Have there been video games for which perfect speedruns were mathematically proven?

Have there been video games for which perfect speedruns were mathematically proven? - Joyful teenager playing video game on TV console

Recently, there was posted a video from the YouTube channel Summoning Salt, talking about speedrunning Super Mario Bros and how close humans are to perfectly speedrunning each level. In this video, it is claimed that the perfect speedrun (with the rule of not pressing right and left at same time) of this game is 4:54.26, as this is the best done as a Tool-Assisted Speedrun. This leads to the following questions:

  1. Is there proof that this time is indeed perfect?
  2. Are there any other (non-trivial) video games where it was rigorously proved that a speedrun for it is optimal?


Best Answer

SMB is a very 'solved' game. Its an old game, short, that is run by a lot of runners.

So there is no new strats that are found often.

Also, SMB is a 'simple' game. There is no perfect routing for collectibles that could be optimised or a sidequest that could be skipped. Its get to the end of the levels, and the only complexity is the level skip zones, that are known and it would be a surprise if suddenly a new one was found after almost 40 years. In other games there is always the possibility that a different route might suddenly be found and be better. But as I said, SMB being just 'get to the flag and thats it, there is no 'different route' that might work.

So you can assume that looking at a TAS, that makes no errors that humans are doing, and that that TAS is limited to not do inhumane things, the TAS is then what would be the perfect, human achievable time.

But yeah when we say 'Perfect' its 'perfect as of now'. But for SMB, since its a game that lots and lots of speedrunners have ran, and its been analysed backwards and forwards, it can be tought that we will never find a new exploit that REALLY changes the game. Probably a few frames here and there, but not something that would save even seconds. That being said: we can never say with certainty that nothing will be found again. So as I said: Perfect as of now.




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Are there any perfect speedruns?

Twitch streamer and speedrunner Niftski has demolished the world record for a speedrun in Super Mario Bros., clocking in what's being called a \u201cperfect\u201d run at 4:54.948. That's right, four minutes and fifty-four seconds, with a little bit of change.

Is a 4 53 possible?

4:53 is completely impossible.

What game has been speedrun the most?

Games With The Most Speedruns Of All Time RevealedGameNumber of runsBest Time (Hours:Minutes:Seconds)Super Mario 642842601:37:53Super Mario Odyssey1846000:57:21Celeste1378000:26:23Mario Kart 8 Deluxe1234801:54:1621 more rows•Dec 6, 2021



10 Video Game Speedruns You NEED To See To Believe




Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Images: Andrea Piacquadio, Ketut Subiyanto, Kevin Bidwell, Marta Wave