This week saw the latest in a string of speedrun world records set for Super Mario Odyssey, which in less than six months has become the second-most popular game all-time on Speedrun.com, for the number of runs recorded. The problem with the moment is, well, it’s an hour long.
Redditor gabriel3374 has done speedrunning fandom a favor, however, by condensing the video of NicroVeda’s 1:03:19 run down to its most relevant visual portions. That shortens the whole thing to a much more manageable 33:33 supercut.
Taken out are (per gabriel3374):
• every moon appearing and collecting animation,
• every multi moon appearing and collecting animation,
• door and pipe entering and exiting animation (but only the parts when the player is not in control or time freezes),
• boss defeat animation (when fighting the dragon I also cut out the part in between hits because that takes unreasonably long IMO),
• cut scene skipping by the player,
• every gate opening or bridge appearing animation,
• unskippable cut scenes (for example after collecting a multi moon and returning to the Oasis),
• parts of the game, when the player just had to press A repeatedly (for example when talking to the musicians in metro kingdom or that guy on the bench or in the shops, although I left in the part when selecting the moon)
When the lineup (but not yet the schedule) for Summer Games Done Quick 2018 was announced yesterday, of course people noticed that Super Mario Odyssey was, despite its popularity, a bonus game only. Some speculated this was to hold the game out for a big donation incentive challenge. But another redditor commented that Super Mario Odyssey runs, while impressive, really aren’t that telegenic because of all the interstitial chaff.
Rather like MLB.tv’s “Condensed Game” feature, which cuts out baseball’s idle or rote portions, gabriel3374 eliminates repeated moon collections and the unskippable cutscenes, which really aren’t the point of a speedrun. We’re watching it for speed. Well, here it is.
In the video, you can see NicroVeda making great utility of the Cappy shortcut, which uses him as a kind of floating platform so Mario can traverse water regions without swimming, or simply take an as-the-crow-flies approach to moving across the map as fast as possible. This breakthrough no doubt has contributed to the game’s popularity as a speedrun.
NicroVeda will be the runner for the Any% event in Super Mario Odyssey at Summer Games Done Quick, which is June 24 to July 1 in Bloomington, Minnesota.
