Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island (1 p.m. Eastern – Sunday, July 26 — 2 hours 55 minutes)
One of the most entertaining games to see “done quick,” even if a full 100% run takes nearly three hours. A good way to kick off a marathon.
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One of the best live gaming events of the year starts on Sunday. That’s when the Summer Games Done Quick marathon kicks off roughly 160 straight hours of live video game speedrunning, broadcast on Twitch from a hotel ballroom in St. Paul, Minn.
During that time, you’ll be able to see dozens of runners working their way through dozens of games, both classic and modern, as quickly as possible. Sometimes they abuse glitches or warps or pausing to get to the ending as quickly as possible. More often they use simple frame-perfect inputs, refined over countless hours of play, to put in a seemingly preternatural performance. It’s all to benefit a good cause, with viewers encouraged to donate to Doctors Without Borders to achieve a million-dollar goal (additional speedruns are added to the proceedings as fundraising milestones are met).
Sure, you can watch plenty of similar speedruns archived on YouTube (including many recorded during previous Games Done Quick events), and even watch “tool-assisted” speedruns where players use emulators to often beat a game much more quickly than a live player ever could. Still, there’s something to be said for watching a human speedrunner play on real hardware, in real time, having to improvise through mistakes and nerves in front of a live audience. Plus, the Games Done Quick stream features some excellent live commentary from volunteers to explain various techniques and strategies during the run, and a live audience cheering on the best moments.
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