Hmm... he could've gotten 100 points fewer by jumping off the goomba in 8-1 and avoiding the coin. Also, this has to be tool-assisted.

UsaSatsui wrote:

I don't see anything that indicates to me this is tooled.

Sure, everything he does in the video is possible, but some of those tricks are extraordinarily hard to pull off. For instance, wall jumping. He does this no less than 4 times. Yes, it's possible, and people can do it sometimes. But it takes an absurd amount of precision and isn't something you can do every time if you just feel like showing off. Look how he zooms up the steps in 1-1, or how he can hit the block just perfectly in 4-2. Even jumping just below the couple of coins towards the end of 8-1 isn't easy. Considering all the little tricks he does, and the speed that he tears through the game, I highly doubt any person is capable of doing this legitimately. Maybe that doesn't convice you, but I'd bet anything that this is indeed tool-assisted.

On another note. I do think it is humanly possible to clear the game with only 600 points. I think I'll try it out.

GPFontaine wrote:

NS, do us a favor, play it with the original graphics.

Heh... of course. I'm already close to success.

My guess is that he made a save state at a bad time.

Really though, if he was good enough to do the all the absurd tricks he did, the idea that he'd die in those ways is laughable.

Also, try out wall jumping some time.

GPFontaine wrote:

Can someone please explain how the jumping into walls thing happens?

Here you go: http://tasvideos.org/GameResources/NES/SuperMarioBros.html
See: Going through bricks

If some of you are still not convinced that this is tool-assisted, I have something for you. I went ahead and asked the best Mario player in the world, Andrew Gardikis, for his analysis.

Not Sure wrote:

So, there's this popular video of a guy clearing SMB with only 700 points. While I know this is humanly possible, it's just that his video is highly suspect. I think he's using save states, but I can't convince some people otherwise. If you would take a minute to see for yourself, I'd greatly appreciate your thoughts on the matter. Hopefully, your expert opinion would sway them towards my viewpoint.

He replies:

Andrew G. wrote:

Yes, very very likely considering he does 3 walljumps in 8-1. And only 1 is actually needed. Either it's savestates and maybe slowdown (tool assisting), he is extremely lucky, or he is an amazing player. Considering it's on an emulator I would say it definitely used savestates to some extent. It's not completely impossible to manage what was done, but it's EXTREMELY unlikely he did that in one try and without savestates. Also, I once tried this and ended with 600 pts in one go... I didn't do any walljumps or anything, I just had different methods.

So, there you have it. Nyah!