The 95% Rule - Mario Kart Wii's Hidden Fail-Safe 

"let's say we start at the finish line." Woah buddy I'm not the target audience for this.

You know they're going to get technical when they use the Mario 64 File Select song.

I watched at least 95% of this video

So, basically: Mario Kart Wii: Wo, wo, woo, hold up, there's something fishy going on here; I'm not going to count the lap. Mario Kart Wii: I see no problem here; add another perfectly-legitimate lap!

This was always the one glitch that made very little sense to me, great video, Malleo!

I just renewed my degree in MKWii Checkpointology last night, what luck. Oh, and shoutouts to Pannen.

Nintendo: Alright guys, this is a phenomenal game we have made, but we need some way to prevent game breaking shortcuts Some guy: What if we make it so that shortcuts that take off more than a certain percentage of the lap don't count? Nintendo: Great idea! what percentage of the lap should players be required to complete? Guy: Five percent seems fair Nintendo: Guy: Everyone else: Nintendo: Works for me

Sometimes, when learning math I think about MK Wii speedrunning science and I shiver and go back into the comfortable world of set theory, analysis, graphs and co.

2:40 oh yeah babe, maximum technical explaining music is ON

Could it be, that the 95% rule was implemented to avoid people going backwards through the finish line to the last checkpoint for the lap count?

I hope the change in audio quality isn't too bad. My microphone is starting to become faulty and it's seeing its last days. I have a new microphone on the way so future videos will have better audio.

I find it funny that they hard coded a fail safe to prevent ultra shortcuts from existing with this 95% rule, but it doesnt matter because most of the final key checkpoints are less than 95% through the stage.

Remarkable discovery! I'm loving these new videos!

I love how the Mario 64 file select music has become the official theme song for explaining obscure mechanics from Mario games, Pannen has truly defined a genre

I think its so cool that this is being found out almost 11 years after the game came out, just the fact that no data miners or all the people developing strategies hadn't stumbled upon it years ago.

Why did they choose 95%? If it was to prevent cheating, 95% is still heavily abuse-able. Wouldn't something like 50% be okay? Are there any intended shortcuts that even skip that much?

You should explain quantum mechanic theories in the game at the subatomic level

I noticed that TTYD outro music, Malleo... stop teasing us and reveal Blimp ticket skip already!

This gives me summoning salt flashbacks

3:06 is when Malleo transforms into Summoning Salt

My ears: SM64 File Selection My eyes: An image of how things work My brain: WATCH FOR ROLLING ROCKS IN 0.5x A PRESSES - COMMENTED

This is so interesting! Great job on finding this ;D Just crazy how in 2019 we still learn new things about this game..

What to study for the test: Coconut mall What I studied: 95% rule What's on the test: 5% rule What I remember during the test: Mario 64 selection screen

I love how the tas speed run community is able to find every minor glitch in the game and exploit them at levels Nintendo never dreamed possible. I'd love to see more videos of these types of glitches in other games!

"But first, we need to talk about key checkpoints..."

Some of this definitely goes over my head, as even though I'm currently studying computer science in college, speedrunning seems pretty disconnected from my field, lol. That said, I wanted to sincerely applaud your presentation of this information. You formatted your script for this video really well in my opinion, presenting facts, details, exceptions, etc. all in the proper order with great pacing. Well done, sir.

Had this video show up randomly in my autoplay list. Never played Mario Kart Wii, wasn't even watching a Nintendo video, but ultimately stuck around for that sweet ocean palace music. Now I know all about the super shortcuts, and checkpoint mechanics for a game I will likely never play. Kudos for getting me to stick around for so long. :)

I think I understand this better. I tried making something similar in a program where you needed to go through some checkpoints and keep track of your movement. However, it seems MKWii uses the movement track "locally" and "globally" to update it as soon as you touch a checkpoint and a part of the track. There is a certain reason why it is 5% on Coconut Mall and, I believe, that is because the last key checkpoint expects you to come from the previous checkpoint (that is not loaded) at a value of .05 more or less (theorically reaching previous trigger at .90 while reaching the last checkpoint at .95). The reason why GV always counts .83 is because that's the distance you're in, not because you made .83 in a circle. Every key checkpoint in the game updates the "global" tracker with an approximate number based on the distance, while at the same time checking your "local" tracker to confirm any oddities.

You know a video is fascinating when it makes you really interested in pedantic math. Not just math, PEDANTIC MATH. Good job!

It‘s so stunning that you guys are capable to pull off new records as a #TASgang. Have lots of admiration for you and thanks for holding this awesome game alive 👍🏽 Cheers!

Once again, amazing job on the video! Ever since the wall clip lap count strat was found on Coconut Mall, the way the last key checkpoint seemingly moved around depending on when you trigger the lap count was always infuriating, so it's great that the last piece to the checkpoint puzzle has finally been solved. Really shows that new stuff is still out there, hiding in the code, waiting to be found found 10+ years after the game's release.

I don't speedrun MKW why am I watching this lol

Loved this!! Nice job explaining it dude MKWii is so wild omg

Love how you use the Mario 64 file screen theme when you explain something technical as a non-blatant nod to pannenkoek

Hey Malleo! Really nice video, love seeing these explanations from you :) Just one thing: I had to watch the 4.9% rule part twice to get what you wanted to say. Maybe 30 seconds more to explain what the 4.9% rule was about would have made it clearer. Otherwise, great work! Looking forward to the next video

One would never imagine that such detail was incorporated into the game back when it was created

I love niche discoveries like this. You’re doing excellent work with this game and I can respect that.

when i was a kid i saw somebody do the grumble volcano glitch on the world records and i was really confused. i tried to copy what he did and i actually managed to get it to work. i never understood why it worked though and its really nice to finally have an explanation.

You might have skipped 95% of the map, but you got 100% of the details. Awesome video

2:40 but first we need to talk about parallel universes

Finally RU-vid recommendation doing the right thing. This is something that I'm interested in AND something I want to watch. Also, great video, dude!

I don't follow MKWii at all, nor did I know about most of these glitches, but this is incredible and very entertaining!

I was watching a tuba performance, how did this show up on my recommended?

Some fresh Pannenkoek vibes going on here

TASser? Check. Mario game? Check. Messing with way game determines position? Check. *Mario 64 File Select Music?* Check. Perfection.

so basically the devs made a failsafe they didn't know how to use

*starts with ocean palace by crush 40* Yeah this video is gonna be good.

wow, its facinating that even after a decade, people are still learning new things about these older games

How to die from alcohol poisoning: Take a shot every time he says "checkpoint" NOTE: If you want the process to be faster, also take a shot every time he says "key"

Please start a series on in depth analysis of interesting glitch mechanics in different games. Id watch that

Mkwii a game I played when I was five Never though a checkpoint system could be so complex

If you could explain the correlation between speed, momentum, and wallclips

Malleo: "this 95% rule isnt useful on any other track: rsl glitch: And i took that personally

This does actually change a few things. It means we can now accurately predict which tracks that don't already have ultra shortcuts could still have them and which tracks definitely do not have ultra shortcuts simply based on lap completion values at the final key checkpoint.

Where can I find the checkpoint maps for all courses in this game? I want to see how all ultra shortcuts work and maybe even be able to improve records if I start speedrunning this game

I think it’s insane how the grumble volcano trick only cuts like 83%... I thought it would be something like 97 🤨

I purposely skipped the ad so you would not get any money, eric told me tooo

Casual pannenkoek2012 inspired music. Applause for subtlety

I don't even speedrun or play this game, but your explanation is a joy to listen to.

4:00 Oh my god, Frogger music. I didn’t know anyone else remembered Frogger music. Good choice my man.

2:40 The best music for explaining obscenely complicated mario glitch mechanics!

i dont even care about mario cart i just love hearing about how games work and deal with unexpected things

I remember pulling the coconut mall trick and thought "this is wierd" and "im in a secret club" 😂

Take a shot every time the phrase "key checkpoint" is uttered.

As a note, computers store 0.95 (95%) as a value that's _very_ slightly less than 0.95 (specifically, either 0.949999988079071044921875 as a float, or 0.949999999999999955591079014994 as a double, or much less commonly as a long double or something more exotic), which explains why the rounding was always up and never down (if anyone was wondering). 5% is similarly very slightly over 0.05, but, and I might blow minds here... *0.95 + 0.05 is not guaranteed to equal 1.00. And in fact, with computers, 0.1 + 0.2 explicitly **_doesn't_** equal 0.3.* This is all due to real numbers being stored as binary floating-point numbers, which can't perfectly store anything that can't be represented by multiplying or dividing 1 by 2 enough times (e.g., 2 is 1*2, and 0.5 is 1/2). As a result, floating-point numbers can only store a set number of these repeatedly-halved "chunks" (e.g., the smallest "chunk" a double can handle is halving the starting "1" 53 times (where, e.g., 1/16 halves it four times (1 -> 1/2 -> 1/4 -> 1/8 -> 1/16)), and essentially have to store the least wrong approximation for any value that can't be represented perfectly with the right number of "chunks". It's basically like decimal rounding, except the computer's ".5 or higher" is really tiny and really ugly. To go with the 0.3 example, both 0.1 and 0.2 are stored as slightly higher than their actual values, due to sitting between "chunks"; however, as a result of this, the result of (0.1 + 0.2) actually has one "chunk" _more_ than the least-wrong representation of 0.3, and thus is considered to be larger than 0.3. [Note that this is just a quick explanation, and I'm not an expert on floating-point math, so there may be errors.]

That part with the M64 music reminds me of pannenkoek

95%+5%=100%

Using The same music pannenkokek used is a touch of class.

This is already a better explanation for key checkpoints than Summoning Salt's.

... Is that Gamecube Frogger music I hear? Oh huh, it was, I really liked that game, just never heard anyone talk about it.

Very fun to watch! I've never been a bonafide speedrunner, but these deep dives into mechanics or glitches always interest me, and you presented it in a very appealing way.

This entire video went over my head but I still enjoyed it

This is very interesting... Also, castle Bleck.

I have no idea what half of this even meant but wow, it was something. Pretty crazy stuff. I had no idea people even did this sort of stuff with Mario Kart Wii.

13:41 For those who don’t know yet, this video is kind of outdated. DS Desert Hills has an ultra now, and it’s not even TAS only.

I wonder what the key checkpoints are in Baby Park

THE NUMBERS! WHAT DO THEY MEAN?!?

That's some good information that will doubtless assist future attempts at glitches on this game. Good job.

Bish that's ocean palace from sonic heroes You can't fool me. Heroes expert here.

That File Select music was very intentional, wasn't it?

This video is proof positive that communities can always go deeper. This is a spinoff of mkwii tas speedrunning which is a spinoff of tas speedrunning which is a spinoff of regular speedrunning, which is itself a niche thing.

Oh my God the SM64 File Select music, Pannenkoek cursed the Mario Community forever.

I'm a phd student in genetics and I had to review this video multiple times lmoa. Granted I haven't played or kept up with this game at all, but this is very complex stuff.

This video has fucking blown my mind. I didn’t know you could break this game like this. My poor childhood.

I'm 95% sure RU-vid put this in everyone's recommendations . . .

It's crazy to see just how much effort some people put into their favorite games to find every little glitch and bit of data

i just love how the description says "super mario 64"

"Ah Key checkpoints, that makes sense. So I assume laps only count if you hit them all in the correct order, yeah?" Nintendo: "Hohoho nooo. Just one is fine."

nice pannen reference my man

2:40 take a shot every time he says "checkpoint". Also, shoutouts to pannenkoek

So basically, if you drive backwards in the checkpoint area, the game decreases the counter and deducts a lap, but if you leave it at a full lap digit while out-of-bounds and reenter the previous checkpoint from out-of-bounds, it detects you have driven backwards in the same lap, causing the lap to jump.

Your research was in the end not that useful, but it was very interesting. It's amazing you could point that out

What an interesting quirk of fun -- this video showed up in my recommended videos. Why is this a quirk of fun? Last night, I was watching as dwangoAC, keeper of TASBot, was working on console verifying the Mario Kart Wii TAS Ghosts.

Could be useful to test custom tracks for ultra shortcut potential; also proves that having the last key checkpoint super close to the finish line may prevent ultra cuts completely as they would always be past the 95% completion mark.

This is kinda mind blowing, that groups of people discover crazy mechanics like this

One question that popped into my mind when you revisited Grumble Volcano: Who at Nintendo headquarters was looking at the minimap and the key checkpoint and decided that the last key checkpoint is at 82.7140% of the lap when it is literally 2 meters in front of the finish line. And even further who the fuck decided to place a key checkpoint 2 meters before the finish line?

Is that Seaside Palace I hear? All these years later and it’s still memorable

You did this very well, it reminded me of a summoning salt video. I look forward to more videos in the future; keep up the good work!

Me: can’t do HS physics to save my life Also me: learns the inrtacisies of mkwii speedrunning and game programming

funny how after 11 years this game is so well figured out its hard to comprehend the detail lol