The Gold Split - Week #19: The Games List is Kind
Week #19 (November 8th): AGDQ Games List; Suigi does it again; Marathon Alliance; Zheal saves Aerith; More Marathon News; New World Records: Enter the Gungeon, Risk of Rain, Mario Party DS
Hello Gold Splitters!
Apologies for the late publication. We were travelling yesterday and the coach WiFi has not been kind. In addition, I can’t help but feel a certain sense of doomerism after the events of the last three days. But the show must go on. Radical “Red Split” Republicans would want us to fail.
Something that has been very kind to us though is the games list for AGDQ 2025, and thus it will be the topic of this week’s main story. I’ll try to give some insight into what makes it so good and point out a few showcases that you should definitely try to catch live if you get the chance.
Contents
Up to Speed ⚡️
I encourage you to think about what happened recently in the communities you are a part of. If there are any stories, articles, glitches, events, or other topics I should cover, go ahead and submit them here or in the Gold Split Discord! 📨
Story of the Week
Awesome Games Done Quick needs no introduction. The next annual pinnacle of speedrunning events will take place in Pittsburgh, PA, as well as online from January 5th to January 12th, 2025.
Recently the official committee released the list of accepted games. It’s been distilled from over 2000 individual public submissions down to less than 10%. This ratio is the unfortunate end result of the team still not having figured out how to bend time to their will. A week still only has seven days.
The tl;dr that you get exclusively ahead of the story is: it’s great. Amazing even. Not only does it include many of the most popular speedgames, a lot of diversity and showcases you might never see elsewhere again, but there are also so many cool nuances and themes ready to take you beyond the usual and showcase other kinds of gaming excellence.
While I don’t want to take away from the experience of seeing these live, I do want to point out some of the guaranteed hits as well as things you might be interested in but have never heard of. The list will include some videos, so if you want to preserve the wonder that only seeing something for the first time can give you, just ignore them.
The obvious hits
Every single music-themed showcase
There’s so much entertainment value and creativity on display here. Crazy Taxi with a live backing band, Elden Ring played with an electric saxophone and completed without being hit, New Super Mario Bros Wii controlled by Joy-Cons strapped to the runner’s head and foot while they play the game’s soundtrack on a piano. I’ll simply let those descriptions speak for themselves. I’ll also add showcases of rhythm games Jubeat and CHUNITHM LUMINOUS PLUS here. Do not miss CHUNITHM.
Awful Games Done Quick
At GDQ events, the awful block showcasing games that are a little… rough around the edges has a long tradition and rich history. There’s a seemingly endless pit from which these games are being dragged onto the big stage. All of them will be relatively short, so I do suggest you stick around for the entire block. Who wouldn’t enjoy a nice and relaxing outing in Golf With Your Grandmother or going backwards at uncapped speeds in Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing? Once the schedule is released, simply look for these and you’ll find the block.The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (No Logic Randomizer) by ZFG
Randomizers randomize the location of items, shops, dungeon entrances, and more. They’ve long been a great way to add variety to older games and provide a fresh experience. Settings can change how hard it may potentially be to get to certain items and places, and in this No Logic run by ZFG the difficulty has been set extremely high. You’ll be able to take a glimpse into the mind of a genius who has played this game actively for well over 12 years.Fallout: New Vegas (All Romances) by tomatoanus
Tomatoanus is incredibly good at providing engaging commentary, so this thirty-minute long breeze where he romances all twelve possible NPCs in a really, really broken game will be such a dense showcase of exactly that ability.
The solid choices
Too many! Here’s a few things I’ll personally be looking out for:
Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze (Any%, Original Mode) by spikevegeta
DKC is one of the games spikevegeta is most known for. He has been around for as long as GDQ itself, and for good reason.Alan Wake 2: Night Springs (All Episodes) by SweetPeebs
F-Zero GX (All Tracks, Max Speed) by FifanGX
This is about as fast as racing games go. The level of control is impressive, even if you’ve never played the game(s). But if you have, it’s mind-boggling.Spyro: Reignited Trilogy (Spyro 1: Any%, NBS) by toastedkat
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (Tightened Vice) by EnglishBen
Ben is a good friend and prolific runner of Vice City. He’s been with the game for a very long time and watched the run evolve many times. Tightened Vice is a mod that redesigns every mission and adds a lot of custom content to make the game significantly harder. Typical speedrun strategies are removed from the equation, making this a challenge even for veterans like him.Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition (Legendary Trial), a race between GTAce, EpicCrossover, authorblues and Skybilz
Portal 2 (Single Player, No SLA) by Msushi
Msushi is one of those people that combines intimate knowledge of a specific game and a great ability to bring that knowledge across through commentary. They’ve created in-depth videos for the Portal games for well over four years.
The hidden gems
There are always a few runs that I’d expect to fly under the radar for most people. Don’t sleep on these!
Fresh Hops (100%) by frozenflygone
I can’t think of a single Kaizo romhack that I didn’t find impressive and interesting. In addition to those attributes, this one also has a really unique theme.
G-Saviour (Any%) by pmcTRILOGY
I might be wrong, but I believe this is the first Gundam game at the big GDQ stage. pmcTRILOGY is a strong advocate of the franchise, has tried for many years and it’s great to see it finally happen.Rocket League (Workshop Map Speedrun Showcase) by ThundaSurge
Movement is Rocket League is an art form and such a great example for something that’s easy to beat and impossible to master. For a long time the community has created custom maps that are more about traversing and less about scoring goals.Super Mario Bros. (Any% STA), a race between jeremy, GTAce, SuperSonic, and scalpel
This is not your run-of-the-mill race. Don’t get me wrong, any close SMB race would already be great, but here all four Marios are combined on a single screen, with a minimap and timing tower. However, this is not a romhack. All contestants play on augmented NES consoles that pass the signals to a computer, which in turn makes the magic happen.Online runs from all over the world!
Last, but not least: it’s always very wholesome to see people from all over the world come together. And enabling communities and people to participate that would have a difficult time travelling to the US is a great thing. I already mentioned CHUNITHM, which will be one of the online showcases. A few more I wanted to shout out are three speedruns done by people from Japan: Crypt Custodian by Inari Houzumi, ane-san by irukan and Castlevania: Dracula X by Hensachi60.
Final Thoughts & What's Next
There’s obviously loads of other good content that I have not mentioned. That does not mean anything can be safely skipped or isn’t worth watching. The quality of the whole list is incredibly high across the board, and my top picks are of course subjective and might differ from yours. I encourage you to comb through the full list yourself and mark your own favourites. Or maybe wait until just a bit later today (November 8th), when the first draft of the schedule will be released, enabling you to already start filling your calendar.
The best thing about this stacked list is that it’s not even complete! Up next are the mentioned publication of the first schedule draft today, followed by a second public submission phase between November 15th and November 22nd. This phase is exclusive to games that hadn’t been released yet at the time of the first submission phase. I’m hoping for showcases of the Silent Hill 2 remake as well as The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. The latter was submitted during the first phase and rejected, but I have a hunch that the committee is simply hedging their bets about more submissions of the same game, considering it technically was released after the first submission phase closed.
Up to Speed
⭐ Suigi beats the Super Mario 64 (120 Star) record again (1-hour 37-minute video)
Just a little over a week after setting the first 01:35:xx time ever, the Canadian improved the time by another six seconds down to 01:35:28. The split times had shown that there was a lot of potential improvement left, but that the time was beaten this quickly did come as a surprise.
🏃♂️ The Marathon Alliance speedrunning marathon is live right now (Twitch Stream)
Seven speedrunning events came together to make this charity marathon for Project HOPE happen. Each event broadcasts for a total of twelve hours during the four-day event and showcases what makes them unique. The format is without equal and very cool and I’d love to see them succeed. Go watch!
🌌 Zheal completes the first run of Final Fantasy VII with the new skip (5-hour 49-minute video)
Two weeks ago we reported on the new Rebirth Skip, keeping Aerith alive and potentially also saving hours of time. A first crude speedrun with the new route has now been completed, improving the previous time in the No Slots/No Warps category of the PC version by 38 minutes. Zheal starts performing the skip at around 1:40:00 in the video.
Marathon News
⏱️ Running:
Until November 10th: PACE Fall 2024 (Schedule), raising money for Urban Arts
Until November 10th: Questing for Glory 7 (Schedule)
Until November 10th: Marathon Alliance (Schedule), raising money for Project HOPE
🔜 Upcoming:
Starts November 9th: 2024 SourceRuns Marathon (Schedule)
Starts November 9th: For the Kids 2 The Retro Masquerade (Schedule), raising money for Extra Life
This Week’s Top Times
🥇 First Place:
Super Mario 64 (120 Star: N64) in 01:35:28.000 by Suigi (He/Him)
Video • Twitch • YouTubeEnter the Gungeon (1 Character: Any%) in 00:06:35.000 by HollowGun (He/Him)
Video • Twitch • YouTubeRisk of Rain (Any%) in 00:08:41.000 by GoGeng
Video • Twitch • YouTubeMario Party DS (Boss Bash) in 00:03:40.789 by rhin_woods (She/Her, It/Its)
Video • Twitch • YouTubeNew Super Luigi U (Any%: Normal) in 00:25:47.017 by Tark
Video • Twitch • YouTubeThe Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (100%: Original) in 15:02:16.000 by Player5
Video • Twitch • YouTubeNintendo World Championships: NES Edition (Legendary Trial) in 00:20:41.829 by Oopla (He/Him)
Video • Twitch • YouTubeDUSK (Any%: Inbounds, Standard, PC) in 00:16:56.919 by Clouder (He/Him)
Video • Twitch • YouTube
🥈 Second Place:
Dishonored (Dishonored: Any%) in 00:30:48.910 by Long_John_Steven (Any/All)
Video • Twitch • YouTubeCrash Bandicoot 3: Warped (Any% (No Item Glitch)) in 00:43:57.000 by Potty
Video • TwitchChip 'N Dale: Rescue Rangers (All Zones) in 00:12:37.366 by djeez
Video • Twitch • YouTubeMetroid Prime (100%: Normal) in 01:10:00.000 by edzan
Video • Twitch • YouTube
🥉 Third Place:
Cuphead (Legacy Version: Any%, Regular) in 00:23:06.200 by Fintan0 (He/Him)
Video • Twitch • YouTubePokémon Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee (Any% NMS: Eevee, ENG) in 02:59:48.000 by randalleatscheese (He/Him)
Video • Twitch • YouTubeSheepy: A Short Adventure (Glitchless%) in 00:19:20.150 by Riddou (Any/All)
Video • TwitchGoof Troop (Max: US) in 00:22:34.000 by BeaRType
Video • Twitch • YouTube
Fun Stat of the Week
📊 The shortest TAS movie published on TASVideos.org is Super Mario Bros. 3 "game end glitch" by OnehundredthCoin in 00:00.22. It’s way too short to make out what’s happening, but the author has a great explanation video on YouTube where they explain all the intricacies.
Reddit Choice
🔝 The r/speedrun choice of the week is… this thread, in which the poster was asking for theoretical skips that would change the speedrun of a certain game completely, similar to the Barrier Skip in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD.
I expected curiosity as a motive, but it turned out that they were specifically looking to hunt glitches in interesting games. One of the comments explained a potential skip in the 3rd person game Ben 10: Alien Force – Vilgax Attacks, and within a few hours the original poster had figured it out and solved the mystery, fundamentally changing the speedrun.
👋🏻 And that’s it for this week! See you next Thursday, November 14th 2024. 👋🏻
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