A speedrunner has managed to beat The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time in under four minutes. Thing is, they managed the impressive feat without even using the full release of the game.
As spotted by Polygon, a speedrunner going by the username Savestate uploaded a video to YouTube showcasing their run of the N64 classic. Using a demo version of the game loaded from inside Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Nintendo Wii, Savestate managed to complete the game in an immensely impressive 3 minutes and 41 seconds.
Within the speedrunning community, games have a number of categories that users can attempt speedruns in. Savestate’s attempt at the game is classed as an “Any%” run, which essentially means that that a player is able to use various bugs, glitches, and exploits to finish the game as quickly as possible. The speedrunner’s time is almost half that of the full version of Ocarina of Time’s world record, which currently stands at 6 minutes and 49 seconds – although there are significant differences between the full version and the demo included in Smash Bros. Brawl.
Super Smash Bros. Brawl on the Nintendo Wii came loaded with a number of short demos that allowed players to dip into the franchises that the game had taken its fighters from. The Ocarina of Time demo accessed by Savestate grants players the freedom to explore the N64 classic as they please but cuts playtime off after five minutes – a factor that likely doesn’t matter when you’re attempting to complete the entire game in under four.
Perhaps due to its five-minute playtime, the demo comes with a few differences to the official release version of the game that make it a lucrative option for speedrunners. Not only does the demo skip the entire beginning of Ocarina of Time, instead opting to start players off at the Temple of Time, it also comes with a number of pre-loaded items that can come in useful when it comes to shaving off valuable seconds on a run.
Unfortunately for Savestate, while the run may be of world record pace in its own right, Speedrun.com doesn’t yet include a separate category for the Brawl demo that the run was completed on. With the two versions of the game being so different, the time won’t affect the current “Any%” standings for Ocarina of Time – though either way, it’s a pretty spectacular effort.
For more nostalgia-fuelled reading, make sure to check out this article where we counted down the top 25 games that were released for the N64. Alternatively, to delve further into the world of speedrunning take a look at this piece detailing how Spelunky’s world record holder was recently exposed as a cheater.
Jared Moore is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.