As I was flipping through the Guinness World Records 2011: Gamer's Edition a few weeks ago, I had a bit of a crazy idea. I decided I wanted to become an official Guinness world record holder. Problem was, I didn't know which record to go after. I don't have any crazy-huge collections, I'm not a competitive Guitar Hero player, and my Galaga high score could use some work. Despite this, I found that some of these records were attainable even without an inhuman skill level at a particular game. That's why I landed on a marathon gaming session.

Specifically, a fighting game marathon. The current record holders for Longest Fighting Game Marathon are four kids from Penn State that played Super Smash Bros. for 26 hours, 27 minutes, and 40 seconds last March. I didn't think anyone in the office would be insane enough to join me for this feat, but I asked around anyway. To my surprise, Tim Turi, Jeff Cork, and Ben Reeves were immediately onboard.

We've been talking to Guinness for the last several weeks, and the attempt is now official. A certified rep for Guinness World Records is flying out next weekend (March 19-20) to validate our attempt. Our game of choice will be Super Smash Bros. Brawl for Wii, and we'll be starting with a clean slate (no extras/characters unlocked). We don't know exactly how long we'll be playing, but we don't plan on stopping until we're presented with our world record certificates.

Once we're done with the marathon and officially Guinness World Record holders, we'll post a video and story chronicling the whole ordeal. If you'd like an inside look at the proceedings as they're happening, follow our Twitter accounts (here's mine, Jeff's, Tim's, Ben Reeves', and Ben Hanson's).

We're just about a week away from the official start time (March 19th at 9:00am CST), and we're already pretty hyped up. Stay tuned for more news regarding our shot at the record books.