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]