Legendary Super Mario speedrunner Cheese finally breaks 1:40 barrier

One of the most impressive records in speedrunning history has finally been broken. Allan “Cheese05” Alvarez, the long-time world record holder for the 120 star speedrun in Super Mario 64, became the first player in history to eclipse the 1:40:00 mark.

Cheese previously held the world record for collecting all of the stars in Super Mario 64 at 1:40:05, as explained in this video by Summoning Salt on the storied history of the game’s runs. But Cheese wanted to be the first person ever to beat the game in under 100 minutes.

After months of unsuccessful attempts, perhaps a challenger spurred him on. His previous world record was equaled by “Batora,” meaning Cheese no longer held the record outright.

After collecting the 119th star of this world record run, Cheese was at 1:37:34, which gave him just over two minutes to complete the final stage. Cheese took a deep breath, and without saying a single world, he swiftly left the entrance to Rainbow Ride and made his way up the staircase to the last level—Bowser in the Sky.

Cheese quickly and quietly collected the eight red coins on this level in order to earn the 120th star for this run—but he still needed to beat Bowser one last time to complete the run.

Entering the warp pipe at 1:39:10, Cheese had no margin for error in this final boss fight if he wanted to break the 1:40:00 mark.

Cheese perfectly executed all three Bowser throws to beat the game. Pleading with the game to hurry up, Cheese breathed a huge sigh of relief as he collected the final star at 1:39:57 to become the first player in Super Mario 64 speedrun history to beat the 120 star category in under 1:40:00.

After briefly leaving his room to collect his thoughts, Cheese thanked everyone in his stream for all of their support on his journey to breaking his own world record.

This is truly an incredible achievement for both the Super Mario community and the speedrunning community in general. To have such a long-standing barrier broken, one that many believed just couldn’t be pushed through, is a moment that will go down in history.