sort of blue coin text box Skip which he performed by having this blue coin lands on him during the "Shine Get!" cutscene While it may only appear for a half second, if you're not using a memory card and mash through it That's about two minutes dedicated solely to these text boxes. The chicken was the first person to do a boatless pachinko entry, Skip breaking the blocks in Sirena 2 Reds and utilized this precise wall kick for reaching the gold bird in Noki bay There was a very significant discovery made between the time of the chicken's record and NKiller's 4:09:52 that he would go on to set in September. Up until mid-2012 people assumed that the only way to unlock the turbo and rocket nozzles in Delfino plaza was to defeat both of the corresponding Shadow Marios Well, it turns out that as long as you can climb the shine gate without the rocket nozzle, these Shadow Marios can be entirely ignored. Once you unlock Corona Mountain from defeating Shadow Mario in all seven stages, You can enter and exit Corona to find that you've unlocked these nozzles automatically! Runners previously chose to lead a turbo unlock into completing the gold bird and a rocket unlock into doing a lighthouse Nkiller took something into consideration at a much earlier date than I honestly expected anyone to. And This is where routing gets complicated Events cutscenes splitting up levels in such a way that you revisit them At least once equals more time spent moving between levels which equals slow. Right? Well not necessarily Every time something new is available in Delfino plaza, a short cutscene will play .
Skipping this cutscene as soon as possible makes it last for 3.1 seconds There's a few methods of minimizing these cutscenes in early game, such as opening up Gelato right when it's unlocked. This will mean that no cutscenes will play after any additional shines you collect until you reach 10, at which points the event cutscene for Unlocking Pinna Park will begin to play The granddaddy of skipping event cutscenes is that once you've exited Corona mountain, these cutscenes will never play again You've effectively reached Delfino plaza's final state. Nkiller realized this and split up most stages into two or three parts He entered Corona for the first time at only 67 shines rather than the 90 seen in the chickens 4:11 this meant a time save of over a minute before subtracting the time loss from additional Plaza movements and some extra shine selection menu scrolling. Having had two sizeable deaths in Bianco 6 Reds and even losing his Yoshi in Ricco 8, it was clear to icedwindowsill that the record was very improvable. He felt that the 100% record was "free" and wanted to prove it by beating it himself And maybe even spark a friendly rivalry in the process. One notable strat that Ice developed is the first ship cycle route in Pinna 3 He heads directly to the first moving ship and then later catches this high up blue coin when the ship does a complete rotation. He also figured out that you can spray this M while waiting for the ricco polluted Piranha Plant to reset itself "Like a boss!" Then, faster than you could even say "Shine Get," The Chicken cracks any hopes of a friendly competition when he dropped a speedrun of four hours flat I know that I'm focusing a lot on the progression of routing in this video But in all honesty, large improvements and execution and avoiding large mistakes can go a long way None of these former records should be understated however. This category undoubtedly needed people that were willing to get the ball rolling Samura1man picked up mario sunshine in July of 2012. In a matter of two months He achieved a world record and the first sub 4-hour 100% speedrun "And that's it guys. New World Record" This could only mean two things: Samu is a god gamer, but more importantly 120 shines had a lot of potential for improvement beyond what anyone could have previously imagined. Samu's route might have looked good on paper But failed to take event cutscenes into account not that it mattered a whole lot since his level of execution was clearly unmatched He took a counterclockwise path for the Yoshi specific blue coins to end up by the roof necessary for clipping out-of-bounds Unfortunately, this might have happened He incorporated a strat found by Hiddenpower13 for the hundred coins in Noki Bay; a very flashy and effective way of getting from the ruins all the way to where the shine spawns. Lastly, he optimized fruit ladies by obtaining durians and pineapples at the same time "Take notes by the way... no that's not a pineapple." The chicken kept up the competition by narrowly beating Samu's PB, but this would be a short-lived victory. Samura1man worked his way up from a 1:37 to a 1:34 in any% and after losing his 120 shines record, He decided to really go in on the category. He laid his sights on sub 3 hours and 50 minutes and set one of the most incredible streaks in SMS speedrunning history: October 23rd October 24th October 25th and last but most, October 26th World Record guys. Again! Four days of new world records in a row and over ten minutes cut. He was the first person to implement Yoshi skip into this category The original sidestep setup was considered too inconsistent to be done so late into a speedrun Not just once but twice for the red coin variation. Samu found from watching mugg1991 do attempts, an alternative set up, back jump He learned back jump and never looked back This was the first record to get a 35 seconds in game time on Pinna 2 Reds, reaching an earlier disappearing platform cycle cycle. "First cycle!" He also had a solid grasp of maneuvering this clay boat in Corona mountain. 120 shines requires mastery of these controls because of the 9 blue coins Surrounding the final platform. In case you haven't experienced this boat before, "the controls are mutilated!" and if you so much as scrape by something, well, you're toast. 2012 ended off with a 3:43 from samura1man. He may have solidified his lead But the chicken would return to you light a fire under his ass, coming within 20 seconds of the record on April 21st. Samu decided to make some updates to his approach. Not only did he remake his route, but he purchased the NTSC-J or Japanese version of the game. While only a minor advantage for any%, NTSC-J has a huge advantage for 120 shines Rolling the watermelon in gelato 8 was a thing of the past because of a Japanese-only method of Gelato Beach Skip discovered in 2012 by mugg. Furthermore, the Japanese version loads Delfino Plaza over half a second faster and as you can imagine there are a lots of these low times The downsides of NTSC-J pale in comparison with the stricter requirements for cleaning off Serina Beach and the lack of some of the fruits located around Delfino Plaza. You may remember that Nkiller put a huge emphasis on skipping event cutscenes. It's true; Nkiller's route was ahead of its time. It was essentially lost in translation due to the stark uprising of both The Chicken and Samura1man Even though a lot of routing progress was lost, Samu made some beneficial steps in his 3:41:10 He unlocks Ricco and Gelato as soon as they're available and enters Pinna Park with only 12 shines. Samu beat his time by 2 seconds, but after a few more days of grinding, he achieved the first sub 3 hour 40 minute time. It was a 3:38 despite some large mistakes. Samu briefly left the category to pursue a better any% time. but there was a new European runner quickly on the rise "Yes, Stelzig know what's up." "Stelzig knows his edgeguards" the Danish Lord Himself Stelzig. on June 21st Stelzig swept up a 3rd place time using a similar route to Samura1man. He even lost a good 50 seconds for missing a Yoshi Skip, a common occurrence when going for the precise sidestep method. Stelzig knew that he was capable of being number 1 and that's exactly what he achieved on July 30th when he got a world record by over 2 minutes, a 3:36:22. Samu's new any% Record of 1:31:08 was timely as it allowed him to start grinding 120 shines again. Sadly for stelzig, His record would be very short-lived as Samu would reclaim the record on literally the same day. Neither of the last few records were archived as both players knew they had so much potential for improvement. Stelzig went back to the drawing board and changed many things Down to the very first movements after arriving in Delfino Plaza. With a clip behind the fruit stand, He collected these two sewer blue coins from the lower out-of-bounds plane He was able to collect the blue coin below this bell tower right before the Statue rising cutscene. With this, He wouldn't lose any time when luring shadow mario back to the statue to open up Bianco Hills. Speaking of Bianco Hills, He collected one of the blue coins in episode 1 while theoretically not losing any time. Using a spin spray for the second hit on the polluted Piranha Plant then Collecting this blue coin in the water right before the cutscene starts He mitigated some luck in pinna 2 by saving the furthest back blue coin for later during pinna 100 coins By dropping Yoshi between this basket and the wall you can clipped your way into the basket. Stelzig being the crafty man he is, Recycled that fruit-stand clip as a better way to get to the islands for Lily Pad Secret. This of course Reverted the blue coins back to a clockwise order of collection. all of these techniques are demonstrated in his new record that he would achieve a little over a week after Samu's 3:34 "That was a bad ending, but whatever man... Your turn Samu" In a speedrun this long, slip-ups are inevitable but minimizing mistakes is the key to getting a good run. And get a good run Samu did... one week after Stelzig's 3:32. "Sub 3:30 happened... Cool" The first sub 3:30 speedrun using a few of Stelzig's findings. "Your turn, Stelzig" With the exception of the intentional death in Corona, Samu didn't die a single time! I'd like to say he was the first one to do this, but... oh, yeah, that's right. Stelzig might have stirred up some competition, But Samura1man was nothing short of a formidable force. Two months later and after officially changing the name of the category from 100% to 120 shines Stelzig did the unthinkable and tied samu's his record to the second. "Is that a tie?!" Minor improvements include a new setup to rocket into the turbo nozzle Area of Noki Bay, a precise rocket shortcut up to the tightrope in Bianco 8 and a spin jump off the watermelons rather than setting up a waterslide in Sirena 2 reds, allowing him to get a 1:03. he untied the record by three seconds a couple weeks later. The ultimate goal, in his eyes, would be at least a 3:25. And that would almost come to fruition on December 16th. Previously, to pay for the return to airstrip, people would awkwardly collect coins in the main sewer section. Instead, Stelzig entered this sewer after exiting Corona, then collected the line of ten coins en route to box game Reminder that your total coins carry over after collecting a Delfino shine. With only one death in Gelato 1 Reds, Stelzig managed to get a 3:26:35 but that wouldn't be the last record of 2013. Samura1man was getting pretty burnt out from his push for a sub 1:30 any% time and wanted to keep his rival in check. After a """"""""""quick"""""""""" Warm-up run, he went on to set a record with the very next attempt! However This wouldn't come without some adversity From Pianta 4 onwards, Samu experienced what is referred to as sound glitch, only known to happen on the Japanese version. "No, not the music glitch, dude" NTSC-J is version 1.0 of Sunshine and has notoriously buggy audio Shine get cutscene music is missing and never comes back until you hard reset your console The red coin secret music also goes missing, but there are two other side effects that are hazardous for speedruns The game has a rare chance of crashing whenever you collect a shine sprite and whenever you die, The respawn load time takes over five seconds longer. This was an unavoidable time loss on the intentional death used in Corona blues. Luckily, when it was all said and done, his game didn't crash. "Where's the crash dude? I was waiting for that!" At the tail end of January Stelzig got the record back from Samu once more with a 3:25:46. I don't have much to comment on except this run had some serious up warp swag on Gelato 1 "Gelato beach skip? Oh my God." Touval would completely shake up any% on February 21st with the discovery ofGelato Beach Skip, or GBS. While the time save was obvious for any%, people were initially uncertain as to how it would fit into 120 shines True, It was definitely advantageous for those playing on non Japanese versions since everyone can skip the watermelon now But for world-record contenders already playing on NTSC-J, they simply stuck with Yoshi GBS. An Unexpected breakthrough resulted when the unimaginable happened to Snarfybobo during one of his runs: "No way! Dude. Dude dude, dude, dude." Somehow, Snarfybobo defeated this clamber without using yoshi No, one had any idea how it was done and attempts were made to recreate this But it wasn't until a couple weeks later that it was finally understood by a top-level Japanese player named Yamata Jumping into the ceiling of any sewer affects Mario's hitbox in a way that leaves two different side effects Durians launched across the stage with even the lightest of taps and certain enemies can be killed just by touching them. Most importantly, clambers, or spiders, as this trick was coined spider glitch. This saves about 30 seconds from both skipping this extra walking with Yoshi and Easily killing this clamber rather than dealing with the terrible hit detection. URGHHHHH Stelzig now collected the sewer coins from out of bounds after knocking down Shadow Mario. This negates part of the time you would normally spend waiting for him to run back to the statue. he achieves two more records, a 3:25:27 on March 25th and a 3:24:40 on May 13, the first record to actually use spider glitch The slower progression of 120 shines around this time was largely a result of the any% surge than GBS caused. It was easy to believe that the best 120 route had been solved. Well the same man who solved spider glitch would prove that this sentiment. Couldn't be further from the truth. Yamata had been on the cusp of World Record times in both any% and 120 shines for a while. In June of 2014, he made his debut in the spotlight using a unique route that visited Pianta village before going to Pinna Park. This doesn't make any sense... until you factor in something I haven't even discussed yet. Whenever you enter the pipe to go to Piazza village before you've unlocked Pinna Park, It doesn't play the animation for entering the pipe He saved a good chunk of time from skipping 10 of these animations, but still had to revisit Pianta village later in the run for the 100 coin shine. Most levels were still completed in one visit, but he only did Ricco episodes 1-7 before Corona Blues. To say that Yamata was creative would be an understatement. Yamata finished this run in 3:23:23 This stumped Stelzig for a while, but on July 22nd, He managed to cut a minute off the record He continued using his own route since Western players often questioned if Yamata's route was even faster, Stelzig claimed He could see himself getting a sub 3:20 someday. But he was content with his 3:22:29 for the time being. The record remained uncontested for quite some time since all of the top runners were either focused on any% or not actively playing. Enter a not-so-top runner, AverageTrey. AKA... Me. Back in early 2013, 120 shines was the first category I learned when I picked up Mario Sunshine for a number of reasons. By the time I actually started streaming attempts in mid 2014, I was grinding my ass off to get a sub 3:30 paperario and I had a rivalry between who the better American 120 player was and that rivalry, combined with my passion for playing sunshine had me practicing for hours on end. When I smashed that awful sub 3:30 barrier with a 3:27, I quickly realized something. I'm five minutes off the world record and only one minute off the person who mainly inspired me in the first place. Just as soon as I thought my journey was over, it had truly just begun. In October of 2014 I put in countless hours of practice offline and streamed attempts whenever I could. My dedication would finally pay off on October 24. "Oh, yes. Oh, yes Oh, yes World record suck my di-". That's nice. But let's really analyze this run: For starters, I was still playing on NTSC-U. I had no choice But to base a route around the standard GBS setup and this gave me an idea. By initially doing only two levels required to unlock Corona, I could avoid event cutscenes for the other nine levels by revisiting Gelato later in the run. On top of this, I could easily combine gelato 8 with the blender blue coin by bringing over two coconuts. This run had a ton of Pianta Village improvements thanks in large part to a couple of members of the Good People. Kaffelon and Kinikola wanted to make the most optimal route possible from 120 shines, a very ambitious task, resulting in completing only one of the levels, Pianta Village. The basis was to obtain more blue coins during Pianta 8 and still catch the second fluff cycle since each fluff comes around every 23.5 seconds. Using these improvements to save 18.5 seconds on top of getting the ramel cycle and the early spray on the hidden shine made for a very solid pianta segment. Oh and Yoshi skip was no longer an issue since the HuffleYourPuff setup came around. Thanks, Huff! A German player named Wilko found a peculiar way to avoid the intentional death at the end of Corona blues. For whatever reason, a save text box and "could not save" text box behave a bit differently. Notice how in both of these clips, I hovered into the blue coin, and watch what happens when I continue to hold the R button. By inserting a memory card into your console, you are granted the ability To continue hovering out of a save prompt. With this knowledge in mind, You can hover into the blue coin, then hover to one of the spires to exit area. This is all because the game doesn't allow you to pause while Mario is airborne. The coconut lady was the last thing I did before trading in my blue coins. It turns out it's impossible to bonk into sewer walls when using the turbo nozzle. Yamata saved a minute on my time merely ten days later. He made a slight improvement to Ricco Harbor by collecting only one of the blue coins over the water in Episode two, Then collecting the other blue coin during episode 6. Interestingly, Yamata was the only person to never unlock the rocket nozzle in Bianco Hills... But he instead used Yoshi to gain the necessary height to reach this blue bird. As always, Yamata's runs had an admirable level of creativity that anyone could learn from. The week-long charity marathon of speedruns, Awesome Games Done Quick 2015, was coming up, and it was planned that Stelzig would be running 120 shines there. In a sudden turn of events, a conflict arose and Stelzig was no longer able to go so he asked me if I was able to take his place. I jumped on the opportunity and convinced my parents to let me fly alone to Herndon, Virginia at the age of 19 This was the main spark of my continued grinding of 120 shines. In this run that I performed a couple weeks after Yamata's record, I included the Piantissimo Goodbye cutscene skip. By standing in this pianta's talking range, You can override Piantissimo's 9 textboxes with the pianta's 2 textboxes It's kind of an anomaly in that it only works when certain parts of the game are unlocked. Despite a poor beginning, the last hour more than made up for it. "That time! *chuckles* Yess! Man USA has got this. We got this by the ass." Fast-forward 3 days and my cockiness would quickly be met with a convincing bop from lord Stelzig, the first time a sub 3:20 run had been completed. This was the first 120 shines record to incorporate Honey Skip, which Stelzig started using ever since he found his setup. Essentially, the Pinna unlock cutscene can be skipped by dying on the same frame that you enter it. Stelzig's run even had Exceptionally bad luck on the fruit machine in Ricco episode 8, getting the durian on the 8th try. Every time you hit one of these buttons, you have a 1 in 5 chance of getting a durian, which Yoshi absolutely needs 120 shines has the luck factors from any% with the addition of fruit machine, Pinna 2 bullet bills, and the most annoying enemies in the game: birbs. π Stelzig reigned supreme, but I still had a marathon run to prepare for. As if it was a belated Christmas present, an exceptional Petey Piranha and bullet bills came around. "That was like 9.5/10 luck." I needed to capitalize on this run. "There it is folks! 3:17! I skipped 3:19! I skipped 3:18! I got 3:17! And it's not even the Japanese version What the fuck? I'm... a legend!" I had no intentions of improving my level route, but I did know one thing: I should probably purchase the Japanese version which is exactly what I did shortly after AGDQ. I finally experienced what could best be referred to as the "JP OP-ness." On a side note, the timing standard universally changed from console reset to file select to establish an official standard on the new speedrun.com. You may have noticed my inclination to call pinna Park episode 8 the worst mission. This level has just always been such an issue as I addressed with Thiradell, since the shots always go higher or lower than you intends In a seemingly random way. Well, I wouldn't consider it the worst mission for too much longer Thanks to a finding from ***Visace??** Veman3000 He uploaded a video on February 5th titled: straight shooting technique for mecha bowser, DM shot 100% consistent. DM shot being a discovery from the dark musician for the mecha bowser fight "This is a technique I found on January 2nd, 2015, for mecha bowser that shoots the rockets perfectly straight. What's being done is that I'm holding Analog R down entirely then pressing digital R to shoot the rocket. This technique works for Pinna 8 as well. Enjoy!!" It was now no longer far-fetched to execute pinna 8 in only one roller coaster cycle. Wilko and labbed a better route for Ricco Harbor 100 coins in episode 6. While Yamata did Ricco six hundreds back in 2014, we made updates inspired by our routes that SidedWilliams and Icedwindowsil made for SMS bingo. This includes collecting all of the coins over the water and skipping most of the luck-based crane coins. I also moved Sirena 100 coins to episode 5 so that I could skip more of the annoying torches in favor of more casino coins. "Forty!" After an insanely good Bianco segment thanks in part to the JP OPness, this run clocked in at 3:15:22. "I don't know how I did it, but there you go! A low 3:15!" Coincidentally, this was the one-year anniversary of Gelato Beach Skip. SidedWilliams theorized a faster way to handle the linked triangles in Gelato Beach. By obtaining these coins while fighting the wiggler in Episode 3, It could definitely save some time. We both tested this extensively and came up with a solution, but it was gonna be tricky until some further refinement. Yamata adapted half of the strategy when he returned to 120 shines in March. He got the second triangle during wiggler, but handled the first triangle while on the way to the coconut tree for GBS. he had some inventive ways to get blue coins, like the waterfall during Pianta 1 of the linked X's during Ricco 2 Leaning into the blooper race entry and swimming down to this coin in no key for ends when entering the loading zone for Eely Mouth's Dentist. He reached the first possible fluff cycle in Pianta 8 by getting more blue coins and other episodes And it turns out this is actually faster. Sorry Kaff and Kini :( He also split up Noki into two segments, leaving 3 levels for after he traded in blue coins. He ended the run with movement from Noki Bay to Corona Mountain I thought my lead was pretty safe in this category, but on March 19, Yamata completed a run of 3:15:06. Before discord came Skype. And in early 2015, Skype groups were the medium of communication for the SMS community. At some point, a Sub 1:25 any% percent time group was formed, but due to its Elitist nature and people just finding it silly, it converted into a new group entirely: The 120 brotherhood :v) Consisting of a few individuals who felt that 120 shines deserved more attention and seeked to further optimize the route. This group was especially active in early March when members rediscovered the importance of event cutscenes. DutchJ made a lot of useful comparison videos, Providing much-needed evidence that it's faster to save the extraneous shines in every level for later, apart from Pianta Village. Nkiller's 2012 route may have been lost in the sands of time. But at least people eventually got back on track. So now I did Pianta in one segment, Ricco, Gelato, Sirena, and Noki in two segments Pinna in three and Bianco in five. This may seem like overkill, But I would no longer have event cutscenes after collecting a mere 53 shines. Some other interesting conditions include handling the linked X graffiti in Ricco 1 during the blooper fight to cut out some of the wait time before Phase 2 and spraying the fire guy during the transition from Noki to Gelato. He has a set location depending on what levels are unlocked and always runs around this area in post-Corona Delfino Plaza. I got a new record with the new route on March 27th. "I skipped 3:14, I Skipped 3:14!" Large improvements were made to Sirena Beach. Thanks to an up-and-coming player, ShadowMario 27 on June 24th. He made a route from 100 coins in Sirena 7. While episode 7 may not have access to the casino coins, SM27 cleverly collects the majority of the hotel delfino's blue coins along the way including the Attic, previously done in episode 8, and three of the four linked pair blue coins. While the 100 coin level itself may have been a bit slower, it Significantly cut down on time for episodes 7 and 8 as for the casino blue coins, well, They could just be collected on the way to both Sirena 4 and Sirena 4 Reds. All of these changes to Sirena Beach are present in a record that Yamata set on July 5th, a 3:13:02. He adopted some stuff that the 120 Brotherhood came up with including Pianta in one segment, which is surprising since he knew about the two second pipe entry cutscenes That's not to say that his creativeness wouldn't shine through because, well, just watch how he gets these sewer coins... Yeah, and then he led this into coconut lady then backtracked to the sewer coin you would normally get on the way to the island and all I'm gonna say is... this is slower :( He did have an efficient method of collecting the 10 coins for the Airstrip return when leaving from Pinna Park. Oh And he improved banana lady by a good two seconds per banana by using precise throws from a closer awning. The Pinna 3 first ship cycle, introduced by icedwindowsill back in 2012, was later updated by DutchJ. Now the blue coins in the clam and under the stairs were collected during Pinna 7. This was made even faster by manipulating Shadow Mario to run to the right. SidedWilliams suggested collecting the pillar coins in Noki 8, rather than Noki 4, which turned out to be faster by catching the second red coin fish formation. Bianco 1 is the only level that the game intentionally allows you to skip by making the shine for Bianco 2 readily available. It is actually faster to do Bianco 1 later in the run, despite having to scroll all the way from episode 8. Doing Bianco 1 later also meant that I could do Gelato 5 early and easily reset if the Bluebirds were not so kind "3:12:03. Daamn you saved a whole minute in a second. Yo. Congrats lets go- congratulations Trey." Had this record been 4 seconds faster, I would have returned to any%, as that was the hot category to grind after the recent discovery of early Yoshi go Round. In retrospect, I'm glad that I continued with 120 shines because of what happened a couple weeks later. "Oh my goodness to quote Kaffelon from his SGDQ race, 'I Was playing out of my mind.'" For a while I knew that sub 3:10 was possible But I certainly didn't expect for it to almost happen so soon. I could return to any% rest assured that my 3:10 would remain the record for quite some time. The New Jerseyan, ShadowMario27, picked up SMS in late 2014. 120 shines was always his main category of interest. He improved at a breakneck rate from a +4 hour time in January to a sub 3:20 only 6 months later. He made a lot of contributions to 100 coin optimizations like the aforementioned 100 coins in Sirena 7, but also 100 coins in Ricco 8 and Gelato 3. Gelato 3 actually has fewer coins overall than 2, but saves time purely from the lack of a required cutscene. The ocean blue coins were moved to episode 6 and the coral reef red coins were collected while equipped with the turbo nozzle. After the EYG excitement died down, SM27 Got a huge 120 shines PB on October 11th that landed him in second place above Yamata. This put a bit of a scare on me as I wanted to be the first sub 3:10 ,preferably before 2016. How hard could that be though? With only twenty seconds to save, surely that will be manageable. Not to mention some other optimizations including a better Pinna 3 developed by bounceyboy where you ride the first upside-down ship cycle to the high up blue coin. Zelpikukirby found single rocket storage on October 22nd Which had a fair share of uses in 120 shines beyond just the ending of Corona Mountain. Sadly all of my success with breaking records was equally met with failure and frustration: "Duuude! Let's get in the castle now! " 3:10:19 still stood when winter break came around despite my best efforts. One mistake can kill any promising run and it's mentally exhausting when it happens over and over again. "What fuck is this stupid-ass game?" On December 21st? I was on good pace out of Corona blues, which was gradually becoming the midway point for a 120 run. Of course, things began to fall apart in Gelato Beach, then after some chokes on Ricco hundreds Awful luck on the fruit machine, and falling down the clouds of Corona Mountain. It came down to this: "PB, folks! It's a new world record... I'm pissed." Needless to say, there was a serious mental block that I had to overcome Sub 3:10 would have to wait until 2016. On January 12th, I had another shot at glory. But again, I choked the run in a multitude of ways. It felt like a cruel joke when the run resulted in a 3:10:00 I didn't even highlight the live streamed version of this run purely from disappointment. Fast-forward one more month, and I would finally catch a break "Got it?" "This is it! Finally! By 5 seconds!" I may have spent four months saving 23 seconds in a 3-hour category, but I'd say it was worth it. "SiCk!" Yamata returned to 120 shines the following month, including most of the new improvements and cleaning up the order in which he did Delfino shines. By this point, every top player was doing Honey Skip on the way to Pinna Park. He also included a few modifications Like getting the two M's in Ricco 1 in between spraying the linked X's, getting both linked X's Bianco 5 while waiting for Petey to arrive, and Opening the ruins in Noki 100 coins by spraying downward from the upper ledge, removing the need to fall down then wall kick all the way back up. He cut a few seconds off my time on March 29th with a 3:09:47 but this run had two big deaths plus an overthrown banana to boot. 3:08 was looking extremely viable He almost surpassed that goal with an incredible run of 3:08:05 It's as if removing the onus of sub 3:10 opened the door to optimizing 120 shines much much further. So it's mid 2016 and gelato 4, The Sand Bird is Born, is still more or less an autoscroller. This would no longer be the case. A couple days after Zelpiku tweeted a demonstration of some new rocket nozzle tech. By cancelling a rocket with Mario's "leaving sidestep" animation, You can store as many Rockets as you want, which grants the ability to gain infinite height. Yamata found the initial rocket bird strats for 120 shines on July 8th. Unfortunately storing Rockets on the amorphous clouds was too unpredictable. So he utilized the lower rim of the central column to double rocket storage to the fourth blue coin as well as the top of the column when the final red coin lies. Improvements were quickly made. Wilko suggested spam spraying the second cloud to expand it, making it easier to get to the third cloud. The second-best any% runner at the time, Nindiddeh, figured out how to skip returning to the lower rim a second time. It turns out that rocket storage can be done from clouds if you're on the very edge. Nindiddeh used a single rocket storage combined with a rocket dive to barely reach the top of a column from the final cloud. Then it dawned on me; if rocket storage was now possible from clouds, why return to the rim of the column at all? I found a way to get from the 3rd to 4th cloud by doing a double rocket storage combined with a rocket dive. Sandbird was now roughly 30 seconds faster. Like I said, Nindiddeh was already one of the top any% players, so he excelled at 120 shines very quickly. He brought many optimizations to the table Paired with new routing that was developed shortly after Yamata's 3:08 doing Pianta 1 through 7 early. This once again brings back segmenting Pianta and skips 7 of the pipe entry cutscenes. Entering Corona at a record low of 46 shines. The first half of 120 shines had essentially become glorified any%. Yamata was on the right track with collecting this underwater blue coin then entering the Noki 4 or 8 loading zone. But Diddeh took this way further. By using a well known clip on the slope and a downwards zip, the game sets the water's surface level to where Mario jumps out out of the zip. This combined with a momentum spin jump + wall kick, speeds up the collection of this blue coin by over 10 seconds. He also introduced a precise way to instantly clean off graffiti that's located on the ground: By spam spraying on a specific frame of Mario's ground pound. Its precision cannot be overstated. often taking 2 or 3 attempts, which still saves time (or at least ties) normal spraying. One could even say 120 shines was finally getting optimized. Only a month after the complete progression of rocket bird, Diddeh achieved a world record time of 3:07:37 but I wouldn't stand for it. I came back to 120 shines in mid-July and used the same round as Diddeh since Pianta 1 through 7 early was now universally agreed to be good. I did, however, reorder a couple levels out of personal preference: late-game Bianco and Sirena. This doesn't waste any time and it gets difficult levels like Bianco 8 and Bianco 3 Reds out of the way much sooner. I also opted to use Diddeh's underwater blue coin strat much earlier in the run during Noki 4 rather than 8. For the record, I know that Bounceyboy only intended this tweet to be a Well-deserved compliment to Nindiddeh, but it must have still fired me up somehow because merely four days later, I achieved a 3:06:33. "Yesss!" I felt pretty satisfied after a follow-up tweet from b-boy and my unreasonably large ego intact "watch Diddeh get 3:05 tomorrow And I'm like fuckkk." follow that claim with a zero, and that would be 100% accurate. Clearly, Nindiddeh a took numerous measures toward optimizing the category. He could even implement his mastery of any% skills, Especially in the first half of the run. 120 was gradually becoming a different beast. it increasingly became reliant on riskier strategies combined with adequate luck conditions. Nindiddeh would go on to dominate any% and I went back to the drawing board in 120 shines. I developed a setup for a known accident that can occur when attempting, Honey Skip. Demonstrated in this may 2015 highlight from deathline, It's actually possible to grab the blue coin behind this jelly while clipping into the tower, more importantly, without getting stuck in GBJ. It's high risk of getting stuck with low reward of 6 to 8 seconds on October 15th. I narrowly lowered the record. "It's not a 3:04 But it's something." After a rough start of nearly a minute off my best pace comparison, I brought it back but knew that I should definitely aim for at least at 3:04 before moving on. Furthermore, ShadowMario27 was once again on the cusp of world record. In other words, top 3 was flooded with 3:05's. The following week, I clutched out a run with respectable early game including Ramel cycle "Yolo Super Yolo. I DID IT!" Reclaiming a healthy lead on the competition, I took another break from the category. On January 19th 2017 psychonauter made a groundbreaking forum post on speedrun.com. Back in 2015, Dan Salvato famously known for speedrunning Yoshi's Story, Created practice codes that included both level selection and position codes. psychonauter updated these codes with additions like infinite lives, FMV skips, and Dialogue skips. One update in particular would be Paramount to 120 shines: Disabling blue coin flags. this means that the blue coin counter will always remain at zero. Level containing blue coins can be practiced over and over again without the hassle of resetting the console or "pretend" collecting the coins. as early as 2013, speculation began over how far 120 shines could be pushed. "I don't think sub 3:20 will happen any time soon." This theoretical best time gradually lowered by convenient increments of 5 minutes as the years went by. "No sub 3 is not possible. You gotta find at least a minute worth of new strats probably because it'll happen someday We just don't know how soon." The classic shitpost "is sub 3 possible" was actually beginning to look somewhat plausible. Psychonauter's codes were just one essential ingredients for pushing 120 shines to its limit. It would also require discovering a handful of small time savers and a lot of perseverance. This became a long-term goal of mine. Fech8763 developed faster pachinko machine movement and the evolution of the pachinko level alone is pretty remarkable. What started as an impressive feat by simply getting every coin one at a time without dying Turned into cheating a bit to get some coins from the back, then Including some extra hovering time savers, and then finally obtaining everything from the front with well-timed hovers. I adopted the Fech movement when I returned to 120 shines as well as some other small time savers like spraying this X while ledge grabbing to quickly get to the linked coin and Doing a double rocket storage dive to barely reach the Pianta 8 cloud at the risk of a rogue fluff Despite the new practice codes, 2017 got off to a slow start. Once again, ShadowMario27 was contending the record when he got a 3:04:44 on February 4th. But it took me another two months of grinding to set a pretty weak record of 3:04:11 3:03 was honestly long overdue and this run lost over a minute to luck on Pinna 2. It was also determined in late March that doing Pinna 2 Reds early would save 5 shine selection scrolls without adding any event cutscenes. In other words, 2 seconds. Another interesting use of the rocket nozzle came into play: rocket rollouts. They command fairly strict timing and you must hold the A button during the rollouts to gain substantial height. this saves time in a handful of places like sandbird, gelato hundreds, and Bianco 8. It's basically a faster way to clear a large horizontal gap. I found a way to make a very obscure trick known as "Kini sliding" useful. When traveling back to get a fruit to Yoshi in Bianco 100 coins, I initiate a Kini slide on the steep slope under this wall Then do a roll out fruit throw at Yoshi. Pretty neat! With my lack of performance during this period there was no doubt that ShadowMario 27 would rise to the occasion. There were three distinct points I've mentioned throughout this video in which he was just shy of the record He often dealt with inconvenient hurdles like extensive hours working in his brother's food truck or experiencing hand pain from prolonged playing. But at last, SM27 would achieve a world record time of 3:03:40 on May 11th. "I know... this is long overdue!" A common theme in the rivalry between ShadowMario and I is that he typically had substantially better early game than me. No, seriously, take a look at this comparison to his PB versus the actual world record! I kept up the pace by coming a few frames short of tying SM27. But the following day, ShadowMario lowered his time by 13 more seconds. He even had a death on Sandbird and Ricco 4 Reds. "Yeah if I didn't die, it would have been 3:01" This may be shocking to you, But SM27 is to Mario Sunshine as Puncayshun is to Mario 64 in that he's a bit of an... anime head. Now gather around children, as I recall a very important time in mario speedrunning history when the war on anime was won. Puncayshun sniped the 120 star record in Mario 64 at 0200 hours on June 3rd. The anime nation was in full force, having captured the 100% records in their respective games. But lo and behold, the Red Baron of Trinidad, Cheese05, fired back with a 1:39:28 in 120 star at the tail-end the same day, and this news was rallied to my stream as I was 2 hours into a promising attempt at 120 shines. I faced some hardships, But on this historical day, 3D mario speedrunning was saved from the anime overlords! BibleThump 7 (Okay, seriously how did I survive that?) I pulled off a riskier ending to Corona blues originally theorized by paperario something else that paperario actually used, but was criminally overlooked until Kinikola brought it up one day, was a 4 second time saver in the return to Airstrip. The last U-turn of coins can be cut out by precisely weaving between the buoys. Zelpiku made a TAS of Sirena 8 that included a new way of clipping through the wall banana-less. An eventual speedrun-friendly method was developed and showcased in an individual level run from Fech. It uses a hover canceled camera storage to grab the locked doorknob from the other side. ShadowMario 27 found yet another improvement to Noki Bay 100 coins that involves backtracking through one of the tunnels. It should go without saying, but life-changing runs can come out of seemingly nowhere and when they do, it's pretty magical. This run was so ahead of its time that he not only skipped 3:02, But nearly skipped 3:01 in the process. "So that just happened... That was an amazing run!" He even faced an extremely trollish fluff during Pianta 8. I'd be damned if there exists any better evidence that anime splits make you faster. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, ShadowMario would lead the cause for this category's most highly sought milestone. The feasibility of a 2:59 escaped the realm of "theoretical" into "possible." However, It would require a pretty stoic mentality: Brushing off mistakes Mental endurance, and facing the pressure of once-in-a blue moon pace. More improvements surfaced, like a better setup for GBS coconuts originally seen in Yamata's 3:03:33 He used a short hover to pop the other coconut up to him. The first coconut was thrown to a slightly different location from which a calculated throw would place in an ideal spot to perform GBS. Bianco episode 8 quickly evolved over the span of a few weeks with the combination of findings from ShadowMario, Nindiddeh, SidedWilliams, and myself. Yamata flaunted his ability to quickly adapt by coming 5 seconds off the record on September 8th. "-JAPANESE-" With competition in close proximity, ShadowMario quickly responded with a new record a few days later. Better sand bird entrance, Exceptional Pinna 8, And in a sudden twist of events, when attempting to revisit Ricco 2 for the hidden blooper ray shine, an accidental Ricco 3 re-entry. Nearly 30 seconds lost to a mis-menu. But ultimately, a new world record and the first 3:00. "If this was 3:00:27, I probably would have taken a break." Content with the lower 3:00... Hmm... A reasonable statements in the heat of the moment, but awfully hard to believe. Unfortunately, ShadowMario began experiencing health issues. Focusing on a CRT screen began to induce seizures and headaches. Consequently, he had to take an extended break from SMS. Yamata also gave up on 120 shines :( So now it seemed like the onus of 2:59 was entirely on me. At the last possible moment of 2017 I finished a run of 3:01:25. Failing to meet my arbitrary deadline, I continued playing to also prepare for a marathon run at the upcoming AGDQ 2018. ShadowMario did, however, make a gradual return to 120 shines in late November. He considered investing in some Gunners to help minimize headaches, but opted for some readily available yellow tinted glasses instead. Apparently the glasses helped tremendously and he was able to successfully work his way back into doing attempts on a regular basis. 2018 rolls around. In case you haven't noticed, my greatest rival also holds the name of Mario Sunshine's antagonist. From my perspective, This couldn't have been more fitting. The stakes were high and it was truly an all-out battle. ShadowMario and I finally included a trick that's actually been known for years, referred to as the DeLorean. It's possible to skip talking to the Chuckster by using a precise banana clip. It's called the DeLorean because of how Mario instantly warps to the floor when this clip is performed. Winter break ended. Free time was becoming increasingly scarce. But I never fully gave up hope. And knowing that my 3:01:25 had an extraordinarily bad King Boo with 7 extra cycles is what mainly kept me going. Allow me to run you through my gameplay and my feelings during the run of my life: Every attempt starts out the same way: Going in blinds with the thought that it could be the run, but never actually expecting it to be the run. Expecting to PB is only setting yourself up for disappointment. It's been said that a 120 shine run doesn't truly begin until Pinna 2. The run had some semblance of potential. I had my best pace ever coming out of Ricco and the nerves really began to set in. I knew the implications. "This is always an interesting situation. It's like I know I gotta... I gotta do it man..." I avoided many of my PB's mistakes. The fruit machine was relentless And what was an amazing run was suddenly in dire straits. The durian came after 7 tries. The chances of breaking 3:00... were dicey. A 2:59:57 best possible time. The odds were not in my favor. "Now I have to do Fast Corona... and I have to not get gooped by Bowser." It came down to Bowser, which guess what? Has a random chance of three second time loss between hitting each blast zone. The green goop in the tub erratically splashes onto the stage and all I could do was pray that it wouldn't hit me. Well, it must have been destiny because I, AverageTrey, Somehow pulled it off. "Yes!!!! Fuck yeah, dude!" I simply refused to let sub 3:00 slip away To a fruit machine. Despite knowing that I had the potential, I definitely didn't expect to snipe ShadowMario 27. At the end of the day, It's never a matter of who seems to deserve a record more, but whoever can clutch out what few opportunities they get. Shadow Mario got burnt out shortly after and shifted his focus to other categories. 2:59:58 is currently where the record stands, but is 120 shines... Dead? Hell no! Sooner or later, We may see a push further into sub-3 territory from Nanashi, A Japanese player who came merely 2 seconds off the record about 2 months before the release date of this video. Some future routing ideas are still on the table. This includes what I like to call Jelly Skip 2.0. Proposed by SidedWilliams, in which you rocket into the blue coin from below, then rocket into Pianta Village for a much faster level reentry. combine this with the original Jelly Skip, plus a lily pad secret entry from flooded Delfino, And this would cut out the Yoshi movement around Delfino Plaza entirely. ShadowMario figured out that a previously known softlock wouldn't softlock as long as you're fast enough. I'm referring to collecting the beach shine immediately after landing the final hit on the Gelato Piranha Plant. Perform this too slowly and the game will... softlock. And so that's pretty much how the history of 120 shines unfolds. Only time will tell what the future of this category holds. From an origin shrouded in mystery and innovation to skillful players trading records on periodic rotation, 120 shines still has room to grow and is far from dead as knowledge of new discoveries and development goes widespread. This category isn't reserved to some SMS elites, but to any speedrunner wanting something a bit more complete. Thank you so much for watching! As always, I have been AverageTrey. PEACE.
Oh shit, Im about to lose another hour to Mario Sunshine history. These are always amazing.
Hmm, has he done a similar one before? It sounds familiar
Awesome vid, 9/10 needs more golden sun rock montages
I enjoyed all the memes, and of course the history, but this video was completely ruined for me by not naming the parts "Episode"
Trey Dawgs we out here RURURU
this guyβs videos and Summoning Saltβs are always a pleasure to watch
Big fan of Trey's videos, I'll have to block away a couple hours tomorrow for this one. Can't wait!
Treys videos are extremely well put together and captivating, canβt wait to watch another of his videos
That was a great watch, thanks.