The speedrunning community is known for supporting classic games over a prolonged period of time. To this day, there are still many people worldwide actively playing older games in a competitive fashion on a daily basis. Twitch speedrunner, Kevin “KevinDDR” Birrell is one of them.
Kotaku UK reports he managed to yesterday beat the Perfect Dark Air Force One level in 52 seconds - matching the world record set by the speed runner Karl “Sim Threat” Jobst towards the end of 2017. Until now, Jobst was untouchable across every difficulty for this particular level in the game and also held a number of records in the title. This makes Birrell’s run a significant accomplishment within the speedrunning community. According to a “speedrunning historian,” it took Birrell 200 hours of practice to succeed.

Throughout the run, there are speedrunning techniques and plenty of pauses. If you do decide to take a look at the clip below, just be aware explicit language is used. Birrell is previously known for being the first Tetris Grandmaster who lives outside of Japan.
While his most recent achievement is not quite as impressive as the Mexican speedrunner who completed the turbo tunnel in Battletoads with a bag over his head, it’s still fantastic to see a game released long ago can continue to challenge and entertain modern day players.
[source kotaku.co.uk]
Comments 11
Not having played Perfect Dark since its release, that article headline really confused me.
I love Perfect Dark. My first game that I was super hyped for.
@ReaderRagfish I've seen a little bit of the community. Basically they hyper focus on one game for years. People have been finding glitches and fighting for a world record for 20 years on the choco mountain course in Mario Kart 64. Sounds like work to me, but whatever floats your boat. Isn't really any different than the guys who are hardcore into street fighter, or they people that obsess at getting 100% in the Bayonetta games. Makes no sense to me, but its a hobby.
Best bit is how pumped he is about this!
It's like he just won the lotto at the end!
Imagine what he’ll be like when a girl goes in his room
What an excitable fellow.
This was weird. It didn’t seem very great at all. Super boring to look at. How was that 52 sec? It took 3 mins of video time anyway.
Speedrunners are a very special breed of gamer
Doesn't seem that special... will have to wait for Goose to do a video on it, he'll explain what's going on a bit better.
@ReaderRagfish yeah I guess on Bayonetta. SF is literally the same thing over and over with slightly different moves though.
@mgnoodle bad angle bad angle bad angle!
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