Many video game villains put a whoopin' on me in my childhood, but few scarred me like "Iron" Mike Tyson. So it's unbelievable to see someone destroy this boss bottle in 1 minute, 59 seconds. But that's what famed speed runner Summoning Salt did. That makes them the first to defeat the classic Nintendo fight in under two minutes.
As with any speedrun, Salt's victory required perfection on a level must wouldn't even know they needed to execute, let alone how to.
"I hit all 21 frame perfect punches (1/60 of a second), hit 10 perfect dodges and ducks, and got luck that has somewhere around a 1/7,000 to 1/10,000 chance of happening," Salt said on YouTube.
Salt was the first person to shorten the fight to two minutes, and since doing that in 2020 has been tirelessly working on the new record. What's scary is that the speedrunner believes there are frames left on the table that could shave the time down even further. Difficult ducks, perfect dodges and perfect luck could make the run even faster. But this particular speed runner is done, and will eagerly await the next challenger.
Speedrunners are built different. Those lucky enough to beat Mike Tyson once are happy to have gotten by a difficult fight. But speedrunners dust themselves off and decide that they can go further, farther, and most importantly, faster.
The phenemenon has caught on worldwide, even giving us events such as Games Done Quick, which does impressive speedruns to rais money for charity. If there's anything I love more than gaming, it's seeing gamers create new art that challenges while helping people doing it.
Like Summoning Salt, I'm eager to see who can finish Iron Mike Tyson even faster.