http://www.twitch.tv/xiah_7s

The single star maestro is now on the way to making his mark over 70 stars! He's at a 49:20 and he has now stated that he intends to get the world record, along with a time in the low 48 minute region.

Speaking of Mario 64...

Pretty crazy stuff going on in 120 star right now! Basically a race to 1:41 between Nero, Puncay, Cheese, and maybe Simply.

Cheese05 just pb'd 1:42.31, lost WR pace during final star

Cheese has had several high 1:41 / low 1:42 runs lost in Rainbow Ride or Bowser in the last couple weeks.

Simply is very good in the sense that he has the best splits (or maybe ~tied with nero), but maybe lacks the necessary consistency as he hasn't been able to go under 1:43:10.

As of a couple days ago Simply's best splits summed to 1:39:58 or so and Puncay / Cheese were around 1:40:10ish, but everyone has been progressing so quickly the last few days that I don't know the actual numbers now.

120 star is dead Kappa

Wait he beat the old WR by 1:14? Holy shit.

HOLY SHIT that time is unbelievable!! and to think I was awake during that time and missed it

DAT TIME

So a cheesy WR DOES exist

^ Not if Binny gets it first

Sick that he didn't even take a break after such a huge WR cut...proper addict! Awesome developments!

^ lmao  

Just curious, does anyone know of a categorical list of WR Times by category & date of run? I want to see the progression and how far it's come. I remember when the 120 star run was something like 3 hours 46 minutes and 70 star was 1:01.. times that aren't even particularly impressive, even I regularly beat these times and I couldn't imagine competing for the record anymore... not against the consistency and prowess of the new player base (which seemed to spawn from nowhere).. madness

MJL wrote on 04/13/15 at 13:34:21:

http://goo.gl/191tNl

Well naturally, the strategies used now are much more optimized and every alternate route has been tested and timed repeatedly to that end.

Even when shooting for PRs, I don't adhere to the WR route or anything resembling it when I play through 16, 70, and 120 star routes.. pretty much every star has a newer and faster route as well.. Some of these I'm not consistent enough with to merit attempting in a run, so I go for a slower but more consistent method (shoot to the caged island in WF is one example, I can't get the triple jump wallkick consistently enough to justify going that way)

I guess what I'm getting at is that it's interesting to look at how much things have changed from 1996 - 2006 (a decade from release) to now, nearly another decade later. Though it's certainly never lacked popularity, I would have never foreseen such an explosive increase in activity and collaborative competitiveness that has brought it to levels where humans now can best the 120 star TAS (I'm referring to the one by rikku) by about 2-3 minutes - multiple people have beaten it even, something that I would find impossible to believe back then.

I'm glad that time hasn't made games like SM64 history.. but then again, I'm sure I'm not the only one who has almost entirely lost interest in the vast majority of what Nintendo has put out there over the last decade or so. MKDS and Metroid Prime 2 marked the endtimes for amazing and complex games by Nintendo, at least that's my opinion and I know a few people who have agreed with me on that.

I still fail to see where this surge of players even came from. I fondly remember the days when I was trying to beat LeCourier's record (at the time, this seemed possible). regarding it as the pinnacle of performance in the game.. Next time I check, siglemic has cut more than 20% off that time.

I know this isn't the only game that has seen this phenomenon. It really is a testament to how much hardcore nintendo fanboys have and will continue to enjoy these games and it also says a lot about how the direction of gaming these days has taken a turn for the worst - at least in terms of complexity and in other measures of technical factors influencing a dynamic learning curve..

Off the top of my head, some (now older generation) games that have seen dramatic activity and development recently are (some even are still finding new discoveries almost weekly!) Pokemon RGBY and GSC, Paper Mario, Metroid Prime (I suppose to a lesser extent), SSB: Melee (Almost double tourney turnout since last year), Sonic Adventure 2, even Super Mario Sunshine (which has seen an almost HALVING IN TIME for the 120 shine category since one pioneer (I don't remember his name) finished in under 6 hours a single segment without deaths.)

I'm sure I'm not the only one who has noticed this. Even MJ was completely taken out (coincidentally?) by this phenomenon.