The fastest gamers in the world are preparing to gather once again—all in the name of charity.
Summer Games Done Quick (SGDQ) is one of the two premier events organized by Games Done Quick that take place every year. Hundreds of speedrunners come together to be watched by thousands of viewers across the globe who in turn to donate millions of dollars to charity.
With this year’s SGDQ fast approaching on July 2, we polled the speedrun Reddit community to pick out a few speedruns that are well worth your time.
July 2, 14:00 ET NieR: Automata Ending A by Halfcoordinated
Kicking off SGDQ is NieR: Automata, the critically acclaimed sequel in the NieR franchise. The speedrun focuses on one of the game’s multiple endings which is called, creatively, Ending A.
Halfcoordinated has attended multiple GDQ events. He is both insightful and entertaining, which makes the speedrun that much more promising and a great way to kick off the festivities.
July 3, 15:00 ET Super Monkey Ball Deluxe by Jcool114
Monkey Ball speedruns are intense because the games were made to be exponentially difficult as the player progresses. The speedrunners will end on the ultimate stages, courses specifically designed for the one percent of players that had the skill to make it that far.
The idea of rolling a ball into a checkpoint sounds easy enough but Monkey Ball creates devilish obstacles to challenge a speedrunner’s frame-perfect reactions throughout the entire run.
July 4, 05:27 ET ClusterTruck Any% by 097 AceofSpades
Clustertruck is a platform indie game that tasks players to jump onto moving trucks to reach the finish line. As the player proceeds through the game, the levels morph from simple straight roads to insane over-the-top obstacle courses.
The speedrun consists of high-intensity movements that reward players muscle memory and reaction times.
July 7, 16:51 ET Super Mario series Warpless% relay race by Various Speedrunners
What happens when you bring together 15 of the biggest Super Mario speedrunners in recent memory and ask them to compete against each other? You get one of the biggest races to ever grace a GDQ event.
- How exactly the race will work isn’t clear yet. One possible scenario popular among fans is there will be five teams of three racing between the three different Super Mario games. The first team to complete every game wins the race.
Regardless of how the race happens, it has the chance to become one of the world’s most legendary recorded speedruns to date.
July 8, 18:00 ET The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask All Masks% by TrevPerson
Zelda speedruns aren’t uncommon at GDQs, with five different games set to appear at SGDQ this year alone. What sets Majora’s Mask apart from the rest, however, is the category— All Masks%
While most speedruns task the player with completing the game as quickly as possible or collecting everything in the game, All Masks% tasks the player with just focusing on a solitary objective, completing the important side-missions while avoiding everything else like the heart containers, items, etc.
Trevperson completed a 100% run of the game with other speedrunners in AGDQ 2016 but now has a chance to shine as a solo speedrunner.
July 8, 21:50 ET Earthbound Any% Glitchless by Ultimolce
No glitches, no shenanigans, just solid gameplay for four hours straight—that’s what you can expect from an Earthbound speedrun.
Earthbound is a game with great music, memorable characters, and great humor. It’s the perfect game to end the week-long event on. Ultimolce recently earned the world record in the game and is an amazing commentator.
An insane amount of dedication has gone into this speedrun category and fans of the game will be happy to see it signing SGDQ off at the end of a thrilling week.
Published: Jun 22, 2017 11:43 am