Here I collect 'To the Top of the Fortress' and 'Blast Away the Wall' in one go.

The way this works is that if the player jumps forwards just before hitting the star, Mario will keep jumping forwards during the star animation. You can use this to your advantage and collect another star close by. There are many similar ways to do this, such as with a long jump or double jump. This is very precise - however, since there is minimal setup required and very little penalty for messing up, it is recommended that future RTA runs at least attempt this trick.

This reduces the best possible time to sub-8:30.

Have you been working on this ever since your record ages ago where you noticed this haha

Not really. For the most part, I've moved onto other games because there isn't really much left to do with this game until another update comes out (It's been 6 months @ILOVESMB , at least give us something haha)

You could always try the individual levels on this haha. Id have put some time into getting a decent time and making this competitive if my FPS wasnt awful for no reason

Eh, I've never really been a fan of ILs. I like being able to have strategies like the one in the video, but they can't happen in IL runs.