After an 8-year feud, one Mario Kart 64 player now holds every world record

After an eight-year feud in the Mario Kart 64 speedrunning community, one player has finally achieved the never-before-done feat of obtaining every track world record in the game simultaneously.

American Dan Burbank obtained the 32^nd of his 32 world record ‘no shortcut’ times on Sunday, marking the first time that any player has been able to obtain 32 out of 32 world record spots at the same time, some 25 years after the N64 game first released.

The 32 records cover both single laps and three-lap races on all of Mario Kart 64’s 16 tracks, without using any shortcut exploits.

As documented in a hugely popular YouTube documentary by Summoning Salt, the Mario Kart 64 speedrunning community has been battling to achieve the elusive 32/32 – and prevent it from happening – since the rise of one prolific speedrunner in 2013.

At the time, the up-and-coming German player Matthias Rustemeyer was taking the scene by storm, having secured a huge 26/32 ‘no shortcut’ world records listed on MarioKart64.com in little under two years.

In little time, Rustemeyer had become by far the most successful Mario Kart 64 player, and soon after he shared his ambition to go even further and achieve a world first by holding all 32 Mario Kart 64 ‘no shortcut’ records simultaneously.

In response to Rustemeyer’s quest, in December 2013 other players in the Mario Kart 64 speedrunning scene actually formed an alliance to stop him. The ‘Anti-1.000’ worked together to prevent the German from achieving a feat that they perceived as a potential embarrassment to the community.

Over five years, the Anti-1.000 alliance repeatedly thwarted the German player’s attempt to obtain the elusive 32/32, despite him coming incredible close on many occasions.

Rustemeyer held 31/32 records no fewer than eight times during the five year period up until November 2018, but other MK64 players repeatedly clawed back his record count at the last second.

One player who was part of the years-long alliance to stop Rustemeyer’s quest, ironically, was Dan Burbank, the player who turned the tables and clinched the 32/32 for himself this weekend.

As part of the alliance, Burbank had worked hard for many years to prevent Rustemeyer from obtaining the 32 world records. But following the German’s eight failed attempts to progress further than 31/32, the American seemingly decided to go against the Anti-1.000 and chase the record himself.

Tired of setting track records only to have them beaten weeks or days later by Rustemeyer, Burbank then made the unprecedented and hugely controversial decision to stop sharing his own records with the MK64 community.

As detailed in another extensive video documentary by Abyssoft, Burbank spent more than a year from March 2019 secretly hoarding world record track times.

Then in July 2020 he submitted nearly 10 records at once, in an attempt to surprise his rival and become the current speedrunning champion without giving Rustemeyer time to react.

Burbank was criticised for his tactics, with some community members even accusing the American of cheating. Shortly after, Burbank published an apology to both the community and his German rival.

“What I did I did because I wanted to be the champion and everything else was pushed out of my mind for that,” he wrote. “ While I didn’t act out of purposeful spite to Matthias, I knew that what I was doing would cause him to be significantly upset, hurt, and betrayed, but I put my own selfish desires above that.”

Little over a year later, Burbank has achieved what his rival couldn’t manage. Rustemeyer is yet to comment publicly on his rival’s achievement.