Awesome Games Done Quick 2020 has finished up, successfully raising $3.13 million for the Prevent Cancer Foundation, breaking the previous record of $3.03 million raised from the 2019 Summer Games Done Quick. You may have missed something you wanted to see from AGDQ 2020. Maybe you wanted to be introduced to something new but you’re just overwhelmed by the sheer amount of Content(TM). If you’re looking to watch some VODs of the event, I have a few suggestions. Just note that at the time of writing, not all the videos are up on the official channel, so for the time being you’ll have to hunt them down from other sources.

AMID EVIL

The AMID EVIL run by Psych0sis gives a nice general look at how it is to speedrun early 3D first-person shooters. What makes it more special is that some of the actual developers are on call, giving commentary alongside him. Ordinarily, the “developers are lazy” type banter that’s present in some speedruns come off as lousy. However, with the friendly vibes of the general run and the fact that the developers are actually there, it comes off more like “friends ribbing each other.” Funnily enough, days after the event, a new glitch was discovered that makes this run look like a joke.

Fallout Anthology

Sometimes it’s not enough to run through one game. Why not run through a bunch? tomatoangus (normally without a ‘g’, but it’s a family friendly event) ran through Fallout 1, 2, 3, New Vegas and 4 in order in little over 2 hours. It’s a fascinating run because tomatoangus is extremely talkative, with breaks only being given for the announcers to read donations during lulls in gameplay. He gives an intricate play-by-play on every trick that he does and explains how and why it works; including taking out a physical model to explain a glitch. He also provides broad strokes plot summaries for people unfamiliar with these games. Regardless of your relationship to the Fallout series, it’s an accessible and engaging watch.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

This is one that a lot of people probably missed because for many it ran from late-night to early morning, but that doesn’t mean it should be missed. Given the content of the game, it’s one of those fairly long speedruns clocking in at around 4 hours; though, the fact that a game as massive as Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas could be cut down to a few hours is impressive in itself. It’s one of those videos to keep on in the background while you’re doing other things, especially with the runner Reset and couch commentator KZ_Frew providing a surprising amount of banter for the whole duration.

Mushihime-sama Futari

So this is an unusual entry. Occasionally, Games Done Quick has been open to showing off game showcases instead of speedruns, which is sensible because at the end of the day, it’s still about technical skill. Gusto shows off one of CAVE’s famous bullet hell shooters in its incredibly difficult Ultra difficulty. Additionally, he played on its earlier 1.01 version that’s less fair to players on top of that, adding even more challenge.

It’s important to note that only a handful of recorded people have beaten Ultra difficulty on this version of Mushihime-sama Futari, which makes it more wild when Gusto succeeds by the skin of his teeth. It then ends with Gusto (who was mostly silent the whole run) quoting a passionate, inspiring poem. Even if you’re not a shmup person, it’s really a thing to behold.

Animorphs

A staple of GDQ is the Awful Block, a block where speedrunners show off games that are bad in some way. These games have become a hit because they’re fun to watch and tend to have a lot of glitches for speedrunners to take advantage of. A good representative look of the Awful Block is the Animorphs Gameboy RPG run by Keizaron. The game itself is already kinda goofy, but Keizaron’s jokey commentary, his rapport with the audience, and the whole room chanting out animal names makes for a fun watch.

Punch-Out – 2 Player Blindfolded

Some games are run so often that they need something extra to keep them interesting. Enter Punch-Out. Punch-Out‘s had a few gimmick runs in past GDQs, including one where a guy did a speedrun of Punch-Out and Super Punch-Out simultaneously with the same controller. The stakes have further been upped with the 2-player blindfolded run by Sinister1 and Zallard1. Blindfolded Punch-Out runs aren’t a new thing, but having two players share the same controller (with one using the D-pad and the other using the face buttons) is. A blindfolded player can conceivably memorize every input they have to do based on sound and context. Two blindfolded players, however, need to coordinate to get the same thing done.

Super Mario Maker 2 Relay Race

Super Mario Maker was a popular game in the past few GDQ iterations, so it’s no surprise that Super Mario Maker 2 joined the stage. Given the user-generated nature of Mario Maker 2, the event was a relay race between two teams of runners in a number of stages that was made specifically for AGDQ. The whole event is essentially a huge thing for the Super Mario Maker 2 community on top of it, as the runners include popular Mario speedrunners like GrandPooBear and CarlSagan42, with a lot of the levels being made by prolific creators. The codes for each level are also shown off, so if you’re a Super Mario Maker 2 player, you can try your own hand at racing these levels.

There’s a lot to see from AGDQ, but these are just my recommendations. Maybe shoot us a comment below if you have a run that you’d like to recommend to people.

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