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Speedrunning is an amazing way to to experience a video game. There’s something beautiful in a runner’s ability to beat everything as quickly as possible by whatever means necessary. The entertainment inherent to speedrunning is why I’ve written about it before, but I’ve never expressed my love for the event that piqued my interest in speedrunning, an event that I eagerly await every year. Well, it’s about time that I did.
Today’s Topic: Awesome Games Done Quick
Awesome Games Done Quick is a week of 24/7 speedrunning attended and executed by the best and biggest names in the running community. The marathon always occurs in January, and it is run by the premiere speedrunning site, SpeedDemosArchive. Viewers can tune in whenever they want to see an incredible variety of games getting broken every way to Sunday. From classics like Battletoads, Mike Tyson’s Punch Out!!, and Contra to new titles like Skyrim, Dishonored, and Borderlands 2, any gamer watching the marathon will find some title they’ve played or otherwise enjoyed getting the “gotta go fast” treatment. On top of all of that, AGDQ is a charity marathon during which donations are collected for the Prevent Cancer Foundation. After watching several of these marathons (including this year’s) I realized that Awesome Games Done Quick (and its cousin, Summer Games Done Quick) is one of the best gaming events to watch in an entire year of video gaming spectacles.
One of the best parts of AGDQ is seeing runners play the games you enjoyed as a kid but in ways you’ve never witnessed before. As a longtime gamer, I remember playing and watching many games either alone or with my friends. These memories fill me with gaming nostalgia, but real life (and newer games) keep me from revisiting the old classics. With AGDQ, I don’t have to play Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on my own to get my fix for that wonderful game. I don’t need to gather my friends together and find a working N64 to appreciate Goldeneye. I don’t have to unearth my Gamecube and retread the entirety of Tallon IV to experience the world of Metroid Prime. Instead I can watch speedrunners play it for me and still experience many of the classic moments, scenes, and sounds that I loved long ago. Moreover, I can watch them play those games in ways I could never have imagined. Since speedrunning requires the player to defy the intentions of the game’s developers, you’ll never see a game at AGDQ played in the same way you did. You still get plenty of gaming nostalgia, but also a fresh perspective on how to play the game being run. It’s the best of both worlds and it makes for an awesome show.
As wonderful as the nostalgia is, the speedrunning itself is the main attraction of AGDQ. While this may seem obvious, it’s worth restating because the run are JUST SO FUCKING COOL. Seriously, if you’ve never seen a speedrun before then you should do so now because they’re some of the most awesome gaming performances out there. From perfectly timed jumps, immaculately calculated stats, and impeccably used resources to the most ridiculous, hilarious, and impressive glitches you’ve ever seen, AGDQ is a showcase of video game mastery that goes far beyond what most gamers can achieve. Entire games are memorized for many runs, including the path through the Haunted Wasteland in Ocarina of Time to the individual stats of each of the Elite Four’s Pokemon in Pokemon: Soul Silver. When you watch one of these speedruns, you not only marvel at the feats performed by the players, but you cannot even conceive of how such miracles could be performed with just a controller or keyboard. No other medium is more entertaining when shortcuts are taken, scenes are skipped, and rules are broken, but speedrunners manage to do just that for video games at AGDQ: make them even better than they were made to be.
The unique and amazing moments of each AGDQ marathon keep me coming back to the show even if I’ve seen the games run before. For example, I’ve seen several Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker speedruns, but they remain interesting because the crowd and the commentary is different every time. On many speedrunning streams you can see runners practice their art and occasionally explain their tactics, but only at AGDQ do you get the combined knowledge and experience of all of a game’s best runners as they discuss the run’s most recent strategies and exploits. The crowd provides further enjoyment with their reactions to the runner’s performance. Their laughs, cheers, and sighs engross you and make you feel like you’re watching something momentous. And there are plenty of momentous occasions at AGDQ, especially because the organizers bring more and more awesome spectacles to the event every year. Highlights from 2014′s epic show include the amazing blindfolded Punch Out!! run, the one-handed Super Mario 64 playthrough, and the high-octane four-player Super Metroid race, just to name a few. No matter when you tune in or what games you love, there’s always an informative, amusing, or epic moment occurring at AGDQ.
Last but not least, there’s a simple and powerful joy in watching the gaming community come together and contribute to AGDQ’s incredible cause. On one hand, the speedrunners at the event give up so much time and money (and sleep) to keep the viewers entertained throughout the extremely long stream. I have never seen any bad blood, drama, or bitternness at an AGDQ, just kindness, fun, and a willingness to entertain for hours on end. On the other hand, the gamers who watch and donate throughout the entire event are the greatest. If you hear someone claim that video games or gamers are a dead weight on society, point them in the direction of AGDQ where the compassion and generosity of gamers can be found in spades. Every few moments there is another donation (many of which are massive) and another heartfelt or humorous story from a gamer happy to donate to a great cause. It’s simply marvelous to behold. AGDQ 2014 generated over a million dollars, an incredible contribution for “just a bunch of people playing video games all day in a hotel room.” When it comes to the goodness of gamers, there’s no better place to look than AGDQ.
The Awesome Games Done Quick marathon is an undeniable joy because of all of the impressive gaming and unbelievable donations that happen there every year. There’s no other event like it during the year (well, except for SGDQ) so no gamer with a love of spectating games should miss it. It’s impossible to know just how much sleep or job productivity is lost to this event, but it remains an extraordinarily positive one all the same. For those of you who missed it and are curious about how it all went down, I’ll leave the link to all of 2014′s VoD’s here. One warning: if you start watching, you might have found a new hobby for life. But that’s okay because Awesome Games Done Quick is the best fucking thing ever.
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