A lot of people played video games very quickly last week, raising $1.7 million for charity in the process. All of the speedruns at Summer Games Done Quick 2017 were entertaining, but if you don’t have time to catch up on them all, here were some of my favorites.
Final Fantasy VII (starts at 11:15)
Yes, I watched this entire eight-hour run. No, I do not regret anything. This is a solid eight hours of precise play, cool tricks, and great commentary—not to mention neat observations on Final Fantasy VII minutiae that you might not have known before.
Super Panga World (starts at 10:12)
Super Panga World is a Kaizo-style ROM hack of Super Mario World that would be impossible for most normal people to beat. Fortunately, runner Dodechehedron is not a normal person. This is some truly incredible platforming, performed in less than half the estimated time because Dodechehedron is just that good.
Swordless Zelda: Link to the Past (starts at 7:45)
Probably the funniest and most entertaining run of the week, especially if you don’t want to sit through eight hours of Final Fantasy. Andy breaks the hell out of Zelda: Link to the Past here, beating every dungeon in the game without once using a sword. (Because he doesn’t get one in the first place.)
Star Wars: Jedi Knight II (starts at 6:09)
A little hard to watch if you get motion sickness, but this one’s quite fun. So many weird tricks.
Chrono Trigger (starts at 15:32)
Longtime RPG speedrunner Puwexil gives us a master class in how to beat Chrono Trigger in just over three hours, thanks to tricks and glitches. Great commentary, great routing, great video game.
Super Mario Series Warpless Relay Race (starts at 33:11)
Watch three teams compete to beat five 2D Super Mario games in less than three hours. The precision it takes to knock through all of these platformers is impressive, and the runs are fantastic.
Super Mario 64 120 Stars (starts at 14:37)
It’s always fun to watch people break classic games, and Super Mario 64 is as breakable as it gets. Speedrunner Cheese05 has a mastery of this game like no other, snagging all 120 stars in the time it would take an average player to get, like, 10.
One Man Portal 2 Co-Op (starts at 12:35)
Who needs friends when you’ve got two hands? Speedrunner Azorae somehow performs this Portal 2 co-op run entirely by himself. Cave Johnson would be proud.
Am I missing any really good ones? Drop your favorites in the comments and we’ll bump’em up.