It’s that time of year again! No, not the one where you “skip the gym just this one time” and never go back, or the time where you try to remember if wrapping paper is recyclable — it’s Awesome Games Done Quick, the charity speedrunning marathon that lasts for an entire week!
This year’s AGDQ is in support of the Prevent Cancer Foundation, and will take place from Sunday, 9th January through to Sunday, 16th January. Following on from Summer Games Done Quick’s record $2.9 million raised for Doctors Without Borders, AGDQ will feature a massive list of speedruns over the course of a week in an attempt to inch closer to that $3 million mark.
AGDQ is, of course, a digital-only event this year (because of the pandemic), but the livestream will be on GDQ’s Twitch page
As for our picks of what to watch, here are the speedruns and games that we’re most excited to see:
Death’s Door — 6:52pm ET, Sunday, January 9th
This 12-minute run will be performed by the current holder of a second-place world record for the game, Scrublord, and narrated by Mr. Game and Shout, a GDQ volunteer and streamer. TWELVE MINUTES. Goodness.
Part Time UFO — 9:35am ET, Monday, January 10th
Worth watching just to get a sense of how utterly lovely PTUFO is, but also because speedrunner ykrin is hoping for a sub-10-minute run. They’re currently the #1 in the world at Any% for the game, but their last registered record is almost 25 minutes long — that’s quite the improvement, if they pull it off!
Chicory: A Colorful Tale — 12:20pm ET, Monday, January 10th
There’s always something special about taking a lovely, wholesome, tranquil game and utterly breaking it to get a ludicrous speedrun time. Punchy’s ten-minute speedrun is par for the course, though: the current world record holder is a 5 minute, two second run. They must be really
The Entire NES Block — from 5:58am – 9:30am ET, Tuesday, January 11th
The NES block is a staple of GDQ speedruns, and usually takes place at stupid o’clock because it’s a bunch of games no one has played or heard of. Still, it’s fun to watch speedrunners blast through these old, niche games, including Bucky O’Hare, Willow, and Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger. There will be more exciting NES games elsewhere in the schedule — Mega Man 2, for example, on Sunday 9th — but GDQ is all about the weird stuff, too.
Pokémon Crystal Key Item Randomizer — 11:06am ET, Wednesday, January 12th
Randomised runs are achieved through mods that basically shuffle whatever you want — items, dungeons, bosses, and so on — to create a relatively unpredictable run. It can break the game in fun ways, or it can make it nearly impossible to play; it’s probably a lot more fun to watch, that’s for sure.
Will you be tuning in to any of these speedruns? Leave a comment down below.
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