The 10 Best Video Game Speedruns

Image via Complex Original

Game designers often spend years constructing expansive play experiences, complete with logical narrative structure, cut-scenes, and well-balanced enemy encounters.

But for some of the more industrious players out there, all of that is simply an invitation to bend the rules and recast the game in a new light, in which little glitches and exploits – not to mention memorization of the stages and mastery of maneuvers – hold the key to the fastest-possible playthroughs in games where quickness was never a core element.

While we may not all be quite as dedicated, speedrun clips luckily let us live vicariously through those players, and we've collected 10 of the absolute best and legitimate examples (in which no third-party tools are used to boost times), which prove equally dazzling and dumbfounding.

Portal

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Portal can be a tricky game to topple on your first playthrough, but this speedrun clip might make your head throb for entirely different reasons.

DemonStrate put together this run on the PC version over the course of two years, utilizing loads of exploits and glitches to blast through the game in less than 10 minutes.

His backwards runs and drops are distractingly dizzying, and his singing of the anthemic credits song "Still Alive" is… well, it's an interesting touch. And even after a couple viewings, we're still totally perplexed as to how he figured all of this out. Maybe that's why we don't make speedruns.

Super Mario Bros. 3

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While the Warp Zone makes it easy to skip a massive chunk of the game, topping the ultimate NES platformer in just 10:48 remains a huge accomplishment.

Like many of the best side-scrolling speedruns, Freddy Andersson's clip depicts ample knowledge of the game – quirks, glitches, and all – but it's particularly amazing to read that Andersson logged nearly 3000 tries before notching this time, including 115 finished attempts.

It's a testament to the ironic realization that recording such a brief playthrough requires an obscene amount of practice and likely frustration.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

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Not fully convinced of the tenacity of speedrun pros? Check out this one-shot playthrough of the Xbox Live Arcade version of the Castlevania series' most beloved entry, Symphony of the Night, which clocks in at less than half an hour.

Normally a lengthy, Metroid-like adventure, player Andrew Schroeder spends most of the video dashing backwards instead of walking, simply because it's slightly faster than walking – but he uses other exploits and a whole lot of skill to breeze through the castle and emerge with a time that should be damn near impossible to beat.

Quake

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id Software's Doom kick-started the speedrun movement in the early 90s, but successor Quake has yielded some of the most amazing runs to date, including this team-spawned effort, titled Quake Done Quickest.

Featuring the combined efforts of eight skilled runners, Quake Done Quickest sees the PC shooter absolutely dismantled; and hilariously so, as players whip through enemies and objectives without a second thought, all in pursuit of the quickest possible time.

In total, the run – performed on the Nightmare difficulty setting – is executed in 11:29, though the levels were recorded separately and later compiled and tallied.

Metroid Prime

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Metroid Prime skillfully translated Super Metroid's rewarding campaign structure to a 3D world, and the GameCube hit has proven a huge mark for speedrun enthusiasts.

The top pieced-together run shaves a few minutes off this total, but for our money, the slickest run available is this start-to-finish attempt, wherein Besmir Sheqi puts up a logged time of just 1:06 for the entire game.

Watching him effortlessly blast through the lengthy adventure without fail is a thrill, and the clip is a testament to the incredible skill and memorization needed to notch such an impressive time.

Super Monkey Ball

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Despite the colorful look and cartoon simians, GameCube launch title Super Monkey Ball is remarkably difficult, putting players' analog-tilting skills to the test via a series of increasingly difficult platforms to traverse.

But this recent speedrun of the Expert, Expert Extra, and Master stages makes it look like a breeze, as player Cosmo burns through those stages in just 18:54, with YouTube commenters pointing out the only noticeable mistake as an example that it's a legit attempt.

If you ask us, Cosmo's doing a better job than Sega at keeping this series relevant a decade after its debut.

Super Mario 64

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In the minds of many gamers who grew up with Nintendo's 64-bit console, Super Mario 64 might seem just about perfect.

But the game that set the template for 3D platformers isn't as pristine as you might think, as evidenced by this thrillingly precise speedrun.

Myles Bukrim clears the game start to finish in 17:31, snagging just 16 of the 120 total stars while using a blend of exploits with pitch-perfect jumps and other actions to skip huge chunks of gameplay.

Much as his run defiles those shining memories to some small extent, we simply can't look away from such an expertly executed attempt.

Half-Life

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Despite all of the cool weapons seen in the Half-Life universe, this inventive speedrun – dubbed "Project CR" – sees hero Gordon Freeman using only the basic crowbar through the entirety of this ridiculously fast run.

Seriously, if this was any other speedrun, we'd still be astounded at the creator's quickness through the large campaign – with the run topping out around 45 minutes in total – not to mention the obvious work that went into memorizing these perfect pathways through the world.

But sticking with the crowbar throughout and still surviving that boss fight? We're slow clapping in your honor.

Super Mario 64

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Including two separate speedruns from a single game on a list of this size might smack of a lack of imagination, but we couldn't resist including the world's (current) fastest 120-star run in Super Mario 64, which arguably is more in the spirit of the original experience than the earlier corner-cutting run.

Remember when you spent months tracking down every last star back when? Watch in amazement as Japanese player Nero performs the same feat with a final time of 1:48:27 in the import release of the game.

Hell, if any game deserves to spawn a cottage industry of speedrunners, it's certainly Super Mario 64.

Super Metroid

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Many gamers know that beating Super Nintendo action classic Super Metroid in under three hours earns you a swimsuit shot of heroine Samus Aran following the credits, but what do you get if you beat the entire game in a single run with a logged time of just 32 minutes? Is our undying respect enough?

Satoru Suzuki's unbelievable run demonstrates an expert-level knowledge of the game's huge world, skipping key gadgets in favor of speedy, finessed movements and a wickedly quick pursuit of the goal.

Still, Suzuki claims he made "nearly 100 mistakes" along the way. Man, just enjoy your success!