So I was playing SMB on my Game & Watch today, and of course the first thing I decided to do was go to the minus world, because that sounds like a solid plan right? What I didn't realize was that the tiny screen of the console would make it extremely difficult to judge my movement in relation to enemies, so I would go on to lose all my lives. As I went back to the title screen, it dawned on me: I can press B and choose a world, even though I didn't finish the game! It seems there's some sort of flag in the game that enables world select if your world is 9 or higher.
Anyway, this had me thinking: It MUST be faster to lose all your lives at or before the minus world, and then continue at world 8 after Game Over, right? Worlds 4-1 and 4-2 are not that long, but they're definitely longer than it takes to lose all your lives. I could see this category saving a good 15 seconds off your time, easily.