Awesome Games Done Quick 2025

Full Games List

Starts on 1/5/2025

Join James Bond in the classic: From Russia With Love! Recover the Lektor, rescue the girl, and defeat that dastardly Red Grant of Octopus once and for all!

Specter has decided on his new plan and its...TO MAKE A TCG! In order to become the top monkey and win the grand prize of ALL THE BANANAS you must complete a series of 1v1 matches of...wait is that Rock Paper Scissors? Oh no each card is a minigame too!?! I wrote this if it helps: https://pastebin.com/C53kRjCG

Snake, yes that snake, feeling betrayed by his country has moved to Central America to set oup a base of operations and in the process fight...monsters? Giant robots? Motorcycle tanks? Who knows whats hidden in the jungles of Central America. NG+ starts the run with all gear and soldiers unlocked ahead of time, skipping the grind entirely, and going straight into the action.

This Wacky PS2 Japan exclusive Ape Escape game covers the events between Ape Escape 1 and 2, where Kakeru must enter the virtual space and...Suck Up Monkey Pantsu with a Vacuum? Normal stuff. Deliver all Pantsu into the level ending Washing Machine to win.

OH NO. Specter has shrunk Kakeru and friends down to the size of tiny ants. Rescue your friends from prior Ape Escape games and defeat specter...all while controlling the monkeys this time.

Developed by Treyarch using Infinity Wards IW3 engine, this game has a very similar movement set to Call of Duty 4. After 7 years of it being relatively untouched it has recieved a lot of love in the last month and had 7 minutes shaved off of the record with new skips and out of bounds tricks. It has little to no downtime but still plenty of opportunity to read out donations during stealth sections

Kane & Lynch 2 is a game about friendship held together with tape

Submission for Awful Block! Leap over treacherous chasms, navigate past a sea of hazards, and locate all 12 bananas as you embark on an epic quest and travel the patience-testing path that lies ahead in this infuriatingly challenging, unforgiving, puzzling, memey platformer. This game is a silly and broken mess, but has some actual bangers and is a fairly decent speedrun. It is definitely an awful game and I think it has a perfect home in Awful Block! Also, I will do an incentive to wear a banana costume if this gets accepted

WELCOME... PREPARING SETUP SETUP IS READING DATA... SETUP IS INSTALLING OS !INTERFERANCE DETECTED! MANUAL OVERRIDE REQUIRED Crossroad OS is a short and eerie puzzle game set in a mysterious operating system. Join me as I playthrough the game, showcasing various puzzles at blazing speeds, and delve into the lore of this creepy yet intriguing indie title!

Have a Nice Death is a 2D action roguelike where you play as an overworked Death, whose employees have run rampant, completely throwing off the balance of souls - and his vacation plans. In order to restore order, you'll have to grab your trusty scythe and show your employees who's boss. This fast-paced game features numerous arenas, skill trees, bosses, mini-bosses, and on-the-fly decision making. All around, this is a fast and exciting roguelike that is an excellent speedrun!

The true sequel to the 1990 Nintendo World Championships and the rarest NES game out there, the 1991 Nintendo Campus Challenge is a Nintendo competition game that involves playing through 3 tasks as fast as you can in a fixed time of 6:21 runs out to achieve the best possible score. 3 games + tasks include: Super Mario Bros 3 - Get 25 Coins PinBot - Get 100,000 Points Dr. Mario - Play Game Until Time Runs Out

A classic horizontal SHMUP title for the SNES, UN Squadron has been known to not be the easiest of games in it's time.

3D Frog Frenzy has the player assume the role of Froggy - the only frog in the world who can't swim - who is attempting to flee to the Bahamas to escape an evil chef trying to capture and serve them up as frog legs, all while traversing through a variety of landscapes and dodging heavy traffic! The bizarre visuals and storyline combined with questionable level design and a groovy MIDI soundtrack would make for a hilarious game for the awful block.

Space Invaders 1999 is a modernised remake of the iconic 1978 arcade classic, developed by Z-Axis and published by Activision for the PC, PS1 and N64. This version revitalizes the gameplay with 3D graphics and introduces new game mechanics, including special missiles, unique alien types, and boss fights. As a space defender, players must strategically clear waves of enemies while avoiding getting hit by projectiles and enemies to progress through the game quickly. Completing a speedrun of the game requires memorisation of level layouts, precise movement, and strategic use of special missiles to progress quickly. In addition, boss battles offer opportunities for quick kills using well-timed attacks. With games from the Space Invaders franchise having not been featured at previous GDQ events, I would be excited to perform a run of Space Invaders 1999 to showcase the skill ceiling, routing and unique mechanics, all while paying tribute to a legendary name in classic gaming.

3D Frog Frenzy has the player assume the role of Froggy - the only frog in the world who can't swim - who is attempting to flee to the Bahamas to escape an evil chef trying to capture and serve them up as frog legs, all while traversing through a variety of landscapes and dodging heavy traffic! The bizarre visuals and storyline combined with questionable level design and a groovy MIDI soundtrack would make for a hilarious game for the awful block.

Space Invaders 1999 is a modernised remake of the iconic 1978 arcade classic, developed by Z-Axis and published by Activision for the PC, PS1 and N64. This version revitalizes the gameplay with 3D graphics and introduces new game mechanics, including special missiles, unique alien types, and boss fights. As a space defender, players must strategically clear waves of enemies while avoiding getting hit by projectiles and enemies to progress through the game quickly. Completing a speedrun of the game requires memorisation of level layouts, precise movement, and strategic use of special missiles to progress quickly. In addition, boss battles offer opportunities for quick kills using well-timed attacks. With games from the Space Invaders franchise having not been featured at previous GDQ events, I would be excited to perform a run of Space Invaders 1999 to showcase the skill ceiling, routing and unique mechanics, all while paying tribute to a legendary name in classic gaming.

It's not an exaggeration - 4D Golf is a mini golf game in 4 spatial dimensions! Understanding the new dimension is very brain bending and leads to some really interesting levels and strategies. While it is a mini golf game, it also has a built in marble mode which is designed specifically for speedrunning! Since there is a new axis through which to optimize, that makes things quite unique and even more challenging. While the 4D mechanic is tricky to understand, the amount of different view options in game help build the intuition as you play and makes this a really fun speed game.

50 Pinch Barrage is a short trap/challenge platformer, originally released on the 3DS eShop, but recently getting releases on Switch and Steam. It has 50 short stages with various small traps, and a very catchy title song.

Devil Dumper Doris is a doujin (aka "japanese indie") game, very similar to classic Castlevania games but much jankier, with a strong XBLIG vibe.

50 Pinch Barrage! was originally released on the Nintendo 3DS and will be available on the Nintendo Switch and PC in 2024. Death over and over again to break through hordes of ravenous beasts, spikes, and zombies.

9YoS is a Metroidvania with strong themes of color and music. Its defining mechanic is the light bar, which doubles as your ranged offense ammo and a defense meter. So maximizing your damage while not making yourself vulnerable is key to success. Europa also gains new armors on her journey, unlocking new elemental properties and traversal methods.

DXC is a remake of Rondo of Blood originally released on the PSP. It features many changes and additions compared to the original, such as completely different methods of rescuing the kidnapped maidens. Cutscenes are also skippable, so there is no time penalty to using the speedy Maria over Richter.

X8 shakes up the typical MMX gameplay in a few ways, such as playing as a tag team and incorporating a shop similar to Devil May Cry. Speedruns require specific routing to take advantage of encounters with Vile, as well as careful damage distribution on bosses to minimize invincibility time.

Ever want to speedrun a game where jump and attack are the same button? Bug's Life on the Game Boy is the game for you! With unintuitive movement, cursed game boy renders of the cast, and a soundtrack with 1 good song this game's got it all!

A beloved PS1 classic never seen in a mainline GDQ is reborn with the Radical Dreamers Edition, bringing additions like autosaves and updated visuals. There's always something to be looking out for, adapting on the fly to enemy attacks, managing stamina and counting enemy turns. And with CC's unique ability to flee from any fight, there's marathon safety to the run.

Following the well recieved and well-speedran Momodora Reverie under the moonlight, Moonlit farewell is a beautiful, metroidvania taking inspiration from its predecessors and successful metroidvania games of late. Fastest movement is done in various ways, boss fights are routed down to precise timings, and most of the run is done on 1 HP for maximum speed!

A Little to the Left is a cozy puzzle game that has you sort, stack, and organize household items into pleasing arrangements while you keep an eye out for a mischievous cat with an inclination for chaos. Yes, you can pet the cat in the main game.

Mail Time is a relaxing, cottagecore adventure set in a peaceful forest far, far away. It’s your first day on the job as a newly minted Mail Scout. Equipped with a mushroom hat, a pack full of letters, and unbridled enthusiasm, it’s time to deliver letters and packages across the Grumblewood Grove.

Stardew Valley is a delightful farming simulator which continues to capture the hearts and souls of the indie gaming sphere. With the recent 1.6 patch, enthusiasm for the game is at an all time high. The game is a low-floor, high ceiling skill expression game that makes it a super fun speedgame.

It is a cute puzzle game that allows the player to treat all kinds of objects as stickers. Various glitches have been found for this system, and a few glitches have also been used as RTAs.

This game is an old standard belt-scroll action game. You will enjoy the too-badly-made action elements, the underground Japanese world of the 90's, and the good quality background music.

This is one work of the famous Gust brand, known as the Atelier series, and was released only in Japan. Also, like Pokémon, the two works are paired. One of the characteristics of this work is that a fairy, not a human, aspires to become an alchemist. Furthermore, although it is a Game Boy, it has voices.

Adventure of Rikka is an indie title that was released earlier this year, and stylistically bears much resemblance to the classic Zelda games, but is much more focused on puzzle solving. The game has a "leveling" system where collectibles can be exchanged for health, attack, and speed power-ups, making for interesting routing choices. While the speedrun is relatively short for a game like this, it makes proper use of several secondary items, showcasing much of what the gameplay has to offer.

A hidden gem of a game on a hidden gem of a console, Neutopia is a delight for all fans of the original Zelda games. The game itself features plenty of vibrant enemy sprites and a rock-solid soundtrack, while the speedrun itself is full of close-quarters combat, boss manipulation strats, and deft navigation of large portions of dungeons in complete darkness.

A worthy sequel to its excellent predecessor, Neutopia II builds on the first game by adding more versatile movement and fluid combat, punctuated by a much more varied arsenal of weapons; the marathon-safe 100% category collects all of these weapons, so we have the opportunity to showcase them. The viewing experience is highlighted by even more amusing enemy sprites, another fantastic soundtrack, and a gameplay style that appeals to fans of the original Zelda games.

This is a somewhat goofy and lighthearted game where we are tasked with riding famous rides from Disney theme parks to collect keys to unlock the castle doors to start the parade. We play as like a cowboy kid for some reason? Also you have to be good at Disney trivia to be good at this run, I don't make the rules. Combined with iconic sprite work and fun platforming levels, this run is equal parts silly and fun!

What if you worked at a gas station that only sold cereal and encountered a vampire that is pretty terrible at being scary. That would be pretty weird, wouldn't it? This ridiculous game has some ridiculous tech to boot due to the fact that you can stack your running speed by....crouching? Also progress bar storage?

Bugsnax is a wonderful, colorful game with a brilliant and inclusive cast of characters and tons of fun exploits and skips. What makes this game even more incredible is the wealth of content and categories at our disposal!

It's a Garbage Pail Kids game! It's also the Super Mario Bros. 2 we have at home! Watch as we go through a disgusting 8-bit journey with 4 different playable characters, multiple skips/shortcuts, and quick kills for almost all of the bosses. Oh also, there are fart clouds, snot rockets and projectile vomiting (tastefully done, of course) at our disposal.

The Sneak King fed us, now it's time to burn off those calories on tiny little motorcycles while wearing some questionable costume or uniform.

AEW Fight Forever is an arcade wrestling game released in June 2023 from the wrestling company All Elite Wrestling. It is their first video game since starting as a wrestling company, and features many of the wrestlers from said company. The game allows for many match types, silly weapons, and iconic wrestling moves.

Pokemon Emerald Rogue is a Pokemon fan game that turns the assets from Pokemon Emerald, as well as assets from another fan project to bring later generation's Pokémon into gen 3, into a new roguelike style experience. You get a random starter and then choose random routes to find items, catch Pokemon, and level up to fight a gym leader at the end. The game has 8 gyms, 4 elite 4 members, and 2 champions to fight. The game also incorporates other roguelike elements such as perma death, level caps, and money management for item and moveset purchasing. It's an incredibly complicated, expansive, and difficult way to play Pokemon that's a blast to speedrun.

Alan Wake is a survivor horror game where your main weapon is a flashlight! Let us return to the original Mr. Wake who likes to stumble around in the dark or the light. The man who runs from all his shadows. The man who would rather toss a flash bang then have a conversation with another. Mr. Wake is here to stop the nightmare...maybe this time.

Faith is a retro style 2D Horror game. You play a priest named John who is fighting demons in the 1980s. The game involves fighting boss after boss where one touch is death while you navigate each area to find its secrets. In the speedrun you are require to dodge all the flying pixels coming at you while trying to attack at the same time!

Alan Wake 2 is the hit sequel to Remedy Entertainment's cult classic Alan Wake. It's fun, scary, slick, mesmerizing, and entertaining as all get out.

Night Springs is Alan Wake 2's first DLC (the second of which, Lake House, is coming later this month). It is a 3-part episodic game. All episodes can be played individually or together. This DLC is tonally completely different from Alan Wake 2--that is, supremely funny and silly--and would be a fun surprise for folks who maybe only know the series by reputation.

Steampunk Alice in Wonderland. Tricks are abundant and range from small to gamebreaking.

The fantastic remake of the hit wii game. Super new release but also already super broken.

Complete scare training as your favorite monsters from Monster's Inc. (or just Mike and Sully). The best part is the Mike says BOOGA many, many times.

First of two expanded editions of the 1991 Team 17 title . Few of the 12 levels are from the original (and even then they are modified). Key aspects of the run is money management (needing 48k credits by end of level 3), health/life management and being quick on the feet in terms of reacting to the unpredictable movement patterns of the titular alien breed. This run is performed on a Commodore Amiga 1200.

John Carmack once told Team17, when they attempted to license Doom for the Amiga: "Technically, it can’t be done; you can't do a first-person shooter on the Amiga." Obviously, since you are reading this, there was a notable rush of games released in the mid 90's that tried to do just that. While most are similar in style to Wolfenstein 3D, Alien Breed 3D is the most doom-like and even surpasses Doom itself in ways, though like Marathon, takes concessions to do this. We take advantage of the omnidirectional hitbox for activating switches, fight adorable robots along with a big ant and play quite possibly some of the most frustrating levels I have ever played in a video games ever. All while working around the (not great) keyboard controller of the Amiga 1200 (which makes rollover occur somewhat easy). This run is performed on a Commodore Amiga 1200.

D/Generation is a Action Puzzle game that documents a mail courier's job of delivering a package to a man at the top of a building. An easy task, were it not for the fact there is a outbreak of biological weapons roaming about the place, including one that can alter reality. This run involves hitting switch with laser blasts, enemy despawn manip and walking out of maps, all while working around a randomize item pickup set. This submission pertains to the original releases of the game, particularly the OCS/ECS chipset release for the Commodore Amiga. This run is performed on a Commodore Amiga 1200.

D/Generation is a Action Puzzle game that documents a mail courier's job of delivering a package to a man at the top of a building. An easy task, were it not for the fact there is a outbreak of biological weapons roaming about the place, including one that can alter reality. This run involves hitting switches with laser blasts, enemy despawn manip and walking out of maps, all while working around a randomize item pickup set. In 2015, an HD remaster based on the Commodore Amiga version of the game was released for PC and consoles. The core gameplay loop was there, but had some oddities making it difficult to play(game over sends you to very start). On top of that, while Windows was updated over time, the game hasn't since 2016. As such, it is starting to further and further fall apart as time goes on. While the route is generally the same as the original and the game can be beaten casually and in speedruns, it has gotten a plethora of odd quirks and bugs to take into account.

1994 FPS by Bungie. Considered the spiritual predecessor to Halo, this is a Objective-based game originally only for Macintosh but later made available for modern systems via source ports. This is also one of the first games in the "Doom Clone" period to feature Dual-Wielding, Rocket/Grenade Jumping and absolutely NO HITSCAN. The run takes the above in mind and utilizes the engine's floaty physics and 2.5D/5D nature to breeze through the 28 levels.

Developed by Square but never released, Aliens: Alien 2 is a surprisingly decent platformer. Sure, it's got bugs and glitches, but that's expected in a prototype! Luckily, the game has an ending and is finished enough that it's mostly playable. And since this is a prototype, there are some major, impressive-looking glitches to skip annoying portions of the game. Music by Nobuo Uematsu is a plus! This can be either awful block or normal block - I think it's an enjoyable game, but as it's unfinished, it would make sense being in the awful block, as well.

Drelbs, from 1984, is a fever dream of a game. It's definitely meant to be more of an arcade-style game. In it, you create various rectangles by turning walls. Once no more rectangles show up, you hop into a portal, travel to prison, and free your fellow drelbs from - and I'm not kidding with this name - the trollaboars. Peak 80s sci-fi writing. Occasionally you can kiss the mysterious lady, too. While I played this game ever since I was a kid, it was only in the last decade that I learned how to actually beat it. The game consists of eight rounds following this pattern. If you manage to win, the mysterious lady shows up and blows kisses. Pretty sweet ending for 1984!

A 3D collectathon made by a husband/wife team, Spider Fox is a beautiful mess of a game. Graphics and controls are unrefined, but everything together somehow makes the experience chill and enjoyable. The run starts with me working to upgrade movement so the rest of the game can have quick, extremely difficult web slinging through the various levels, freeing 300 animals that have been fused into dual-animal monstrosities - the camel with the giant snake head particularly scares me. I play with arachnophobia mode on, so you get a ladybug fox instead. The game will probably feel somewhat chill as a run despite the high difficulty level; I'm fine with a late night or early morning slot if you'd prefer. It's definitely awful block material (despite how much I love the game).

I swear I've been submitting this for about a decade now, and here it is again. The difference? I got an RTA WR on the Hotfix less than a year ago, and I'd love to come and share what this run has become over the last 10 years. The show Xena is campy, and so is this game. Despite all the jankiness and terrible voice acting, the actual game is fascinating - each level has different mechanics, and each boss fight is unique. What's even better is that the community has found ways to speed up every single slow section and skip an escort quest entirely using various glitches; what used to be tedious is now a long-forgotten memory. Give Xena a chance.

Alone in the Dark received a relatively faithful remake in early 2024, leading to the creation of a very broken speedrun. Loads of out of bounds, running through the air and wall clipping make this a very quick, glitch heavy and fun run. Alone in the Dark is a game about following either Carnby or Emily through their investigation around Emilys uncle in Derceto. This run would make a great, broken addition to the GDQ lineup for it's debut.

Resident Evil 7 is a magnificent staple in both Resident Evil speedrunning and Horror speedrunning. This game follows the story of Ethan Winters as he traverses a run-down, horror filled Mansion in Dulvey Louisiana to find his Wife, Mia. The speedrun showcases a very high level of skips (Brand new OOB recently made for the game), tricks and extremely rhythmic/difficult boss fights for Madhouse. This is a staple for the horror block and hasn't been seen in a few years. This run is exciting, difficult and most of all - scary!

Resident Evil Revelations is the 3DS Spinoff game that was ported to PC. You play as a series of characters, but primarily Jill Valentine, aboard the queen zenobia to find your partner, Chris Redfield. This is a hidden gem and criminally underrated game in the franchise. Terrifying boat on the open waters, gross, ooze-like enemies and a fun speedrun filled with glitches. What's not to love?

Still Wakes the Deep is a solid, slept on Horror release the released earlier in 2024. This is a game where you play as Caz, a oil rig worker who finds himself in the midst of a large, sinking oil rig being taken over by a large unknown monster, causing everyone and thing to transform into disgusting creatures. Caz has only his movement and wits to escape the situation, making for fun Bunny hopping, glitches and difficult OOB paths to get us to where we need to go. This is a high skill, movement based speedrun that would be a great fit for the horror block.

The 90s TV show brought to life on the NES! One of the most notoriously difficult platformer/puzzle/beat em up/shmup combination games of the era. American Gladiators frustrated millennial and Gen X players for hours! The game mimics the legendary TV show with its multiple events with lots of action, also displays screen clipping, wrong warping, and abusing controller mechanics to get to the ultimate goal. The current WR was even recognized by the former gladiator "Laser" himself on Cameo.

Caesars Palace is a classic NES game where the only winning condition is making enough money to buy a sportscar when you leave the casino. The fastest way to do this takes under a minute with two lucky spins of the money wheel. We'll be attempting to manipulate the RNG of the wheel to get favorable spins, all to go from arriving in a taxi to leaving in a fancy eSportscar in 40 seconds flat.

Dragster for the Atari 2600 is a game that is trivial to pick up and play, but extremely difficult and nuanced to master. This submission is a special 8-player tournament inspired by the exciting RGB LAN event. Competitors will face off on a single shared screen and console as Player 1 vs. Player 2 with a "First to X" format, the winner advancing along the bracket. The tournament will feature informed commentary, close finishes, and expert level play.

A game receiving a lot of new buzz via it's inclusion in the most recent BestofNES Big20, Fun House is a Riff off the 1990s Fox Kid's game show. It features SmashTV-esque rooms and puzzles to solve with a way less fearsome opponent than Mutoid Man: The Clock! This game has a legendary NES soundtrack by George "TheFatMan" Sanger and has been run by retro GDQ legends authorblues and smartball. The WR has come down substantially since their heyday however.

A very difficult platformer compared to the original event-style game that its predecessor was, This game features a ludicrous story mode where you skate through town, the mall, and the beach. The last level concludes the game in an abandoned warehouse to rescue CJ (who looks like Ariel from The Little Mermaid) from the villain, Icepick. This game's nearly unfair level design, brutal controls, and horrific RNG have all been conquered recently as the WR has fallen many times!

So, we have had rhythm game showcases for GDQ. Time to have an awful block rhythm game showcase for once! During this run, I will play through the game, playing as badly as possible and progressing to the end, where I fail spectacularly on the final song. To clarify what I am doing, when you hit the notes properly, your singer will sing properly. When you miss notes, he will sing horribly, so the intent is to sing as badly as I can for as long as I can!

Do you remember The Simpson's episode where Milhouse put in 40 quarters to play the arcade game Kevin Costner's Waterworld? Have you ever thought about what that arcade game would look like? Well, think no more because Macaw45 has answered that question for us! I will be playing this game, and, if people want to see it, an all items run. Due to the nature of this game, I feel it fits well with Awful Block.

Amnesia: The Bunker is the 4th (or 5th depending if you count Justine as a separate game) installment of Frictional Games' renowned horror series, "Amnesia." In this, you once again play as someone who one day woke up with no memory of who they are, how they got where they are, and amidst horrors beyond their comprehension. This time, you play as a French Soldier in WW1, in a bunker where everyone seems to have been killed. It doesn't take long for you to realize they've all been killed by a monster that has hunted each one of them to death. The only way out is to find explosives and blow out the rocks that collapsed the exit. This game is automatically a randomizer of items and some keys, so everyone's playthrough looks a little different, and you can't always rely on the same tactics to win.

Dementium II HD is a janky little PC Port of a game originally released on the Nintendo DS. It was considered a cult classic for some time but has recently faded into obscurity to everyone who is not the speedrunning community around it. The plot makes no sense, the cutscenes do not help it make sense, and while functionally an okay game, it's one of the silliest, strangest, bizarre horror games I've come across from the time of its release.

Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion is the 3rd installment of the once popular and influential FPS series, "Turok," and this game is very much an homage and throwback to the first two in a unique way. It's also quite a ridiculous game. This game is probably the least popular in the whole series, and while feeling good to play, it's definitely cheesy as heck!

The latest game from Frictional Games, Amnesia: The Bunker changes up the usual formula to be much more of an open map with tons of ways to explore and deal with what's in your way. Never before seen at a GDQ, Amnesia: The Bunker carries on the tradition of Frictional Games being extremely broken but still entertaining from start to finish.

The Fears to Fathom games are episodic horror stories where the goal is to survive through the creepy events.

Not seen in a GDQ event since AGDQ 2016, SOMA has gotten a ton of new tricks, routes and optimizations to help Simon progress through Pathos-II

Tomb Raider 2013 has never been showcased at a GDQ event and it is a criminally underrated speedrun.

The Any% category for this game was showcased at AGDQ 2024, but now I'm offering 2 categories that show off other sides of the game while still keeping the satisfying movement and crazy skips.

An Airport for Aliens Currently Run by Dogs (or Dog Airport Game) is a first-person adventure about navigating a series of airports that were built by aliens and are now operated by stock photos of dogs. As in real life, interacting with dogs requires paying a tax and the specific nature of that tax is unknown until interacting with the gate agents. While this randomness is chaotic, there exist items such as SCARLET BOVINE (not to be confused with any other beverages) that boost the player's speed and, thanks to a glitch, can be used without being consumed.

Die Hard: Nakatomi Plaza is 2002 FPS that attempts to recreate the original Die Hard movie in the form of a Lithtech-powered set of 30 levels. Also, John is left-handed and it would be funny to have people watch a FPS with a left-handed player character.

EXECTOR is a 1995 PS1 top-down mecha shooter made by Arc System Works, their first original game before Guilty Gear was developed. EXECTOR features five stages with five huge room-sized bosses and all the explosions an early PS1 game could ask for (and maybe more than the console could necessarily support). The fastest movement option is strafe-hovering so much of the game is spent zipping down hallways sideways or diagonally. While I personally don't consider this to be an awful game, it is regarded as kusoge by JP runners. The version used is the official PSN release on PSTV.

G-Saviour is an early PS2 game that serves as a sequel to the events of the live-action Gundam movie, G-Saviour. This PS2 game is a straightforward mecha action romp as various iterations of the G-Saviour, including flavors of the G3-Saviour, barrel down linear levels and take down a series of escalating bosses with an incredible soundtrack. In all categories, management of several meters (hover and shield) is a constant balancing act as allowing either to deplete entirely can quickly pile up time loss or result in a game over.

DS9 The Fallen is a 2000 third-person action-adventure game that features three interwoven campaigns telling a story set between the 6th and 7th seasons of the show. With the choice of one of Sisko, Kira, or Worf, the player must shoot and hop (but mostly shoot) their way through a Cardassian conspiracy. As a speedrun, DS9 The Fallen offers a wide variety of tricks from bunny-hopping and mine jumping to fake walls and unintended mantling. Many actors from the show reprise their roles, adding appeal for Star Trek fans even if they are unaware of this PC game which remains unavailable on modern digital distribution storefronts.

Animal Crossing: City Folk is the third installment in the Animal Crossing series, released for the Nintendo Wii in 2008. Chat with your animal neighbors, decorate your house, pay off your debts, catch fish and bugs, and much more! Every new town is randomly generated, so no two playthroughs (and no two runs) are ever the same. Welcome to the high speed slow life!

Nontan to Issho: KuruKuru Puzzle is a Japanese puzzle game released for the Super Famicom in 1994. It is based on the popular Japanese children's book series starring the eponymous white cat Nontan and his friends. This game features a very unique flipping mechanic, resulting in a speedrun that requires fast yet methodical thinking throughout.

Animal Crossing: City Folk is the third installment in the Animal Crossing series, released for the Nintendo Wii in 2008. Chat with your animal neighbors, decorate your house, pay off your debts, catch fish and bugs, and much more! Every new town is randomly generated, so no two playthroughs (and no two runs) are ever the same. Welcome to the high-speed slow life!

Kirby Air Ride is primarily a 3D racing game using only the control stick and the A button—providing a simple core gameplay but also offering a satisfying mastery of many elements within each of its three modes in a speedrun setting. 16 regular vehicles and 5 special vehicles can be played. The game offers 9 primary courses that are featured in Air Ride, a 2D top-down race with 7 courses in Top Ride, and a free-for-all city map to collect power-ups with stadium games to compete in after each instance of City Trial. All of the three game modes are vastly different experiences both in a casual and speedrun setting, as each mode has 120 checkboxes of static achievements to try to unlock as well as best records per course or stadium game for time trialing.

Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour is the GameCube entry to the Mario Golf series, containing 16 characters as well as 6 main courses and a side course within which numerous golfing game modes are playable. The game runs at a smooth 60 FPS with very little lag and crisp graphics. It holds arguably the most malleable shot-making interface of all Mario Golf games with a manual shot that uses two frame perfect inputs alongside a free impact point and spin choice, creating a game with a low barrier of entry but an impossibly high skill ceiling.

Animal Crossing: City Folk is a communication game released by Nintendo in 2008. Golden Net” is a category for collecting all kinds of insects that exist in the game. In this game, different insects appear depending on the season, time, and environment. The player must collect the insects as fast as possible by making full use of the environment and time manipulation. It is a speed run with a very large RNG, so if you do not finish by EST, you will retire. This is a very populated category in the game. The race held in June had a record number of participants. It can be said that this is a speed run that is currently gaining momentum. Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate is a hunting action game released by Capcom in 2011. Due to a weapon summoning glitch found a few years ago, the game can now be completed in half the time as before. The highlight of the game is the quick defeat of monsters in a very surrealistic scene.

Monster Hunter Portable 3rd HD Ver. is a hunting action game released by Capcom in 2011. Although the game was only released in Japan, it is very popular all over the world. Monsters that move around violently are defeated at high speed without letting anything happen to them with brilliant setups. With so many RNGs, things can go wrong. The highlight of the game is to try to recover with the least amount of loss. This year, there are some newcomers to the game and some returning to speedrun, and the community is very active!

Anomaly Collapse is a linear, rogue-lite tile based strategy game that leans heavily into its furry side! Utilizing characters such as a bear guard, avian ranger, and lamb medic, you make your way through four chapters of diverse enemies, each with a stage boss. Gear up from a massive library of equipment drops. And, of course, the final multi-phase boss is an all-out race to the finish!

Another Crab's Treasure is an absolute delight of a "souls-like" experience, focusing on fun at all moments throughout the game with puns, quirky characters, and the dangers of crabitalism. It also has a greater focus on movement than other games in the genre, having a momentum based movement system that can be used to great effect to swim through the game (literally). At SGDQ 2024, the final boss Firth did my boys Spicee and LilAggy dirty at the end of their race, so I'm here to get my revenge and hopefully show off some new techniques that were not used in their runs.

Elden Ring! GotY 2022, the most recent of FromSoft's "Souls" games, and with a recently released DLC "Shadow of the Erdtree", this game is one of the most difficult and expansive experiences you will ever see. Some bosses are so difficult that many players will spend tens of hours just to best them a single time, especially with some of the final bosses in the DLC that many would call the hardest bosses of all time. My submissions focus on the DLC content, either showing off how to set up and defeat the DLC from a new character, or focusing entirely on the DLC through a randomizer. I believe that the DLC is some of the most fun that you can have speedrunning any souls game, and I would love to show it off for the first time at AGDQ.

Kannagi Usagi is very heavily inspired by Sekiro, using the same system of deflects and counters. However, the game is non-stop action, with the entire game being one big boss rush through the 8 bosses in the game, each taking around a minute and a half. The speedrun is more interesting than it may seem at first, because there are so many options to speed up the fights with risky punishes, sometimes only having a single frame to get a punish within the window. It's a quick, colorful, cute, and fun run that doesn't overstay its welcome.

Lies of P is an absolute masterpiece of a "souls-like" game, featuring very fast combat that bridges the gap between Bloodborne and Sekiro. You play as an unnamed puppet protagonist (following the tale of Pinocchio) who must save the city of Krat from multiple forces that have decimated the city. From frenzied puppets, to zombified horrors, to even humans plotting to cause ruin for their own gains, it seems like there might be nobody you can trust. The speedruns use the newest weapon added to the game, the Azure Dragon Crescent Glaive, which gets its power from perfectly countering the enemy attacks. A missed counter can cost you time, your "fable" bar for special attacks, or even your life, so the run must be executed to perfection.

Game of the Year 2019 and my favorite speedrun game of all time, Sekiro remains an enduring staple of FromSoft speedrunning. Its unique twist on the "souls" style of game ramps up the speed, focusing on back-and-forth deflection based combat, and creating quick vertical world traversal with the introduction of the grappling hook. There is almost no time wasted, no matter the category, as the game is filled with skips and intense boss fights back-to-back. It should come as no surprise that it is the most actively speedrun FromSoft game, one of the top 100 most active games on speedrun.com, and continues to have huge innovations in the routes to this day, including a new skip that was discovered just a few months ago.

A remake of a beloved but kind of stinky RPGMaker horror game about being chased by a giant blueberry demon. The main draw is that the remake allows you to increase the internal speed of the game up to the unhinged amount of 1500%, resulting in the game being barely playable as even slight taps of the keyboard will rocket you across the map. This speedrun will complete the whole game under that condition and it'll do it super fast. It's silly and short, but sweet.

The dinosaur flavored survival horror series and fan favourite of said series. I will tank control my way around dinosaurs with utmost precision. Notably this game can be finished without firing a single bullet in the "No Weapon" category.

The DS remake of the original survival horror classic which comes with unique routing/glitches due to quirks in the remake process and is technically the fastest run of the original RE1 owing to the port's unique ability to completely skip cutscenes, so the run never really has downtime. Has the novelty of being a weird port of a popular game.

Ark Thompson's very bad no good romp through a weird first person Resident Evil where object permanence is fake and the voice acting is even faker.

Withering Rooms is a recently released horror action RPG where you play as a young girl who will defeat her enemies with jars, steal the fingers of said enemies for witchcraft and then sprint so fast she becomes cursed and enters an alternate reality, all in the name of ending a recurring nightmare as quickly as she can, she has beauty sleep to catch up on. It's a very chaotic run that rattles through all of the game's mechanics extremely rapidly, which makes it fun to explain because every new strat or story beat explanation sounds like a mad-lib. I've had a lot of fun doing this one for Hotfixes.

Ape Escape 2 is a comfortable yet fast-paced run where escaped monkeys must be captured again. The speedrun features fast-paced technical movement and a game-breaking glitch called air crawling, which allows for infinite height. Adding to the challenge, each monkey has its own unique behavior, creating an extra layer of complexity that keeps things interesting. And who can forget the Freaky Monkey Five?

Ape Escape 3 is the game we haven't seen at GDQ yet. This game features WAY more monkeys, and the game provides better equipment to deal with these, such as the transformations into the Miracle Ninja, a Kung Fu suit and a super-hero outfit. The theme about this game is television, so every stage is iconic, full of pop-culture references (titanic for example). The freaky monkey five returns for... interesting boss fights. I'm submitting Any%, and Survival Mode, the latter which is peak. Not getting kicked out of stages until I caught all of them. All Ape Escape games should have these. The glitches are also technical, but totally understandable to see. The latest one, only 2 years old, is Hip Drop Storage. This glitch actually gives us infinite height. How it works, nobody knows. Except it needs a slingshot, like all the other Ape Escape games.

Bowser's Fury is a shorter, but definitely more jam-packed Mario game. Bowser is furious, and will come and wreak havoc every now and then, meaning I am constantly on the run, optimizing my routing to get enough shines in time to fight Bowser again.

Goat Simulator 3 is a more evolved game from the previous one. Dropped off in an open world, this game actually has endings and final bosses, which the first game hasn't. To reach the end, I need to complete certain mini-quests in the world. The route is crafted in such a way to do the faster, more rewarding quests, but we're still getting to see all the lovely pop-culture references. There's a comic-con here! After these, funny boss fights ensue! I am submitting both the main game and the DLC. These 2 have separate leaderboards (goat3 and goat3mon), but they are the same game!

Honk. Untitled Goose Game is back. Not really, but you know, he's still as, maybe more horrible than 5 years ago, when it came out. The entire game focuses about manipulating the NPC's, to get tasks done quickly, going to the end of the game, and returning the bell to your home. All NPC's are completely different in how they are programmed, and a deep and intimate knowledge is needed to guide Roger, Timmy and Willy into water, tears and agony, just so we can progress to the next area!

This is a strange old arcade platformer from 1995. The main character is a rock-band leader and his house is blown up with TNT by his monster bandmates during the intro, and he has to road-trip across america to collect them and perform at woodstock. It's bizarre, wacky, and made by an interesting game company that I would discuss during the run. The main platforming levels are separated by driving levels with heavy memorization, which is a fun spectacle. The main areas are pastiches of various american locales.

WaveLand is a technical, high-APM platformer with a bunch of weird tech! I would love to show off the harder/higher-completion categories and explain the nuances of the game. There's also some fun history I'd like to tell with the game's funding and coming to fruition and some weird happenstance surrounding its release.

Can you fry eggs on Mount Everest?Arctic Eggs is a physics-based frying simulator set in a post-apocalyptic Arctic base. The gelatinous-skinned denizens of the base are hungry for eggs, cigarettes, bacon, cockroaches, sausages, bullets, sardines, and other staple breakfast foods. The physics controls are janky and difficult to control at first, but then become quite intuitive. The dialogue is very strange, but is unfortunately skipped in the speedrun. If you can "stomach" the difficult physics and unusual dishes, this game is super-fun. Order up! Offering as Solo or a race with DiggleWrath.

YEE HAW! Cactus Cowboy returns in this "lovely" Portal knock-off VR title. Enjoy several complex puzzle chambers from Cacti Laboratory, including lava pits, moving portals, snarky AI-voiced commentary, and absolutely solid walls with no chance of clipping through them. (That last one was a lie).

The classic action survival horror speedrun like few have ever seen - Resident Evil 4 VR puts an even faster-paced first-person twist to this beloved game. The New Game+ Fast-Forward is currently the fastest category for this version of the game, with both Leon and the Los Illuminados moving about twice as fast as normal, requiring faster reflexes than ever before. This version also includes unique speed tech, such as run 'n' gun, walk boosting, lockpick clipping and airwalking, which allows for large sequence breaks never before seen in the series.

Oh no! Evil forces learned the ancient Russian martial art known as SABOR, have turned into bats and began to terrorize the countryside, transforming the men into bats and the women into swans! What can a quintet of poor farm boys do? They get JACKED, that's what they do! SABOR is a clunky MS-DOS beat-em-up with RPG and puzzle elements. The speedrun uses a glitch at the start of the run to maximize stats and (attempts to) abuse the enemy AI into getting stun-locked, making the game almost playable. Enemies include other SABOR fighters, Baba Yaga, Baba Yaga's Chicken-Footed House, Deadly Skull-Lasers, and the JERK BIRD (complete with optional theme song).

Great Scott!!! This Japanese-exclusive game is the best Back to the Future title ever released on the classic Nintendo consoles. The game includes goofy cartoonish renditions of iconic BttF characters, such as Marty, Jennifer, Doc, Biff, George, and Lorraine, as well as other characters from the film, such as Ryu from Street Fighter, derpy-faced balloons, soda-guzzling children, and Reese's Puffs! The speedrun strats include lag reduction and damage boosts to save time or skip sections of levels. Back-up strats include optionally underflowing the lives counter to generate infinite lives. Additionally, one boss can become immortal if hit too many times.

Arctic Eggs is a dystopian cooking game that requires equal amounts of balance and flavor. We are responsible for feeding an entire population of hungry Antarctic residents, and speedruns of this game provide fast flipping and feeding of silly ingredients. This highly technical run has many movement optimizations, cooking strategies, and difficult recipes - all leading up to our hungry final boss.

This fast-paced sniper puzzle game, reminiscent of SUPERHOT, literally alters time as you play, and when YOU speed up, so do the enemies. We move through the environment as the bullet by rapidly changing directions, entering rapidfire mode, and breaking the reinforced shields of your targets. This speedrun requires pinpoint accuracy and quick mouse movement to complete some of the most challenging angles and glitches. Additionally, I recently featured this game at GDQx2024 at Twitchcon and would love to showcase new any% timings at AGDQ!

An adorable 2D story game with a fleshed out speedrun that will make the whole family squeal with joy. This Peppa Pig run was recently featured as a crowd-favorite during the speedrun marathon Fast50! Also, did I mention that this run will be completely BLINDFOLDED? This would be an oinkin' good time on the GDQ stage!

Sticking to the shadows is our specialty in this 2024 puzzle-story game. Our shadowy friend quickly leaps between shadows in order to complete all 64 of these unique levels. The speedrun of SCHiM requires quick-thinking, fast reaction times, and deep knowledge of the global shadow cycles to rapidly complete each level. With its mesmerizing pastel color palettes and variety of glitches/skips throughout, this run is a treat to play AND watch.

The highly anticipated Plucky Squire from Devolver Digital truly combines 2D + 3D environments in creative and novel ways. The sword climbing glitch breaks the speedrun wide open by performing a string of near-frame perfect inputs to navigate out of bounds in almost every 2D level in the game. This is used throughout the run to skip hours of puzzles and surpass most enemy hordes you are normally forced to fight. This game tells a phenomenal story through traditional storybook pages and incorporates 3D spaces around it flawlessly.

Can you fry an egg on Mount Everest? You are a poultry prepper in 2091 in an Antarctic Colony, punished by the saint of six stomachs for attempting to escape the colony. You are given the job to cook for the hungry stomachs in the colony, and just maybe you'll be able to win an audience with the Saint of Six Stomachs and earn your freedom... you've got a frying pan, some eggs and other edibles (or non edibles) and a very janky control scheme. Can be very RNG, but in a fun way!

Fromsoft has released many games over the years, and Evergrace is perhaps the least out of all of them. Take the crudest possible iteration of Dark Souls' basic design, pare it down for the PS2, then make it feel like a PS1 game despite originally being designed for the PS2, add in a dash of the most turn of the millennium bad dubbing, and you've got Evergrace. Despite all of that, Evergrace is a deeply fascinating and interesting look at Fromsoft's past games and the evolution of their design language, it genuinely feels like Demon Souls alpha 0.1!

Armored Core Nexus is the 8th entry of the 3D mech action game series "ARMORED CORE" released in 2004. You act as a mercenary piloting a giant mech and complete missions from multiple coporations or organizations. This game is notorious for the changes in the thermal systems, which contributed to its difficulty. Alongside with the runner's skill, customization and missions will be optimized and kept to its minimum.

The second game in the original trilogy of the long running mech combat franchise. With an actual final boss and more narrative structure compared to the first game, and no forced arena gameplay like in the third, ACPP lends itself well to a standalone speedrun despite allowing save transfers between games. The game's last showcase was PMCTrilogy's great AGDQ 2023 run before AC6's release -- it would be a good lead-in to AC6 (if submitted/accepted) to show how far the series has progressed.

Collectathon/Vehicular Destruction game from Rare, where a runaway nuclear carrier begins leaking en route and locks straight onto its destination, and you must protect the buildings in the carrier's path by destroying all of them :thinking;

Iconic Genesis platformer with a sprawling web of interconnected levels, filled with secret exits and powerups that enable various sequence breaks and speed tech with tight execution. In addition to dozens of smaller improvements since the AGDQ 2018 run, just this year the game's biggest single timesave was found, saving over 20 seconds with perfect execution. I'd love the chance to broadly show it off at GDQ for the first time. The new trick works in both categories, including the shorter 100k Trip category that has yet to be showcased on the main stage.

Essentially indie warioware with 56 minigames that control with a single button, most are pretty dumb and goofy so it'd fit well in a silly block.

A title that stood tall among many popular third person shooters on the 7th gen consoles. Since picking this game up, I have implemented new strategies involving AI manipulation, new checkpoint exploits, and two new skips in mission 3 and 5, which are the first out bounds skips in the game's history. It's a very engaging run, with silly AI antics, fun ragdoll physics, and comedic 2000's dialogue that has either aged like fine wine, or like milk. All aboard the Xbox 360 Nostalgia Express!

After running F.E.A.R. twice at past events, I feel it's time to bring the sequel to the main stage. Over the past couple of years, I've not only shown this off a couple of times on hotfix shows, but the route has gone through a ton of major changes. Even new stuff that have been found in the past couple of months! The clips, out of bounds skips, and unintended parkour make this game just as flashy and fun as the first game. There's also a heavier emphasis on optimizing combat, which makes the fighting sections much more interesting. While it may not be as spooky, it is just as entertaining.

After years of submitting Shenmue, I had ShenTool developed to give me the power to fast forward the in-game clock. This eliminates all of the time spent waiting around, effectively cutting the run time in half, while still allowing us to experience the entire game. It is a constant flow of progression, filled with optimal fights, glitches, forklift racing, hilarious dialogue, timeless cutscenes, and so much more. Shenmue ran so Yakuza could sprint, and I think it's finally time to have Ryo Hazuki in the spotlight.

A popular indie horror game, inspired by Silent Hill, the PT Tech Demo, and Amnesia. Despite the simplistic mechanics, this game provides unique and complex skips. One of which is so bizarre, and contains so many steps, it will surely blow the minds of many. With the discovery of new skips, as well as a variation of an already existing one, the Any% runs for this game skip almost all of the dark and disturbing subject matter in the game. It is in it's best shape for a run on GDQ, and is one of the most entertaining runs of a walking sim ever.

Astro Bot is the new PS5 3D platformer with everyone's favorite robot mascot that includes a TON of Playstation references. The game came out fairly recently on September 6th, 2024 and it has seen immense success with many heralding it as one of the best platformers ever made. Astro Bot also just so happens to be an awesome speedgame too as the run is very fast paced and filled nonstop action from start to finish. We have incredibly tight jumps, diverse routing to collect the 200 bots we need to finish the game, a pretty difficult out of bounds trick and more!

Golf With Your Grandmother is a regular game of golf but instead of a ball you use your kind and sweet grandmother. This game is the epitome of "Awful Block". It controls horribly, it's unpredictable, it's one of the goofiest games ever but is still fun/enjoyable! It's also very difficult which is why grandma will die......a lot. This game has 30 obstacle course levels in it, though I will only be showing the first 5 or first 8 levels of the game to give just a taste of this glorious hidden gem!

New Super Lucky's Tale released on Switch in November of 2019 and was later ported to PC shortly after. The speedrun for this 3D platformer has had some groundbreaking discoveries, the big one being a glitch that lets us scale any wall infinitely which leads to many sequence breaks and out of bounds! Whether it’s Any% to 100%, this game has got a lot of cool strats, exploits and skips all in an overall charming game. Any%, NG+ and All Main Levels are submitted as either a race with SteveTVOnline or solo 100% is solo

Super Mario 3D Land is that game we all remember playing in the car on our 3DS while we were on road trips. This games main powerup is the tanooki suit with provides us with really fun and fast movement as well as really flashy and cool skips around every turn.

This 3D Mario platformer was originally released on Wii U but was later ported to the Switch. The Switch version includes tons of improvements that make it much faster to run like skipping cutscenes, faster character speeds and a new midair dive move! 3D World is filled with momentum strats, skips and optimizations and it is incredibly and unfairly slept on! While the Wii U version has been shown off twice, the Switch version of 3D World has yet to appear on the GDQ stage (outside of Bowser's Fury which is it's own seperate thing entirely)

Astro Bot is the latest modern platformer from Sony and has been cheered to critical acclaim. This positive-filled game has levels brimmed with detail and faithful references to many PlayStation IPs, which as a PlayStation Speedrunner I'm especially fond of. This game is recently new (a month to be exact), but speedruns of it have been developing steadily. The route has been a joy to route in all categories, and a constant flow of precise platforming jumps and looming death timelosses to our 1-hit hero are always looming around the corner... sounds perfect for a speedrunner. Additionally every level has a gadget gimmick that doesn't get reused often across all the levels, meaning each level has interesting tech to learn and master.

Horizon Forbidden West is the sequel to the critically acclaimed Horizon Zero Dawn. We continue Aloy's journey to save the world as signs of it dying continue throughout the world. She'll encounter new dangerous machines in the West and uncover the secrets of an evil that threatens the state and livelihood of the world even further. Time is running out, which means we need a speedrunner to get through this game quick and restore the planet. This run includes lots of little movement tech and weapon handling strategies to push Aloy's heroic potential to the second. As a sequel, this game presents TONS of new gameplay features and quality of life additions over Zero Dawn that adds a lot of new spice to runs from valor surges, new mounts, new personal effects and buffs, new weapons, and more combat improvements.

Rift Apart is the latest entry in the Ratchet & Clank Series that released in 2021. Play between Ratchet and Rivet as we confront interdimensional portal shenanigans with a whole arsenal of weapons (and a whole arsenal of strats and glitches). It's a high quality modern PlayStation platformer that has amazing movement tech that lets you soar the skies and flows so well from checkpoint to checkpoint.

Astro Bot is the new adorable PS5 3D platformer. It is filled with playstation nostalgia and gorgeous characters and level design. The speedrun is shaping up quite nicely already with some interesting skips and tight movement / routing.

HD Remaster of the PS1 platformer Crash Bandicoot

Hollow Knight is the very popular indie game released by Team Cherry in 2017. It is a Metroidvania where the player controls the Knight, an insectoid warrior exploring Hallownest, a fallen kingdom plagued by a supernatural disease. The game is set in diverse subterranean locations, featuring friendly and hostile insectoid characters and numerous bosses.

Lunistice is a 3D Platformer created with simple & fun gameplay and a cute PS1/SEGA Saturn inspired artstyle in mind. Take the role of Hana the Tanuki and jump and fight through her dreams!

Astro Bot is a vibrant 3d Platformer filled with unique levels with fun mechanics, and the speedrun follows suit! The run has a mix of interesting skips, nuanced movement, and detailed routing beyond simply "completing each level as fast as possible", as 200 Bots are needed in total to complete the game.

Chop Goblins was developed by the creator of Dusk as a "micro game" intended to be played within the span of an hour... so of course we're going to show off a 5 minute run with ridiculous and silly skips!

Deadlink is a rogue-lite arena based FPS with an emphasis on resource management. The game has a solid gameplay loop, but the speedrun gets ridiculous with any of the 4 Combat Shells. Each shell has a unique build that completely breaks the game in their own way.

Rusted Moss is a metroidvania with a physics based grappling hook. There are a plethora of movement options including recoil boosting, rocket jumping, bunny hopping, and challenging trick jumps that all help solidify it as a fantastic speedrun, with multiple endings (each with their own par times).

Astro Bot is one of the most popular games of 2024 (as of early October) and is a big contender for GOTY according to some people. It features some really cool skips and optimization with a very limited way to get around.

Sonic Frontiers is in my opinion one of the coolest 3d platformer speedruns there is. It's been shown previously at a GDQ but since then there has been a lot of new discoveries and some very interesting skips found.

The newest Zelda game! Don't need much of a description not gonna lie but the tl:dr of it is it's very cool and fun. I'm submitting this as an online run just in case there's a chance I can get in but it really should be showcased by someone in person!

2D side-scrolling beat-em-up by Treasure that sees the titular Astro run, gun, punch, kick, boost, laser and machine gun his way through several stages in an ever-expanding plot that involves quelling a robot uprising in the city, flying to a remote island to uncover a secret weapon, going to the moon, foiling a terrorist plot in Antarctica, travelling back in time 30,000 years, then back to a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Don't think about it too hard. It's a very pretty game, though.

Castlevania-meets-Metal Gear Solid action-RPG showcasing a totally unique mechanic: Real UV energy! You play a vampire hunter slaying the hordes of the undead, and you use solar power to fuel your abilities. You can either play on an outdoors setup, or use an artificial source of UV in order to spoof the solar panel built into the GBA cartridge. I opt for the latter, using a UV flashlight. This provides much better results than using "real" UV as you get much more firepower/speed than you're supposed to have access to. Plenty of combat, EXP routing, difficult boss strats and a healthy dose of RNG manipulation that both boosts consistency and allows for a route that would otherwise be totally impossible to pull off in a regular playthrough.

2D side-scrolling action-platformer that moves faster than can be reasonably kept up with at times. Both movement and damage-boosts are "routed" in this game, via the boosts you can use to get through levels/obstacles, and how quickly you can burst down bosses respectively. Your health indirectly serves as a resource to deal damage faster, creating a risk/reward system which makes most boss fights a tense affair.

You know? When you say turn-based JRPGs, they are always synonymous with (very) long runs. But what if I say that there is such game that can be done, GLITCHLESS, in less than 10 minutes? Atelier Marie Plus! First showcased in Tina's RPG Show!

If the original game (Atelier Marie Plus) is too short, we have a slightly longer, cozier and cuter game that will fit in about 15 minutes! The remake showcases both the classical turn-based combat and the main premise of item crafting. First showcased in Tina's RPG Show!

Have you ever heard of a cute game in a roguelike and shooter setting? No? What if Vampire Survivors and Magic Survival had a collaboration with Hololive? This is the game! The gameplay is really simple, but don’t be deceived by its looks (lol). Choosing the right upgrades and skills will really influence on how well you fight tons of enemies chasing after your character. This submission is more of a showcase since the main objective of the game is to defeat the stage boss which only appears after surviving 20 minutes of hordes of enemies. Nevertheless, the speedruns of this game feature fast decision making, risk taking, and menuing.

The sequel of the 2021 RPG of the Year offers a short speedrun which is like a boss rush mod that you see in action RPGs (close enough to the Souls series). The main strategy is to unlock the most powerful skills in early game (as noticed, this is certainly not NG+) needed to deal the most damage. This game is particularly exciting for boss fights as it features both the quickest and the longest difficult fights of the game (both the prequel and the sequel). DODGE AND ATTACK!

Under the banner of Tales of Series, this 2015 game features both linear battle system and an armatization mechanic which fuses two characters with a powerful elemental specialization. Speedruns of this game feature stun and mystic arte (powerful move) festivals and a movement glitch in which the character moves faster when travelling diagonally.

Atomic Runner Chelnov is an interesting mix of platforming shmup who is also related to Karnov! Ancient Aliens have returned to Earth to reclaim their world. After the kidnapping of you and your sister, you escape to seek revenge. This game is perfect for a Genesis block

Bebe's Kids for the SNES was ranked as THE worst game of all time by Nintendo Power in 1994. It seems fitting to submit it for Awful Block. It has everything you could ever want in a horrible game; Bad hitbox detection, finicky/clunky controls, slow movement, horrible enemy AI, and the boss patterns are complete RNG. There are some redeeming factors though and it's not as bad of a game as Nintendo Power would have you believe.

Strutting through Transylvania collecting every item to fill up our backpacks. CV2 100% includes all of the tricks you love from the any% run while adding in quite a few more! This could be perfect for a Castlevania block, horror block, or on its own.

D: The Game is an FMV style horror game that was released in 1994 for multiple consoles and PC. You control Laura who just found out her father has become a mass murderer so she races to the crime scene to discover the truth of what's really happening. This submission would work well for Awful Block or in the horror block. This game has a very strong cult following and couch commentary will be geared toward entertainment and donation interactions. Great run for audience interaction.

Thimbleweed Park is an amazing point and click adventure game by the same people who brought us Maniac Mansion and the Monkey Island series! FBI agents are in Thimbleweed investigating a mysterious murder and uncover something that will shake their whole world apart.

Beloved movie franchise inspires a game with... interesting design choices. Marty autoscrolls (mostly) through the game while avoiding bees, sweaty enemies and killer benches. He also goes some places to throw milkshakes and avoid hearts from Lorraine and stuff. Time to put up The Power of Love at breakneck speed, get that skateboard and try not to get hit. Let's go for 88mph!

What if Rocket Knight Adventures, but Mickey Mouse? In this Japan-exclusive Disney platformer, Mickey and his friends are preparing for a show in Tokyo Disneyland, but he has to find them when Pete tricked them into thinking it was a day off. Central to the gameplay are balloons which, besides attacks, are used to literally yeet you across the screen. They majorly define the speed tech throughout, with many fun boosts and setups that can be utilized.

Mascot platformer where we're on movie sets to collect, well, Oscars, often equipped with a yoyo. 3 years after the Amiga/DOS versions, this got ported over into something much more jank. The audio in particular can be hilariously loud at random, and the voice clips are a mood of their own - one of them basically resembles a burp. This is truly a run that'll make you say "Thanks, everybody!".

Storm Jaxon, the sword-waving bubble gum expert, attempts to save the island of Westica from Sküljagger while doing lots of epic victory poses. This platformer is a silly and oddly endearing experience, where gems can prevent you from dying instantly. Bubble gum is used in various ways, including cheesy quick kills on bosses and sometimes entire level skips. The game is known for its large manual including a mini-novella - and the hints in there also provide some speed tech of their own! Ingawa!

An unlicensed game with well-known Tiny Toons character Rabbit Clever who has to stop the evil. This platformer has lots of movement jank, where jumps are missable and hitboxes are sometimes functional. Interesting use of various assets from other games; this partially manages to be Super Mario World at home. The music includes a unique take on Three Blind Mice. In short, the Tiny Toons universe expansion you never thought you needed in your life!

Cute anthropomorphic animals fighting their way through 9 floors of dungeons each. There are five different characters, each one playing differently (and each one named after a different kind of "backpack"). This is a roguelike inventory management deckbuilder that uses items instead of cards.

Bad way is the uncharted/Tomb Raider game your mum buys from Poundland. It's a buggy game with some fun out of bounds sequence breaks, invisible wall shenanigans and goofy voice acting.

Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster is a remaster of the original 2006 Dead Rising. Now using the REengine, this allows the game to get some quality of life updates such as. Updated graphics, modern control and a build in timeskip feature. With the Dead Rising using the REengine this allows a new prospective in to the world of Dead Rising Speedruns.

We Happy Few is a stange game about 1960 england and anti depressents set in a town called Wellie in Wellington Wells. The game has 3 Acts following differant people, Arthur, Sally and Olivia. Showing differant lives with in Wellie in Wellington Wells. With the game being an open world survival, this allows it to have some interesting glitches and sequence brakes.

BALLYGON is an indie, single dev marble roller game with tons of cool tricks and amazing music!!

Rolled out is an indie Marble Roller game with tons of hard levels and cool skips!

This is Banjo-Kazooie on the Nintendo 64 with all its original and retro feel! As the bear and bird, you tackle the witch known as Gruntilda in attempt to save your sister, Tooty from the clutches of her beauty swapping machine! In all speedrun categories, we completely ignore Tooty, and try to beat the witch as fast as possible with the help of various game breaking glitches. Not only is this a fun and family friendly speedrun, but we jam to the amazing original N64 tunes that are Banjo-Kazooie!

This is Banjo-Kazooie, but on the amazing Xbox Live Arcade port! It still has that exact same feel as its incredible Nintendo 64 version, but it removes all that irritating lag and long loading zone times! With the addition of some amazing gameplay improvements such as note saving and better controls, this makes for an even more nonstop speedrun than its Nintendo 64 counterpart! It also isn't immune to its own exclusive glitches such as Demo Desync Adventure and Bottles Bonus Desync Adventure, but it still carries over the majority of glitches such as Reverse Bee Adventure and Bit Clips!

Banjo-Tooie on the Nintendo 64 is the amazing sequel to the classic Nintendo 64 adventure that is Banjo-Kazooie. With more content and worlds to explore, this game was the peak of 3D Platformers on the Nintendo 64. Not only does it have a banger soundtrack like Banjo-Kazooie, but its an awesome speedgame with a lot of tricks that showcase how broken this game is. From Bit Clips to Delayed Cutscene Warp, this game doesn't take a second to breathe in this action packed classic!

Based on the nostalgic movie of the same name, Barbie takes on the role of Princess Annika brandishing the Wand of Light to free the village people from stone and take down the evil warlock, Wenlock. This game is a classic platformer developed by WayForward in which you travel from world to world and gain powerups to save the day. Powerups include a fire/melting ability, forest magic, and more! When someone asks what I think the best Barbie video game is, this game is always my answer. This game is the perfect cozy, nostalgic game, especially for those who grew up with Barbie in the early 2000s. The run may seem simple on the surface, but requires a lot of practice due to having to memorize the placement of each villager in every level, and has a precise glitch which, if executed perfectly, can save up to 5 minutes!

A new Princess Peach game in 2024?! I must be dreaming! Never seen before on the GDQ main stage, we finally get another adventure starring Princess Peach as the protagonist. In Princess Peach: Showtime!, you follow along Peach and her new companion Stella to rescue the Theets and Sparkla from the evil Madame Grape, her Sour minions, and the various bosses found on each floor. Princess Peach will need to use the power of Sparkle in order to save the day. Peach also gets to try different roles in order to defeat bosses, such as a swordfighter, a thief, and more! The aesthetic of this game can be compared to Paper Mario. The game is set in a theater, so the enemies, backgrounds, and other characters are usually made of wood, cardboard, and/or held up by strings just as if they were props on a theater stage. That is one of my favorite part of this game since it really puts the player in the point of view of starring in a play.

Do you miss early 2000s technology, slang, and aesthetics? Do you like awfully silly games? Then this is the game for you! Based on the movie The Barbie Diaries, we join Barbie trying to get a spot as the school's top TV anchor. She needs a hot new story to impress her teacher to give her a chance. By a chance of fate, the school's auction items have disappeared and appear to be stolen. Barbie jumps on the case to solve who stole the missing auction items. Since the items are hidden around the school, we must use clues given to us by our "secret admirer" to find their locations. Barbie will need to complete quick time events, solve puzzles, and gather evidence to find the auction items, solve the case, and get the anchor position she's always wanted!

You know, it was only a matter of time before I found myself in Barbie speedrunning territory. In this run I will contemplate the deeper meaning of Barbie walking through random, nonsensical regions and how it coincides with being a supermodel, the extreme precision Barbie needs to perform narrow brushes with getting bonked by a snowball or car and its correlation to the precise button presses of her runway showcase, and the existential crisis of me willingly going into a retro game store, seeing this cartridge, and thinking buying it and learning the speedrun was a great idea.

Final Fantasy Type-0 is a rarely-seen gem of an FF title, and is the best example of combining final fantasy lore, ARPG mechanics, and enough RNG to keep you on your toes the whole run. Follow along as we use the powerhouses of Shiva and (Samurai) Jack and inadvertently reroute on the fly when the game just says, "um, actually, no." Fast movement, quick boss strats, and me lamenting over the general chaos make this an enjoyably wild ride.

Actual main theme lyrics: "Close your fist, take my hand - don't forget your underpants!" This is a game about a cute kitty that becomes a bodybuilder with the head of a cute kitty when wearing mythical underpants. It has the backdash movement tech SotN WISHES it had. You fly using a pink unicorn that shoots laser farts at enemies. There's DDR, litter boxes, shmups, fangirls, and surprisingly tight cycle-based platforming. No one is prepared for what they're about to witness.

Nex Machina is a 2017 shmup from Housemarque, and I'm offering up both a solo run and a co-op run with danejerus. In the co-op run, we'll be sharing a life pool and optimizing random powerups and weapons as we take on increasingly difficult worlds and bosses. The hardest part? Keeping track of which co-op partner will "accidentally" steal the other one's power-up (it totally won't be me, I swear)!

Sound Shapes is a unique and mesmerizing music-based platformer from 2012. This deceptively-difficult speedrun combines musically-timed, cycle-based gameplay, momentum management, very tight platformer movement, and a banger of a soundtrack by greats like deadmau5 and Beck that will live rent-free in your head. Vibe out as I stress out and jump, slide, and bounce through this visual and aural delight. Regarding potential content restriction concerns on the deadmau5/Beck albums, Twitch highlights and YouTube uploads have never been flagged at any time and have always remained public.

The inspiration came from the recently from GDQX run of Multiple Classic Mario Games. So I figured why not have the entire catalog of the Streets of Rage series on the Sega Genesis? But of one favorite character of mine: Ms. Blaze Fielding the heroine of the series. I guarantee the complete run of all 3 games that has an amazing soundtrack and incredible gameplay. Excuse my microphone for being low making this run.

Streets of Rage 4 is beat'em up that has handful of vigilantes as they try to dismantle a criminal syndicate led by the Y twins, the children of the previous game's arch villain Mr. X. I am running the game in Mania mode as the Streets of Rage 1 character Blaze Feilding. She does not have any special moves but makes it up by having a devasting combo that does real damage in the game.

Super Punch Patrol is an indie beat‘em up with a unique art style and gameplay that I originally showcased on GDQ’s Unapologetically Black Event. Influenced by streets of rage and other beat'em ups, Super Punch Patrol is a fresh take on a classic genre and we will show how to beat this game in just under 35 minutes using classic beat'em up speed strategies but also some fun boss fights that keep the run entertaining.

Look, a friend! Oh boy!

Trauma center for moms

We watch a 90 minute sci-fi movie starring Tia Carrere together, interspersed with occasional gameplay, mostly of the puzzle variety. Peak 90s FMV cheese.

Charming hand-drawn escort quest style puzzle platformer where you play as the princess/monster escorting the prince you blinded to the forest witch to restore his sight. The speedrun does its best to break the puzzles with precision platforming, one-cycling sections and manipulating enemy AI. Cool game.

Infamous, oft-ported film noir FMV arcade shooter where you figure out who shot JR (*wink wink*) by shooting up local places of business.

Bastion is an isometric action game from Supergiant Games, known better these days for Hades, but Bastion holds up great as a speedgame still to this day. We instantly break the game by using the mouse for movement, allowing for faster rolls through every level, and runs only get more broken from there, as the community has basically figured out how to do as little as possible of every level under multiple different rulesets. In-depth knowledge of the game's terrain - the ground forms up in front of you as you traverse each level - and level scripts results in a highly broken yet approachable run.

Bastion is the first game from SuperGiant Games and is an action RPG that is well beloved by many, including those at GDQ. With great movement and music, this game is a treat to play and to watch.

Cat Quest 3 is the story of some unlikely heroes in the form of cats searching for the fabled North Star Treasure. They’ll claw their way through evil factions of pi-rats in the third game of this paw-dorable indie action rpg series. This run showcases tight routing, high-stakes combat, and a meow-dly of quirky characters. Whatever it takes to stop the Pi-Rat King and become the richest ship in the Purr-ibean. Also, there are lots and lots of puns.

When most people hear the name of this game, they're reminded of the maligned 16-bit side scroller. Well, this isn't the same thing, but it's definitely CRANKED up a notch! Acclaim's arcade answer to the neon movie du jour, Batman Forever is not only a crazy beat 'em up, but it's been compared to a fever dream in video game form. Robin will be our character of choice as we flip kick our way into oblivion and into your hearts. The jank content alone makes this an ideal candidate for Awful Block, and the name and reputation don't hurt either, not to mention the MOVIE QUOTES. I've even already shown it to my potential couch so we can start early on a first-time-viewer comedy bit. Oh, and Jim Carrey absolutely steals the show; don't say I didn't warn you.

Dragster for the Atari 2600 is a game that is trivial to pick up and play, but extremely difficult and nuanced to master. This submission is a special 8-player tournament inspired by the exciting RGB LAN event. Competitors will face off on a single shared screen and console as Player 1 vs. Player 2 with a "First to X" format, the winner advancing along the bracket. The tournament will feature informed commentary, close finishes, and expert level play.

Ganryu is an uncommonly-known arcade-released ninja-based platformer for the NeoGeo, developed by Visco. In this game, we will slide and wall jump our way through large, open levels en route to five boss fights of great variety and the almighty ORB(s). Playing as Suzume, we'll get to see a fair bit of the game's stellar visuals and color palette, and who could forget the amazing feudal Japan-inspired soundtrack mixed with some doom and gloom? Most of the speed tech comes in the form of consistent and constant slide movement and precise platforming, along with fast boss kills (some of which are at the mercy of RNG, but nothing that largely threatens the run).

With the release of the Marvel vs. Capcom collection in 2024, this little known gem has been reintroduced into the world, and it has a heck of a speedrun to boot. With the release of the collection imminent, I took it upon myself to learn the run Capcom really pulled out all of the stops with the presentation of this game with the gorgeous sprite work and topnotch soundtrack, but the real selling point is the combat. There isn't much you can't do in this game, though admittedly, a lot of our spare time is used for dropping grenades. The quest to bring down the Kingpin will feature some wonderful-looking fast boss kills, enemy grouping of many varieties, and of course, the best character in the game... the bus driver. I will also be offering a character bidwar as donation incentive, as both Punisher and Nick Fury have respectable and similar runs with some minor tweaks, with no changes in the estimate.

An arcade classic featuring America's favorite family brawling their way to rescue baby Maggie from the diamond-stealing Mr. Burns. The run has been showcased in the past by yours truly at SGDQ 2020, though not on the live stage since AGDQ 2016 when it was featured by a different runner, and it's due for a return! To speedrun the game is to 1CC it since fast strats don't deplete resources, though RNG does have the chance of depleting time. I will also be offering a character bidwar as donation incentive for all four playable characters: Marge, Homer, Bart, and Lisa.

Re-live the original worst night of Batman's life, but this time things will be different. Thanks to a variety of zips, animation cancels, and various out of bounds shenanigans, we can skip all the worst parts and ruin weeks of Joker's planning in record time.

The dastardly Hugo Strange has trapped us in Arkham City, and worse - he knows that I'm Batman. What will we do? How does Joker factor into this? Just what exactly *is* Protocol 10? Stay tuned!

It's Halloween, and there's an army in town, led by Scarecrow and a new mysterious figure: the Arkham Knight, who is definitely not Jason Todd. Batman will have to use his most trusted ally, prep time, to, well, ignore most of what's going on and make a beeline straight for the end of the game, in a path that involves extreme teleportation, slightly less extreme teleportation, falling through floors into out of bounds shenanigans, and forcing the car to teleport to strange places.

Black Mask has hired 10 assassin's to kill Batman on Christmas Eve... nah, nevermind, don't care. We're just gonna skip all that and go to Blackgate to fight the Joker and Bane. Why? Who knows! Also Mr. Freeze wants in on the action on New Years.

All Arkham games back to back!

Completing Arkham City on Hard already can be difficult enough, but completing it without getting hit once is another thing. RNG dices can roll different results, and that what makes this run fun and painful at the same time

Game where you get Dishonored and then Dishonor all over the place. BUT very carefully, so no glitches would happen. We don't want to use cheats in our runs, right?

SSKTJL - one of the games, will be remembered as a game, and maybe even it will be played. Game is too big to exist, so we will go with just the first level, and the rest you can watch on YouTube, if you even will be able to care.

"The time moves only when you move", which means that we will move as much as possible to complete the game as fast as possible.

The final (and best) game of the popular Batman: Arkham trilogy. Relive the worst day of Batman's life as we work to save Gotham City for the last time.

Batman: Vengeance is one of the best obscure action adventure games released in 2001 of all time. Set in the world of Batman The Animated Series and including all of the original voice actors (like Kevin Conroy and Mark Hammil!), this awkward-to-control gem of a game has plenty of action, glitches, fun little speed tech moments, and rad classic Batman moments for the whole family to enjoy.

There's a few sections that flash (white) pretty decent, mainly around when bosses die and toward the end of the game. Otherwise, Battle Kid is a great homebrew game that honestly is very pressuring to run in a marathon setting. The game, on normal, has infinite lives, but it also has modes that reduce lives to 50, 20 and 1 respectively. I recently beat the game on "Unfair" this year which means you can't even take 1 death - which took 2721 attempts respectively. I feel very confident in having incentives to drop the life count to 20 which is very scary in a no marathon setting (or 50) or both.

Bucky is a NES platformer from Konami. HARD! mode is an anti-piracy feature that makes the entire game one hit kill.

Joe & Mac are off to rescue some cave babes in this pretty generic SNES platformer. The sequel was much, much better.

Capcom's OG platformer. Full of broken zips.

Tecmo World Wrestling is a wrestling game actually made by a lot of the same developer as Ninja Gaiden 1. It's arguably, without sarcasm, one of the best wrestling games on NES. It's also, arguably, without sarcasm, one of the worst games to speedrun on NES.

Battleground Z is one of the purchasable games available in the 3DS's StreetPass Mii Plaza, added in an update during the console's life time. This game utilizes Miis you have streetpassed, which occurs when you walk by somebody else with a 3ds system, as survivors in a zombie apocalypse. Each Mii has a different weapon it uses in beat'em up style gameplay that is based on what their hobby is. There's 26 different weapons to choose from using this system, each with their own unique gameplay and special moves.

Find Mii II is one of the free games availble in the 3ds's StreetPass Mii Plaza, added in an update for free during the console's life time. This game utilizes Miis you have streetpassed, which occurs when you walk by somebody else with a 3ds system, as party members in a barebones turnbased rpg. Depending on the Mii's favorite color, they have different special abilities, and can overcome various obstacles throughout the game. As a StreetPass game, this software encouraged bringing your 3ds with you everywhere you went, as Miis would be stronger in battle the more times you have passed by somebody, up to a maximum of 7 times. The game is more silly than anything else, using a preset group of 10 near-identical miis in order to beat the game as quickly as possible.

Kena: Bridge of Spirits is a gorgeous action-adventure game with a technical speedrun focused on optimized movement and glitches. The game is a visual marvel for audiences, having stunning graphics that makes it seem right out of an animated film, while also having souls like combat (varying on the difficulty setting).

Slot Car Rivals is one of the purchasable games available in the 3DS's StreetPass Mii Plaza, added in an update during the console's life time. This game utilizes Miis you have streetpassed, which occurs when you walk by somebody else with a 3ds system, as rivals in a Slot Car stadium. After racing against other Miis you have passed by, they help create a booster for your Slot Car, effecting its stats and making it go faster or control better. There's 19 courses in the game, each with increasing difficulty and complex designs. As the only racing game in the StreetPass Mii Plaza, it is very popular to run individual courses, and has by far the most popular leaderboard out of any StreetPass game.

Spore Hero is a 3d action-adventure game released in 2009 that takes the popular Creature Stage of Spore for the PC and turns it into its own game. Built from the "ground up" for the Wii, the game primarily uses jank motion controls to craft its awful yet beautiful gameplay. Said gameplay is primarily focused around creating your own creature and then playing as said creature to explore and save the world. As this is a Spore game, there is a large focus on creating and improving your creature, often times resulting in some truly "unique" creations. Saving the world as your creature is done through platforming and Spore Hero's trademark awful combat and motion control minigames.

Bayonetta 3 evolves the flashy combat of its predecessors by adding demon summons and a new playable character. Veterans of the series are tested by introducing new combos, modes of attack, and enemy types, topped with a new story, the implications of which are cataclysmic.

BioShock Infinite is the most recent game in the BioShock franchise, released in 2013. While retaining the idiosyncratically story-rich, multifaceted gameplay of BioShock 1, Infinite pushes the boundaries by being a more fast-paced and energized shooter to great effect. Tasked with nothing more than a simple line, "bring us the girl and wipe away the debt," Booker DeWitt finds himself in the radiant sky city of Columbia, but soon finds that behind the façade is a network of lies and atrocities.

The perfect transition to nighttime speedruns, VA-11 Hall-A features all the coziness of a relaxing lounge and the existential dread of a nanotech-ridden, hypercapitalistic Glitch City. Players control Jill Stingray as she struggles to navigate a tumultuous personal life amidst living in an oppressive society, all the while serving and listening to VA-11 Hall-A's patrons, who are dealing with similar worries themselves. Similarly, viewers are treated to fun music and a cozy atmosphere, all the while text and color splashes speed across the screen.

Captain Maxwell Atoms is all set to retire, but he must do one final mission: ensure the safe transport of a bear... in space. Like you didn't see that coming. Well the bear escapes, climbs on our back, and now we're running around doing all kinds of shenanigans, shooting robots and trying to find a way back to Earth. Were you expecting a serious game? Absolutely not. This game is RIDICULOUS and there's another joke every 10 seconds.

DOOM (2016) was the reboot of the classic boomer shooter series from id Software. It features fast-paced combat and a ton of skips and speedtech. Fans of glitches love this game for just how silly broken it is.

Fashion Police Squad is a colorful boomer shooter where you assume the role of officer Desmond of the Fashion Police Squad. You go around fashionizing errant dress code criminals who where drab or ill-fitting suits, socks with sandals, or... speedos [shudders]. The game is silly and always seems to have another joke waiting just around the corner.

Nex Machina is a shmup from Housemarque, the makers of Returnal, and is a love letter to Super Smash TV, the NES classic. Players must work their way through a series of rooms, controlling a character from an isometric camera and collecting powerups and subweapons to more quickly dispatch the hordes that constantly spawn to swarm you.

This is the remaster of the remake of the original game from 1996. The remake came out in 2002 and the remaster was ported to Steam and various consoles in 2015. Yes, it's confusing. Yes, this will all be on the test.

what if hades were good? you'd have this game. beat slayer is a fast paced BPM-style roguelite action game, and requires quick thinking and fast reactions to get through with minimal upgrades, which is the category i'm submitting.

the rpg i played a ton of as a child but was too bad to actually figure out how it worked, it's geneforge. venture to sucia island and unlock the secrets of the shapers and the geneforge itself....IF YE DARE

the game of the year of 2022 (as chosen by amyrlinn), neon white is a flashy, fast-paced IL shooter.

truly awful block material here. based on the movie of almost the same name, this is titenic, the game that tells the love story of jack and rose as they fight their way off the ship, because that's sort of what they do in the movie. this game is unironically very hard, as bosses have very quick attacks and can absolutely mollywhop me out of existence, but i can counter them and cancel dying by punching the air and then punch them off the boat. you know, like jack and rose did in the movie titanic.

Hm Hm Heh! Video games rule! Travis and Bob-head for Sega Genesis is a whirlwind of wacky platforming and PC style Adventure style gameplay. Moon logic abounds as one must figure out how to overcome obstacles like sewer rats, poisoned burgers, teachers at school, and of course getting into the GWAR concert-my favorite band! When you really examine the pieces of this puzzle, it is one of the most unusual routes of all time.

A retro style indy platformer from 2022! This is a homage to ZX Spectrum games such as Dizzy - Can Beep the robot escape from the lab? Great graphics, music and puzzle solving make this a fun platforming arcade adventure

This is an educational title from the 1980's... a very memey run. Can you rescue the 6 children and avoid the Wicked Witch?? (Emulated) I would also potentially have a couple of incentives for this - Choose the narrator (from a selection of GDQ attendees!) and Witch%!

Kwik Snax is a fast, fun arcade action game from 1990 on the Sinclair ZX Spectrum - Save the Dizzy Mob from the nasty Wizard Zaks and the Land of Personality! Featuring great music, fast action and precise movement!

This is an arcade / adventure platform game from the 1990's on the Sinclair ZX Spectrum. Dizzy and the rest of the Yolkfolk have been cast into Magicland by the evil wizard Zaks! Not only that, all of his friends have been cursed!!! Can Dizzy free his friends, kill Zaks and somehow find his way home?? A fun colorful little romp with good music, a traditional fairytale setting and precise movement!

This is a fantastic little platform game from 1991. Colourful graphics, fun characters and amazing music! The speedrun is very execution heavy and includes a couple of short skips and some tricky platforming!

The ghost with the most, now in handheld form! Beetlejuice on the Game Boy is based on the cartoon series and is completely different from the NES version. It features a variety of gameplay ranging from run 'n gun platforming to deadly mine cart rides, and several wacky mini-games spread throughout. Speed run tech includes clipping through walls to skip multiple sections of stages and plenty of damage boosting. From the wonderful folks at LJN and Rare.

Rakshasa is a stylish and atmospheric arcade style platformer, and one of the many amazing games within UFO 50, a newly released collection of 50 retro style games. You control a legally distinct Karnov hero through three varied stages full of randomly spawning monsters, numerous secret items, and several exciting boss fights. It also features a unique mechanic of respawning in a short minigame guiding your ghost to golden symbols to revive yourself, with difficulty ramping up if you make too many mistakes. Rakshasa would make a great addition to a UFO 50 block or relay if other games from the collection are accepted into the marathon!

One of the original match-3 games. Bejeweled 3 is replayable for speedrunning with several unique quests, and glitches like Negative Moves for safety.