Top hags speedrunning Sonic games live

[bmn]

From TSS, original story from a cool guy called bmn. He's great isn't he?

Thursday 7th April – Monday 11th April at speeddemosarchive.com

I’m sure some of you remember when my good friends at Speed Demos Archive raised over $52k for charity at their live speedrunning marathon back in January. Not least, a beast known only as Stanski tore up Sonic 2 on the Sega Genesis in one take.

Normally, SDA isn’t one to do marathons all the time – they usually only have one a year and put everything into it – but last month some place called Japan had its east coast wiped out by a wave reaching 23 metres high, leaving over 10,000 people dead and another half a million without a home.

So, towards the end of March, and with marathoning for Japan seemingly de rigueur right now, SDA decided to join the bandwagon and plan a top marathon in two weeks. Unlike their usual efforts, this one will be done online from the gamers’ homes, and yours truly will also be joining the party.

Japan Relief Done Quick: April 7-10 2011

This time Japan Relief Done Quick will be raising funds for Doctors Without Borders, the American branch of the international medical aid group Médecins Sans Frontières. A Nobel Peace Prize recipient, MSF has operations in over 60 countries, and is in Japan right now providing medical treatment to those affected by the earthquake and tsunami.

Now, January’s marathon was a bit disappointing from a Sonic point of view, but that’s not the case this time. Early Friday morning in the UK, there’s a solid four-hour slot where five Sonic games will be played through:

First up is the original Mega Drive title, Sonic the Hedgehog, played by MilesSMB on Genesis.

That’s followed by Sonic 3D on either Genesis or Saturn, played by Zyre who recently had a speedrun of another Sega classic, Skies of Arcadia Legends, published on SDA.

Next Venick will hammer his way through Amy’s story on the original Sonic Adventure on Dreamcast.

The greatest Sonic game ever made is next – Sonic 2006 on Xbox 360. Depending on donations, either Venick or Parax will go through one character’s story. If you’re planning on donating, personally I recommend Silver because some of the tricks will blow your mind.

Finally, Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 will be seeing a full game run. The runner is Parax, the top single-level speedrunner for Sonic 4 in the world right now. If you’re on 360, check the leaderboards and then check your calendar.

This marathon starts at 9PM in the UK on Thursday, and is set to run into Monday. You can see the full schedule at the JRDQ site, though if you’re planning on watching a certain game, bear in mind times can change pretty easily.

Be there, if only to laugh at me when I die in-game during my slot…

Lke I say SDA are my homies; I've been a member there almost as long as I've been staff here. I'm not shitting you when I say they're probably the best organised group of speedrunners in the world, and when it comes to marathons by them, almost every game is run by someone that knows it inside out. For that reason I think they're a great watch.

...except when you get someone that used to be good but hasn't played the game in years, and bites off more than they can chew.

It's also for the preverbial Good Cause, so if you got a few bux I'd recommend getting in on some of the donation incentives and battles. One battle I already know of is what character gets played in Sonic '06 (hint: pick Silver). It also gets you into the (somewhat limited this time) prize raffles.

If that wasn't enough, you get to watch me fail miserably at beast through a couple modes in Metal Gear Solid 2.

Any you guys planning on watching, or saw the last one in January?