Awesome Games Done Quick, an annual gathering of the world’s top video game speedrunners, made history in early January 2020 after raising a record-breaking 3.1 million dollars for the Prevent Cancer Foundation. It was a tremendous feat for everyone involved, and, while the event wouldn’t be what it is without the thousands upon thousands of viewers and donors, it also wouldn’t have drawn so much attention were it not for the dozens of outrageously talented gamers in attendance.
While just about every run attempted at AGDQ 2020 was impressive by some measure, a few went above and beyond the call of duty—pun intended—and imposed extra restrictions, played through multiple games in a single run, or flat our obliterated personal or world records. It’s all incredibly impressive stuff, and it goes to show that the hours spent practicing your Untitled Goose Game speedrun may not have been in vain.
Binding Of Isaac But 7 Times
The event may take all-comers and welcome all types of games, but none may be more challenging or perilous than those in the rogue-lite genre. A subset of mostly indie titles which are heavily reliant on RNG, speedrunning these games requires a ton of critical thinking and is less about frame-perfect control input and more about expert decision making. That said, speedrunner StoneAgeMarcus tackled The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth—one of the most prominent titles in the genre—in just an hour and fifteen minutes. That may not sound impressive, but, rather than just offer up one clean playthrough, he beat the game seven consecutive times, playing with a different character each time. Isaac is a particularly punishing game, as well, making this runner’s feat all the more audacious.
All The Fallout
On the same day, runner TomatoAngus posted an incredible two-hour-and-fifteen-minute speedrun of the entire mainline Fallout anthology. That’s five separate games encapsulating the four enumerated titles, as well as the 2010 Obsidian-developed New Vegas. Any of these games could take dozens upon dozens of hours for inexperienced players to complete, and this runner flew through them all in less time than it would typically take to get banned by Bethesda in Fallout 76. That’s to say nothing of how radically different each of these games play— the first Fallout being a through-and-through isometric RPG and Fallout 4 being mainly an FPS with some RPG elements. Running all of these games in order would take some incredible versatility, and TomatoAngus’ record is commendable.
They Really Could Beat Punch Out Blindfolded
More impressive still would be the unthinkable blindfolded run attempted by speedrunners Sinister1 and Zallard1. Blindfolded run-throughs of the classic NES title Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! are nothing new, but blindfolded attempts by two players sharing one controller are something else entirely. Handing off half of the gameplay duties to another player may seemingly make the game a bit easier, but, since the title is so dependent on rhythm and timing, one small mistake from one runner could ruin the entire thing. Bear in mind that Punch-Out stands among those nigh-unbeatable old school Nintendo titles which most players fail to complete with both eyes and hands.
Last Of Us In Five Minutes
Another noteworthy run came from speedrunner AnthonyCaliber who completely decimated The Last of Us’ Left Behind DLC, beating it in five minutes flat. While a standard playthrough could take up to three hours, this runner’s Any% attempt made use of a hilarious out-of-bounds glitch which despawns all doors and allows the player to skip to the fifth of the DLC’s six chapters almost immediately. The interesting thing about it, though, is that the glitch also causes most of the game’s textures to disappear, meaning that AnthonyCaliber had to rely on his extensive knowledge of the game—and a not-insignificant amount of luck—to pull off the perfect run.
Of Course The Goose Was There
Also of note was Tasselfoot’s Untitled Goose Game run which saw him complete all of the title’s silly assignments in just fifteen minutes. The game’s heavy RNG dependence makes it tricky to speedrun, and Tasselfoot ended up just shy of his fourteen-minute-eight-second record. AGDQ 2020 also hit the two million dollar mark during this running, making it all the sweeter to watch.
Speedrunning may have something of a bad rap thanks to all of the salt and weirdness which is sometimes spread around conventions like these, but it’s safe to say that Awesome Games Done Quick 2020 was a rousing success. There are a ton of worthwhile speedruns to watch from the past few weeks, and we recommend giving all of the event’s hardworking staff and speedrunners some love!
NEXT: 10 Games That Are Ideal For Speedrunning
