The most impressive speedrun at this year’s Awesome Games Done Quick event may have been the slowest.
A speedrunner known in the community as Runnerguy2489 was set to take on The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. But there was a big catch: He would be playing the game blindfolded.
The seemingly impossible task played out before a live audience that at times surpassed 150,000 viewers, and it truly has to be seen in its entirety to be believed.
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Runnerguy does stop short of completing the entire game in this way, and with good reason. The route he takes—during which he tackles each of the game’s dungeons Link must traverse as a child—requires an immense amount of practice and preparation, in addition to skill.
The blindfolded runner is able to use sound to his advantage, whether it’s to detect the angle from which an enemy is approaching or when using his sword as though it were a walking stick, poking at the area around him in hopes of hearing something indicative of the surroundings.
The run takes about an hour and a half, but is more than worth sitting through. It’s even more impressive because it features a number of complicated tricks that require difficult inputs and very specific setups to pull off. Some would be hard even for a knowledgeable person running the game without a blindfold, much less with one.
It doesn’t take long to find out how even the simplest of things can be made difficult in this sort of run.
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But tricks like this one make it clear that Runnerguy has come prepared.
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His creative techniques for dealing with the lack of visual cues are on display throughout the run.
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Not even the game’s bosses are safe from his blindfolded attack.
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It is, altogether, a terrific display of ability and dedication. And while it may not have been the fastest run of a game at the annual speedrunning marathon, it was likely the most memorable.
And for his next trick, it seems that Runnerguy might already have an idea in mind.
Three man one controller incoming with @MoltovM and @TickleKittens pic.twitter.com/dZCMQ50gWT
— Drew (@DrewEIT) January 10, 2015
