Shiba Inu Speedruns NES Game for 77,000 Viewers and Nearly Breaks His Record

A highly-trained shiba inu named Peanut Butter played a speedrun of the 1985 Nintendo NES game Gyromite using a custom dog-friendly controller—and came close to achieving a new record Tuesday.

With the help of his owner, a YouTuber and Twitch streamer known as JSR, Peanut Butter completed Gyromite's "B Game" mode in 26 minutes and 24.5 seconds. They attempted the “dog-assisted” record during the annual Awesome Games Done Quick event, but fell short of beating their previous record of 25:29 set last July.

Unfortunately, a few errors caused Peanut Butter to lose a few of the playable character’s lives along the way. A green monster-like creature known as a “smick” appeared in a place that JSR swore he’d never seen there before. He accidentally led Peanut Butter right into the creature, resulting in a “Game Over” moment close to the end of the speedrun.

Ignoring that fact, however, Peanut Butter was able to keep playing the game, and finished with a time that would put him in the third-place spot according to Speedrun.com’s records.

In Gyromite, gamers play as an old sleepwalking professor who stumbles through a world full of blue and red pipes, which must be moved strategically by tapping and holding the corresponding buttons. Peanut Butter’s setup has three buttons, and he was prompted by his doggy dad to hold the correct buttons down as needed.

JSR told the Games Done Quick Twitch stream, where the speedrun was broadcasted, that Peanut Butter sometimes got itchy and therefore distracted during previous plays. This time, the shiba inu had a bath to prepare for the game.

The stream’s viewer count steadily rose over the course of Peanut Butter’s speedrun, going from around 64,000 concurrent viewers to over 77,000 viewers by the end of the playthrough.

Overall, Peanut Butter was able to maintain focus throughout the speedrun—proving that he is indeed a very good boy on top of being a shockingly good Gyromite player.

Edited by Andrew Hayward