Speedrunner discovers a new glitch in 28-year-old NES game
Speedrunner Skavenger216 stumbled on a brand new glitch in Blaster Master on Monday that let him skip a boss level entirely, but it still wasn't enough to finish first in a 1v1 race.
Instead of encountering Crabullus, the boss of the game's second area that you can see on ShiningDragoon's screen at the beginning of the video, Skavenger walked into the room and grabbed the Crusher Beam weapon that normally drops after finishing the fight.
Everyone watching was visibly surprised:
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Skavenger fell behind Dragoon earlier in the race after an early death, but the brand new glitch saved him some much-needed time, putting him hot on Dragoon's tail. It just wasn't enough to secure him the win.
Skavenger currently holds the third place record for this specific Blaster Master speedrun showcased at AGDQ this year, which focuses on competitive percentages for completing the game without using warps in the Japanese version. Dragoon holds the second place record, ahead of Skavenger's record by 22 seconds with a time of 37:06. (The world record is still held by ILuvMario at 36:37.) Beating Dragoon would have given Skavenger some well-earned bragging rights.
Unfortunately for Skavenger, he couldn't capitalize on the advantage the glitch gave him and he finished 46 seconds behind Dragoon.
If players can figure out how to recreate the glitch, that skip will shave valuable seconds off of run times, just the kind of discovery that keeps speedrunning communities alive and well.
