The Hardest Mario Speedrun: The Lost Levels

[@Kosmicd12]

5:06 that's not an FDS! I could not be more upset

[@bobbydog6762]

So true

[@olipolygon]

almost seems done intentionally given one of your recent videos...

[@Storster]

Whoops, I missed your TED Talk

[@chiefzach7418]

Kosmic we need part 2 of your ted talk

[@KJgameplay14]

When I got to that part of the video I instantly thought about you lmao

[@hitzcritz]

I'm glad how Super Mario Bros. 2 Japan is getting more attention, that game's hard to beat even casually lmfao

[@ruben._._34577]

Lmao, also yes it is underrated

[@ThaAwesome10]

The game is much easier to beat when speedrunning than playing casually lol

[@SECONDQUEST]

Omg it's Obama!

[@HonkeyKongLive]

I beat it once and I haven't touched it since. I cannot fathom speedrunning it.

[@GoldenGamerFox7272fromYT]

@@ThaAwesome10 the game is way easier when you have rewind lol

[@Real_Artician]

"I was *shocked* how Mr. Miyamoto could have made such a cruel game." And here, 30 odd years on and people are beating that "cruel" game twice in a coffee break.

[@19Szabolcs91]

Fun fact, Miyamoto didn't actually make The Lost Levels aka SMB2(J), it was directed and designed by Takashi Tezuka. In the meantime Miyamoto was working on Doki Doki Panic which ended up bying reskinned to the Western SMB2. Fun how it all comes around.

[@Real_Artician]

Full, direct, copied, and famous, quote from Howard Phillips. Wikipedia's actually provides source for the quote too. Sorry I wasn't completely accurate with a reference to a famous quote. As I continued to play, I found that Super Mario Bros. 2 asked me again and again to take a leap of faith, and each of those leaps resulted in my immediate death. This was not a fun game to play. It was punishment - undeserved punishment. I put down my controller, astonished that Mr. Miyamoto had chosen to design such a painful game. -Howard Phillips on his test playthrough of The Lost Levels[12]

[@legoboy7107]

@@Real_Artician The annoying thing is, Lost Levels never really asks you to make a blind leap of faith anywhere if you just stop and assess the situation for once. With all those "blind parakoopa jumps" people have talked about where you can't see the parakoopa you have to jump on, you can actually always get a full perfect view of the parakoopa if you just stop, walk back, and slowly edge the screen scroll forward, and then you have everything you need to actually time your jump rather than going in blind. Similar thing with the infamous big springs, you can just use the screen scroll to tell where Mario currently is horizontally, since if the screen is scrolling that means Mario is in the center.

[@AndrewgSpeedruns]

Good stuff! I just stumbled onto this video. Glad to see the research and all. One thing I want to note is that the reason there werent earlier speedruns for this was simply because it was only available on emu or FDS prior to 2007. 2007 was the first time it was properly released outside of Japan. I would have done a run earlier hahaha

[@Storster]

Thanks for the watch Andrew! Good to know, thanks for all the runs you have done over the years!!!

[@nogoat]

This game doesn't get enough coverage as it's brother, Super Mario Bros. Glad it's getting covered in recent times.

[@iBall1]

45:25 Look Gary there I am!

[@Storster]

ibowl

[@19Szabolcs91]

By the way, "First Bowser" on 8-4 is actually Bowser's Brother according to the original manual. Really.

[@richarddavis8863]

Buruukoopa. Blue Koopa I guess

[@everything.editzz]

nah let's call him bruce

[@richarddavis8863]

@@everything.editzz Buuruuceukoopa haha

[@19Szabolcs91]

@@everything.editzz I prefer the theory that he is called Morton, and Morton Jr., along with all the other Koopa Kids are his children.

[@adude6568]

Browser

[@Larszard]

Fantastic content as always! SMB2J is so exciting because it's a bit less optimised than SMB so big timesaves can still happen. Also, the background music in this was impeccable

[@awesomefrog.]

These videos are so entertaining, modern internet history combined with in-depth speedrunning trick explanations is just an amazing combo. Keep it up man!

[@Storster]

Thank you so much for watching everyone! This has been one of the most interesting runs to talk about to me! I started this at the very beginning of May! I'm not sure if I will be able to get something out by the end of August before college starts, but no matter what, I am not going away! Cheers to more! Edit: Niftski instantly obsoleted information in this video and on the same day of this coming out improved the 8-4 IL Record by one frame. The human sum of best is now 7:47.680!

[@legoboy7107]

SMB Lost Levels has genuinely become one of my favorite 2D Mario games in the past few months. I've gotten good enough at SMB1 in the past couple years that I can do a normal playthrough of Worlds 1-8 (and 9) on the FDS version of Lost Levels without any game overs like it's any other 2D Mario game, and the higher difficulty honestly feels mostly amazing given how easy other traditional non-kaizo Mario games have become. Lost Levels is difficult but it's still traditional in its design, not kaizo-esque, and I love that. And, when you look at it from the perspective of how it was made specifically for players who had completely mastered everything about SMB1 and not intended for newcomers, a target audience literally no other official 2D Mario game has been designed around (the closest thing being some DLC in NSMB2), Lost Levels is actually VERY well designed with that goal in mind. It's much better designed than people give it credit for but is just designed around a very different audience from other Mario games, which is why it likely doesn't feel great for an amateur casual like other Mario games do, because it simply wasn't designed for them. I understand people who say that Mario games should be accessible and not designed just specifically for hardcore veterans, but when EVERY Mario game is designed to be beginner-accessible when Nintendo could do so much with the robust Mario mechanics in a game specifically targeted toward hardcore players, it gets stale, so it's nice to have at least ONE official Nintendo-made Mario game designed specifically for hardcore veterans. In my opinion not EVERY Mario game should have to be beginner-accessible and not targeted specifically toward series veterans, and having an entire official game, rather than just a single bonus world or some DLC, designed for veterans feels awesome for someone like me. Though reskinning Doki Doki Panic for the West was still probably the best call given the situation at the time, and in the long run it resulted in us having BOTH SMB2s which are both fantastic in my opinion, albeit for different reasons, so even though I love Lost Levels I'm still glad Nintendo made the decision they did.

[@GensoBees]

Thank you thumbnail, for finding my lost Bowser! I don't know what I would have done without him!

[@MiniIand]

yoooooo i just watched this whole video and its insanely good its also worth noting that on i believe the same day niftski got 7:52, he had a run a full second ahead of his 7:52 to 4-4 clip, saving triple 1-2 framerule + 4-3 double framerule save :o

[@mathprodigy]

Just in the middle of watching this rn and i love the Uniracers music. Underappreciated classic game

[@inverse_of_zero]

i think it was nice how darbian got the last ever minute barrier

[@steveeveslage4873]

I was not prepared for this game. Eventually learned to appreciate it though. Love the videos demonstrating the skills of the speed runners. Nice!

[@ujkloin]

8:08 WOW that is insane that back in 2010 speedrunners went for that and in 2020 just 1 year ago not many records did it!

[@MeesterTweester]

I beat the game for the first time last September and this week beat it on the Game & Watch. Great video!

[@joebrunina8697]

This video is great and very informative. I love the long form docs. Big fan of the channel!

[@kevinhay2267]

Awesome, loved it, thanks so much for the effort you put into your videos. We should all have a party when you have 1 million subs.

[@pawer_themaw]

Super Mario Bros: The Lost Speedruns :)

[@superdejan64]

Can we appreciate that Darbian goes for sblj at the very end of his Marihour run? Can't imagine how many runs he lost to that

[@UzzyT.]

I’m glad I have the bell hit for you.

[@mathprodigy]

Yea man fantastic presentation, loved this quite a bit

[@sheepdog_81]

Incredible video! Incredible game! Incredible players! Incredible story! Awesome!

[@rinbros]

It’s amazing how Summoning Salt is the only one who can pull videos like this.

[@thekilla1234]

Nintendo 1986: This game is way too hard, let's make a different one. SMM Super Expert: bruh

[@fredhrodrigues9019]

This is amazing, thank you for it, keep on with the great work!

[@sarysa]

With SMB1 more or less out of seconds to shave, I'll be looking forward to what these amazing runners can do with SMB's forgotten cousin.

[@donwald3436]

That Niftski robot is at it again!!! lol

[@DeaDGoD_XIV]

I love the use of the Zombies Ate my Neighbors soundtrack

[@SlimecraftStudios]

"Overall Cleaner 1-2" **BLURY VIDEO**

[@Gregggggggggg]

8:56 Arabesque by Burgmuller, classical musicians unite!

[@slopyardjoe]

i like how when niftski jumps he looks like he's playing bass

[@kaspi644]

good job as always!

[@RealDabiOW]

This was an awesome video that was very informative Great job!

[@vaporwavevocap]

13:30 what's this song? The songs in this video are such bangers I keep leaving to look them up but I can't find this one.

[@qwertyrhoads9295]

Dang, this music though.

[@quandle8647]

“Flagtable glitch”

[@mateolanda9547]

You already know I have a reminder

[@ujkloin]

17:35 what you said he beat it by "over" a second but that is 0.95 seconds saved

[@ColinGeorgie]

what is the name of the classical piece being techno remixed at 10:27 i played it as a child and cant remember the name

[@TACOINSURANCE]

Kosmic is GOAT. We know this.

[@miketate3445]

14:23 Take me home tonight...

[@waxknucklebearingjuice5592]

volume inconsistency kills !

[@Storster]

I know my audio has sucked at certain points haha. I hope you'd agree my last few uploads are way more consistent. That's been a priority lately.

[@andrewburris4370]

how come some of the speedrun tricks in the first smb aren't used in the lost levels, like the flagpole glitch and stuff like that?

[@chiefzach7418]

Enjoyed the video

[@whiterottenrabbit]

Love your engaging upbeat non-monothone narrating style **slow clap**

[@alaeriia01]

What's the music that plays at 6:53? It's quoting a piece I remember from back when I was learning piano.

[@vaporwavevocap]

Super Tetris 3 SNES - OST Technotris

[@dylansmith6911]

1m subs incoming

[@KiraKibosh]

What song is playing at 37:50?

[@billymaier6712]

UNIRACERS MUSIC!!!!!!!!!!!

[@laytonjr6601]

Is there a reason why the timing method doesn't get adjusted by the frame rate? The one with the fewest frames would have the word record instead of the one with the fastest time

[@Kosmicd12]

lower framerate means bigger window to hit tricks. The fastest time should be the fastest time haha.

[@laytonjr6601]

@@Kosmicd12 Thanks for the answer!

[@19Szabolcs91]

@@Kosmicd12 Afaik, some speedrun communities do count frames instead of raw time, and convert, like Mario Kart 64. This makes PAL very advantageous because it's easier to play if it's 20% slower.

[@findharry7]

I feel like someone is gonna start talking about summoning salt in the comment😂

[@AdamFerrari64]

But Can you beat All the levels ? 😎🔥

[@starting7725]

and that's when we have warpless

[@AdamFerrari64]

@@starting7725 lol I know I was being sarcastic. I have the wr for all levels so it’s an inside joke between me and Pat :)

[@starting7725]

@@AdamFerrari64 yea I know

[@ThaAwesome10]

@@AdamFerrari64 whos pat

[@nogoat]

@@ThaAwesome10 Storster.

[@zLance2409]

Number 15...

[@brandoncolon1160]

Beat it as a kid its fuckin brutal the japanese are intense

[@bloodhound1182]

1:25 WHY DID THIS TAKE SO LONG ?? WHY IS NOBODY ELSE MENTIONING THIS

[@salt2862]

Meow wow speedrun bing has gone far

[@kentbdreyer]

what is that fake ken theme in the beginning?

[@manawyrm6282]

+ Like. Can you make video about Warpless D-4 category?

[@ujkloin]

39:27 5-1*

[@ujkloin]

39:48 down*

[@clippysoft]

ey, anyone know the song at 13:27 ??

[@Mighty_Dork]

Your voice sounds way different in every video of yours I watch

[@mokomoko1876]

WHATS THE SONG AT 47:34 PLEASE GOD IM NOT DIGGING THRU THAT HUGE SONG LIST 😿

[@dylansmith6911]

voice mod like alt history hub and youll have a million subs

[@thefrankperspective4247]

Are we sub-7:00 yet lol

[@matts9382]

What is that intro song?!? Rules!!!

[@equious8413]

Imagine making a game released in 1989 available on your fancy new console and having the framerate be worse. Wtf Nintendo.

[@ujkloin]

16:24 sorry but thats not sml lol

[@beatrizmendoza6045]

Let’s GOO

[@kakuuirukusu1868]

Had to skip to 10:02 because the music playing before that was so awful and repetitive that I wanted to blow my brains out for a minute there. Brother I wanted to hear what you had to say but that music was too much

[@spaniardprince]

Subbed

[@bananacat3109]

I watched the whole video

[@Besitzerstolz]

I really enjoy your videos, but your thumbnails are just not good. For the last few videos, they were pretty bland, but easy to recognize as a Storster video. But this time it's just messy! This arrow pointing to Bowser's neck makes no sense at all and the word "Lost" is just not fitting, too. It makes you interested in a record not seen for years or hidden by the language barrier. Instead, when you read the title you understand, that it's actually a video about a game, which has the word as main part of the title. It seems to be misplaced and brings up wrong expectations.

[@kkmac7247]

Was the thumbnail changed?

[@Besitzerstolz]

@@kkmac7247 yeah, good to see he listens to criticism.

[@timothydennis1154]

Invest in a better mic. VO sounds like garbage. I only comment because the content is good. Take this as constructive criticism.

[@Opanker_]

Smb2u is harder than lost levels.

[@averydee5328]

Summon Salt explains better, you should take reference off of him

[@B3Band]

It's so awkward hearing "they" used as singular.

[@dihydrogen]

it may be easy to get used to it seeing as singular they is used _all the time_

[@BJGvideos]

Why is that awkward to you? People use singular they all the time and have for a very long time

[@WoddCar]

The fact that people are able to beat this game very fast without many deaths or pauses is amazing for me

[@SwedePotato314]

I can't wait!!! When I was a kid and finally upgraded to SNES, I had the SMB All-Stars cart with the Lost Levels on it... it was sooo much more challenging than the SMB I was used to, but oh man did I love it! So so so excited Sorester is doing this deep dive! Worth Worth wait, every time! 🖤🎮🕹

[@ultraspinalki11]

I heard that the version of Lost Levels in SNES All Stars is slightly toned down in difficulty, is missing a few levels and has slightly altered physics. Still, it was a blast to play.

[@Kosmicd12]

@@ultraspinalki11 it's not missing any levels, nor or any of them altered in any significant way :)

[@ultraspinalki11]

@@Kosmicd12 It's on the wiki, but I suppose it could be wrong: "The first appearance of the game outside of Japan was in remastered form in Super Mario All-Stars for SNES; some level designs were slightly modified to be made a bit easier, additional checkpoints and 1-ups were added, and poison mushrooms were altered to appear less similar to super mushrooms. A save feature was also added to allow starting the game from any accessed level." And my mistake, it was the GBC version of Lost Levels in "SMB Deluxe" that had levels missing.

[@Kosmicd12]

@@ultraspinalki11 actually the opposite is true, they removed midway points in the letter worlds, made enemies move faster, and made more of the bowsers throw hammers. There aren't more 1-ups, but you do start with 2 more lives and game overs basically don't matter since you save your progress on every level.

[@SwedePotato314]

@@Kosmicd12 The master has confirmed my childhood badassery is still intact! Thank you, senpai.

[@the1barbarian781]

Exited for it! Also irrelevant to the lost levels but scalpels Rubik’s cube stuff is even more insane than his speedrunning

[@kissen1_]

I too get exited

[@the1barbarian781]

Incredible video. Learned so much about a game that I’ve never played

[@ThaAwesome10]

I kinda wish you at least mentioned lekukie’s 7:57.04/7:56.545

[@yungvarg2301]

It's so hard because you have to find the levels first

[@OGGI_ZOMBIE]

its not that Mario Lost Levels are hard, its that its incredibly trolley. I consider it the origins of Mario Maker. Why did they have to make every castle a puzzle?

[@serbonkers4130]

Yeah i grew up in SEA and this is the mario 2 that i know. Never beat it once lol

[@idkyet9458]

i am growing up in SEA and it feels like adults want to eradicate games from the face of the earth i hardly knew any mario games until recent years i beat this game before but used tons of savestates

[@christopherjones8149]

I got close once, never made it again 😂😂😂😂😂

[@StepBaum]

Awesome editing and use of music. Good job honestly :), also appreciate the sections in the video

[@wheelinshirt]

Neat video but that techno version of 'take me home tonight' is absolutely grating. turned off the video because i just couldn't take it anymore.

[@NinetyLegos]

I think Kosmic has 8-4 100% WR

[@Larszard]

I haven't found time to watch this yet but bro how many different titles has it had? Are you trying to set a new WR for amount of title changes on a KZbin video? 😂

[@Storster]

I promise it won't change again, I couldn't settle on one haha

[@katepuddings2]

Darbian's first sub 8 is probably the funniest Mario run i have ever watched

[@NewSchattenRayquaza]

17:00 Bro looks just like me playing dark souls lamo

[@PatrickDavis28]

The crazy thing is, 7:51 could be done pretty easily. Kosmic accidentally got an FPG in 8-2 that saved a framerule, and in the same run he also saved a framerule in 8-1. The thing is, neither of those framerules are in the world record. If Niftski went for those timesaves, he could just barely clutch out a 7:51. Also, fun fact: If you count loading times, Somewes would still have the world record with a time of 7:57.

[@idkyet9458]

how do you accidentally get an fpg

[@ThatOneLegendEmerald]

Well, guess what I'm watching while packing for moving-

[@srich040]

Great work as always!

[@riahlexington]

Oh the roast beef infomercial I remember that well!!

[@ghostedisnotgoofy]

Nice video been waiting a to see this for a while now amazing as always!

[@ricogoins]

i cant wait! its probably way harder than smb1

[@snakeywakey3893]

The quality here is amazing.