Player One-Ups Mario Bros. World Record

With a score of 5,424,920 points, Steven Kleisath broke the world record in one of old-school gaming's most famous titles, Mario Bros. No, not the original Super Mario Bros. for the NES. Just Mario Bros.

It's no easy task to topple the world record in one of the oldest video games in the world, but somehow, through skill and sheer determination, Steven Kleisath managed to triumph after five hours and forty-three minutes of turtle-stomping, POW-whomping action. Classic Mario Bros. is a pretty slow game by modern standards, so one of the greatest enemies of potential world record breakers is the mental fortitude required to play something so slow and (relatively) simplistic for so long. But, for those elite few gamers, when the task is right they can slip into that elusive state known as Flow where their thoughts are no longer active thoughts, and they're so caught up in what they're doing that time and worry all slips away. The Flow is strong in Steven Kleisath this day.

This isn't the first time Steven Kleisath has approached a world record; in July of 2014 he broke the second-place record, usurping an accomplishment which was originally achieved in 1985. For now, Steven can take a well-deserved break, perhaps enjoying a little therapy to help get the image of all those crabs and pipes out of his head.