Mario Kart 64 speedrunner smashes into wall, sets new world record

It took them just 21 seconds to complete a race.

A Mario Kart 64 speedrunner has set a new world record by... repeatedly driving into a wall!

Yep, you read that correctly. As spotted by Kotaku, Beck "abney317" Abney managed to complete a Luigi Raceway track in just over 21 seconds by slamming into a wall over and over again.

This is making use of a newly-discovered exploit, which allows players to pass through walls under specific circumstances. You can check out them executing this right here. We promise there's more to it than someone just running into a wall repeatedly, which is incidentally what me playing Mario Kart looks like, except I'm not trying to clip through the barrier in the name of speedrunning.

This is how Abney was able to complete the course in just 21:04 seconds. If you look at the Mario Kart World Records page, Abney317 has held the world record since February 9, when they finished Luigi Raceway in 37:40. Before that, a user called Weatherton was the top dog, with a time of 54:47.

Other impressive recent speedrunning achievements including someone beating all five Fallout games in 90 minutes back in 2018, while a year later someone completed Untitled Goose Game in under 4 minutes. Last year, Id Software was wowed by a speedrunner finishing Doom Eternal in 27 minutes.