Super!

Super Mario Kart SNES has just had another barrier broken on the Time Trial Mode. You may recall us reporting that UK-based Mario Kart expert Sami Cetin was the first person to break the sub-58 second barrier on the PAL Version of Mario Circuit 1 on Christmas Day, 2013. After this amazing Christmas present it was almost inevitable that he would then shoot for the world’s first sub-56 second time on the slightly faster NTSC version of the game (European titles generally run slower thanks to differences in TV standards).

This is the first race track in the entire Mario Kart franchise and therefore saw a lot of fierce competition from the Japanese testers back in the 1990s, where they first achieved a sub-minute time. This would eventually make its way down to 57 seconds by 2003.

Later on, European and American competitors got involved and the World Record was pushed below 57 second level. Cetin then reached a 56.45 seconds time which debuted in the Guinness World Records 2012 Gamer’s Edition and 2013 main book, and he pushed it to a low 56 seconds earlier this year.

On Sunday 23rd November, Cetin finally achieved his goal and broke the 56.00 second barrier. His best time is 55.97 seconds, and a new World Record. You can witness the lap here:

Cetin is certainly not alone in the realm of Mario Kart mastery. His main Time Trial rivals across NTSC and / or PAL — Oliver Segarra Gonzalez (Brazil), Karel van Duijvenboden (Netherlands) and overall Time Trial World Champion, Guillaume Leviach (France) — still hold many more World Records across all the other tracks. Given that he's mastered Mario Circuit 1, Cetin's next objective will surely be to tackle the other tracks, and we look forward to hearing if new World Records can be toppled.

Cetin and his niece Leyla Hasso — who happens to be the Women’s World Champion of Super Mario Kart SNES — attend a number of Retro Gaming events across the UK and can be seen doing live Time Trial Demonstrations. You can keep up with his progress by following Cetin on Twitter, and keep tabs on how he's preparing for the the Super Mario Kart SNES World Championships, which are to be held in France in August 2015 and will feature most of the world's top players. You can also check out our exclusive interview with the great man here.