Andrew Gardikis

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Andrew Gardikis (born 1990), better known as andrewg is a speedrunner who was the first player known to have beaten Super Mario Bros. in under 5 minutes.

Contents

Speedrunning career

Prior to speedrunning, Gardikis was a runner, but he had to stop due to lung issues. [1]

In 2004, as a 14 year old, Gardikis had set a goal to beat the game as fast as possible after watching a speedrun on G4TV. [2] [1] He played on the Nintendo Entertainment System his older sister had bought in the early 1990s. [3]

Gardikis uploaded a VHS recording of his world record on March 23, 2006, beating prior record holder Scott Kessler. [4] Gardikis held the record for seven years, his tenure itself a record. He broke the 5 minute barrier during that time, in 2011. [5] Over 9 years of speedrunning, he improved his time by seven seconds. [4]

Due to his success in speedrunning Super Mario Bros., he was invited to meet with Shigeru Miyamoto. [5] Miyamoto watched him play live at the Nintendo World Store during the game's 25th anniversary celebration. [6] At the event, Gardikis played on the Wii Virtual Console while wearing a Super Mario Bros. 2 shirt. [1]

Gardikis was a member of Team Ludendi, a team of speedrunners. [1]

Gardikis has also held other records, including for Track & Field , [3] and Super Mario Bros 2 . [7]

Legacy

According to Oliver Roeder of FiveThirtyEight , Gardikis is credited with pioneering or perfecting certain techniques of the Super Mario Bros. speedrun, including level 8-4's wall jump, and level 4-2's wrong warp. [8]

While holding the record in 2016, speedrunner Darbian recalled Gardikis' dominance, also remembering a time he had juggled while playing with his feet. [8]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Irwin, Jon (2014). Super Mario Bros. 2. Boss Fight Books. ISBN   9781940535050.
  2. ↑ Baker, Billy (March 2, 2014). "Quincy gamer on quest for Super Mario perfection". Boston Globe . Quincy, Massachusetts . Retrieved 2025-01-12.
  3. 1 2 Baker, Billy. "All thumbs:A Quincy youth shoots for a perfect run in record time in Super Mario video game". Boston Globe . Quincy, Massachusetts. Archived from the original on 2014-07-24. Retrieved 2025-01-12.
  4. 1 2 Irwin, Jon (2015-08-31). "Why we love Mario". Kill Screen . Archived from the original on 2020-08-15. Retrieved 2025-01-12.
  5. 1 2 Brown, Jennings (Dec 21, 2016). "Super Mario Run Owes Its Record Success to the 'Speedrunner' Community". NYMag . Retrieved 2025-01-12.
  6. ↑ Plafke, James (Nov 8, 2010). "Mario Speedrunner Can't Quite Recreate His 5-Minute Record in Front of Mario Creator". The Mary Sue . Retrieved 2025-01-12.
  7. ↑ Irwin, Jon (2014-10-06). "Four Things I Learned While Writing a Book about Super Mario Bros. 2". Kill Screen . Archived from the original on 2020-11-25. Retrieved 2025-01-12.
  8. 1 2 Roeder, Oliver (Oct 19, 2016). "People Are Making Super Mario Go Faster Than Ever". FiveThirtyEight . Retrieved 2025-01-12.
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