Semantic Nonsense: Summer Games Done Quick ’23 highlights
At long last, Summer Games Done Quick is back to being presented in front of a live studio audience. But they aren’t throwing any babies out with the bathwater; several of this summer’s streams are still being done remotely to accommodate unusual equipment or inability to travel. Apparently, decision-makers were a big fan of the added flexibility the pandemic events enabled.
As every day is somebody’s first day, here’s a quick explainer: Games Done Quick is a series of charity events involving live performances of video game speedruns. It’s been running Winter events since 2010 and Summer events since 2011. Summer Games Done Quick benefits Médecins Sans Frontièrs (Doctors Without Borders). This year’s event raised more than $2.2 million for the cause.
I spent the entire week laid up with a nasty sinus infection, so I got to watch more of the marathon than I usually do. So if this roundup of my favorite runs seems longer than usual, that’s exactly why. …though it would have been even longer if the VoDs for the final third of the event made it to YouTube by press time. The Twitch embeds are a bit unruly considering the games are chapters of a daily video instead of broken out proper. As such, I may have to slip the rest in at the bottom of next week’s Semantic Nonsense. But in the event I don’t: The blindfolded Breath of the Wild run was extraordinary, so make sure to go out of your way for that.
Mega Man Maker by megamarino in 28:10
Making its first appearance at GDQ is an exhibition of levels from a fan-made toolkit that does what Capcomdon’t. But as an added gimmick the run consists of 10 levels designed not only for the occasion, but also to resemble other classic NES games. It’s creative, fun and hopefully lights a fire in some viewers.
Ring Fit Adventure (beat world 1; intensity 30; restricted) by Verxl in 18:45
The human body has limits, so I imagine a full game run wouldn’t be marathon-safe. Doing just World 1 at maximum difficulty is enough to show off the fun. Still, I’d love to see this or a similar category come back as a race.
Peggle Deluxe (any%) by britsha in 1:02:23
I originally watched this because the idea of speedrunning a Pop-Cap game seemed deeply amusing. Doubly so when the game has so much randomness. However, I was blown away by the depth of strategy and execution the community has devised that makes running the game not just a novelty.
Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon (any% ultimate mode) by The Blacktastic in 1:28:52
It’s about time to get the obligatory “game I already streamed” entry taken care of.
The bonus is, we get to see what Zangetsu looks like all powered up in a game mode I never unlocked in the vanilla playthrough, so that’s handy. It also ends the game rather differently than what we saw. But the full-power Zangetsu moves like a dream, and he has the whole team backing him up to make all sorts of skips and quick kills.
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (randomizer) by Dr4gonBlitz in 59:01
SotN AND a randomizer? This is like catnip to me.
Pepsiman (any% with cutscenes) by TheFlyingMarlin in 25:06
Much like the Pepsiman commercials, Pepsiman never graced the shores of North America. And we certainly missed out on a gem akin to Segata Sanshiro.
There’s a lot to love about this PS1 game so long as you’re not playing it (it’s hard as nails). It’s a ridiculous premise, and everything in the game is in on the joke. The music goes hard. The voice acting goes hard. The cutscene videos are works of art, and you’ll get to see them all in this run.
And if you can’t get the “Pepsiman Theme” out of your head, I have you covered. Come for the memes, stay for the incredible solos you can’t hear clearly during the speedrun.
Stair Quest (stair%) by davidtki in 5:10
Shout out to anybody who has traversed terribly drawn stairs in a Sierra On-Line adventure game. Those who have will understand that this fan game speedrun requires a level of skill that is simply unapproachable.
The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (any%) by benstephens56 in 1:28:52
It’s not a GDQ roundup without a Zelda game it seems, and why not the best of them?
The actual reason to recommend this run is the shortcuts. Every last one of them is based on the physics of the game, and they work because the 3D aspects of the game world aren’t just for show, but actually modeled and present. You’ll see what I’m talking about once things get rolling.
Marathon Infinity (all main levels – kindergarten) by tbcr in 26:17
Bungie recently made a splash with their announcement of a new Marathon game as they’re no longer allowed to make Halo and apparently feeling just done with Destiny.
Given that the original Marathon games were made for classic Mac OS, they aren’t very well known. So take 26 minutes and catch up with the run of what is — for not much longer — the final game in the the series.
Not to mention that there are no strats in the entire game that aren’t Marathon-safe.
Golf It! (classic first 5 maps 100% race) by Nichole Goodnight and Bathinjan in 26:44
I already know this run won’t be for everybody, but this makes the list solely for the insane commentary. There have been quite a few runs this year that (intentionally) amounted to comedy routines, but this one really had me rolling.
SNOLF (any% no warp) by dowolf in 37:38
If that golf speedrun didn’t do it for you, we do have a backup strat.
Snolf is a rom hack of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 that makes a considerable change to the controls. Sonic remains in spin mode all the time, even when not moving. And he won’t move until you take a swing with an invisible golf club.
It’s a hilarious new twist on an old game that also presents exciting new ways to screw up.
Super Mario Odyssey (any%) by Dangers in 1:05:16
My Mario pick this time round is surprisingly not a kaizo hack. This run is a beautiful exposition of flowing movement where even the backups are spectacular. Dangers just flies from moon to moon faster than the commentators can explain the strategies. This was by far my favorite run to sit back and just watch this marathon.
About The Author
Drew
Features Editor | Drew started behind the 8(bit)-ball in the video game world. He first became interested in anime by chance exposure on the Sci-Fi channel. Drew's the creative force behind blog-wide features, works the movie and food beats, and pioneered Damage Control’s entry into video, podcasts and streaming.
