History Main / Speedrun

[[folder:Tropes associated with speedruns]]

* WinsByDoingAbsolutelyNothing: In [=TAS=] runs, the goal is to reach the victory screen, but the clock stops once the player is finished entering input. If you can engineer the FinalBoss to do themselves in for the last part of the battle, it can shave precious time off of the run.
[[/folder]]

!!No examples, please. [[Administrivia/DefinitionOnlyPages This only defines the term.]]
-----

Popular "regular" speedrun archive sites include [[http://www.speeddemosarchive.com Speed Demos Archive]] and [[http://www.speedrun.com Speedrun.com]]. For tool-assisted, technically perfect runs, see [[http://tasvideos.org/ TASVideos]]. For speedruns and speedrun races performed live for your viewing pleasure, head over to [[http://www.speedrunslive.com SpeedRunsLive]]. For rundowns of the history of some popular speedgames, see WebVideo/SummoningSalt's [[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMxPYcr2zEkWInMyvvxmN22gjrRR0x__u playlist]].

There is a second form of speedrunning which is regarded as a separate but related type: the Tool-Assisted Speedrun, or TAS. Unlike speedruns performed by humans, [=TASes=] are instead executed by computers using pre-programmed inputs. These are able to exploit the inhuman precision and execution speed of a computer to achieve feats that would be absolutely infeasible for a human player to perform. (And sometimes ''physically'' impossible, such as pressing two opposite directions at once).

[=TASes=] can be created for entertainment purposes, to show what a game can look like when played at perfect precision. However, they are also very useful to human runners as research tools; they can be used to algorithmically find potential strategies, and can be a way to benchmark a speedrun to provide a theoretical best time. A strategy that can only be performed by a TAS is called a "TAS-only" strat. Sometimes, with extremely good execution or when combined with other techniques and discoveries, a strategy previously thought to be TAS-only can become human-viable.

For games with a Speedrun-based gamemode (usually called "Time Attack" or "Time Trial") see TimeTrial. If, instead of a gamemode, Speedrun appears as an objective to be accomplished in a specified time, it's TimedMission. For games where Speedrun not only is encouraged but also rewarded, see SpeedrunReward. If the reward is meant to be a BraggingRightsReward, see ChallengeRun.

Speedrunning is a naturally competitive venture, as players are all vying to hold the fastest possible time in a given game, with the ultimate goal being to hold the World Record. The main metric for a player's progress is their Personal Best, or PB: the fastest time that a player has managed to achieve.

In order to keep track of players' times, speedrunners come together to create leaderboards and agree upon a set of rules for what is allowed in the speedrun. Often, the same game can be speedrun in several different ways; each way is referred to as a '''category''', and each category has its own leaderboard. Different categories often requires different speedrun skills, and it's common for some runners to specialize in a particular category.

Pulling off a successful speedrun requires a combination of good strategy and execution. Strategies (often shortened to "strats") are techniques which have been developed to save time. Execution refers to how well a player is able to play the game and perform the necessary strategies.

Pulling off a successful speedrun requires a combination of good strategy and execution. Strategies (frequently shortened to "strats") are techniques which have been developed to save time. Execution refers to how well a player is able to play the game and perform the necessary strategies.

Speedruns can be considered a kind of EmergentGameplay, as they look and feel very different to casual play. A speedrunner is not interested in the game's ''intended'' experience - they are instead focused on how they can optimize their gameplay to achieve the absolute fastest possible time. As such, story and exploration take a back seat; a speedrunner will skip everything they can, and will often perform actions that seem quite illogical and even impossible to a casual player.

* ViolationOfCommonSense: ''Everywhere''. Taking any sort of damage on purpose, dying, skipping items that would normally be required to progress, buffing your character very early on to breeze through the rest of the game, and even setting the game to display in a language you can't read are all examples of common speedrun tactics.

** Percentage-based terms such as "Any%", "Low%", "Max%" and "100%" originate from ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'', which uses a percentage to display how many items you possess at the end of the game. The terms have stuck, even for games that don't track the completion percentage.

In order to keep track of players' times, speedrunners come together to create leaderboards and agree upon a set of rules for what is allowed in the speedrun. Often, the same game can be speedrun in several different ways; each way is referred to as a '''category'', and each category has its own leaderboard. Different categories often requires different speedrun skills, and it's common for some runners to specialize in a particular category.

* '''Glitchless:''' Similar to Any%, except that using bugs and glitches in the game to gain a speed advantage is not allowed.

Speedruns are usually created as an attempt to show off one's skills. They are ''not'' for people who want to enjoy the plot or explore the world. Due to the many methods used in speedruns, and overall design of different games, it is not a good judge of how long a game is for the average player at all; for instance, there could be [[GoodBadBugs exploitable bugs]] that are only possible to pull off in a Tool Assisted run, and others that can be done in realtime with only a great deal of dedication, skill, and luck. A specific example of this: some Tool Assisted runs use glitches that require hitting left and right at the same time, or up and down at the same time; those ones are basically impossible on any standard unmodified controller. The optimal path can be radically changed at every step based on whether or not these bugs are used.

According to [[http://www.speedrun.com/ speedrun.com]], the top five games with the most players[[note]]basically games with the most people attempting speedruns, not necessarily the most active, and it's worth mentioning some games have their own dedicated fan speedrunning sites[[/note]] in their speedrunning community (as of October 30th, 2022) are ''VideoGame/SubwaySurfers'' (47,656 players), ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}: Java Edition'' (12,003 players), ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'' (7,564 players), ''VideoGame/{{Roblox}}: Speed Run 4'' (6,537 players), and ''VideoGame/SuperMarioOdyssey'' (5,205 players).

* PauseScumming: For TAS players; some games are still active when paused allowing for random number manipulation, or a meta example of rapidly pausing the emulator. Depending on the game, some realtime runs can also make use of this, such as frame-buffering techniques in VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime or the infamous pause damage glitch in ''VideoGame/MegaMan1''. The dominant rule in [=TAS=] is that the real time is what counts, whereas a better in-game time is secondary; that said, there are moments where due to in-game slow-down, the player can pause for a frame or two to make the in-game time better without affecting the real time negatively.

There are many categories, but most of them are sub-categories of three large ones: "[[HundredPercentCompletion 100% run]]" (where the player tries to collect everything in the game as quickly as possible), "{{minimalist run}}s" or "Low%" (where the player must skip all non essential items while still completing the game as quickly as possible), and the "pure speedrun", also known as "Any%", or "Beat the game", "Complete (character)'s story", and so on, depending on the game. Any% runs usually comprise completing the game as fast as possible, with nothing off limits to assist with this goal, be it glitches that skip 80% of the game, momentum conservation, and other huge game changers, though the "Glitchless Any%" is a particularly common variant that tries to quickly finish the game more-or-less as the devs intended. Many a popular SelfImposedChallenge are also up for grabs, some of which are specific to a particlar game.

To pull off a successful speedrun, SequenceBreaking, route planning, and tight play are the key. The notion of completing a game as fast as possible is frequently an example of EmergentGameplay (excluding those games where speed is the whole point, such as racing games). It is worth noting, however, that some games simply don't have any (or have extremely few) currently known glitches to take advantage of, and as such no sequence breaking or out of bounds of any sort can be performed, meaning that the speedrun is simply a matter of figuring out the most optimal way through every required part of the game.

A playthrough of a game with the intent of completing it as fast as possible for the purposes of entertainment and/or competition.

There are two types of speedruns: "regular" and "tool-assisted".
* '''Regular''', a.k.a. '''Real time attack (RTA)'''[[note]]This term's exact meaning varies between regular and TAS communities: For regulars, RTA is used in opposition to IGT (in-game timer); for [=TASers=], RTA means anything that's not a TAS, regardless of which timer it uses.[[/note]] - Consists of a player sitting down with an actual copy of the game and playing it normally, using only whatever features are available on the original hardware. The clock starts ticking at the beginning of the game and doesn't stop until the ending is achieved[[note]]The exact timing varies between games and even between speedrunning communities; some begin at the moment the game boots and others the moment the player pushes start (or when they gain meaningful control), for example[[/note]].
** Some regular runs are '''Segmented'''. Each segment consists of a level or group of levels. Instead of playing the entire game in one sitting, the player is allowed to get the best time possible for each segment, retrying each segment as much as desired.
** Sometimes, [[UsefulNotes/{{emulation}} emulators]] are used, but only for the purpose of actually playing a game as opposed to using any of the available tools, aside from possibly any recording functions they may have. For segmented runs, some players may only use save states between segments as a method of saving time.
* '''Tool-assisted (TAS)''' - Use UsefulNotes/{{emulation}} to play the game frame-by-frame to create the optimal time possible, often exploiting glitches and manipulating random events along the way. While they are technically possible, they will use methods that no human player has the reflexes or timing to pull off with any consistency in real-time, and some of them will use control inputs that would not be available on a normal controller, such as left and right on the d-pad at the same time or in most extreme examples, using up to 8 controllers at the same time. For TAS, timing is always from boot to "last input" (the last recorded D-pad/joystick/button press).

In both versions, SequenceBreaking, route planning, and tight play are the key. The notion of completing a game as fast as possible is frequently an example of EmergentGameplay (excluding those games where speed is the whole point, such as racing games). It is worth noting, however, that some games simply don't have any (or have extremely few) currently known glitches to take advantage of, and as such no sequence breaking or out of bounds of any sort can be performed, meaning that the speedrun is simply a matter of figuring out the most optimal way through every required part of the game.

!This trope is [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=16704648900.34219100 under discussion]] in the Administrivia/TropeRepairShop.

----
!!Tropes associated with speedruns:

----
!!Examples (all links external):

* ''VideoGame/AceCombat'' has various ls where you have to [[AerialCanyonChase take your plane through an enclosed area]]. So, naturally, people took the fastest plane available and went in with maximum power. Like taking "Greased Lightning" from ''VideoGame/AceCombat2'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3NPNSsj52w in the X-29]] or "Aces" from ''VideoGame/AceCombat5TheUnsungWar'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssmDlA8AM0s in the MiG-31]].
** One runner took it upon himself to run the UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 games in one sitting (on Very Easy, but still!), beating ''VideoGame/AceCombat04ShatteredSkies'' in 2:29:30, ''VideoGame/AceCombatZeroTheBelkanWar'' in 1:20:38, and ''VideoGame/AceCombat5TheUnsungWar'' in 3:56:54.
* ''VideoGame/{{Antichamber}}'': Using various SequenceBreaking techniques, Website/YouTube videos eventually surfaced showing people beating the game in less than [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fkx9LjNR4TA 5 minutes]]. A previous world-record speedrun involved beating the game with only the green gun, entering less than 5% of the rooms, and spending only 2 minutes and 9.67 seconds between resetting and firing the final block. This required tricking the game's teleport, shooting cubes and catching them after visiting the menu room, and making the game think he'd gone to rooms he hadn't yet. This was [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vj3gmLM-nA outdone]] in 2019 utilizing a variant of the same trick, ending less than a tenth of a second off the theoretically fastest possible time at 43.12 seconds.
* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxFLOJy7uQo This speedrun]] of ''VideoGame/ArcanumOfSteamworksAndMagickObscura'' uses a lot of SequenceBreaking. It involves killing Stringy Pete, who is widely considered to be the most difficult fight in the game, within 4 minutes of starting the game. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NE7pGvVQ-wY This run]] bypasses Stringy Pete altogether.
* ''VideoGame/AxiomVerge'' caters to this by having a "Speedrun" mode that shows a continuously running timer and suppresses cutscenes. The creator is very involved with the community and took suggestions for improving the mode. Notably, all influence of the RandomNumberGod is removed, as Speedrun mode used a fixed RNG seed, allowing runners to consistently route around "random" events such as which enemies will drop health pickups.
* WebVideo/GamesDoneQuick is a biannual marathon based around speedrunners worldwide gathering together to raise money for charity. Their marathons have raised over $16,000,000 for their causes (as of 2018), and have been the cause of many great moments. Uploads of the event runs can be found on [[https://www.youtube.com/user/gamesdonequick/videos their YouTube channel]].
* [[http://tasvideos.org/802M.html Here]] is a TAS run of the SNES game based on the ''WesternAnimation/BikerMiceFromMars'' show. Possibly the fastest we'll ever see Vincent go.
* ''VideoGame/{{Braid}}'' features this built into the game itself - in addition to having several timed segments of the game with par time and leaderboards, getting the [[LastLousyPoint final achivement]], "Speed Run", involves completing the entire game in under 45 minutes. (Including the ending.)
* ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}'' games have generally been very good for speedruns that go ridiculously faster than an average playthrough, but even the series' general high level of breakage in runs was dashed to pieces with [[http://tasvideos.org/1899M.html this]] TAS run beating ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaHarmonyOfDissonance Harmony of Dissonance's]]'' Maxim mode in under 23 seconds.
** [[http://nicoviewer.net/sm15443275 This]] run shows that it is possible for a very good player to complete Maxim mode in less than a minute with a different route and knowledge of the game's quirks.
** Richter mode in ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaSymphonyOfTheNight'' is practically designed around speedrunning. Unlike the main Alucard game, you do not need to collect any {{MacGuffin}}s to unlock areas; just race to the Inverted Castle and beat Shaft, who serves as the FinalBoss in place of Dracula. On top of that, Richter has several DifficultButAwesome moves that greatly supplement his mobility. A good Richter run clocks in at around 5 1/2 to 6 minutes.
** [[http://tasvideos.org/1759M.html This]] ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaAriaOfSorrow Aria of Sorrow]]'' run demonstrates the power of luck manipulation in tool-assisted speedrunning; by creating a speedrun frame-by-frame, it's possible to ensure that the RandomNumberGod always gives you the correct number. As a result, this run completes the game while collecting ''all 120 of the souls'' -- normally very rarely occuring random drops -- in 24:56!
* In ''VideoGame/CaveStory'', the final [[BonusLevelOfHell Sacred Grounds]] level includes an on-screen timer (if you find a special item), which has the sole purpose of encouraging people to do speedruns. Various bonus pictures are shown if the player completes this within a certain amount of time. Despite the [[NintendoHard excessive amount of enemies and hazards]] and several gates that take five full seconds to open, people have been able to complete the level in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tarGSo9INI mere minutes]].
* [[http://tasvideos.org/1285M.html This]] tool-assisted ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'' speedrun uses such a heavy ScriptBreaking, that the story of the game makes no sense, verging straight into full-on MindScrew.
** [[http://tasvideos.org/2047M.html This]] tool-assisted run skips even that, reaching the ending in ''three and a half minutes'' by abusing sub-frame resets to turn save corruption into a science.
* {{Parodied}} with ''VideoGame/ClubPenguin'' [[https://www.speedrun.com/cpce#Banned_CPR banned%]] speedruns. As the game is mainly a kiddy social game with no endings, some players decided to parody the concept of speedruns by speedrunning the process of creating an account and banning that account by swearing in-game. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcNjtiidugY The world record]] is currently 37.37 seconds, while a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OALbVKuJm60 TAS]] pushes it to 29.1 seconds. The process also parodies many common topics in speedrunning, such as RNG (filling out the CAPTCHA), using tricks (copying and pasting into the speech bar), and SequenceBreaking (a glitch allows you to say the f-word during the startup tutorial). Further parodied with the [[https://www.speedrun.com/cpce#Girlfriend_CPR girlfriend%]] runs, where the goal is to get another user to be the player's "girlfriend", then break up with them on their igloo in the fastest time possible; probably the only speedrun to involve random strangers, as the rules specifically disallow doing it with known people who could be in to the speedrun.
* You wouldn't think ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' would lend itself well to speedruns, and most of them don't, but ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsII'' has some quirks that make nearly the ''entire first half of the game'' skippable. To get to Drangleic Castle and the second half, you need either 1 million souls, or four Great Souls that drop from bosses at the end of long questlines. However, by using the Bonfire Ascetic that are plentiful in the game, you can respawn one of said bosses and fight them four times, getting a Great Soul for each. The best boss to respawn is the Rotten, since it can be fought nearly right away (only requiring a relatively cheap ring that can be bought in the hub area).
* A 43-minute world record [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RkVkewooBU run]] of the original ''VideoGame/DeusEx'' (on Realistic difficulty) exploits a number of bugs and shortcuts (grenade jumping, skipping the entire first mission, glitching JC's weapons into a prison cell so he can retrieve them immediately afterwards, physics exploits, etc.) and the open-world nature of the game to get past situations that would stall most other players. The end result is that JC Denton skips most of the boss encounters, never deactivates his killswitch, has conversations with people he's never met before and blows himself up into LudicrousGibs right before hightailing it out of Area 51.
* ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' has a large speedrunning community and a large range of different categories, from the standard affairs such as UV-Speed, NM-Speed, UV-Max and NM-100S, and then absolutely crazy challenges such as UV-Tyson, where you have to kill all monsters, but with the restriction that you can only attack with the fist, berserk fist, chainsaw and pistol (and telefrags) - seems reasonably challenging at first, until you realise it also includes levels such as [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3I7HhZfiVEg Tower of Babel]]...
** ''Doom'' has one of the oldest Speedrunning community. Because ''Doom'' allows one to save runs as "Demo files". The files contain a real time capture of all the inputs the player did, which another player can load and make their copy of the game play out with 100% accuracy. This allows not only a perfect record of the speedrun's length down to the very frame, but also made sharing speedruns possible in the early days of the internet, when transferring videos was not possible or practical for most people, with the side benefit that it also made speedruns far harder to fake, especially when other game communities would be limited to pictures or screenshots of timers who were far more susceptible to manipulation. On top of that ''Doom'' end level score cards include not only the player's time and completion percentage, but a par time set by the developers, which encouraged players to try and beat it, and then keep going faster. All of these factor made for a thriving speedrunning community at a time where most others couldn't really do that.
* {{Roguelike}}s, being almost always turn-based, would seem to go straight against speedrunning. Not so ''VideoGame/{{DRL}}'', which ''encourages'' the player with its Speedrunner Badge series, which starts at winning in 30 minutes real-time for Speedrunner Bronze, all the way up to Speedrun Angelic Badge, that requires the player to win a [[HarderThanHard Nightmare!]] game in less than ''four minutes'' real-time. With 24 levels to go, this means less than ''ten seconds per level'' on average, including two boss battles, in a game that is almost completely random-generated. Good luck.
* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYCsp5CTkHs This]] ''VideoGame/EarthBound'' run must be seen to be believed. In just over nine minutes, the player skips straight to the end [[spoiler:[[GainaxEnding by getting attacked by a crow]]]]. They don't call them "Skip Sandwiches" for nothing...
** An alternate run features no actual gameplay for almost 3 minutes, but breaks the game much faster. Two renders of the video exist: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CvJqzYpWms one]] [[spoiler:which makes ''VideoGame/EarthBound'' look more like a rhythm game than an RPG]], and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXdHYKhjBBA a more standard one]].
* ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind'' got [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88zViKk7l3I thrashed in seven minutes]] thanks to ingenious (ab)use of the game's fast-travel powers.
** There's also [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_fFApDyki4 this speedrun]], utterly demolishing the previous video's time in 4 minutes and 19 seconds.
* ''VideoGame/{{Eversion}}'' switches to a time attack mode after you clear all the worlds. Additionally, the game starts doing a self-parody of [[spoiler:the creepy messages that sometimes replace the "READY!" screen in worlds X-7 and X-8, with messages like "GO!", "HURRY UP", "GAME ON", and "READY! TO RACE"]].
* A rare example of an RPG speedrun that actually deserves the word "speed": ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 1}}'' in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wX45fwvF0Lg nine minutes and nineteen seconds.]]
* Thought that a game based off ''Series/FamilyFeud'' would be boring to watch even as a TAS? [[http://tasvideos.org/1248M.html Here's a (NSFW) one]]. This is possible because the game has a very lax text parser that deems an answer correct if it sees all the letters of a possible answer in the correct order without checking if the letters are all together. To take an example from that TAS, "I '''BA'''THED '''KE'''ANU '''R'''EEVES" is accepted as "BAKER" since it saw the letters in the correct order even if the answer is otherwise nonsensical.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX'' actually rewarded the player for doing a speedrun. Getting to a certain area in the final dungeon in less than 12 hours will net you an InfinityPlusOneSword.
** Several of the games have been broken so severely that entire segments of the game can now be completely skipped. ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIII'' now takes [[http://tasvideos.org/2445M.html less than seven minutes to beat]] with tool assistance. In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'', the entire [[http://tasvideos.org/2725M.html second half of the game]] can be skipped (starting from the FloatingContinent), while the underworld and moon in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'' can be [[http://tasvideos.org/2543M.html skipped]]. The latter of these has been done without tool assistance; see [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcRcbi6GmSg the SGDQ 2013 run at AGDQ]].
** This was ultimately Averted with ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV''. Initially, it was possible to pull of speedruns of various dungeons, but due to players' complaints concerning two ''A Realm Reborn'' dungeons of new players being forced to skip cutscenes or get left behind and/or chewed out by the speedier players, things were changed to stop that.
* ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' has a variant called the LTC (Low Turn Count), where the goal is to complete the game in as few turns as possible. [[https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/fireemblemltc A site with several record runs can be found here.]] ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemGaiden Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia]]'' encourages this by giving an achievement for completing the game in 500 turns or less.
* ''VideoGame/FreedomPlanet'' enjoys a healthy speedrun community in the fandom. The game is considered to be [[NintendoHard fairly challenging]] in its own right, mind you. [[LightningBruiser Lilac]] is the most popular character to use, but [[DifficultButAwesome Milla]] is gaining steam with her slow but very technical gameplay. In Milla's case, once players mastered the recoil with her Super Shield Burst, they realized it can be used to achieve incredibly fast speeds. The game itself has an achievement for clearing the campaign in under 90 minutes, but that has been quickly cut down to faster times. The most impressive have been Lilac at [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8xsvOVnIPM 39:17.75]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YF0IVShSBAQ Milla in]] [[SerialEscalation 31:58.48]].
* [[http://speeddemosarchive.com/GhostsnGoblins.html Here's]] both loops of the notorious NintendoHard game ''VideoGame/GhostsNGoblins'' being completed in just under 23 minutes. And [[http://speeddemosarchive.com/SuperGhoulsNGhosts.html here's]] its Super Nintendo sequel--again, both loops--in just over 42 minutes ''on its hardest difficulty''.
* ''VideoGame/GrandChase'' features this as part of its series of PlayerVersusEnvironment quests. It's not that hard, as you're given 15 minutes to finish a dungeon.
* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCity'' was dominated in a single sitting of [[http://speeddemosarchive.com/GrandTheftAutoVC.html just under two hours]], skipping almost half of what would normally be considered obligatory story missions and sidequests.
** The same guy has also done ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas'' in [[http://speeddemosarchive.com/GrandTheftAutoSA.html six hours nine minutes]]. Though that wasn't in a single sitting.
** Years later, these records have been shattered, with the WR for Vice City being just [[http://www.speedrunrecords.com/Grand_Theft_Auto_Vice_City/run/588 1:27:26 by Aces_High]], while the WR for San Andreas is [[http://www.speedrunrecords.com/Grand_Theft_Auto_San_Andreas/run/551 5:24:17 by UltimateOmega07]] ''done in a single sitting''. Don't forget the world record for VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIII: [[http://www.speedrunrecords.com/Grand_Theft_Auto_III/run/200 1:13:02 by SSJ4Vegito]]. More recently, it has been discovered that the game can be beaten in about [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9cXVQLe7j0& 12 minutes]].
* ''VideoGame/HalfLife1'' in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTUOn2EUFhk Half an Hour]] uses the "exploiting glitches" method, and also uses such tricks as trapping a scientist in a door to stop it from closing all the way and using grenades to power jumps. It has since been [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtI5HM7GVGY obsoleted]] by a run that managed to shave 9 minutes off the previous time.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzPSa5jbQHw This]] ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' speedrun is notable in that... well, just read the comments. It exploits glitches just like Half an Hour, including bonking people with objects to make them teleport, and jumping off items you drop and grab below you to fly. Probably the best part is flying over the entire Ravenholm minus the mine area in 30 seconds, never seeing Father Grigori. A similarly wacko bit is the "Water Hazard" chapter; Gordon ditches the speedboat halfway through and glitches his way through a few miles of radioactive goo just so he won't have to wait for [=NPCs=] to attach a gun to the boat, and when the climactic battle against the chopper begins, [[AntiClimax he leaps over a dam and runs away to the next area.]]
*** [[https://www.speedrun.com/hl2/run/z13w5wjm The current world record speedrun]] does the Water Hazard above one better- he only uses the boat ''once'' in the whole chapter, in order to activate a cutscene trigger that the boat is necessary for. He spends the rest of the chapter on foot, using glitches to get health back (and to spawn the boat when he needs it).
* Pretty much every ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' game has an active speedrunning community. [[http://www.archive.org/details/Halo2SingleSegment A no-death world record run]] of ''VideoGame/{{Halo 2}}'' is even published in the Guinness Book of World Records...[[https://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Cody_Miller even though the player turned out to be a cheater.]] (No word on whether the run itself is faked, however).
* ''VideoGame/HollowKnight'': The game has three achievements for speedruns (under 10 and 5 hours, plus under 20 hours with 100% completion).
** For the record, the game has been cleared in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7n9ngN8n8sQ under 34 minutes]], even without glitches.
** On [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTOjZ1LlBMo December 2019]], there was a ''Hollow Knight'' speedru- err... "speedrace" hosted by [=SpeedGaming=]. The result? 33 minutes and 47.11 seconds against 33 minutes and 47.16 seconds. Yep, the gap was merely 50 milliseconds!
* ''VideoGame/HolyDiver'' has been beaten in real-time in [[http://speeddemosarchive.com/HolyDiver.html under 19 minutes]] ''without dying once'', which is very impressive considering that the game's difficulty approaches PlatformHell.
* ''VideoGame/{{Iji}}'' includes a timer for speedruns, and when new features are added, the author usually makes sure they won't affect speedruns. For example, skipping the fight with Krotera (possible from version 1.3 onwards) forces Iji to give Vateleika (offscreen) a ten-minute head-start, so speedrunners will fight instead.
* ''VideoGame/JaggedAlliance 2'', a single player campaign that usually takes days to play through, in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osQkMLquCoM less than seven and a half minutes]].
* ''VideoGame/KingdomOfLoathing'''s NewGamePlus style of play allows it to be one of the few [=MMORPGs=] that allows for speedruns - from level 1 to defeating the Naughty Sorceress, in as few adventures as possible. Players compete, share notes, and obsess fiercely over shaving adventures off of the top time. A truly speedy speedrun usually involves skills gained from 30+ ascensions, ultra-rare or archaic items, plans mapped out well in advance, and [[BribingYourWayToVictory $20 or more donated to the game.]]
** Hardcore speedruns remove the advantages of items and donations, but still require permed skills from many Hardcore ascensions, as well as tighter planning. Luck doesn't hurt, either.
*** They only remove the advantage from donation equipment, you still need the familiars and skills just as much if not even more so.
** [[HarderThanHard Bad Moon]] speedruns do put everybody on a pretty equal footing, by temporarily stripping you of those familiars and skills. There's a guide out there for reliably doing one in 12-14 days. (To compare, a 1-day speedrun has been done in regular play, though luck was a significant factor, and there are people who consistently do 4-5 day runs in Hardcore.)
** The level of obsession this involves can get downright frightening. Some players have managed to shave their times down to ''two days'' for a ''Hardcore'' run. These also tend to be the same players who throw royal fits if any change in the game adds a single-digit number of turns to their runs.
** The game's creator/overlord, Jick, coined the term "dickstabbers" to describe the most speed-and-score-obsessed players--supposedly, if offered the choice between [[DeusSexMachina sleeping with the prom queen]] for 10 points and [[GroinAttack stabbing themselves in the dick]] for 11 points, they would always choose the latter. Not surprisingly, he deliberately added similar "dilemmas" to the game; in the hedge maze near the final boss, for example, you can follow the friendly floating skull and get free items, or ignore his advice and subject your character to painful traps and monsters just to save a few turns.
** The "first step" for many would-be KOL speedrunners is known as the "sub-Ronin". In a Normal ascension, you begin in a state called "Ronin" - you cannot gain most benefits from other players and are allowed to retrieve only a limited number of your items from previous runs per day. This lasts for 30 days, 1,000 turns, or until you defeat the [[FinalBoss Naughty Sorceress]], whichever comes first. Beating the Naughty Sorceress while still in Ronin, "sub-Ronin", is considered a sign of passage in KOL speedrunning.
* The ultimate in luck manipulation, ''VideoGame/KingsBounty'' tool-assisted in [[http://tasvideos.org/1145M.html under 10 seconds,]] with just 0.3 seconds of actual gameplay.
* Using a save file from ''VideoGame/SaGaFrontier2'' in ''VideoGame/LegendOfMana'', it's possible to get an extra weapon and break the rest of the battles wide open. This weapon can allow you to beat the [[http://speeddemosarchive.com/LegendOfMana.html#SSDragon final boss in 8 seconds.]]
* Speedrunning is prominent in ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' games. [[https://www.speedrun.com/oot#100 Fastest 100% speedrun]] of ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime''? [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fw5i584lHRI 3 hours, 56 minutes, 8 seconds by ZFG]]. [[https://www.speedrun.com/oot Fastest speedrun]], period? '''''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-DPprG7Iog 6 minutes, 49 seconds.]]'''''
** 3 (out of 4) runners completed the game [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eC1pu9OKXR0 LIVE in around 75 minutes]]. The 4th failed on the last form of the final boss.
** The fastest MST time is [[http://www.twitch.tv/nedeahs/c/2873878 2:08:03 by Pydoyks]], MST stands for "Medallions, Stones, Trials", which means beating all dungeons.
** The tool-assisted run is even crazier. [[http://tasvideos.org/4147S.html 16 minutes 57 seconds]].
** ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess Twilight Princess]]'', meanwhile, has been completed in just over 3 hours by [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egqhy_AHcpY Paraxade]].
*** ''Twilight Princess'' also disquishes itself for having one of the more interesting "Low%" runs. It is worth remembering that in a "Low%" run, finishing the game quickly is only the secondary objective; the main objective is completing the game with as few collected items as possible. This has resulted in the record attempts at this run clocking in at about 25 hours. Why? Because Link's item collection animation has a ''very'' slow-working glitch that results in him clipping through certain gates if he is left stuck in the animation over long enough time. Emphasis on ''long''. This usually results in a run where about 17 hours of gameplay is spent having Link standing around and staring at a Rupee. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2nRW3wKnVY This video]] provides a more in-depth explanation.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3uzz1xlaqU This speedrun]] does an ultra-glitchy [[SequenceBreaking sequence-reversed]] run of ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaLinksAwakening Link's Awakening]]'', with commentary [[BlatantLies pretending that it's a completely normal Let's Play.]]
** ''VideoGame/ZeldaIITheAdventureOfLink'' has a [[http://tasvideos.org/2652M.html tool-assisted run]] with little resemblance to normal gameplay, thanks to heavy glitch abuse that grants Link the power to walk through walls and inexplicably warp between areas.
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'' allows players to run straight to the final boss as soon as they leave the starting area, if they so wish. Within a month of the game's release, runners have managed to get their completion times down to forty minutes (Nowadays, Ganon is getting killed '''less than 27 minutes after link wakes up'''). Of particular note is the [[WreakingHavok exploitation of Stasis]] to hurl trees or rocks across the map, with Link either hanging on as it flies or [[VideogameCrueltyPotential getting hit with the object]] to kickstart his Paraglider momentum--non-Amiibo runs use this to glide across Hyrule Field instead of wasting time taming a horse.
** Finishing ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast A Link To The Past]]'' quickly is no longer enough for speedrunners, who now use the [[http://alttpr.com/ ALTTP Randomizer]] to race through randomized versions of the game. Dungeon order, rewards and other items completely rearranged at random, and speedrunners play blind through it in duels.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Marathon}} Infinity'', it is quite possible to skip 4 levels in the level Electric Sheep. A speedrun video is in the making.
* The ''Franchise/MegaMan'' series is also notable for speedrunning. [[http://tasvideos.org/1686M.html As seen here]], assisting with tools can make ''1'' unrecognizable from its former self.
** There seems to be a small trend where people try to see how fast they can beat more than one game at the same time using the same controller. [[http://tasvideos.org/380M.html Here's a TAS]] that features a guy beating ''VideoGame/MegaManX 1'' and ''X2'' in about 40 minutes and [[http://tasvideos.org/871M.html another]] where two guys beat ''''VideoGame/MegaMan3 through 6'' in about the same amount of time.
*** The Mega Man X/X2 run has been obsoleted by [[http://tasvideos.org/1894M.html this]], a HundredPercentCompletion of Mega Man X, X2, AND X3 using one controller's input.
** Time attacks on ''9'' are pretty impressive too [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JMneYgaUGg as seen here]]. Due to weapon balancing, every weapon comes in handy even outside the boss fights, some of which are used more often and others less.
** ''Mega Man 10'' features time attack leaderboards and the ability to view the replays of any of the top ten times from any stage (or the whole game) from inside the game itself.
*** [[http://tasvideos.org/1812M.html Now has its own TAS.]] The first TAS for a current-generation console on TASVideos, and it's for [[{{Retraux}} a game designed to be a throwback to the NES.]]
** Hotarubi, known for his Super Metroid speedruns, also does speedruns for ''VideoGame/Rockman7EP''. There's even an achievement for beating the game under a certain time.
* The ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' franchise also attracts a variety of speedrunners. Some examples include:
** [[https://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=D2FA49DFD3C6175D&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL A no-save Big Boss emblem run]] of ''Metal Gear Solid'' in 1:49:01
** [[https://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=AF82972D76CA38F7&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL A no-save Big Boss run]] of ''Metal Gear Solid 2'' in 1:37:39
** [[http://speeddemosarchive.com/MetalGearSolid3.html#EEFH a Foxhound-rank run]] of ''Metal Gear Solid 3'' on European Extreme in 1:25:54
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PCmcohwi40&feature=PlayList&p=0EC492BF689AAF0B&index=0&playnext=1 A new-game Big Boss emblem run]] of ''Metal Gear Solid 4'' in 1:39:03 and [[https://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=1F351D24D2370357&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL a clear-game Big Boss emblem run in 1:34:13]]
** And there's even a [[http://tasvideos.org/2003M.html BIGBOSS tool-assisted speedrun of MGS1]] in 1:31:49.
* ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'':
** ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime'' HundredPercentCompletion in [[http://web.archive.org/web/20031202174746/http://planetquake.com/sda/mp/ 1 hour, 37 minutes.]] Has since been obsoleted, but this run (which was [[http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/11/10/0655226&tid=213&tid=10 Slashdotted]]) brought speedrunning into the mainstream.
** The above is just one product of the very active speedrunning community. Among other things, every 2D game has now been beaten in less than an hour (''VideoGame/MetroidIIReturnOfSamus'' was the last to fall).
** Red Scarlet's 100% ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid'' run in fifty-five minutes, a work of art that stood proudly on Speed Demos Archive for seven years, has been replaced by [[http://speeddemosarchive.com/SuperMetroid.html#100PAL Christopher Hill's time of forty-eight minutes]].
** ''Super Metroid'' any% speedruns have gotten pretty ridiculous due to the discovery that several tricks thought to be TAS-only can be pulled off in real time. The current top-level runners complete the game with an item collection percentage in the low teens; that means running through Lower Norfair with a mere three energy tanks (or ''two'', if for those feeling ''really'' ballsy), turning all battles into an intensely deadly game of chicken.
** Biospark's 1% ''VideoGame/MetroidFusion'' run in [[http://speeddemosarchive.com/fusion.html#SS1 49 minutes]] with no saves. In 1% conditions, one hit is fatal for most of the game; doing this in a ''single-segment'' run is mind-bogglingly hard.
** ''VideoGame/MetroidPrimePinball'' records single board playthroughs of the bosses in this form.
** ''VideoGame/MetroidIIReturnOfSamus'' can be glitched so severely that it starts to resemble a [[MushroomSamba bad acid trip]]. See [[http://tasvideos.org/1175M.html here]] for an example.
* ''VideoGame/MirrorsEdge'' has this as a game mode. It even has achievements for it, and features the nigh-impossible task of completing the second level, Jacknife, in under 11 minutes. This mission takes 20 minutes on the first try. [[ThatOneAchievement Have fun!]]
* Board games are not immune: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHJkTz6Ej3U&NR=1&feature=fvwp Fastest possible game of Monopoly]]. Thirty seconds. Seriously.
** The fastest speedrun of all time is actually [[https://www.speedrun.com/Clue_1998 Clue]], coming in at a time of 583 ''milliseconds''. By the time you finish reading this sentence, you could've watched the run dozens of times.
** The speedrun of the PC version is now the fastest, clocking in at ''[[http://dl.speeddemosarchive.com/demo.pl?Clue_PC_001 a mere second!]]''
** Then there's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vFNctqf6DmI this TAS of Monopoly]] using 4 enemies and a GambitRoulette. Yes, the speedrunner stopped doing anything after 1 minute.
* It's possible (if you know the solution to the final two puzzles) to skip just about everything in ''VideoGame/{{Myst}}''. You can [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIRtutbSwak start a new game and be watching the ending]] in under a minute. Naturally this kills most of the replay value to the game, which is why the game is the only one in the Myst series to get an UpdatedRerelease which adds some new stuff (but it doesn't change the way to get to the ending, unfortunately). Later games in the series actually required you to do the whole game.
* Even visual novels can get a speedrun. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuN4395r_Oo Here]] is a speedrun of trying to play though ''VisualNovel/{{Narcissu}}'' as quickly as possible. Your TPM (tears per minute) counter will be very high.
* Speaking of short tool-assisted speedruns, there's the entire ''[[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue Pokémon Yellow]]'' speedrun with 152 Pokémon caught within less than 90 seconds and with mere seconds of in-game time and by throwing away entire floors. [[http://tasvideos.org/1860M.html Honored for their exploits indeed.]]
** For a longer (but still pretty incoherent) run, [[http://tasvideos.org/1700M.html Pokémon Red has been TASed in 41 minutes.]] Game? What game?
** Or how about catching all 151 Pokémon in Blue (properly this time) in [[http://tasvideos.org/2653M.html 1 hour 55 minutes?]]
** [=TASing=] is all but {{deconstructed}} in [=MartSnack=]'s video of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gjsAA_5Agk beating]] ''[[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue Pokemon Fire Red]]'' while blind and deaf (that is, by muting the volume and not looking at the screen, so that there is nothing to indicate what inputs should be made). He pointed out that these conditions make it so that the game can only be played if there is a single sequence of inputs that beats the game every time, regardless of how the RNG turns out.[[note]]His proposed sequence isn't quite perfect, as there is a 1% chance that the player will fail to successfully run from a wild encounter early on, desyncing everything, but commenters later proposed workarounds.[[/note]] The kicker? This is done in real time on a console, so no luck manipulation is actually performed, despite success being 99% guaranteed. That said, this causes the "speedrun" to be over 270 hours long...
* Having a ton of [[LuckBasedMission Luck-Based Missions]] in every single entry, [=TASers=] pretty much made the VideoGame/LivePowerfulProBaseball franchise their bitch. Luck manipulation in this franchise are included but not limited to:
** A weird form of damage boosting in training. Since the chance of injury never exceeds 100%, [=TASers=] can train to their hearts content without sustaining any injuries or wasting turns resting.
** Abusing Dr. Daijōbu. Who offers to perform an experimental surgery on you which either have incredible rewards or devastating penalties. [=TASers=] can ensure every surgery is successful and enjoy the stat boost.
* The SNES version of ''VideoGame/PrinceOfPersia2'' has a [[http://tasvideos.org/332M.html 11-minute tool-assisted run]] that shamelessly abuses glitches to the extent that the last part of the run consists mostly of the Prince running across air and through walls.
* ''VideoGame/PunchOut'' attracts many speedrunners, as the mechanics of the game (specifically, the patterns and weaknesses of the enemy boxers) allow for much probing of the system. ''Super Punch-Out'' in particular, due to the minor differences in system compared to the previous games, has had speedrunners get times on nearly every opponent down to ten seconds or ''less''. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_p9uqOmh5c Nick Bruiser, the final boss, in 9.98 seconds]]. (There is a faster one on Website/YouTube, but its legitimacy is questionable.)
* [[http://speeddemosarchive.com/quake/demos/NR/all_1950.dz The nightmare difficulty]] for ''VideoGame/{{Quake}}'', beaten in just under 20 minutes (a world record). ''VideoGame/{{Quake}}'' is one of the most-run games of all time, so the route and performance is extremely optimized.
** Even better, a run a few years back smashing that to pieces with a Nightmare run in [[http://www.fileplanet.com/dl/dl.asp?qdq/qdqdivx.avi 12:23]]. The run is a segmented run, however, and while still talented, is far better than could be expected of a straight playthrough.
** That version too has been updated to 11:30, but it hasn't been published yet (except in raw demo form). [[http://speeddemosarchive.com/quake/projects/qdqwavp2/ http://speeddemosarchive.com/quake/projects/qdqwavp2/]]
* The game was barely out when someone decided to speedrun ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil7Biohazard'' with a time of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_qmzmXRCR0 2 hours, 30 minutes, and 50 seconds.]]
* The ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil2Remake'' actually invokes this, as the higher-end unlockable weapons all require an extremely low finishing time of under 2 hours and 30 minutes on the hardest difficulty, or under just ''2 hours'' on a "2nd Run" playthrough. For perspective, rushing through the game while still picking up any health and ammo you can find and killing only the enemies that are in your path will likely clock you in at around the 3-hour mark. And this is just what the game itself imposes; some players have posted clear times under 90 minutes by exploiting [[GoodBadBugs certain glitches to go outside of boundaries and skip huge sections of the game]].
* ''VideoGame/RiskOfRain'': If you want any chance of survival on higher difficulty settings, you pretty much ''have'' to use every trick in this book, as the difficulty steadily rises, handily indicated by a slowly filling bar on your screen, and you do ''not'' want to see what happens when it maxes out. Taking time to open every chest you can afford to will almost always not make up for the scaling difficulty.
* The ''VideoGame/RollerCoasterTycoon'' games do not seem at first to be made for speedrunning, especially the first two due to their fixed game speed and most of their scenarios having a fixed date for completing them, but ''[=RCT3=]'' can be speedrun in a few hours due to its scenarios objectives having no fixed date for their completion. ''[=OpenRCT2=]'' offers an option for early scenario completion that counts a scenario as completed once the goals are met even if the completion date has not been reached yet, which combined with its fast-forward button makes speedrunning the ''[=RCT1=]'' and ''[=RCT2=]'' scenarios possible, though this hasn't stopped some from speedrunning individual levels in the vanilla versions of those games (time is stopped when the goals are reached whether the vanilla games or ''[=OpenRCT2=]'' is used, at least by speedrun.com rules).
* Non–videogame example: a popular activity among Rubik's Cube fans is "speedcubing," or solving the cube as fast as possible. The world record for a [=3x3x3=] cube stands at 4.59 seconds.
** And there's yet [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=DE&hl=de&v=7vrk0yp9LOk another way]] to approach this puzzle.
** There is also a [[http://tasvideos.org/1505M.html tool-assisted run]] of Rubik's World for the Nintendo [=DS=] that beats the world records for 2x2x2, 3x3x3, and 4x4x4 cubes.
* ''VideoGame/RuneScape'' has the quest Broken Home, which is the first quest in the game that can be completed multiple times. The player is given extra rewards if they can finish it in under 37 minutes.
* ''VideoGame/{{Shantae}}'': The later games encourage this, with rewards for completing the game with OneHundredPercentCompletion under a few hours, or completing it under even less time but without needing to collect everything. Unsurprising, since the games were partly inspired by the ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'' series.
* ''VideoGame/ShawsNightmare'' has one with a time of [[https://www.twitch.tv/videos/42414560 49 minutes and 10 seconds.]]
* ''VideoGame/ShovelKnight'' has an achievement for completing the game in less than ninety minutes. This is generally approached with liberal SaveScumming after each successful completion of a stage.
* This has understandably become almost a sport in the ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'' series, with the record time for the entirety of ''Sonic the Hedgehog 2'' being 14 minutes and 58 seconds, and ''Sonic 3 & Knuckles'' being almost completely broken by tool-assisted speedruns. Due to how long it can some games in the series to add up your time bonus if you complete a stage quickly, there tend to be multiple ways to judge how fast a ''Sonic'' speedrun is - either counting the amount of time spent on the score calculation screen, or ignoring it.
** Especially interesting for the first ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure'' game (and its UpdatedRerelease), since the combination of three dimensions and lots of GoodBadBugs has lead to some rather creative shortcuts.
** Sonic 1 on the Genesis/Mega Drive can be beaten in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qCxlls4uqY less than 21 minutes]], real time. Scrap Brain Zone Act 3 can be very amusing - and very short - in speedruns due to the slope glitch essentially allowing Sonic to say "[[ScrewThisImOuttaHere screw this place]]" and float back out moments after Robotnik drops him into the stage. The huge time bonus for clearing an act in less than 30 seconds takes a particularly long time for the score tally screen to add up in this game; for a couple acts it's faster to [[DoWellButNotPerfect avoid it]].
** Starting with ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog4 Episode 1'' if a game has achievements, [[OnceAnEpisode one of those achievements]] will require completing a 1-minute speedrun of the game's first Act.
** ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006'' has a speedrun that uses the game's infamous glitchiness to great effect, including skips that confuse the game's physics to teleport a player across the level, and spots that can be used to clip through a level's geometry. Sonic's story can be beaten in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJxXBDJhyEw about an hour]] (The runner here notes that without the game's infamous load screens, the run would be ''20 minutes shorter''), Silver's can be beaten in about [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Yg57BeaIy4 49 minutes]], and Shadow's can be beaten in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTC4Pd4mY6w about the same time]]. There is also a version of all three runs that use a credits warp glitch, but those are run less often.
* ''Website/TheSpeedGamers'' are a group of people who perform live, consecutive speedruns of all or most of the games in a given series. Their speedrun marathons occur about once a month and are usually used to raise money for charity. You can check when their next marathon will be on their website.
* Unlocking one of the challenge rooms in ''VideoGame/{{Spelunky}}'' requires beating the game in 10 minutes or less. The game can be [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cD7uokR9d2w beaten much faster than that]], though that takes at least as much luck as skill. The 2-minute mark has been broken by a [[http://tasvideos.org/2650M.html TAS]] that severely abuses TeleportationMisfire.
* Once you complete the game, you get an option for this in ''VideoGame/SpoilerAlert''.
* Non–videogame example: sport stacking is a similar activity, in which you stack cups into a specified stack as fast as possible.
* ''VideoGame/Spyro2RiptosRage'' has an interesting double jump glitch. With that glitch, speedrunners can complete the game with 0 orbs or 40 orbs and only pay Moneybags thrice.
* ''Franchise/StarWars: VideoGame/JediKnightIIJediOutcast'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEDiY6SMUz8 beaten]] in 42:27 on [[{{IdiosyncraticDifficultyLevels}} Jedi Master]] difficulty.
* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdqUuQiK4PM 49:09]] in ''VideoGame/SuperMario64''.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqFFAdO4VRA Here's a run with 16 stars!]]
*** The description of the [[http://tasvideos.org/2016M.html tool-assisted run]] which collects exactly zero stars covers the history quite succinctly:
---->"At first there were 70 stars because Bowser demanded it. Then there were 16 stars because MIPS the rabbit demanded it. Then there was 1 star because Bowser's Sub demanded it. Now there are none because the viewers are impatient and demanded the game be quicker."
*** Someone has managed to pull off [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8I7mYVpCvY 0 stars unassisted]].
** But [[http://tasvideos.org/2208M.html collecting 120 stars]] using tool assistance has produced some very interesting results and glitches. All that in just over 80 minutes.
** And now behold [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfty4mWEf5g a 120 star run with no TAS in only 99 minutes!]]
* [[http://tasvideos.org/668M.html This run]] of ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3'' is one of the most famous tool-assisted speedruns of all time. When it first started making the rounds the mention that it was tool-assisted was often lost in translation/reposting, which led many gamers to decry it as "fake". It has since been [[http://tasvideos.org/1590M.html obsoleted]] by more than 35 seconds (and further obsoleted by glitch speedruns), but is still a good example of its type.
** Speaking of ''Super Mario Bros. 3'', it's not only possible, but very easy for a moderately skilled player to finish the game in approximately twenty minutes if they know what they're doing. It requires the player to beat the first three levels of the game, the first mini-castle, and six more levels (in World 8). Not dying helps, but twenty minutes is if you ''take your time.''
** Then there's the [[http://tasvideos.org/1778M.html quad-run TAS]] of all four Franchise/SuperMarioBros NES games ([[VideoGame/SuperMarioBros original]], [[VideoGame/SuperMarioBrosTheLostLevels Lost Levels]], [[VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2 2]] and [[VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3 3]]) with a single controller input (similar to the Mega Man example below), and it's still faster than the above-mentioned [=SMB3=] run by Morimoto. Pressing left and right together makes Mario move to the right in some of the games but not others, a "feature" that makes such a slick quad-run at all possible.
* Reaching Scenario 28 in ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsCompact'' under 250 turns unlocks Shin Getter Robo. Also, if you clear a scenario in less than 11 turns, you can give a skill to one of your pilots.
* ''[[VideoGame/SystemShock System Shock 2]]'' is a challenging sci-fi first-person shooter where resources often run scarce, especially on the [[HarderThanHard Impossible]] difficulty. Surviving to the end requires careful inventory and skills management and a typical playthrough will run over ten hours. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRC4ulWn-ZE Or you can memorize the game layout, take advantage of speed-boosting buffs and blaze through it in less than fifteen minutes]].
** Its predecessor has been done in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLHh0aJ8rkk under ''twelve'' minutes]] thanks to a door/wall bypassing glitch discovered very recently.
* There's a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0Szb6X5WqI&fmt=18 TAS]] for maxing the score in A-Type mode of NES ''VideoGame/{{Tetris}}''.
** Many modes of the ''VideoGame/TetrisTheGrandMaster'' series, on the otherhand, ''encourage'' speedrunning. Top-notch runs include [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQRTFAwx0gI this sub-9'00" run of TGM 1]][[note]]to compare, the time requirement for GM rank is 13'30", and that's just one of the requirements[[/note]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjwaHrYRCUs a completion of TGM2+ 's Death mode in 5'08"]].
** Some unofficial ''Tetris'' clones are optimized to allow you to play at breakneck speeds, as opposed to most official ''Tetris'' games that have limitations that slow down gameplay. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyVh40sOav0 The record for 40 Lines mode is a mere 16.95 seconds.]]
** [[http://tasvideos.org/1398M.html How about 200 lines in 1:37, including the menus.]] On the official Tetris DS, tool assisted, of course.
* Blog/ThingsMrWelchIsNoLongerAllowedToDoInAnRPG: A tabletop example; he supposedly completed Tomb of Horrors in 10 minutes by memorizing the dungeons from past playthroughs.
* The {{pinball}} machine ''Pinball/TotalNuclearAnnihilation'' centers on activating and destroying nine nuclear reactors, one after the other. The game keeps track of how long it takes to destroy each one (starting when it's activated), and displays the fastest time for both each individual reactor and the cumulative [[TitleDrop "Total Annihilation"]] for destroying all of them.
* Dungeons and Dragons Online is an MMORPG that centers very heavily around speed-running dungeons(or adventures). Despite attempts by the developer to curb such behaviors(while simultaneously building mechanics that encourage them), completing quests quickly is most of the game. Some dungeons described as "long" can be completed in as little as 6 minutes. For getting from 1-20(heroic cap) it can be done(with the aide of several expensive real-money items) in about 2 hours, with less than 40 minute spent in dungeons.
* A ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' speedrun (or a speedrun of any fixed-pace ShootEmUp for that matter) is hard to find due to a. the games having [[AutoScrollingLevel fixed scrolling]], meaning that only boss performance have any effect on your time and that the non-boss portions of stages are effectively FakeLongevity, and b. more popular challenges such as [[NoDamageRun not dying or using bombs to escape death]] (a.k.a. Perfect run), [[PacifistRun pacifist runs]] and [[ScoringPoints highscoring]] (where one expects the game to be finished as ''slow'' as possible in order to graze more projectiles). However, segmented speedruns of the series’ spinoff games ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4z2HEjF-as Shoot the Bullet]]'' and ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TGRj4zFCqA Double Spoiler]]'' have been done, mainly because additional time taken grazing projectiles does not reward more points, and speedrunning more attractive as a result.
** A Perfect speedrun of ''Embodiment of the Scarlet Devil’s'' Extra Stage [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPPqSsSZP8g clocks in 7 minutes and 27 seconds]]. Ending with [[LeetLingo 1337]] graze by sheer chance.
* ''VideoGame/WarhammerOnline'' often has fast respawn timers on PlayerVersusEnvironment enemies, good if there's competition for said monsters, but you'd better hurry up and grab/kill what you need before they're back if you're 1) alone and 2) squishy. A respawned monster can easily take out a [[SquishyWizard Bright Wizard or Sorcerer]] who's already in a fight.
* After beating ''VideoGame/TheWorldEndsWithYou'', the game allows you to record your best times for any boss you fight on Hard or Ultimate difficulty. In addition, if you return to TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon during the PlayableEpilogue, the Composer will challenge you to beat up 11 straight bosses as fast as possible.
* Instances in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' sometimes have quests requiring you to finish them or reach a certain point within a time limit, meaning that Speedruns are an actual programmed part of gameplay.
** Not just the quests: in some of the earlier instances, most notably the Scarlet Monastery, respawns are a problem for groups that take their time, especially in the Cathedral wing, where patrols can pop up at inconvenient times. And the deity of your choice help you if you all die on the final boss, chances are all the mooks you killed on the way [[UnexplainedRecovery got better]].
** The first raid instance of vanilla ''World of Warcraft'' saw a bit of a speedrun war break out. A Norwegian guild posted a speedrun of Molten Core being cleared in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXNeUxN1oT8 1 hour and 35 minutes]]. Another guild saw that and decided to do it one faster, clearing it in 1 hour and 22 minutes. Cue the Norwegians to up the ante, reducing it to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rUim7uPdPM 1 hour and 10 minutes]]. And this when 1 hour was considered reasonable for clearing the first two bosses (1 hour being respawn time of the trash leading up to it).
** More recently, several achievements exist for completing all or a certain part of a dungeon within a time limit, such as getting from the first boss of Heroic Oculus to the end within 20 minutes.
** Challenge Mode is entirely based around this. Completing the dungeons within the time limit will unlock special rewards, such as mounts and armor that can be transmogrified.
* Some TAS runs get a bit ridiculous thanks to the ability to manipulate the game's memory ''directly'' to take the player right to the ending [[note]]but TAS users cannot simply decide to alter the memory from the emulator; instead, they must find a glitch in the game that alters memory, then find a way to get that glitch to specifically change what needs to be changed to trigger the ending: in short, all of it must be accomplished with controller inputs.[[/note]]. Demonstrated to great effect in the current standing runs of Pokémon Yellow version ([[http://tasvideos.org/1860M.html 1:09.63]]), ''VideoGame/SuperMarioLand2SixGoldenCoins'' ([[http://tasvideos.org/2651M.html 0:41.55]]), ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld'' ([[http://tasvideos.org/2926M.html 0:41.81]]), ''VideoGame/KirbysAdventure'' ([[http://tasvideos.org/2406M.html 0:35.91]]) and ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid'' ([[http://tasvideos.org/2913M.html 7:14.75]]). Skilled human players can perform some of these "runs" by hand; the Pokémon Yellow one, in particular, is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyhEKG_g53o relatively simple.]]
** Then there's the ''other'' ''Pokémon Yellow'' run, [[http://tasvideos.org/2341M.html which takes it a step further...]]
*** Repeated with even more impressive results with ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld'', making most examples of HollywoodHacking [[http://tasvideos.org/4156S.html seem mild in comparison,]] programming ''Pong'' and ''Snake'' clones into a real copy of the game on a real [=SNES=] using nothing but controller inputs.
*** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3'' joins in on the fun, this time making it seem like they've managed to find a previously unknown backdoor that allows you to change all sorts of game variables [[http://tasvideos.org/3050M.html on the fly.]]
----

* RageQuit: If a player is falling behind the pace they're aiming for, and partiuclarly if the character dies, it often makes sense to start over rather than continue and finish with a bad time.

There are three common, typical categories: "[[HundredPercentCompletion 100% run]]" (where the player tries to collect everything in the game as quickly as possible), "{{minimalist run}}s" or "Low%" (where the player must skip all non essential items while still completing the game as quickly as possible), and the "pure speedrun", also known as "Any%", or "Beat the game", "Complete (character)'s story", and so on, depending on the game. Any% runs usually comprise completing the game as fast as possible, with nothing off limits to assist with this goal, be it glitches that skip 80% of the game, momentum conservation, and other huge game changers. Many a popular SelfImposedChallenge are also up for grabs.

** ''VideoGame/{{Iji}}'' also includes a timer for speedruns, and when new features are added, the author usually makes sure they won't affect speedruns. For example, skipping the fight with Krotera (possible from version 1.3 onwards) forces Iji to give Vateleika (offscreen) a ten-minute head-start, so speedrunners will fight instead.