(Image credit: Nintendo)
Noted Mario speedrunner Kosmic recently achieved a new world record in the Super Mario All-Stars iteration of The Lost Levels. His victory, however, was short-lived as he soon encountered a familiar 1990s-era problem—a console crash attributed to dirty cartridge connectors.
Released as a SNES collection, Super Mario All-Stars includes remastered 16-bit versions of classic 8-bit Mario titles. For many global audiences, it provided their inaugural experience with Japan’s challenging rendition of Super Mario Bros. 2, retitled as The Lost Levels. The game is known for its very challenging levels ranging from 1-1 to 8-4. Successfully completing these levels unlocks five hidden worlds numbered 9-1 through D-4.
The speedrunning community has various categories for these hidden gems, notably the Warpless 8-4 category. Successfully completing this category opens up a chance at the Warpless D-4. Earlier this week, Kosmic managed to clinch a new world record time of 21:42 for the Warpless 8-4 run, bettering his previous time by three seconds, lining him up perfectly to attempt reclaiming the Warpless D-4 record.
Having previously held the Warpless D-4 title for over three and a half years before losing it to EthanRTA in February, Kosmic was poised to reclaim it. Yet, fate had other plans. Just 90 seconds into his quest in level 9-2, his SNES tragically crashed. As Kosmic tweeted afterward, “What if massive World Record pace but the universe said no.” Bemused, both he and his fans exchanged bewildered “what?!”s before he assessed the situation: “If this cartridge or console gets bumped slightly, the game might crash. But I didn’t do anything, dude. It’s probably safest to pause further attempts until the cartridge gets a thorough cleaning.”
This incident highlights the risks inherent in using original hardware where a grimy cartridge or hardware glitch can upend [a perfect run](https://kotaku.com/speedrunner-discovers-biggest-2d-mario-discovery-in-yea-1847575864). “It’s frustrating,” Kosmic admitted, adding, “Throwing a run myself is one thing, but this was entirely out of my hands.” Even for expert players, the unpredictability of classic hardware remains a significant hurdle.