Awesome Games Done Quick 2018 had an excellent first day, and the second day of this week-long speedrun marathon was no different. The first full 24 hours (day one was only 12 hours) gave us tons of speedruns across a variety of categories. We got to see a great collection of run and gun games in the early morning, followed up by Donkey Kong Country and various Sonic titles. As day turned to night, we got a bunch of crazy Mega Man runs, and an awesome Metal Gear Solid block. With so many excellent games, it’s no wonder that day two also saw another $120,000 in donations towards the Prevent Cancer Foundation.
With that, let’s take a look at the best speedruns from day two of AGDQ 2018! You can watch the event live between now and January 14th, 2018 over at twitch.tv/gamesdonequick! If you want to watch any of these runs on demand, check the video archives right here. You can also view the full schedule of what’s to come over here.
CavemanDCJ is one of my favorite speedrunners, mostly due to his dry humor and nonchalant attitude. Pairing his signature commentary with Gunners Heaven, a visually insane Japanese run and gun shooter, made for a hilarious and engaging run. CavemanDCJ showed off his ability to maintain focus and nail tough sections despite the overwhelming visuals. This run also streamed at 6AM EST, and CavemanDCJ gave us a run better than the stuff during primetime. Having never heard of Gunners Heaven until CavemanDCJ’s run, it was both refreshing and entertaining in a way that most speedruns come up short.
Final time: 31:31
Contra is an all-time classic, both for casual play and speedrunning. The punishing difficulty and amount of precision required to run makes Contra one of the most heartpounding runs to watch. TheMexicanRunner and coop partner angrylanks upped the adrenaline ante by giving us a nail biting demonstration. Performing to near perfection, the pair nearly beat their personal best, all while improvising on the fly. This Contra coop run will go down as one of the best AGDQ runs ever, purely due to the hype and emotion.
Final time: 9:58
Donkey Kong Country is a series that sees GDQ coverage almost every year. In fact, I’ve grown a bit bored with the series over the past few years. That all changed with V0oids “Reverse Boss Order” speedrun, which is exactly what it sounds like. For open world games or games like Metroid, it’s not terribly out of the ordinary to access bosses out of order. For a linear game like Donkey Kong Country, accessing the bosses in reverse order requires an insane amount of game manipulation. Despite my franchise fatigue on DKC speedruns, the reverse boss order run made things interesting.
Final time: 46:11
Claris showed off her mastery of Sonic Mania’s mechanics with this colorful and mechanic-heavy run. Sonic Mania was one of my favorite games of 2017, so it was great to see the game torn apart through glitches and manipulation. For anyone familiar with Sonic as an idea, you’ll know that he goes fast. Claris went faster than Sonic could have ever seen coming, nailing precision jumps and tricks that required quick reaction.
Final time: 53:51
Mega Man speedruns often display a kind of precision that you rarely see in platforming games. No format better shows this off than the multi-man race. Having seen these runners race before in past GDQ events, I knew I was in for a treat when ColonelFatso, Tokyo90, and Walrus_Prime geared up for a race in Mega Man X. The couch commentary was both informative and entertaining, thanks to long time Mega Man runners. If anything, it’s exciting to see three different speedrunners kill a boss within a second of each other.
Final time: 36:04
I played Halo 2, Halo 3, and Halo: Reach in a competitive environment for many years. Having won numerous tournaments and played against some of the best players in the scene, I like to think I’m a pretty decent judge of Halo skill. Runner Distro surprised me with his stressful Halo 5: Guardians run, mostly due to his absolutely filthy head shots and quick scoping. Through a combination of out of bounds tricks, surgical aim, and improvisation, Distro gave us one of the best Halo runs at a GDQ in years.
Final time: 1:41:22
The runs in this article were the cream of the crop, but that’s just my opinion. You might find some of the day’s other runs more enjoyable, so here’s a look at the entire schedule of day two and how it all played out.
Donations towards the Prevent Cancer Foundation grew and grew as day two continued. At the end of day two, the total amount raised sits at $220,000! Past GDQ events reached total donations as high as $2,000,000! Here’s to hoping that 2018 will see numbers even higher.
That’s all I’ve got for you tonight, but be sure to continue to check back throughout the week for more daily recaps. If you want live updates, be sure to check us out on Twitter.
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