Running With Speed

Meet Andrew G, a pioneer who was first to beat the original Super Mario Bros. in under 5 minutes! Mitchflowerpower is the best ever at Super Mario Bros. 3 and shows us what it takes to make a living as a modern-day speedrunner on the streaming platform Twitch. The episode ends on the doorstep of the biggest, most intriguing yearly event in speedrunning- A Summer Games Done Quick charity marathon!

Twenty speedrunners gathered in Mike Uyama's mother's basement for what was called "Classic Games Done Quick" in 2010. No one imagined that years later they would be a fundraising juggernaut, packing hotels and drawing millions of online viewers- but that's exactly what has happened. The episode ends with a monumental face-off between the two best Super Mario 64 players on the planet!

Speedrunning is about much more than just Mario, and this episode takes a step down that rabbit hole. We meet Zoast, the record holder for fastest completion of Super Metroid. We travel to Japan to hear from a renowned but mysterious Super Metroid runner named Hotarubi. We also meet Narcissa Wright who notoriously bested the record for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time in 2015.