Pro Speedrunner plays Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition

[@covereye5731]

Kosmic doing a wall jump on a get the mushroom challenge, is exactly why I was hoping he would play this.

[@KernelLeak]

"Strategy Unavailable - The Movie"

[@TheGlaiveDominatrus]

nintendo has their way with this game after all

[@ashleyking8851]

nah not gonna fly sorry lmao

[@Swarming-Languendo]

Why even bother intentionally implementing a 'no fun' mechanic like specifically banning certain tech. Like..the whole point of speed running is developing tech often from glitches and non dev intended options. It's like having a collectathon game that actively forces you to miss collectibles on your first run so you can play it again

[@BassAsLeaders]

Nintendo is lame

[@darkness74185]

@@Swarming-Languendo this is still meant to be a casual game after all, and leaving some of those overly complex or technical exploits in would make the weekly leaderboard completely out of normal player's reach without some extensive research that you can't grasp without looking it up online. From a game design perspective it makes perfect sense to ban those for the rest of the audience

[@ohno5559]

This game combines the two grand traditions of Nintendo, great ideas and baffling decision-making

[@warmCabin]

Speedrun category idea: get one "strategy unavailable" in each game

[@kosmicspeedruns]

I know it's possible in most. Not sure about ice climber, balloon fight, excitebike, or kirby. Actually, maybe not even possible in lost levels because there's so little of the game included...

[@TheGlaiveDominatrus]

​@@kosmicspeedrunsor maybe just get either a strategy unavailable or another error message, like trying to do credits warp in kirby

[@harukaze7388]

kirby does have a lot of clipping you can do and a big crash opportunity that ought to do something on the other hand the S times for it are so unoptimized i don't think they know so maybe you do just crash the game

[@MitoNova583]

@@kosmicspeedruns would the credits warp be possible for Kirby's Adventure, or would you get the crash message first

[@maxrichards5925]

@@harukaze7388I saw a video of an attempt for a credits warp but it looked like it didn’t work

[@JKDontJudgeMe]

the three stage of playing this game: - using the glitches in your favorite game, or be rebel in general - saying this game sucks for it not letting you to do those glitches - trying to find more strategies that are unavailable for this game for fun

[@matheusphillipevelozoamara3262]

What if... You wanted social mobility... Bud God said.... "Strategy unavailable. Rewinding..."

[@far2ez]

The Great Gatsby, the movie, the game.

[@internetuser8922]

There should be a "strategy unavailable%" category

[@EebstertheGreat]

There should at least be an achievement for finding all the illegal strategies.

[@unquestionableexistance8704]

Honestly sounds a lot more fun

[@TheLemonyBard]

I think there’s now a complete list of all variations of the message, so maybe the run could be getting all of them

[@hyperventalated]

Some of those "Strategy unavailable" screens were surprising to me. I know those glitches are public knowledge, but implementing a a way to detect them is really interesting.

[@daylawashere]

i doubt it was that hard for them

[@BagOfMagicFood]

Most of the forbidden glitches have to do with getting out of bounds in some way, since it's easy to detect player coordinates being within certain ranges.

[@VisionThing]

Why are you making things up? They are just tailing a memory address.

[@Sixfortyfive]

This game felt like a collection of demos. There are all kinds of cool levels and objectives that they could have chosen for Mario 3, for example. Like some of the levels where you can chain multiple star power-ups together, or really obscure 3x 1-up secret areas that would be interesting as one-off challenges since you're not really incentivized to go out of the way for many of them on a normal playthrough. What do they fill up the challenge list with instead? A bunch of tutorial-level "grab the power-up" filler and extremely repetitive "beat every single Koopaling" stuff. Like 90% of this game felt like a list of chores.

[@Avriel_Mimiga]

hence why NES Remix 1 and 2 were better

[@Sixfortyfive]

@@Avriel_Mimiga Honestly I kind of had the same problem with NES Remix 2: That game felt like more of a collection of Virtual Console snippets than a proper game in its own right. NES Remix 1 was the only game in this style that got it right imo. Because most of the games featured in Remix 1 were the really early, simple NES games, they benefited the most from the extra structure, challenge, and gameplay twists that Remix 1 added to them. Like, there's not going to ever be a situation where I'd feel compelled to play vanilla Clu Clu Land from start to finish. That's the sort of game that I can get my fill of in about 10 minutes of play time before I feel like I've experienced everything that it has to offer. And that's why it's the perfect sort of game for NES Remix. The Remix format ends up adding genuine substance to a pretty basic game and incentivizes you to put more time and thought into it than you ever normally would otherwise. If it wasn't for the added input lag, I'd go so far as to say that NES Remix is actually the best way to experience several of the individual games featured on it. NES Remix 2 pulled all of its material from later NES games that were bigger and more varied than the 1985 black box games of NES Remix 1, so in a lot of cases it ends up being the opposite experience of what I outlined above. Basically, I'd typically much rather be playing vanilla Super Mario Bros 3 than the subset of SMB3 challenges featured on NES Remix 2. Whereas Remix 1 added genuine substance to otherwise simple games, Remix 2 usually made me feel like I was just playing small snippets and cut-down samples of more substantial works that I'd have more fun playing on their own. And NWC for Switch feels much the same. Like, it's genuinely sad that literally everything from Lost Levels in this game is from the very first stage, except the final 2 challenges. This format has potential, but would it have killed Nintendo to showcase some of the actual substance that these games can offer?

[@jbminerlol]

@@Sixfortyfive yeah they were alot cooler and more awesome

[@RobotGuy405]

@@Sixfortyfive I feel like Nintendo is almost trying to protect younger gamers from Lost Levels, or like really playing up its reputation as the hardest Mario game. In no world should just beating 1-1 be labeled as a Master level of difficulty.

[@waltstag]

​@@RobotGuy405 they're speedrun challenges they are rated by how hard the target time is to beat (and probably length) not how hard they are to complete. Still agree there should be more challenges and more variety.

[@EDoyl]

I love 23:59 as a demonstration of the Frame Rule.

[@beauvoirferril]

The game tells you how to make your screen bigger in Survival Mode @16:05 This game is pretty cool, btw. I hope they improve on it in a sequel.

[@kosmicspeedruns]

Oh nice my bad

[@EnheTook50Benadryl]

​@@kosmicspeedruns most challenges are lame and online is goofy but if they added better challenges and let you do a bit more the game would be a lot better and more competitive

[@gamephreak5]

Sequel? Why not DLC? This is the perfect game for Nintendo to add more NES game challenges from different games through DLC packs!

[@devilussion]

​@@gamephreak5 This game is pretty much mario maker 3ds, set levels with special winning conditions, there should be custom challenges from players, which could add a lot of replay value.

[@BagOfMagicFood]

It's already basically a sequel to NES Remix.

[@LimeonCandy]

What if you wanted to go to heaven but God said "Strategy Unavailable. Rewinding..."

[@Mart1n192]

I feel like there is one kid out there who accidentally got the Strategy Unavailable message and then pooped his pants

[@PierceArner]

Strategy unavailable. *Rewinding...*

[@matthewLkidder]

Proves Nintendo watches speedruns

[@matheuscabral9618]

@@matthewLkidder that’s true

[@TheGlaiveDominatrus]

DANG IT NINTENDO WHY DID YOU PUT SUCH AN EERIE ASPECT IN THIRTEEN OF YOUR FAMOUS GAMES (jokes aside i do understand it)

[@mellowok]

Pleasure editing for you!!! Highly entertaining vod too 😄

[@wizulus]

Hey! I'm in this game! It's dangerous to go alone! Take this.

[@EmmaEmbla]

Strategy unavailable will now become something I say regularly, it's too funny haha

[@EebstertheGreat]

Can't believe they don't give you Bruce. Such an iconic character.

[@SomeCanine]

Need to hack that rom message and change it from "Strategy Unavailable" to "No cheating, cheater"

[@quadpad_music]

Twin Galaxies ahh ruleset

[@thatoneguy9582]

big miyamoto ass game design /ref

[@KingoftheKappas]

“One player cause we don’t have any friends” is the funniest thing ever

[@cashnelson2306]

I wish I was this easily pleased it sounds kinda nice

[@ezgoodnight]

I am pleased that there is a Speedrun com leaderboard for the full SMB1 playthrough

[@IsaacClodfelter]

Such a strong sense of, " You are playing the game wrong and you are lucky I am letting you keep the controller!", every time Too Far or Strategy Unavailable came up.

[@MrCheeze]

All Unavailable Strategies would unironically be a pretty hype speedrun, I think.

[@gingermints34]

One player, because we don't have any friends. 0:07

[@quadpad_music]

15:29 - Pro speedruner loses by doing better than anyone else

[@davidklein8608]

I'm disappointed that Nintendo didn't include the challenge from "The Wizard", get the highest score in 5 minutes in SMB3.

[@TrimutiusToo]

Bullet bill glitch is actually available, but not sure if possible to manip the bullet pattern

[@kosmicspeedruns]

The fastest time so far uses 2 flagpole glitches and bullet bill glitch (5:02.3)

[@TrimutiusToo]

@@kosmicspeedruns ok so it is possible then =)

[@EDoyl]

in SMB2 carpet glitch is in the game! AND it's allowed! AND it's slower! because you're not going to the end of that level.

[@thelordflygon6169]

I really hope they update this game with like, the BARE necessities for an NES speedrunning game. I really like it honestly, but imho it NEEDS: 1) At LEAST a Full-Game run challenge for all of the games 2) Practice tools for said runs 3) Automatic splits (How did they not do these already?) 4) More games (I'm kind of taken aback that Punch-Out!! isn't here? Tetris? Contra? Castlevania?)

[@Icebitten]

The problem is that speedrunners are confusing this game as a game aimed at them, but it's really for casual players. You're never going to get any serious speedrunning features from this, and it's always going to be a pretty bad game for real speedrunners. As for more games, except for punch-out, there is a massive rights issue. The Tetris Company is INSANELY difficult to work with and a lot of companies are unlikely to give rights for such a niche project.

[@thelordflygon6169]

@@Icebitten I mean i fully understand what this game is TRYING (and succeeding) to do, but I just wish it had *also* tried to do some other stuff. This is really the first time that Nintendo has acknowledged speedrunning in any major capacity so it's just a bit disappointing to see it so underutilized. They COULD have made a game to get more people to try out speedrunning, but they just kind of ended up making NES remix again. It's a really neat game for what it is, but I think everyone can tell they COULD have done more quite easily. I still stand by Punch-Out!! though, that's still crazy to me.

[@godlyvex5543]

@@Icebitten Ah yes, the best way to give normal people a taste of speedrunning: show them an inaccurate version that babies you, doesn't teach any authentic techniques, and only gives you the illusion of being competent instead of building in any tools that would actually let you start speedrunning for real. "Oh, you thought this was fun and you want to do the real thing? too bad, go find a rom of the game instead" is basically what they're saying with this game. To be clear, it's FINE that the challenges are easy. My problem is that they end before actually scaling up to anything. The game is barebones. At the very least the game should give you the ability to play the full games, ideally it would ramp up to that with progressive challenges, like maybe world 1, then world 2, world 3, world 4, then doing worlds 1-4, then world 5, 6, 7, 8, 5-8, then finally 1 through 8 with shortcuts allowed, then 1 through 8 with no shortcuts allowed. Even better would be including some other challenges to break it up, teaching techniques that real runners use, or other fun side challenges like it already has. How would this be bad for casual players? What's bad is giving them no way to advance their skills if they wanted to do that. The game is just too small.

[@colmecolwag]

why would they let you play the full game, when that's supposed to be a feature for subscribing to NSO? This isn't secretly a NES Complete Games collection, silly :) (this is sarcasm it's dumb they should let you speedrun the entire game darn it blaaaah)

[@trayson]

@@godlyvex5543 exactly. just bc the bare minimum (or less even) is accessible to a casual crowd does not mean a better game wouldn't have been

[@Dialectic42]

With all of the glitches that they patched out, I wonder if you can still die to the invisible piranha in 8-4 water section.

[@guyfromsomewhere6504]

Perfectly synced to the music 3:51

[@SparJar]

I honestly love that it does the "Strategy Unavailable" instead of just patching it out.

[@jackbaxter-williams8059]

Kosmic is one of the best NES players. I just want to see more.

[@ncrecc6040]

wonder if this will bring up a new generation of speedrunners who only do glitchless runs

[@fujinshu]

I think that’s what Nintendo would want. This game is probably a method to slowly but surely kill off glitched speedruns of Nintendo games.

[@BOLDBANGER]

@@fujinshu good, i prefer watching glitchless runs. i do like emergent gameplay but with limits. the zelda oot speedrun being a prime example. (how to make a great game into a bad one)

[@demifolk8940]

@@BOLDBANGEReh, while i do agree with you about preferring glitchless runs, doing glitches is completely okay and nintendo shouldn’t be ashamed they didn’t have the foresight to fix those glitches. glitches are normal, devs shouldn’t feel ashamed for them being around. for me, i really like how people optimize a run with the intended mechanics. many glitches are frame perfect, require setup, and usually more mechanical perfection than a normal run. so i cant deny that

[@internetguy7319]

​@fujinshu the actual reason is because they want casual players to be able to compete

[@DaveAcosta]

dude, this is what I've wanted since the game was announced

[@saynotop2w]

I like the insights you provided... never knew Luigi in smb1 was slower than Mario

[@kosmicspeedruns]

That's in lost levels, he plays the same in smb1

[@lindsayssbm]

You were the one content creator I was really excited to see tackle this game, it's kinda sad that you didnt really seem enthusiastic about it. I hope you can find something that makes it interesting enough for you to make more content on it.

[@ibookboyuk]

I’m having a lot of fun playing this game especially how it teaches you things like for example how to complete Super Mario Bros. 1 with the warp pipes and vine.

[@CptJistuce]

1-1 warpless, Twin Galaxies rules

[@far2ez]

The only part I _really_ liked was the head-to-head portion. I nearly choked on my drink when you just kept getting shafted in SMB2US Luigi level. For better or worse, I always think about you when I think of that game. I beat it first when I was like ~5 years old and it was the first game I _really_ struggled with (as in, needed help on some stages from my cousin the first few times I reached them). Your crusade that it's harder than 2J sits well with me.

[@gdplayer1035]

imagine someone casually does an entire 4:54 run on this

[@MinerGlitch25]

they can’t, because of the “Strategy unavailable.”

[@MadelineJS.2727]

Okay, is no one going to talk about how those jumps on 3:52 synced with the music?

[@RustyMisterTwo]

Such a dramatic thumbnail. Much jawline

[@regi3756]

It’s love watching these prof strategies while seeing Kosmic laugh at what the game is doing. Priceless.

[@losermonkey666]

I waited 1 trillion years for this peak.

[@solanumtuberosa]

Thanks for the arrow. I was confused on who the pro was

[@Fruckert]

I do think it's pretty impressive how many catches they have for glitch strats. Would also be cool for a game to have those be the goal.

[@meliantex]

I love you person who submitted the sponsorblock segment

[@kosmicspeedruns]

Huh, there's not even a sponsor

[@WagnerMoshe]

“80’s vibe”, my friend. Nice work! You are amazing!

[@_Sp4ce_]

18:48 I share that sentiment

[@legoboy7107]

Us Lost Levels fans ain't eatin' with this one! 😢

[@rithessa]

Most fun I've had on the Switch in a while, been having a blast with the Kirby challenges!

[@staudinga]

Imagine getting to the final round in one of these and then noticing your opponent is called "Kosmic"

[@mkwilson1394]

What a fantastic thumbnail!

[@RobotnikPlngas]

Nice. Using the strat for the 1-1 Mushroom I managed to get 03.86 I couldn't have done it without you

[@MichaelMichael-kv4gp]

Notice how this says "NES Edition"??? I can't wait for the SNES Edition!!!

[@KitPlaysLess]

i ADORE the nintendo official livesplit

[@baldi_real_no_fake]

love how they didnt patch the bugs instead just puts "strategy unavailable" for it

[@Winslinator]

Thumbnail has the most badass image of Kosmic ive ever seen 😂

[@JohnSmith-gi2oy]

I love the title “Pro Speedrunner” as if there is a divide between Pro speedrunners and casual ones

[@Kosmicd12]

There is, just like every hobby or sport!

[@JohnSmith-gi2oy]

@@Kosmicd12 Where?? There are some speedrunners who use their talents to make a living who arent as good as others who dont get a living from it; i just don’t think theres a line like in sports

[@supermarioglitchy321]

@@JohnSmith-gi2oy Some people just speedrun for the fun of it, not to make a living out of it. Speedrunning isn't exclusive to those who grind for days, months, years at a time to get world record. Some people just do it because they find it fun.

[@TheOnkeyomay]

I’ve been begging for this for ever!!!

[@adipy8912]

Please upload the whole vod. I want to see you do all the challenges.

[@PatJamma]

Romhack Wednesday lookin a little different

[@makotroid108]

Me: Wall clips 1-4 in kid Icarus Game: so you've chosen death

[@alishbazlol]

I like the new editing style😊

[@matthewLkidder]

This should have been like Tetris 99 where you play some stuff for being an online member and you can choose to buy the rest of the modes.

[@curtisholsinger6023]

"Strategy unavailable" is a weird choice to make considering that "speed run" is an option on this game. Reminds me of Nintendo's continued attempts to prevent speedrunners from breaking Metroid Prime. Just let the people use manips, Nintendo!

[@scmsean]

You think they shouldn't fix bugs in the game?

[@KaitouKaiju]

​@@scmseanIf fixing the bug makes the game worse than no. Imagine if in Street Fighter 2 they just said forget combos and patched it out instead of making it an official feature in the later releases

[@scmsean]

@@KaitouKaiju The bug fixes are too keep people from being able to skip half the game. I think it was just a rumor that the combos were a bug.

[@hauntedsunsets]

it'd also feel a lot different if they actually went through the effort of patching what they see as glitches that shouldn't be in the game. it's one thing to just make a port that's more streamlined to match what they think the game should be. instead they let you do it because they couldn't be bothered to do more then emulate the game, and give you this dumb "strategy unavailable" screen as if speedrunning glitches are DLC

[@scmsean]

@@hauntedsunsets You expected them to rewrite the games? If they remade every game this would be a $500 game. Plus people would still complain.

[@dylenoyer94]

Somebody tell him that you can make the screen bigger for when you're playing in the division matches, so helpful!

[@mrwalter7205]

What an absolutely tragic game from Nintendo on what potentially could have been a masterpiece

[@extremepayne]

they should make a “strategy available” mode as a free update where it just doesn’t boot up for anything

[@luigifan001]

Did no one tell him that you can change the screen size.

[@knightry]

I had never heard of you before, but the algorithm recommended this to me. I've seen a few other comments on this video along with your reaction that the challenges were too easy in this game -- I think everyone needs to remember that this game is absolutely not tailored or meant to challenge top speedrunners like yourself. If the challenges were hard for you, they would be nigh impossible for most folks. As someone who's new to most of these games, It's honestly really fun to watch casual folks play them and try to s-rank everything. I liked the video and cool to see all the tech you know.

[@kosmicspeedruns]

I mean, it's not like they were modding the games to make them harder- these are just regular segments of the original games. I don't think it's nigh impossible for people to simply play through an unmodified part of anywhere in the original game. The issue is they didn't include very many parts of most of the games- so many challenges are only 5 seconds long and clustered around the very beginning of the game. Labeling a challenge as "hard" or "master" difficulty and it's just like, a normal level 20% of the way through the game is kinda silly. Either way, the difficulty isn't the issue it's that the challenges could've been a lot more diverse and interesting.

[@knightry]

@@kosmicspeedruns totally fair, and you are absolutely right, they could have included a lot more variety. What I've enjoyed watching, in addition to your video, is moderate skill players spending 30 minutes optimizing some of these 5-second runs to get to s rank. I get your point that these challenges are short for you, but for many players they may take a long time for each challenge to get to the next level. I just don't think this game is meant for your level of skill.

[@kosmicspeedruns]

@@knightry youll notice most of my complaints are not actually about things being too easy. Occasional challenge like grab the mushroom in 1-1 is fine, or even the zelda one to kill octoroks is great! Theres a lot of routing and decision making. The boring part is when you have 4 challenges which are just different parts of the first level of the game, and then another challenge for the entire first level. This pattern is repeated in several of the games- smb1, smb2, smb3, donkey kong, and UGH lost levels got the worst of it. I feel like I say one thing and people view it in the lense of "well this guy speedruns all the time, he doesn't understand the target audience"- but that lense theyre viewing it through is not letting them hear what I'm actually saying about it (or rather an inference/assumption has to be made because I didn't go into detail, and people generally assume I'm "hating on the game because it's too easy")

[@everythingisterrible8862]

​@@kosmicspeedruns > Either way, the difficulty isn't the issue it's that the challenges could've been a lot more diverse and interesting. This is something I thought of a lot since Mario battle royale games came out. I love shooting spinies out of the air with the fireball, it really mixes the game up. Ideally they would make a *new* retro game from scratch with lots of new things to do (interesting bosses for a change would be revolutionary), but... I think their mentality is similar to how we'll never be able to perfectly recreate a game in Mario Maker. They don't want to compete with themselves with cheap pixels, they want us playing Mario Wonder. There's a lot of pride when it comes to graphics, I guess. If a game doesn't have a few mill budget they'd rather their artists work on something bigger?

[@knightry]

@@kosmicspeedruns That's all totally fair. I imagine being a speedrunner sucks most of the time. You get randoms like me who don't even know who you are trying to inject their opinion.

[@louisng114]

looked forward to watching Kosmic play this since this game came out

[@EDoyl]

Unfortunately they can't have wrong warp because if a typical player scrolls the block off screen, they'd be stuck. So the rewind for missing the warp has to happen when the block scrolls out. Wall clipping could have been left in though.

[@swiftpliff]

love the editing on this one

[@SlammerFr]

i had some great laughs through this video :) thanks for the vibes

[@Ghetto_Smosh]

I have been waiting so long for this video.

[@mitcheze]

I was on the fence but oh i'm totally buying this game. Nintendo should pay you for promotions

[@Wingsaber]

Classic Nintendo, throwing subtly out the window by implementing a literal "stop having fun wrong" mechanic.

[@fernando98322]

Dang I wanted to see that Luigi 1-1 in Lost Levels, that's like my best speedrun time in this LOL

[@d3structi]

They really should have kept the NES Remix title, because that's clearly what this package is.

[@Emberson-9000]

NES remix was better.

[@MitchellPSmith-hl9fu]

I’ve been waiting for you to play this since the game came out

[@kingchris8255]

Kosmic is the grandmaster! He should be allowed to glitch lol

[@extremepayne]

kosmic lookin hella locked in in the thumbnail

[@berternie3194]

Kosmic: My screen is too small. Game: Get a bigger screen by... Kosmic: SPEEEEEDRUN!!! READING IS FOR NERDS!!!

[@C.R.B_]

I like the editing!

[@GretgorPooper]

Been looking forward to watching you play this! Fun times. Too bad it's so scant in content.

[@frostykyogre]

11:25 I grinded it for a bit for sure but I have a 15.13 on 4-1 feels good to beat a time Kosmic was happy with.

[@Zelduh]

IV BEEN WAITING FOR THIS LETS GO

[@DanielHigbee-j8c]

You can make the screen bigger in the options

[@mrwalter7205]

This seems like a game you should rent one time like it's 1992

[@SuperBlackReality]

Wondering if you can solflock yourself as big Mario in 8-4 water section, or is that "strategy unavailable" xd

[@do.ems785z67]

did you change your editing? It looks so much better this video.

[@zacharyjeffares8158]

It is infinitely funny to me they kept the glitches and exploits in the games and just put up the “didn’t say the magic words”, “do not pass go, do not collect 200 dollars”, “you get nothing! YOU LOSE”, Say WHAT again!”, “exnae on the wishing for more wishes”, “you failed (BOOOO!)”, “sike!”, “all we had to do was follow the damn train CJ!” Type shit I’ve ever seen

[@Vlazeca]

So curious what the person at 12:14 meant by the message being nicer in English than Japanese. Does anyone know what the Japanese one says?

[@jam560]

It says この競技では禁止プレイです！再スタート which means "this play is banned in this challenge! Restart"

[@jasontwitchell8167]

Kosmic you are one of my favoritre Speed Runners, seeing you take this game on hurts, I see what you are trying to to Bro. I am now dedicated to improving myself within the bounds of the game. I have gotten S rankings on so many of these. I have tried to go beyond that 1.43 I got on that Paratroopa Toppling challenge sooooooo many times 1.43 is the best time. Love you and all you do for the Speed Running community

[@LunaticSage]

I know this was going to come out. I know it's gonna hurt my feelings when I watch it.

[@lilschlagen]

Nintendo really gave us Mario 35, took it away, and refuse to make anything with the same level of competency again.

[@MattIsTheCat]

Romhack wednesdays coming back when?

[@LotoTheHero]

I miss it too!