Now in a range of flavours your whole family will enjoy.

After regaining consciousness from a car crash, 'Zakky the Goatragon' finds himself in front of a large, old mansion, and his sibling missing. As he ventures through the house no living soul is found, but instead he finds the undead and learns that he is Uninvited. Using lots of magic and solving puzzles, 'Zakky the Goatragon' is able to save his sibling in 0:12:00, Single Segment.

The spin-off title to the Aero the Acro-Bat series is Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel. An evil lumberjack has invaded Stony Forest and is chopping trees in order to make paper, which he will use to print counterfeit money, possibly more than one million dollars. mwhahahaha. Eric 'Omnigamer' Koziel takes on Zero's world and beats the game in 0:11:31, Single Segment.

If a few Touhou games did not satisfy your need to take photographs, how about Fatal Frame III: The Tormented ? Rather than take selfies with bosses, you take pictures of ghosts to ghost-bust them (I'm sorry). 'Danielle' is in love with Kei, so she sets out to save her and captures it on film (I'm not sorry) for us in 2:28:49. This is a Single Segment run done on New Game Plus, thus Best Ending, and in Nightmare difficulty.

One update at a time?

Have terrorists amassed a diabolical force again? Is your Free World threatened by total destruction? Sounds like you need the LX-3 Super Cobra helicopter! That is pretty much the plot of Cobra Command, which is not related to G.I. Joe at all. Piloting the 1988 version of the game which took out all the fun and instead just rescues hostages is Marko 'MASTER-88' Vanhanen, and finishing in 0:15:45 (with deaths) you too will get freedom!

If the above disaster did happen and a global war nearly decimated humankind, we would probably end up in the events of Oniken. The titular evil cybernetic organization takes control of the bad situation, but a ninja mercenary comes out of nowhere (ninja or what?) and shows them who's boss. Taking control of the ninja is 'Thaan' and he saves the world in 0:16:52, and explains how he did that in the provided audio commentary.

You see none in the Title department.

A name that appears more frequently on the front page (and will keep on coming!) is Andrew 'Bigmanjapan' Bondarenko, and a game that he seems to frequently run is Silent Hill 2. Today we get a new run in 0:44:20, in 13 segments. This is a 1:17 minutes improvement over the previous run from 2007 which used 11 segments.

It's been a few years since Mega Man X was last posted here and it's been long overdue an update, and one we get: 'Luiz Miguel' improves the previous 100% run by Caleb by 1:47 minutes, bringing the time down to an impressive 0:35:47. The author's comments are a recommended(?) read.

Another name that is associated with a game is 'Zakky the Goatragon', and the game is Journey to Silius. After running that game for who knows how long (okay, a year), he has improved his previous run by 5 seconds, beating the game in 0:11:08.

If I said 'ktwo' you would probably think "public verification", but that's not what we're here for today. ktwo loves to play Solomon's Key and he just keeps improving it. Today we get a 23 seconds improvement to the Best Ending, beating the game in 0:28:39, Single Segment.

The last obsoletion for the day comes in Donkey Kong Country. After wrong warp was found a few years ago inquires as to whether better warps can be done, and indeed they were found. 'NewAgeRetroHippie' takes advantage of the latest tech and produced a run clocking in at 0:08:26. The previous run was 0:23, and used the in-game timer.

Please stand by while we purposely increase your blood pressure by a few notches.

Remember the cutscene saga of Half-Life? Calm down, I don't have full game runs today. Instead I have Paul 'PJC' Connolly who did the Hazard Course option of the game in 0:02:57, Single Segment. This beats the previous run from 2004 by Spider-Waffle by 13 seconds. But wait, there's more! Paul 'PJC' Connolly apparently enjoys playing these kind of games so he also did a run on the Boot Camp mode of Half-Life: Opposing Force, finishing in 0:09:34, Single Segment. It beats the previous run from 2009 by 2 seconds. Not impressed? The last run used scripts. Yup. Now pick your jaw off the floor!

Do you LOVE loading times? Sean 'MURPHAGATOR!' Murphy definitely does because there is no other reason for him not to play Cyber Sled. The game's goal is to win a tournament with hovering tanks in a futuristic themed arena where you need to eliminate your opponent. This so called "sport" came up as a way for people to escape their problems as the world is collapsing. Playing as Rexer Ironside, Sean 'MURPHAGATOR!' Murphy beats the game in 0:01:07. This is an in-game timer, and it's slightly misleading as each battle is beaten much faster than the time it took the game to load that battle.

Now then please excuse me while I load the next update. It might take a few days. You can wait, right?

Not Harry Potter. Better.

Master of Magic follows a wizard that attempts to dominate two linked worlds, Arcanus and Myrror. The player can summon many magicial creatures while building cities and armies in order to conquer their opponents. 'TravelDemon' plays against a single opponent on the smallest map possible, but has the Impossible difficulty to counter, and does so in 0:01:18, Single Segment.

A remake of the original Castlevania game from the NES is Super Castlevania IV. Simon's whip was upgraded to attack in eight directions, or used to block enemy projectiles. Upgrades and secondary weapons that are scattered throughout the game can be picked up and used to defeat bosses quickly. Jeremy 'DK28' Doll however does not pick up anything, playing Low% and beating the game in 0:41:21, Single Segment.

Unlike most medieval or fantasy beat 'em ups, Dungeon Magic differs with an isometric viewing angle, very large stylised sprites and some platforming. An evil magician follows the standard operating procedures by kidnapping a princess in order to bring back to life an evil spirit. Tim 'iast' Treichel plays as Gren (warrior) and saves everyone in a breezy 0:17:19, Single Segment.

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers takes place many years after other Crystal Chronicles games where the Yuke tribe died out after a great war with the Lilty tribe. A surprise attack however shows that peace was an illusion and the world, or at least the Lilty Kingdom, is in danger. Nicholas 'Sir VG' Hoppe comes back to the game and improves his previous run by 5:15 minutes, clocking in at 3:56:35, using 17 segments compared to 20 in his previous run.

Chocobo gets to star in his own game, Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon. Cid and his trusty Chocobo got sucked through a vortex to the island of Memoria which disappeared from the world 50 years ago, and end up recovering its residents' lost memories. Patrick 'messenger' McElwee lost none of his as he beats the game in 5:30:43, Single Segment.

You disagree? I can't let you enter my fabulous country then.

Probably these words are what Joel 'Bisqwit' Yliluoma utters every time someone disagrees with the titular statement. His more well known words are Papers, Please. Guessed who he is? No? Well, 'Bisqwit' plays the role of an immigration officer in the fictional, dystopian, realistic and wonderful country of Arstotzka in the year 1982. His job is to let people in while keeping out all the terrorists, smugglers and other unwanted criminals, using various techniques of investigation, from simple questions to asking for a full body scan. 'Bisqwit' completes the game in 2:47:08, finishing with the EZIC ending in Single Segment. Glory to Arstotzka!

So dystopian doesn't seem to work out, how about utopian ones? The one in Mirror's Edge is better, being made from a totalitarian, sham regime amazing and awesome government that controls the media and spies on its citizens because they, uh, care about them. Much like EA and the way they treat their customers. Harry 'Keelshing' Ogier, Robert 'Arrow' Müller, Lucas 'Req' Burns, Truls 'Floubz' Olsen & Steffan 'Zooketra' Griffiths play as Faith as she attempts to figure out who framed her sister, Kate, for murder. They beat the game in 0:30:16 using 127 segments, on the PC version using Deaths, Resets, plenty of shortcuts and add in audio commentary to boot.

For the best kind of overlords we must learn from the Glukkons in Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus. They use Mudokon slaves to exhume Mudokon bones and then electrocute them (the Mudokons, not the bones [yet]) to produce tears. Then they use both in their disgusting and horrendous New 'n' Tasty Soulstorm Brew. Sam 'Samlaptop' Locke slaps all Mudokons in the face and gives us a quick run through of the game in 0:44:27, using 62 segments and reaching the Bad Ending. This is 50 seconds faster than the previous run and uses 13 segments more.

Glory to Arstotzka!

Everybody likes some, otherwise life would be boring, right?

Everyone likes marbles as seen by a very recent update, and if it wasn't enough for you, we have an updated run for the classic Marble Madness. Improving the previous run by 3 seconds, Steve 'Elipsis' Barrios does bolder manouvers and avoids the Magic Wands to complete the game in 0:02:47. Audio commentary included.

It has been a few months since Guardian Heroes graced our site. Today Nelson 'Sonikkustar' Martinez provides a new run for the XBLA version of the game. Playing on the Remix mode on the Golden Silver path as Ginjirou and using deaths, 'Sonikkustar' completes the game in 0:09:24, Single Segment.

Another run that sees an update to an existing one is Phantasy Star Online. 'Ckarl Bobadine' learned a few new tricks and improved his previous run by more than 5 minutes, bringing the time down to 0:48, Single Segment playing as the Ranger.

Dead Space finally makes an appearance on our site, completing the triology of the series, which now has full game runs hosted on the site. I'm pretty excited for this one as 'Jehuty' is the runner, and he's pretty amazing at this series. Playing on the Impossible difficulty, he provided us a run clocking at 2:24:28, Single Segment with deaths.

Meanwhile at last place is me. Again.

Building his way to the finish piece by piece is Tad 'RabidJellyfish' Cordle who returns to Lego Racers. Playing through the story mode in Single Segment and using Large Skip glitches, Tad 'RabidJellyfish' Cordle beats the game in a speedy 0:39:53 and becomes the Greatest Lego Racer of All Time. Again.

Another familiar face is Jeremy 'DK28' Doll who also comes back to a game he speedran before, Super Mario Kart. This time around he does a Single Segment run and beats the game in 0:25:40.73. Note this run uses 1 player instead of 2 which makes it harder. An audio commentary is included that covers things in detail as there are no author's comments.

Hello everyone, hope you've had a good week! Time for another look around the world of speedrunning. This week's theme is competition!

The last several weeks have been golden for Max 'coolkid' Lundberg, who has been tearing up the NES classic Mega Man. On February 13, he claimed the classic any% record from 'Nudua' with a time of 19:28. Fellow Swede Daniel 'Dxtr' Eriksson challenged him with a 19:24 of his own, but 'Coolkid' was not to be outdone, so he set three new records consecutively. He's now the only runner with a sub-19 time: an 18:55 that deserves a watch. And maybe a rewatch. (Shoutout to 'Slaughterhouserock' for the Mega Man tip!)

Meanwhile, 'Altabiscuit' has been working hard on Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, and the results have been truly impressive. After 'Bubbles6411' recently tied his record at 1:24:17, 'Altabiscuit' came back to achieve a run that he could only describe as "insane": a 1:20:12 with extremely solid luck and execution. Still, my gut tells me some new time saves will be found in the future. After all, 'Altabiscuit' remains dedicated to this game, and we've all seen what he's capable of doing to it.

Finally, we have an update about an underrated SNES RPG, Lufia 2: Rise of the Sinistrals. This game is impressive because of the depth of RNG manipulation possible, and the precision and consistency required to pull it off. Just this morning, 'HappySquid89' claimed the glitchless record with a time of 3:43:13, breaking the mark of 3:43:59 set 20 minutes prior by 'eLmaGus'. Both of these runs follow on the heels of 'FeralPigMan''s 3:44:00, achieved just a few weeks ago. There's still plenty of room for improvement, so expect to see these runners continuing to chip away at this time.

Now for some SDA-related news! We're currently in dire need of volunteers for "pre-release check," or PRC. PRC is a process that every run on SDA must go through before being published. It's pretty straightforward - it just involves spot checking videos of runs that are ready to publish, verifying that they have the correct aspect ratio, don't have any obvious defects, and that they actually play back properly. If you're interested in participating in this essential process, we'd love your help! Please send a PM on the SDA forums to 'Vulajin' to offer your services. Thanks a ton!

(As always, remember to submit tips for future community news updates using this form!)

Here at SDA, we do not give preferential treatment to any specific runs or runners, regardless of who they are. That said, today the three of us bring you a fair, neutrally-minded selection of runs.

Matan 'IsraeliRD' Weissman: My favorite game is Marble Blast Gold and I've played it for a decade now. I have enjoyed watching the community grow and even more how hardworking the speedrunners in the community are. Today I'm proud to present to you a massive 72 levels improvement over the last run from 2011 for a total time of 0:14:04.117, a 25.523 seconds improvement. There are lots of extreme path optimizations, brand new pathways, a blind edge-hit and the utilization of a new glitch that completely breaks some levels. We also have 14 runners, and they are: 'Xelna', Stewart 'StewMan46' Inglis, Ji Hoon 'iMacmatician' Chun, 'Asuul', Trevor 'm2mm4m' Davidson, Jonathan 'Sporlo' Hynes, Mason 'Nihahhat' Langenderfer, 'Kalle29', Gabriel 'Powerjohn25' Inocencio, 'Regislian', Remy 'Dushine' Dushime, 'BlastedMarble', Moshe & Henry 'Sonic Warrior1' Mullhall. As with the previous run we have two audio commentaries (only in the All Levels videos) and a new set of bloopers which you can download here. Oh, and we are already working on the next update :)

'Vulajin': I've loved Bastion ever since it came out in summer 2011, and I've been speedrunning it since August 2013. I've invested over 1000 hours in this game, and my crowning achievement thus far is a 0:12:40 (14:10 in community timing) which I'm proud to be able to show you. Like any good speedrun, I can't take sole credit for my accomplishments. Since I picked the game up, a huge number of new runners have contributed their efforts to help shave over 2 real-time minutes off an already blazingly fast speedrun. In particular, credit for this latest run must go to 'Astifwerg' for the Ura invasion skip and 'HaosEdge' for the Lunky drop strat. I can't overstate the depth this game has for speedrunning, and we continue to discover new time saves on a regular basis.

Benjamin 'UraniumAnchor' Cutler: We now have a run for Knytt Stories which got rejected multiple times including a great contender for best rejected run. Nonetheless I just got accepted for completing the tutorial run in 0:01:11. Short runs are obviously the best because they're the kind of thing you can knock out in like one day. Anything longer than that is a waste of time. No, I don't have carpal tunnel, why do you ask?

Stay tuned for our next fair, balanced update in a few days! ...why are you looking at us like that?

Feel free to take a few punches to celebrate.

Zack 'Zallard1' Allard LOVES Punch-Out!!, and he had sent in quite a lot of improvements:

• Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! has a new Super Macho Man run for 0:00:48.48 (2.49 seconds better) and Mike Tyson run for 0:02:10 (7 seconds better), reducing the individual level runs to 0:14:14.51, a 9.49 seconds improvement.
• Doc Louis's Punch-Out!! has its current set of 3 ILs improved down to 0:02:01.97, a 10.72 seconds improvement. In addition to these ILs the Single Segment run was also improved down to 0:02:02.81, a 11.3 seconds improvement.
• Super Punch-Out!! is the last today with an improvement on Narcis Prince, bringing his time down to 0:00:08.28, a mere 24 milliseconds faster over the previous run. The individual levels runs is now 0:02:16.81.

The Doc Louis SS and both MTPO ILs also have audio commentaries.

Hello again, everyone! It's been a couple weeks, and speedrunners never rest, so we have a bunch more updates to bring you from the community today.

We'll start with some race events happening on SpeedRunsLive. This Saturday, Feburary 28th, at 1 PM EST, an NES marathon race will take place, featuring 20 classics being played back-to-back by anyone who's mad enough to do it. You'll be able to watch the progress of the race on 'InfestedRiche''s Twitch channel. Meanwhile, signups are ongoing for Mystery Tournament #6, in which competitors race mystery games unknown to them prior to race time. Past Mystery Tournaments have been extremely popular, and this edition already has 132 entrants as I'm writing this. The signup period for MT#6 ends on Friday, February 27th, and the tournament begins on Friday, March 6th. (Shoutout to 'ZenicReverie' for the heads up on these events!)

It wouldn't be a normal day in the speedrunning community if some records weren't taken down. Within hours of my last post about Super Metroid, 'Behemoth' took back the any% record with a time of 0:43:12; however, just this week, Matt 'zoast' Thorne stormed back with a 0:43:04. In Secret of Mana, 'StingerPA' tipped us off to a new record in the "1-player 2-controller" category, a 1:58:22 by 'Yagamoth', improving the previous record by 19 seconds. These two are unquestionably top runners of this game, and their skill is evident in their co-op record of 1:54:36, which they completed in the practice room at AGDQ 2015. Turning to a more recent game, the popular indie action platformer Shovel Knight saw a new any% record of 0:46:07 by 'BustahWuff', eclipsing the previous mark of 0:46:41 by 'Capndrake'. With runners like '3ngag3', 'MunchaKoopas', and 'Mystakin' also working on this game, and new content coming soon from the developers, this is a game with a bright speedrunning future.

Let's talk about Final Fantasy. As we have learned from Final Fantasy 4, stairs break everything. Recently, 'welcotar' discovered that stairs in the original Famicom Final Fantasy can be used to achieve arbitrary code execution, and 'TheAxeMan', 'Inzult', and 'Gyre' have since been making it their goal to reduce this game to a smoldering wreck. Between forcing bosses to run away, glitching themselves all four orbs of light, and warping directly to the credits, they have gone through several methods to achieve this goal. The final result (for now!) is this 0:07:20 run by 'Gyre', and even though most of it is stairs, I suggest that you just go watch it and enjoy the payoff.

Before I end this post, I want to quickly plug two things here at SDA. A big part of our mission is to spread knowledge about the process of speedrunning. To that end, we have a Knowledge Base wiki which we wholeheartedly encourage everyone to use and expand upon. Recently 'Arctice' has been working hard to build a KB page for Bastion, and I think it serves as a great example for other games. On the submission end of things, we have been using a public verification process for nearly the past two years, where submitted runs are posted in the Public Verification forum and any SDA member may verify the runs for AV quality and play quality. Currently, we are having a major influx of runs in public, and we'd love your assistance participating in this process. Going forward, we only expect the number of public verifications to increase, not decrease.

We'll have more community news again in the future. I just want to remind everyone that our ability to cover news that's relevant to you is only as good as our knowledge of what you want to see. Make sure to submit tips about newsworthy events in the speedrunning community! We'll give you a shoutout in the news if we publish your tip. Thanks again!

Actually you can go left as well. Shit.

Wario stars in his own side-scrolling adventure in Wario Land: Shake It!. Trouble is brewing in the Shake Dimension as the Shake King is taking over, and Wario is sent to help out. Mike 'mike89' McKenzie tackles the game and completes it in 1:26:10, Single Segment. This is a 1:08 minutes improvement over the previous run, which was segmented.

Changing the W to M, and from bold and fancy graphics to the old NES days, we have Chris 'cak' Knight sending us a big improvement to Super Mario Bros. 2. The old warpless run from 2005 gets a huge update as 'cak' improves the run by 4:37 minutes, down to an incredible 0:21:59, Single Segment.

Please take safety precautions before proceeding with this update.

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link features lots of side-scrolling action and brings in new features to the series, some which were dropped instantly. Link needs to find the Triforce of Courage in order to awaken the sleeping beauty, Zelda. Neil 'PresJPolk' Stevens doesn't want to go through all the different palaces in this game, so instead he uses Large Skips to beat the game in 0:18:57, Single Segment.

Return to Castle Wolfenstein began the reboot for the Wolfenstein series. In it you get to shoot Nazis, Undead, robots and more, which is essentially what the series was about beforehand, but just better looking. 'TheLDer' gives us some good action with plenty of shortcuts as he improves the previous run by 3:29 minutes, to a run time of 0:33:29, in 26 segments on the I Am Death Incarnate difficulty.

I remember talking to Patrick 'PJ' DiCesare about his 0:28:59 Single Segment Spider-Man and the X-Men in Arcade's Revenge and was going to use that as helpful information to encourage you to watch it, but then I realised how much of a Patrick 'PJ' DiCesare game that was: it crashes or randomly softlocks, levels cannot be beaten and bosses may be invincible assuming they spawn, enemies can regain health when you hit them, controls and hitboxes are terrible and above all else Patrick 'PJ' DiCesare managed to go to a wrong door and lose 5 minutes right at the end. No wait, that's a different game I'm thinking of on that last point.

Saturday. Duh.

Sam Fisher loves going in stealth, sneaking in on his targets while wearing his skintight black rubber suit, and showing them a good time... for 5 seconds while choking them to death ever so quietly. Some people like it rough. The first game in the successful Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell series sees Sam Fisher travelling around the world doing secret assassina-- missions for the NSA. Michael 'CotySA' does a superb job of finishing the game in 0:56:20, using 24 segments and playing on the Hard difficulty.

Nothing says you love somebody more than punching them in the face. In Streets of Rage 2 the mysterious Mr. X kidnaps Adam and his henchmen ruin the lovely mood for everybody. 'galedog' takes the RNG to a date with some favorable(?) results, but at the end of the day he gets 0:26:35, Single Segment while playing as Max.

Digimon has been absent from our gamelist despite the series' popularity. Giving it some love is runner 'Sparsie' by bringing us a run for Digimon World, which tells the story of a human sucked into the Digimon World and is tasked to save Digimon that have gone feral. Probably from a rabies bite. Either way that did not stop 'Sparsie' from completing the game in 1:29:47, Single Segment.

You can never be alone with Leisure Suit Larry: Love for Sail!, a game that is *only* rated Mature on the ESRB rating. Larry just got dumped (as usual) and had joined a cruise ship with the aim of getting lots of sex and winning a competition. Everyone gets a score card with a selection of various events that are being held, from bowling all the way to a machine that tests your own sexual prowess. With the winner getting to spend an extra week on the ship and in the romantic Captain's cabin, Andrew 'Bigmanjapan' Bondarenko helps Larry to mostly cheat throughout the competition in a brisk 0:31:51, Single Segment. If you hold one of the original game copies, I highly recommend you grab right now your CyberSniff 2000. I also recommend watching this run while eating 'Quiche de Larry'. Just sayin'.

On an unrelated note several people keep telling me to have Dune 2000 posted again because of my undeniable love to it. Screw you too.

We just made the NSA watch list.

Silent Bomber sounds like a clone of Bomberman. The protagonist doesn't shoot, but instead throws bombs, stacks them to create chain reactions, has limited amount of bombs he can throw, upgrade bomb limit/range/power and so on. Long story short, Jutah has to destroy the space dreadnaught Dante by bombing anything in his path before it blows up his planet. 'burningsteel' does the job in 0:34:32, using 14 segments.

Onto other Dante-s that aren't planet-destroying spaceships, we have a run for Devil May Cry, like the original DMC, we on the same page? Good. Playing as Super Dante, 'ahuynh' produced a Single Segment run clocking at 0:39:31, a 3:42 minutes improvement over the previous run.

Lastly for everyone's favorite blue bomber is Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge. Given a grayscale makeover Mega Man confronts Dr. Wily's robot masters, which he already defeated on the NES (MM 1&2), as well as a new 'Mega Man Killer' robot. Daniel 'Tremane' Schwab colorfully beats the game in 0:18:51, Single Segment, a 2:11 minutes improvement.

I got the tranquillizer, let's go!

Rabbits make a return to the front page with BomBun, where 'The Barrel' takes control of the titular rabbit. The building he's at is about to explode and he has 10 seconds per room to escape. 'The Barrel' Whizzes throughout the 10 rooms in 0:00:23.

Wally Bear and the NO! Gang has you playing as a bear on a skateboard, but rather than stop a giant robot you avoid wildlife enemies who want to hook you on drugs. I can really sum it up with this review article title: "Video game gives kids 'Bear'-able drug lesson". Runner 'darbian' scoots to victory in 0:06:23, a 39 seconds improvement.

Actually skateboarding is becoming old around here, so let's freshen up with (Razor) Freestyle Scooter. It's almost the same as any Tony Hawk game except with scooters and a giant robot capturing your friends. Runner Dan 'DanE' Söderhäll does all the cool moves to complete the game's many objectives and save everyone in 0:11:59. The ending cutscene is so bad it's hilarious.

Little Big Adventure 2: Twinsen's Odyssey is the successful sequel to the first game, where Twinsen has to save his planet, Twinsun (totally creative) from an alien invasion (the creativity is strong here). Runner Timo 'TimTehGamer' Räisänen tackles the problem with actual creative solutions and beats the game in 0:48:22, in 42 segments. This is 33 more segments than the previous run from 2006, but cuts the time down by an impressive 33:07 minutes thanks to new glitches, routes and luck manipulation.

Here at SDA, we're aware that speedrunning is far more than just the runs that get published in our archive. It's an ongoing process of attempts, new personal bests, competition, and cooperation. It's a community that comes together to raise money for charity, or just to have fun and show off our love for our hobby. It's the sum of a huge number of contributions from a huge number of individuals. Going forward, we'd like to recognize more of that spirit by periodically recapping what's going on in the community.

We'll start with an update about an extremely popular speedrunning game, Super Metroid. Those of you who follow this game closely should be pretty familiar with Matt 'zoast' Thorne, who is generally regarded as one of the top runners of this game. Recently, he reclaimed the any% record with a time of 43:31, surpassing the previous mark of 43:46 set by 'Behemoth' in October. These runs use a risky Phantoon-first route which used to only see use in tool-assisted runs. If you have only watched our published SM run, you should definitely watch these. Don't hold your breath that this record will last, though, as both of these runners remain dedicated to this game, along with other top runners like 'Kottpower'.

Another popular SNES game to have gotten a lot of attention recently is Super Mario World. Through the combined efforts of a large number of individuals, notably 'Masterjun' and 'Nathanisbored', a method to warp into the credits by utilizing arbitrary code execution was discovered. For some time this was only thought to be possible in a TAS, until 'Jeffw356' created a real time-viable setup and performed it on emulator. 'SethBling' subsequently managed to verify it on console, and then further runners (including 'Nathanisbored', 'Dram55', 'Carl Sagan', 'Dotsarecool', and 'p4plus2') contributed more optimizations. The current record for completing the game using this warp is a shocking 1:52.5 by 'Dotsarecool'. This run has represented a significant effort by an entire community of runners - you can read more about how it evolved in this Pastebin.

If you watched Awesome Games Done Quick this past month, then you're probably hankering for more live speedrun marathon action. Don't worry, we've got you covered. Coming up next weekend (Feb 12-16), the good folks at SpeedRunsCentral will be having their second charity marathon, benefiting the Children's Miracle Network. If that's not enough for you, we also have RPG Limit Break, an RPG marathon taking place May 12-16 and benefiting the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Our friends across the pond will be holding their annual European Speedster Assembly from June 28 through July 5. And of course, Summer Games Done Quick will take place July 26 through August 1, benefitting Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders). Obviously it can be hard to keep track of these dates, and there are also a ton more small events going on all the time, so here's a handy calendar of events that you can bookmark.

Hopefully this will just be the first of many updates in this style in the future. We want to make sure to cover the news that's relevant to you, the community. As such, if you'd like to tell us about something newsworthy, just use this form! If we publish a tip you send us, we'll make sure to shout you out in the news post. Note that you'll need to be logged in on your SDA forum account to submit a tip, and we may not be able to publish every tip sent to us.

That was terrible. I will never do that again.

Beginning this massive update is Metro 2033. Set in post apocalyptic Russia you play as Artyom as he tries to save his home from monsters and the 'Dark Ones'. While you can read the book that this game is based off, it will be faster to watch Zach 'Duane Jones' R beat the game on the DLC's hardest difficulty, Ranger Hardcore, in 2:30:44, 38 segments.

Square Enix's Nier is a spin-off from the Drakengard series, following the fifth ending from the first game, where Earth is left in a state of decay. In it you play as the titular character in an attempt to save his daughter's life from a terminal disease, and understand the creatures that stalk the world. Eric 'Omnigamer' Koziel runs through the game in 3:15:11, Single Segment on Easy difficulty, achieving the A Ending.

Assassin's Creed is a great series with a minor slip up recently, which heavily focuses on stealth, reconnaissance, assassinations and figuring out some conspiracies that may involve the Uyamanati. Francois 'Fed981' Federspiel continues running the series and produced yet another fantastic speedrun. Coming back to Assassin's Creed II he sent us a run for 100% (memory synchronization) in New Game Plus, with DLC, using 157 segments in 7:09:51. For those wondering, the run is in English instead of French this time around.

I've long awaited for a RTS from Westwood Studios to appear on the front page, and today Dune 2000 makes it through. Emperor Frederick Corrino IV challenged the three Houses to harvest spice from the desert planet Dune, with the house that harvests the most will become the planet's sole controller. Runner 'Shaokhan' is super dedicated to this game as not only does he speedrun the campaign of every House on both Easy and Hard modes, he also plays both map choices that most levels offer. These choices make the level easier or harder as each one has a completely different map layout! All together, the total time is 13:33:08. The breakdown is as follows:

• House Atreides, Easy difficulty in 1:32:50
• House Harkonnen, Easy difficulty in 1:30:28
• House Ordos, Easy difficulty in 1:52:27
• House Atreides, Hard difficulty in 2:48:23
• House Harkonnen, Hard difficulty in 2:54:03
• House Ordos, Hard difficulty in 2:54:57

As today's runs altogether are more than 26:30 hours, having an update this coming Wednesday feels wrong. As such the next one will happen next Saturday. Have a nice week everybody!

... but you might see an update from someone else ;)

Coming to an accursed flame gem near you.

I won't linger any longer, and head straight into Valkyrie Profile. The game is based on Norse mythology, lots of different ways to see people die (not just on YouTube) and a plot I cannot claim to comprehend. Nonetheless we have today two runs from Josh 'funkdoc' Ballard, the first is a Single Segment B Ending on Easy difficulty, clocking at 0:52:20, a 3:33 minutes improvement. The second one is the A Ending done in 2:27:47, also in Single Segment, and is an 8:17 minutes improvement.

Mega Man X2 has a much easier to understand plot; blow up X-Hunters, collect Zero's body parts, fight off Sigma and save the world until the next money-milking sequel which any lawyer will be happy to represent. Tyler 'Trogdor' Sykes improves his previous run from just half a year ago by 27 seconds, clocking in at 0:33:23, Single Segment.

Even easier plots you say? How about Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!, where you punch your way to become the next world boxing champion. Can't be easier. Actually such easy plots are boring in attorney-speak so I will have to spice things up. 'sinister1' carelessly pummels unsuspecting fellow contestants with inferior hairdos and chic to become the supreme serial-basher in 0:16:27.54, Single Segment, a 6.32 tick amelioration over his previous reign of terror from last March.

On a side note a recent discussion had sparked in the forums with regards to SDA's future, in particular many people have suggested ideas that can help SDA moving forwards and discussions are under way. The staff are checking the thread and taking on board ideas, and you too can suggest! Visit the topic here.

Oh hi! How was your New Year's? I was at the hospital. You remember? After my accident? No? Hangover you say? Guess you're in no better shape than I am.

Nonetheless we are in better shape than those in Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne. Drugs, guns and more depressed people than those in your local bar are what you'll find in this noir-styled game. Daniel 'gtaaa175PL' Strumpf resurfaces to beat another level from the NYM mode, this time the finale of the game, Woden's Manor cont'd (3-8), 18.52 seconds faster: 0:00:50.03.

It's hard not to be excited when 'gammadragon' pops in with a new speedrun, and today is no different. Might and Magic IV: Clouds of Xeen is the first of a two-part series that sees a new set of adventurers travel to the land of Xeen and defeat Lord Xeen who is wrecking havoc. 'gammadragon' does a very quick job (look at his typing speed!) to dispose of Lord Xeen in 0:08:32, Single Segment on the Warrior difficulty.

After the long gruesome battle between you and the enemy, lots of dead bodies, pools of blood and empty guns are left behind. In Viscera Cleanup Detail you are the janitor who has to clean up said mess because nobody else is going to do this. The actual game is still in Early Access, but we do have runs for two additional spin-off titles that came from it. VCD: Santa's Rampage sees you cleaning up after Santa got more guns than in any Max Payne games, and went ballistic in his workshop. Christian 'ShadowDraft' Moll doesn't clean up anything except what the in-game monitor checks for and finishes this game in a mere 0:00:54. In VCD: Shadow Warrior we see the aftermath of Lo Wang's katana battle in the Collector's Temple, and 'ShadowDraft' again ignores his ACTUAL JOB he was PAID to do and instead picks up the scattered 2 million dollars in 0:01:59.

As the curtain closes on this chapter of AGDQ, I find myself wondering just how much bigger these events will get. I'm pretty sure we're going to hit a critical mass of awesome sometime in the next year or two if things keep up. I was amazed last year when we broke the big 1 mill, but crushing that by over 50% and raising over 1.5 million dollars for charity? Damn. Mad props to Games Done Quick, SpeedrunsLive, the Prevent Cancer Foundation, and every speedrunner, organiser, sponsor, volunteer, donator and viewer that made this incredible event happen. You guys are every bit as awesome as AGDQ's name implies.

But that's enough sentimentality outta me. If you were unlucky, unfortunate or busy enough to miss out on some of the amazing speedruns from the event, High Quality run videos from the marathon are making their way on to the Games Done Quick youtube channel, so now's chance to get caught up! So do it.

Until next time.