One of life’s simple pleasures is watching people ply their trade. There is a joy in watching person who is extremely good at something do that thing. Take, for instance, LilKirbs, a YouTuber who likes to “play games in the most difficult way possible”.
Super Mario Maker 2 is a content gold mine for creators like LilKirbs. It is a game that contains a seemingly endless supply of deliberately difficult levels. This makes it a prime target for masochists and gluttons for punishment. His latest clear, however, might well be his masterpiece.
‘speedrun 100’, a Super Mario Maker 2 level by Japanese creator Pochi 2, has one of the game’s lowest clear levels. That is, only 2 players out of (at the time of recording) 427,550 had managed to complete it. LilKirbs was one of them.
In the video, LilKirbs explains how, through weeks of committed play, he was able to become only the second person to ever complete the level. He also shaved ten seconds off its previous world record time. Using a number of exploits well-known to Super Mario Maker runners, LilKirbs is able to outsmart the level’s creator, accessing sections early and holding onto keys he shouldn’t have.
It’s a pleasure to watch him work, and LilKirbs clearly explains how he accomplished his absurd feat. The skill he displays is outrageous, but it’s the way that skill lets him identify cracks in the level’s armour that is perhaps the video’s most impressive aspect. It’s the result of patience and experimentation carried out over what must surely be hundreds and hundreds of runs.
As LilKirbs points out, there are Super Mario Maker 2 levels with more attempts made and lower clears to show for it. However, many of those levels aren’t, well, on the level. A previous challenge on a level called The Unforgiving Desert by TylerDaPig had only 1 clear from over half a million attempts. Suspicions about the veracity of that number were raised when SMM2 showed just 652 players had ever started the level. The math, as they say, wasn’t mathing. LilKirbs made relatively short work of it, surmising that some players may have been deliberately dying to drive the attempt counter up.
GGs to LilKirbs on his epic run.
Image: Nintendo
Leave a Reply