Sonic, Shmup, and Spooky Speedruns at SGDQ 2023 (Day 4 Recap)

SGDQ 2023 day 4 has wrapped up, passing the halfway mark of the speedrun marathon with still plenty of gas in the tank. Wednesday was full of impeccable runs, ranging from spooky horror games to bullet hell shooters and more. We had a blast watching as the folks at SGDQ 2023 sped through their games and raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for Doctors Without Borders.

There were many excellent speedruns to watch during SGDQ 2023 day 4, so we’ve whipped up a list of our absolute favorites. As always, this is not intended as a definitive list, but rather some simple recommendations on great speedruns to watch. To watch replays of these runs, visit the Games Done Quick Twitch channel or their YouTube channel.

The Best Speedruns of SGDQ 2023 Day 4

The Horror Games Block by many runners

Most of Wednesday morning at SGDQ 2023 was occupied by the horror block, which is always one of our favorite blocks of any GDQ event. SGDQ 2023 day 4 was home to a deluge of spooky games, resulting in a block of speedruns that was both comfy and creepy. Kicking off with a run of “Silent Hill: Homepour”, which sees runner shmumbler beating two Silent Hill games at once, the horror block was great all the way through. Zombie slaughter comes in the form of the Dead Rising 2 and Resident Evil 6 speedruns, while Choo-Choo Charles and other indie games offer some quicker speedruns to enjoy.

Since we weren’t able to fit all of the runner’s names into the header without it getting ridiculous, thanks to shmumbler, DruciferPlays, Bird650, TaintedTali, texan_red_wolf, Ecdycis, sharkhat87, and nyiddle for representing the horror genre!

Final time: N/A

Gauntlet (Any%, Co-op) by yelsraek and chessjerk

Without a doubt, Gauntlet is one of the hardest retro games in existence, constantly challenging the player with every passing room. Showing off new RNG manipulation, which makes the chaos of this top-down action game more viable, runners yelsraek (happy birthday!) and chessjerk blasted through the many dungeons of Gauntlet at a blistering pace. As someone who has played Gauntlet many times and gotten destroyed in every attempt, this speedrun was massively satisfying and one of the best from SGDQ 2023 day 4.

Final time: 18:11

Touhou 14.3: Impossible Spell Card (All Scenes No Items) by msm_smtn

Bullet hell-style shoot ’em up games are incredibly difficult, and as the name implies, Touhou 14.3: Impossible Spell Card is designed to be one of the toughest of the bunch. By removing the auto-scrolling segments, this run is essentially an unbelievably tough boss rush, spread across an hour of gameplay. To make things even more difficult, runner msm_smtn pulled off this run without the use of the game’s “cheat items”, which provide crucial help in survival. With precise movement, expert pattern recognition, and true gaming skill, msm_smtn crushed Touhou 14.3 in a wildly impressive performance.

Final time: 1:11:09

Dangun Feveron (Arcade) by Qlex

Doubling up on the bullet hell action, runner Qlex showed off their skills with a speedrun of Dangun Feveron, a “caravan” style shoot ’em up. Contrary to games like Touhou 14.3, Dangun Feveron is on a set time limit, but there are plenty of ways to reach ridiculous scores. By playing as aggressively as possible and eliminating enemy waves as soon as they appeared, Qlex railed through the opposition with highly optimized strats. Not only was this a great speedrun from SGDQ 2023 day 4, but it also taught us more about the sub-genres of shoot ’em ups, and that’s always a good thing.

Final time: 20:51

Sonic Adventure DX: Director’s Cut (All Stories Relay) by SpacebarS, shovelclaws, Themimik, Yoshipuff, AlphaDolphin, and Allegro

Sonic Adventure has a long history in speedrunning, with a celebrated community of talented runners. Putting their heads together for an epic “All Stories Relay” run, six of the best Sonic players geared up for this excellent speedrun from SGDQ 2023 day 4. With one runner for each of the six different characters in the game, this speedrun showcases a lot of different strategies and tricks. It was great to see the community come together for this awesome relay run, resulting in one of the speediest runs of SGDQ 2023 day 4.

Final time: 1:40:45

As the clock ticked over midnight and SGDQ 2023 day 4 ended, the donation total continued to skyrocket. So far, Summer Games Done Quick 2023 has raised over $630,000 for Doctors Without Borders. The next few days are bound to be full of generous donations, with the million-dollar mark looming on the horizon.

For more SGDQ 2023 speedrun recommendations, check out our previous daily recaps or visit our Twitter. We’re posting live reactions and clips throughout the week, so stop by and let us know what your favorite speedrun of SGDQ 2023 is so far! Until next time, enjoy the marathon!