AGDQ’s best moments happen when you least expect them

Awesome Games Done Quick, the annual charity speedrunning marathon is in full swing, already amassing over $500,000 for the Prevent Cancer Foundation. With three more days to go, there’s a great many runs of popular games coming up. But relying on the schedule or your own preferences to determine when to tune in is a surefire way to miss the best AGDQ has to offer.

Take today, for example. I’ve never played Batman Forever: The Arcade Game, but after watching the speedrun, I might have to. It’s a Batman-flavored beat-’em-up that bears precious little resemblance to the movie it’s based on. The runner, LRock617, chose to play as Robin and within moments of starting the game, I was hooked. The graphics were reminiscent of the early Mortal Kombat games, appropriate since it was published by Acclaim Entertainment. But there was a surreality to them that — when combined with Robin’s overpowered abilities (like one that has him essentially go Super Saiyan), the runner’s charisma in explaining what’s happening, and the audience getting in on the fun with funny donation messages — gave the run an absurd goofiness that was a sorely needed shot in the arm at 9AM on a Wednesday morning. And if I hadn’t had the marathon on in the background, I would have missed it.

Games Done Quick’s schedule is set up to have the most popular games or gimmicky runs take place during the early evenings and weekends — the time when folks are most likely to tune in. But I’ve found some of my favorite runs are of games I’ve never heard of played well outside those primetime hours. I’ve developed a deep an abiding love of Mr. Bones, a Sega Saturn game I have never played, because I found it during a bout of January 6th-induced insomnia. The Ratatouille run from Summer Games Done Quick 2023, one of that year’s stand–out runs, happened on a Tuesday at 11AM.

More than simply being entertained, keeping GDQ on all the time is a good way to find your next indie game. I didn’t know what Pizza Possum was, but after watching the speedrun, it’s on my list of co-op games to try at home. There’s still plenty of AGDQ left to enjoy. There’s a New Super Mario Bros. Wii run that’ll be played while the runner plays the piano and I cannot wait for the Crazy Taxi run that’ll be accompanied by a live band playing covers of the songs in the game. But I’m even more excited to find the next hidden gem of the marathon purely by chance.