After a wonderful week of superb speedruns, Summer Games Done Quick 2022 has concluded with a total of over $3.01 million USD raised for international charity Doctors Without Borders. SGDQ 2022, which ran from June 26 – July 3, saw over 120 speedruns ranging from quick hits to longer runs. Some runners showcase incredible technical skill, some exploit weird mechanics and bugs with clever tricks, while others feature multiple runners playing to the crowd and simply embracing the joys of speedrunning.
There’s far too many outstanding runs to name them all, but we can certainly pick out a few highlights. Kicking off the show in style was a Shadow of the Colossus run from Rubiehart, who took on the game’s towering beasts in a randomly selected order and showcased some incredible techniques to fling themselves up onto the more gargantuan giants.
If you’re into the more technical side of speedrunning, Helix13_ showed off Super Monkey Ball-like game Rolled Out in a snappy 20-minute run packed with cool moves. Groshiken displayed some fantastic technique to blast through platformer Celeste, while DemonChildElise showed off her skills in a mesmerising run of lesser-known time-rewinding 2D action game Cogen: Sword of Rewind. Meanwhile, Kekumanshoyu showcased the potential of 2021’s Metroid Dread, and veteran runner Covert_Muffin demonstrated why Star Wars: Jedi Knight 2 is still one of the most watchable speedruns for its blend of glitches and high-skill trickery.
Perhaps you like a longer-form run? In that case we highly recommend froob’s 4-hour playthrough of mammoth JRPG Yakuza: Like A Dragon, which digs into the series’ transition to turn-based action and features some wonderful karaoke with the couch. For more turn-based fun, Eddaket showed off some great decision making in a Pokémon Shining Pearl run. Kirby and the Forgotten Land by Mr_Shasta and Spyro the Dragon by Dayoman brought colourful 3D platforming of new and old to the stage, both with some very impressive tech. Elsewhere, Linkus7 found a perfect blend of humour and clarity to talk through his run of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.
As for some of the other highlights, long-time GDQ favourite kz_frew showcased the broken mess that is GTA: Vice City Definitive Edition in a joyful last run before handing off the speedrunning baton to the next generation of runners in a lovely closing moment. Tunic developer Andrew Shouldice and audio designer Kevin Regamey joined on-call to talk about how they built the intricate action-puzzle game with speedrunning in mind while SunnymuffinSR manned the controller beautifully.
Among some of the most entertaining showings included watching Illumina overcome some awfully cursed RNG in a Minecraft random seed run, an 11-minute showcase of camera trick puzzler Perspective by AChocolateOrange, and a The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening race between Glan and TGH that kept things incredibly close throughout.
Perhaps the show’s most mesmerising segment saw SpootyBiscuit and Windeu team up for a two person dance showcase of Step Mania that has them weaving in and out of each other’s path – you have to see it for yourself to truly appreciate the magic. You also won’t want to miss the 4-person Pokémon Emerald randomiser that saw Shenanagans_, adef, 360Chrism, and Keizaron passing off the pad to one another as their pocket monster evolved into a completely random new creature with every level up.
Finally, the show closed out with a double-header of FromSoftware’s mammoth open-world extravaganza, Elden Ring. First came an Elden Ring all remembrances run by catalystz, and this was followed by an Elden Ring any% showing from Hyp3rsomniac. Both runners demonstrated just how good players already are at the RPG game, and the couch featured some fantastic commentary explaining how far the tech has been developed already.
GDQ has now raised over $40 million USD for charity since its founding in 2010. The full schedule for this year’s event can be found on the SGDQ website, and a thread on the r/speedrun subreddit includes a breakdown of all the timecodes with included video links to watch and plenty of more in-depth recommendations for some of the highlights. You can also find archives of all the streams on the Games Done Quick YouTube channel.
The next Games Done Quick event on the schedule is Flame Fatales, an all-women speedrunning showcase that will be taking place over the week of August 21-27. Huge congratulations to everyone who helped to make this year’s SGDQ event a reality, and well done to all of you who watched and contributed to the charity drive.
Image credit: Games Done Quick