What to watch at Summer Games Done Quick 2016
Summer Games Done Quick is back again, where some of world's best speedrunners race (and glitch) through video games as fast as possible. And it's all for charity.
SGDQ is an annual, week-long, video game streaming event where some of the fastest and most clever video game players gather to put their skills to the test, showing how they beat games so quickly while encouraging donations for Doctors Without Borders. Over the years, events like this put on by Games Done Quick have raised millions of dollars for different charities.
Speedrunner zip through classics like Super Metroid or ActRaiser, compete against each other in Tetris, or run through newer games like Fallout 4 or Dishonored.
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The only issue with SGDQ is that there are so many awesome speedruns to watch. The stream on Twitch runs 24 hours a day until it ends on Saturday, June 10.
To make it easier, we compiled some must-watch streams of awesome games. You can also check the schedule to see if any of your favorite games are on the list.
Wednesday
Tetris Attack -- 8:15 p.m. ET
Tetris Attack is the perfect way to jump into SGDQ, where you'll get to watch four gamers compete against each other in Tetris Attack's very hard mode.
Watch players beat exceedingly difficult AI, racing each other through 12 stages lasting roughly 15 minutes in total. It's fast-paced and impressive to watch with the added excitement of being competitive.
Thursday
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link -- 8:08 a.m.
Widely regarded as the worst Legend of Zelda game, a Zelda II speedrun will be a great way to get associated with the game without needing to actually play it.
The blend of top-down exploration and side-scrolling combat doesn't translate very well to the world of Hyrule, and it's the first and last time an entry in the series does this. Over about an hour and five minutes, you'll get to see Link swing his sword a dozen times at single, normal enemies to take them down, walk through mostly pointless towns and probably hear a bunch of jokes.
Tetris: The Grandmaster series exhibition -- 1:23 p.m.
If Tetris Attack wasn't intense or traditional enough for you, check out the Tetris: The Grandmaster series exhibition on Thursday. The top Tetris players go head-to-head in the more traditional version of the block stacking game to see who can make it to level 999 first (or who can last the longest).
This stream lasts a bit longer because the players compete in different modes, lasting about an hour and 15 minutes. The speed these players move blocks looks almost inhuman.
The Elder Scrolls: Arena, Daggerfall, Morrowind and Skyrim -- 4:28 p.m. and Fallout 3 and 4 -- 7:44 p.m.
Cancel all your plans for Thursday night because Bethesda is taking over, starting with the first entry in the Elder Scrolls series, Arena.
With Elder Scrolls expected run times all 48 minutes or shorter, you'll undoubtedly be seeing some impressive glitch exploits in these classic fantasy RPGs.
The Fallout 3 speedrun is going to be clocking in at an astounding 18 minutes, which is great if you're looking for something short and sweet. The Fallout 4 run will be the longest, running an hour and 10 minutes of running through the wasteland.
Friday
Super Mario Land, Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World -- 10:01 a.m.
It's non-stop running, swimming and flying to the right in Super Mario speedruns, which requires a high amount of platforming precision and makes any 2D Mario speedrun fun to watch.
Pick your favorite Mario entry or watch all three from three different Nintendo systems: the Game Boy, the NES and the SNES. Even if you aren't a big fan of classic Mario games, watching gamers jump at the perfect moment, narrowly avoid enemies and land on tiny platforms is super exciting.
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time -- 8:53 p.m.
This glitchless Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time run caps off Friday night with a leisurely runtime of three hours and 45 minutes. Most people can sink 30 hours into this game, finding every side quest and exploring the land, so staying under four hours is quite the feat.
What else are you going to do on a Friday night?
Saturday
Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction -- 8 a.m.
Diablo 2 helped redefine the dungeon crawler genre and is still a pretty popular title 16 years after its release in 2000. Whether you're a longtime fan or want to know what the fuss is about, check out the two-hour speedrun -- then tell me hacking and slashing demons as fast as possible isn't cool.
TASBot plays Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 2 and Super Mario Bros. 3 -- 2:30 p.m.
If you've never seen a bot play a video game, this will be a treat. A TASBot is a bot that is given a specific list of inputs and plays the game automatically. With this session though, the bot will be playing all three Super Mario Bros. games at once, using the same input for each. Check and see if it can guide all three Marios to victory.
Super Metroid -- 7:15 p.m.
Super Metroid is the cream of the crop when it comes to speedruns. For years, gamers have been chipping away at the Super Metroid speedrun world record, bringing it down to just 42:10.
Four players, including the current world record holder, will be competing against each other to see who will win and if anyone can beat the record. It takes the precision of Mario and adds shooting, rolling and power-up gathering, making it the ultimate test for speedrunners.
If you're just into speedrunning in general, you can keep the Twitch stream up all week. If you miss anything, you can check out SGDQ's backlog of speedruns here.
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