The best runs from AGDQ 2025

Awesome Games Done Quick 2025 has concluded, raising just over $2.5 million for the Prevent Cancer Foundation. Every Games Done Quick event is worth tuning into either live or later via VOD, but this AGDQ was uniquely fantasticfull of races that will go down as some of the best GDQ has to offer. Here are some of our favorites:

The great thing about the speedrunning community is that it’s often not enough to be the fastest runner in a particular game. It’s boring. For Wes, just run New Super Mario Bros. Wii it was not enough to satisfy him. He had to be creative with it, decide to master playing the game as quickly as possible while playing the piano. But how can anyone play a video game if their hands are busy, you ask? The answer is obvious: control the game with your head and feet. I don’t know what inspires a human to do this kind of thing, and I don’t care. All that matters is that Wes put the depth of human ability (and multitasking) on ​​display, and it was heartbreaking to watch.

Speaking of incredible human talent, how to play Elden Ring – a game known for its punitive difficulty – with a saxophone. I was looking forward to this run all week, and Dr. Doot did not disappoint, but not for the reason I expected. It’s one thing to defeat the likes of Malenia, Blade of Miquella with a specially designed aerophone. But nothing could have prepared for any input, from landing an attack to the use of consumables, sounding a funny “doot” sound. I cried laughing it was so funny.

Super Metroid is a staple of GDQ, often anchoring the last day of the event in a week of programming. But lately, GDQ has moved away from presenting a mere run of the game to show all the work instead Super Metroid The modding community has kept this game from 1994 fresh and interesting. This four-way race of Super Metroid it included a card randomizer, meaning that the normal layout of the game had been shuffled and put together in an entirely new configuration.

Card randomizers for a Metroid The game is uniquely dangerous because all the skills you need to progress are no longer arranged in a logical way. Samus could escape into the burning pits of Lower Norfair long before finding the Varia suit for warmth. And with the randomized map, it’s now much harder (and takes much longer) to find where the suit is. Now add an element of competition, and you have one of the best races in AGDQ history.

It used to be that if you wanted to avoid DMCA strikes for playing a game on Twitch with licensed music, you just disabled the music. But AGDQ has come up with a new way around this old problem. For this run of Taxi Crazyevery song was played by a cover band that turned AGDQ from a speedrunning video game event into an impromptu punk rock show — mini-mosh pit and all — and it ruled. I won’t share any details. Just watch for yourself.

GDQ is a unique special event for more reasons to see cool, creative or crazy races. In a world where cowardly corporations have decided it’s okay to call women and LGBTQ+ people slursand one where gamers have a unique reputation to be terrible to each other due to differences beyond our control, Games Done Quick has been very vocal in its support of marginalized people. Whether its different programming with Fatal frame o Black in a flash or the mere fact that every other donation featured a “Trans Rights” message, which was enthusiastically read aloud and enthusiastically cheered by the live crowd.

Games Done Quick was a shining example of how intentionally curated communities can foster acceptance and be a source of joy and goodness in a climate that needs it, and AGDQ 2025 was one of the best.