LogFAQs > #943716063

Here are the runs that I caught that were highlights for me, there were other runs I enjoyed but these were the ones that stood out the most for me personally:

Zelda II RBO - Super interesting routing and glitches and a pretty clean run. I know Zelda II pretty well and this was novel.

Donkey Kong Country 2 - DKC2 feels like a pretty solved game at this point but it's always enjoyable to see - it's just one of those standard-bearer speedruns that's always a good watch.

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon - An incredibly clean run of a difficult category, COTM is every bit as good a speed game as the classic Castlevanias.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Moon - I mostly just enjoyed the movement in this one a lot. YA YA YA YA YA YA YA

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening - I'm obviously biased since this is my favorite game but I think it consistently holds up as a speed game, just a lot of nice tech and routing even in warpless.

Freedom Planet - Carol is probably the least compelling of the three characters but this remains one of the most gorgeous speed games.

Night Trap - Fuck, I dunno. This was just weirdly compelling as someone who had heard of this game's reputation but knew nothing about it. Running it blindfolded is an incredibly bizarre idea and that made this entertaining.

Rocko's Quest - I cannot in good consience recommend this run, which is why I am recommending it. The game's a trainwreck and the run itself went a bit off the rails with tech and commentary issues, but I loved it - it felt like a throwback to old GDQ where runs were sometimes more unpolished like this. Wish I could have seen the cutscenes better

Mega Man 9 - Only Mega Man game this GDQ so I'm obligated to highlight it. Very good race with the runners having some interesting routing divergences.

Yakuza Kiwami 2 - I wasn't really that interested in this game until Kiryu picked up a giant traffic cone and beat the shit out of someone with it.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Randomizer - Very chill run. Really love to see randomizer stuff at GDQ obviously, love to see all of the strategy and routing that goes into this.

Half-Life: Alyx - An absolute must watch. I don't know if VR runs are just sort of a novelty that won't be this interesting every time, but this was probably the most compelling run this GDQ imo because it showed me things I've never seen before.

Super Monkey Ball 2 - It's monkey ball.

Super Mario Bros/Lost Levels - I've been watching a fair bit of Kosmic's SMB stuff on Youtube so I've just been super interested in this game lately. Super Mario Bros is arguably the most solved speedrun in all of gaming, which makes it incredibly compelling to watch as a race because you know it's going to be close and you know even the littlest mistakes could make a huge difference. The Lost Levels race might have been even better.

Metroid Fusion - As I stated before, although the race aspect of this run didn't pan out, the 1% Hard category is something I've known was extremely hard to do since 2003, and as a member of the M2K2 community this one's a really big deal for me to see.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Not my favorite BOTW run ever, but BOTW is just one of the most amazing speedgames and it was interesting to see some of the different things that went into the run that don't matter in other runs.

Pokemon FireRed/LeafGreen - The Squirtle vs Charmander race concept was EXTREMELY interesting - there's more route divergence in this race than any other race I've seen before, and the commentary was great for explaining all the different things that one route handles better or worse than the other, and why they do things in the order they do them in. What a cool run, even if it ended a bit unfortunately.

Crypt of the Necrodancer - Spooty's a beast. With Coda, you never know 100% for sure if he'll be able to pull it off, but never doubt him. One of the most difficult categories to even complete at all that you'll ever see at GDQ.

Pump It Up - If you're big into the dance game scene then it's nothing that you haven't seen before, but getting to see something like this at GDQ for the first time is awesome. I'm so glad that they were able to do something like this given that it's an online event. My mom was really excited earlier today because happyf333tz liked one of her tweets, lol. I think she's a fan.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City - I really didn't think I was going to be interested in this run at all because I just don't like the GTA series and I haven't enjoyed these runs in the past, but wow, I really enjoyed this one. It's super dense with bizarre tech and tricks and the commentary did a great job explaining all of it - never felt boring.

Super Smash Bros Break The Targets - Blindfolded shit is always really interesting.

Pokemon Shield - Very long and slow at parts but it was a nice way to end the marathon.

Stuff I want to go back and catch:

Secret of Mana
Kid Icarus
Quest 64
One Step From Eden
Virtual Boy Wario Land
Puzzle Bobble 2
A Short Hike
Baba Is You
Mario vs Donkey Kong
Super Metroid