Additional notes for Super Mario Bros. 2 World Record Speedrun Explained

Note 1 (2:00): Toad only gets the faster running speed if he's holding an object deemed heavy, like enemies, Birdo's eggs and POW blocks, but not anything dug up from the ground like vegetables, red shells, bombs, keys and potions. Also, units of speed are subpixels per frame, or 1/16th of a pixel per 1/60th of a second. Subpixels are subdivisions of position that, surprisingly, don't ever come up as particularly relevant in this speedrun, so they won't be covered in this video.

Note 2 (5:55): You might have noticed that Toad also jumps straight out of the ladder. This is a precise trick - at least, on Toad it is precise - called a ladder jump. It will be covered in detail later in the video.

Note 3 (6:40): In this game, the global timer is initialized at the start of each level, not when the game is powered on. So, while some elements are subject to framerules, they are always within the context of that single level instead of the entire run. Super Mario Bros. is famously different because it does start counting from when the console is powered on.

Note 4 (7:54): In reality, Birdo's invincibility frames counter starts at 15 and counts down every other frame, but showing it that way would have been confusing.

Note 5 (13:23): The rocket framerule is 64 frames, but it rises slowly during the launching sequence, which is the part with a varying length. So, a longer launch means the rocket reaches the top of the screen slightly faster, which offsets a bit of the time loss so it's just under a full second.

Note 6 (19:58): The damage animation takes 32 frames, during which the player and enemies stop moving, then the invincibility period is 125 frames after that, for a total of 157 frames or 2.61 seconds.

Note 7 (22:14): This isn't strictly true, as it is possible to stack two mushroom blocks, but at least one does need to be thrown to the left. It's easier to stack two blocks as big Luigi, and we'll see later how an alternate strategy can reach this fight as big Luigi.

Note 8 (29:56): The hit itself is frame perfect but the vegetable will start going through Wart starting 5 frames earlier, so it's functionally 6 frames. The window to throw the vegetable is roughly about 12-ish, depending on your horizontal speed and position, but in the end, only a small range of position, speed and throw timing will work. Perfect combinations of position/speed give a good window to throw, and a perfect throw timing can work with a variety of positions and speeds, but all 3 factors combined leave a very small window of opportunity to hit this trick.