It's something that most players wouldn't even think is possible: playing a game in a certain way that jumps you completely to the end, without beating its final battle. But there it is, just executed in Super Mario World.

A new video by YouTuber Minecraft SethBling shows him executing a set of moves, which as he explains it, effectively rewrites the game's code in real time as he plays. The fact that this is allegedly happening on a Super Nintendo console—and not on any kind of emulated software—makes it even more impressive. (For more on how players can rewrite old games' code as they play, check out this Ars Technica piece that shows Super Mario World being turned into Pong.)


In addition to his speedrunning, SethBling is someone already known for an impressive depth of knowledge in the Minecraft world.

The amount of knowledge needed to suss out this glitch and the exacting nature of its execution (discovered by Twitch streamer JeffW356 and explained in depth here) is simply incredible. It shows off just how important the work of speedrunning and hacking/modding communities can be insofar as opening up the possibilities of what's able to be done with video games. You need to know how the game was written and the effect that player actions have on the way that the console and the game talk to each other.


Just amazing.

Note: SethBling's pulled off an even faster time of 4:49.8 with the glitch, making it an incredibly fast completion performance for SMW.

Other stories that may interest you:

The Extraordinary Quest to Put All the Super Mario Games On One Timeline




30 Minutes Of Impossibly Precise Mario Speedrunning




Why Speedrunners Use Glitches

