Summer Games Done Quick ended recently, having raised over 1.7 million dollars for Doctors Without Borders.
The week long event that streams speedrun after speedrun has run twice a year for many years now and always raises an impressive amount of money for charitable causes. Sadly this year I missed most of the runs I wanted to see and have been watching the stream archives to catch up.
It does mean, however, that I can bring you the 100% correct and inarguable must see and objectively best runs from the event. Also known as the list of runs I’ve enjoyed the most that I’ve caught up on already. The list is in no particular order but for the first video, lets go with the first run of the event.
1 – NieR: Automata Ending A One Handed by Halfcoordinated
Yeah, you read that right. Halfcoordinated played through NieR: Automata, all the way to Ending A, using only one hand. He did so in a blisteringly fast 1 hour 43 minutes and 5 seconds. These are segments of a stream and as such, they don’t start right at the start of the run. The run starts at 2:17 in the video.
2 – Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix Critical Difficulty (+ Level 1 Superbosses) by Bl00dyBizkitz
I absolutely love this run, it’s a long one but man is it good. Runner Bl00dyBkizkitz tore through this game in 3 hours and 2 minutes dead. Meanwhile, the commentary on the run from both the runner and the couch was informative and funny. Plus, they sing Disney songs during the flying missions, what more do you want? The run starts at 10:30 in the video.
Oh, you wanted to see someone fight all the extra Organisation XIII bosses as well as Sephiroth and Terra/Lingering Will while at level 1? Well, I’ve got good news for you, Bl00dyBizkitz did exactly that, thanks to the fulfilling of some donation incentives.
3 – The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion No Out Of Bounds by Garish
I always enjoy Oblivion speedruns because they are just so dumb. This run by Garish where he races through the game in only 37 minutes and 3 seconds is no exception. So if you want to see a crazy man drink eight bottles of the in game drug Skooma at a time while racing into hell portals to save the world while on massive drug highs, you’ve found the right run. Run starts at 11:08.
4 – Crash Bandicoot by WhitePaaws
With all the talk surrounding the recent N.Sane Trilogy and how difficult it has supposedly made Crash Bandicoot, what better time to look back. Runner WhitePaawes destroyed the original PlayStation 1 platformer in a mere 41 minutes 58 seconds.
A quick disclaimer, sadly GDQ messed up and this VOD along with some others only have audio outputting through the left speaker/headphone etc. Regardless, the run in this video starts around 8:50.
5 – Ratchet And Clank All Gold Bolts by Xem
Ratchet and Clank is a fantastic bloody game, I enjoy it so much and this run was a joy to watch. The runner is enjoyable, the banter is fun and the gameplay is impressive finishing in just 1 hour 7 minutes and 5 seconds. Also at the end, the runner sings and nails Nessun Dorma from Puccini’s opera Turandot. If two wildly different displays of skill don’t impress you then I don’t know what I can offer you. The run starts at 13:13.
6 – The Entire Tetris: The Grandmasters Block
I’m not sure how I can explain Tetris: The Grandmasters to you. It’s like Tetris was dialled up to insanely difficult speeds with a ranking system that has ridiculous requirements. During this block, we see eight different runners who have all earned the highest rank in that system play various modes split across a few videos. I’m going to embed an eight-way race in Tetris: The Grandmaster 1. If you enjoy it I implore you to check out the other videos from the event, they are an absolutely fantastic display of skill. The run starts at 1:20:15.
