Super Metroid

SNES · Any% · 1994

Current WR

40:56

First Known Run

~1:10:00

One of the most technically rich speedruns on the SNES, demanding mastery of mockball, the spacetime beam glitch, and wall-jumping to cut the game to under forty-one minutes.

Super Metroid's speedrun community is among the most technically sophisticated in retro gaming. The mockball technique — discovered by accident in the early 2000s — allows Samus to retain Speed Booster momentum while morphing into a ball, enabling access to areas designed to be reached only after acquiring the Hi-Jump Boots. Combined with the spacetime beam, which freezes certain enemies that can then be used as platforms, runners can sequence-break through significant portions of the game. The community is divided into Any% (which allows early credits warp), Low%, and 100% categories, each demanding a distinct skill set. Super Metroid's physics engine and the game's intricate map design make new skips a recurring discovery even decades after release.

Famous Techniques:

Mockball — maintaining Speed Booster velocity while morphing into Morph Ball, bypassing the need for Hi-Jump Boots in early rooms
Spacetime Beam — freezing specific enemies with the Ice Beam to create temporary platforms, enabling out-of-sequence area access
Crystal Flash — a recovery technique that restores energy by expending reserve missiles, used to survive low-health marathon segments
Infinite Bomb Jump — repeatedly detonating Morph Ball bombs to gain unlimited vertical height, bypassing normal climbing mechanics

Notable Runners:

Behemoth87 — longtime world-record holder who pioneered the credits warp routing and held the record across multiple eras
Zoast — active world-record holder who refined execution of the credits warp and pushed the record into the 40-minute range
Taco — top-level runner and community contributor who verified several major new skips

Key Facts:

Mockball was discovered accidentally by a player who noticed that morphing during a dash cancelled the speed loss
The Any% credits warp was contested for years before the community standardised it as the main category
Super Metroid has one of the most active and technically focused speedrun communities of any 16-bit game
Multiple major skips have been discovered after 2015, showing the game's routing is still not fully exhausted