The Speedrunning Games Perfect for a Rainy Day
Speedrunning takes focus, dedication, passion, and arduous hours of practice. For the uninformed, speedrunning involves taking a game and playing it over and over, not just to hear the story or see the credits roll but to look for shortcuts and ways to skip sections and generally plan out a route that lets players get to the end of the game as quickly as possible.
Starting in 1982 with Billy Mitchell's record-setting Pac-Man completion, gamers have felt the pull of finishing games quickly. Today, any game can be speedrun. The quickest speedrun in the world is the Microsoft classic Minesweeper, where the beginner mode is beatable in a single second. Conversely, the longest speedrun is officially recognized as an Old School Runescape max cape full game playthrough at 771 hours and 3 minutes.
However, between these two extremes lies a wealth of fantastic games with amazing speed runs. For beginners, experts, or those looking to watch others break their favorite titles, the below titles offer a great introduction to speedrunning games.
1. Strider
Strider is one of the best games to start speedrunning. The classic title, released in 1989 had a huge influence on future games, including Ninja Gaiden, God of War, and Devil May Cry. It's fast-paced, filled with action, and remains an impressive title to complete regardless of the end time.
Strider currently has three speedrun categories: Any%, 100%, and Zipless. Gamers can complete the Strider Any% speedrun in around 4 minutes.
2. Spongebob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom
Battle for Bikini Bottom has become iconic within the Spongebob franchise. A casual playthrough of Battle for Bikini Bottom runs around 10 hours for the main storyline. Yet speedrunning has brought the 100% run down to just over an hour and the Any% run down to 42 minutes and 11 seconds. A player set that recent record on January 12th, 2024, showing that the game is still active in the speedrunning community.
One of the coolest tricks for speedrunners in Battle for Bikini Bottom is Cruise Boosting, which requires gamers to use the moves Bubble Bowl and Cruise Bubble on the same frame, locking Spongebob's base movement speed at six times the standard. This also means that the uppercut move becomes a super jump, and the ground pound acts as in-game flight, allowing gamers to decimate the map in ways most people would never think possible.
3. Stardew Valley
Gamers sink hundreds of hours into playing Stardew Valley, growing crops, cultivating relationships, restoring buildings, and slaying monsters. Speedrunners have jazzed that relaxing atmosphere up to create numerous runs and categories finishable in as little as 12 minutes.
Speedrunning Stardew Valley differs from many other games, making it very interesting and accessible for runners of all skill levels. Speedrunning Stardew Valley falls into four key play styles: Restoration, Bundles, Marriage, or Mines. Further subcategories exist within this, such as completing specific bundles or marrying a particular character. This breadth of opportunity makes Stardew a great speedrun title, providing dedicated players the ability to learn multiple runs and, perchance, set multiple records.
4. Resident Evil
Speedrunning Resident Evil games has become so commonplace that it often seems there is no other way to play them. The Resident Evil speedrunning community is vast and very welcoming, with everybody serving as a wealthy information resource.
The Resident Evil 4 remake is the most active speedrun title in the series, with over a hundred runners vying for positions on the speedrun.com leaderboard. However, the original titles remain popular, with Twitch often crammed with people speedrunning the older games. Runners like MattRPD or Rad_Shaz have built solid online communities around these games.
Whether running Resident Evil games or not, something feels immensely satisfying about watching others destroy the games that caused so much fear and frustration all those years ago.
5. Super Mario Bros
The original Super Mario Bros. offered a starting point for countless gamers. The fun and excitement of finding the hidden passageways and the level warps remain today. The original Super Mario Bros. retains the same appeal, with many young speedrunners choosing to cut their teeth on this title.
Speedrunning Super Mario Bros differs from many other games because it uses a frame rule system, which means the game segments in the back end into 21 frame segments, allowing speedrunners to calculate optimal run time.
The current world record of 4 minutes 54 seconds and 631 milliseconds held by Mario speedrunning legend Niftski is only 11 frames away from complete perfection. While they say no world record is forever, the chance of Niftski being dethroned is unlikely.
6. Sonic the Hedgehog
Sonic is built for speed. The entire ethos of the series is about going as fast as possible. For many gamers growing up in the early 90s, there was such a thing as too much speed. That limit has vanished for the speedrunners of 2024; Sonic the Hedgehog is once again a case of the faster, the better. The current world record for the original Sonic game is 8 minutes and 36 seconds of in-game time.
According to records, close to 150 different Sonic games exist, including crossovers and various incarnations and bundles of games. Many gamers enjoy playing the older Sonic games on original hardware, making the jumps, loops, twirls, and whirls look ever so easy.
Sonic Frontiers changed the landscape for Sonic games, providing new and old fans a fresh entry point into hedgehog-fueled speedrunning. Sonic Origins has the most active speedrunning community–unsurprising given that it consists of of twelve different Sonic titles.
7. Outlast
Outlast builds tension through non-stop intensity. Outlast delivers a game that comes close to rivaling the original Amnesia in terms of its haunting suspense. For a casual playthrough, at least. The speedrun takes a game that runs for five to ten hours and completes it at Any% in a shade over 4 minutes.
The Outlast Out of Bounds glitches allow players to traverse great expanses of the map in seconds. The game offers glitched, glitchless, OoB, and No OoB categories, which help teach people the different speedrunning techniques.
8. Limbo
Limbo has almost no RNG. This means players can master it with practice, understanding, and muscle memory. Every occurrence is predictable, with the same action or position triggering specific events. This creates a solid speedrunning base, especially for beginners.
While a casual playthrough takes around three and a half hours, the speedrun for the “hard route” takes 35 minutes and 15 seconds. A speedrunner called Par_h3lion holds the world record for all four recognized Limbo categories. The speedrun of Limbo does not involve hunting glitches or looking for hidden breaks in the code. Instead, it relies on understanding the game's physics and finding shortcuts through different puzzles and areas.
9. Mega Man
Mega Man has become a title synonymous with speedrunning. With fifty-nine mainline Mega Man games, all perfect for speedrunning, the series consistently draws in new runners. Many gamers who grew up in the original era of Mega Man will understand the insane difficulty these games present. The combination of action, precision platforming, and speed can send even the most placid gamer into a controller-smashing rage.
Watching people tear the Mega Man games apart offers catharsis, with the speedrun world record for the original Mega Man standing at 18 minutes and 14 seconds for Any% (All Levels).
10. Goldeneye 007
GoldenEye 007 broke new ground in the glory days of 64-bit gaming. An amazing game for its time, speedrunning has ensured GoldenEye 007 remains relevant. A leisurely playthrough of GoldenEye 007 on the N64 takes around eleven hours, yet the Any%(Agent) speedrun completes the game in just 21 minutes and 26 seconds.
While GoldenEye turns twenty-seven years old this year, it remains a highly contested game in the speedrunning world, with records existing down to an individual level split. In 2022, a runner called Carl-Magnus Wall broke the oldest record in the game, defeating the eleven-year-old record for the opening level, Dam, in just 1 minute and fifteen seconds on Secret Agent Mode.
11. Mike Tyson's Punch-Out'
Everything in Mike Tyson's Punch-Out is driven by pattern recognition and the player's ability to react accordingly. Every knockout directly results from the player's failure rather than the game pulling something new or unexpected out of the bag. Decades after its launch, Punch-Out remains a game that frustrates gamers, yet frustration makes it such a compelling speedrun. Learning how to take down a game that came so close to traumatizing childhood remains immensely satisfying.
Despite being 37 years old, an active speedrunning community exists for Punch Out, with a new world record set in the latter half of 2023. There are numerous categories to choose from when running Punch Out, including a blindfolded category for those who want to flex their geek card and impress their friends.
12. Super Mario Maker 2
Super Mario Maker 2 presents a speedrun challenge from two perspectives. The story mode run takes the leisurely pace of eleven hours, turning it into a furious 1 hour 38 minutes and 48 seconds sprint. The endless mode speedrun challenge calls for gamers to complete 16 levels in the Endless Mode on one of the four difficulties. Another popular run requires gamers to complete 100 levels in easy mode.
While no official record exists for this on speedrun.com, it remains a fun challenge that many Super Mario Maker 2 runners are attempting.
13. Getting Over It With Bennett Foddy
Getting Over It With Bennett Foddy makes for an interesting game to speedrun. With physics-based movement and the single-level construct, the title has frustrated gamers since its launch in 2017. When playing casually, most gamers reach the top in around fourteen hours, with many deaths along the way. The glitchless speedrun destroys the game in just 59 seconds and 885 milliseconds.
Watching the speedrun of Getting Over It With Bennett Foddy lets players witness the power of speedrunning and the skill to find strats and chain movements together, creating record-breaking runs.
14. Portal
Portal has over 15,000 runs submitted on speedrun.com. A challenging puzzle game with an average leisurely completion time of around nine hours for the main storyline, the glitchless category decimates Portal in 14 minutes, 29 seconds, and 205 milliseconds by speedrunners in the glitchless category. When glitches and out-of-bounds skips are permissible, the world record completion time drops to 5 minutes, 30 seconds, and 340 milliseconds.
Portal stumps gamers by providing them with a clear and logical pathway while giving them just enough distraction to lead them down a path of overthinking. Knowing the base route through the game also proves essential to prevent players from getting lost or losing time figuring out where they are.
15. Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
The Ocarina of Time remains a consistent favorite among the Zelda community. This game has stood the test of time, producing many memorable speed runs. Offering numerous speedrun categories, the Ocarina of Time includes the one that most closely mirrors a casual playthrough in Defeat Gannon.
Speedrunning Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time reduces the average game time from thirty and forty hours to a mind-blowing 12 minutes, 57 seconds, and 484 milliseconds. Ocarina of Time remains the perfect showcase for speedrunning skills and tricks regardless of the category.
Ocarina of Time is one of those games where some records require a little manipulation to trick the game into thinking something different is happening than what's on the screen. For a fan of speedrunning, it's a fascinating game and explains why the community continues striving to crack the game even further.
16. Super Metroid
Super Metroid still bustles in the speedrunning world at thirty years old. With over 12,000 official runs recorded and numerous Twitch streams daily filled with practice or unsubmitted runs, Samus remains a gamer favorite. Even with newer games like Metroid Dread offering a fun speedrun, Super Metroid maintains its hold on our fast-paced hearts.
A leisurely run takes anywhere from 7-11 hours. A good speedrun cuts that to around 40 minutes, which accounts for just 27 minutes of in-game time.
17. Super Mario Odyssey
Bouncing onto screens in 2017, Super Mario Odyssey offers a fresh open-world take rife with speedrunning potential. Using a style similar to the legendary Super Mario 64, Mario Odyssey provides an open world full of tricks and hidden objects for gamers to explore.
Super Mario Odyssey offers speedrunners a high number of playable pathways, laying the foundation for a range of run categories. Everything from Any% to All Moons and 100%, each of them decimating the average playtime. Any% takes the eighteen-hour average casual playthrough time and sees the credits roll in 56 minutes and 19 seconds – a record set on January 16th, 2024. The high activity in the Mario Odyssey speedrunning community shows the game remains far from finished as a speedrun.
18. Streets of Rage
The original generation-defining beat 'em up title Streets of Rage emerged to test gamers' reflexes and their ability to position themselves in the right spot for the right enemy spawn. Streets of Rage clocks in at 90 minutes for a casual playthrough, making it an exciting title for a speedrun. The current world record is 24 minutes and 4 seconds.
The speedrun relies on positioning and pattern recognition. Knowing where enemies will spawn gives gamers the advantage for early strikes, while stun-locking powerful enemies is a great way to deal damage quickly and keep the run alive. New leaderboard placements came this year, and while not as popular many games on this list, it is welcoming to new runners.
19. Pokemon Red and Blue
Pokémon Red started a phenomenon. Pokémon speedruns are amazing to watch, and when factoring in randomizers and the addictive rules of Ironmon – not technically a speedrun but a fantastic showcase of the game – prove that even after all these years, the desire to catch 'em all as quickly as possible remains alive and well.
The current world record for completing Pokémon Red is 1 hour 44 minutes and 3 seconds, a record set in 2023. Since then, a large controversy has swept the Pokémon speedrunning world, with a runner claiming to break the record only for the run to be declared invalid.
Pokémon is not an easy game to speedrun, thanks to the different tactics players must learn. Committing key item locations to memory is essential to avoid losing time wandering around the world.
20. Pokemon Snap (2021)
Gamers wanting to learn to speedrun should look no further than Pokémon Snap. Players must take photographs of Pokémon out in the wild. The speedrun is a case of finding the right ones and getting the right shot as quickly as possible. Starting a speedrunning journey with Pokémon Snap is great because the core focus is on the photomechanics. With movement through the world occurring on rails, the course is set, freeing players up to look around and take as few photos as possible, focusing on quality over quantity every time.
Pokémon Snap has one crucial skip called Abama-skip, a must-learn aspect of the run and very clever in its setup, allowing players to skip taking a photo of Abomasnow. However, even without that skip, there are many reasons to watch or try speedrunning Pokémon Snap on the Nintendo Switch.
21. Celeste
Celeste tries the patience of anybody who picks up a controller. Watching a speed runner tear up the mountain in 25 minutes, 19 seconds, and 919 milliseconds is simultaneously incredible and disheartening. Even the 100% run is just 1 hour, 39 minutes, 35 seconds, and 857 milliseconds, compared to an average completionist time of nearly 40 hours for regular gamers.
Yet, for all its difficulty, Celeste is a fantastic speed-running game. The combination of precision mechanics, strats, and skill requirements makes Celeste challenging but fun. Mastering techniques like Demodash, Ultradash, and Wallbounce help make Celeste run quicker.
22. Untitled Goose Game
The ridiculous Untitled Goose Game offers fun in every possible way. The speedrun for Untitled Goose Game is a fantastic run to witness because, for the Any% run, everything is skipped, and the game gets completed in less time than it takes most gamers to find the honk button. The current Any% record is 2 minutes and 4 seconds.
Untitled Goose Game has no shortage of great moments to distract gamers and leave them investing hours of time exploring rather than solving puzzles. Mastering the speedrun of Untitled Goose Game means ignoring the distractions and the cute, whimsical charm of this clever puzzle game.
23. Donkey Kong Country
Donkey Kong Country is one of those fantastic SNES games that remains fun no matter how many times you reach the end credits. The speedrun is also one of the few people can watch and think: “I can do that. I could run this game.” The strats and jumps all seem doable, even if breaking the All Stages time of 30 minutes and 31 seconds is not feasible immediately.
At thirty years old, Donkey Kong Country remains a speedrunning juggernaut, with all top ten runs for the All Stages category coming within the last twelve months. Out of all the games in the Donkey Kong series, this first entry remains a great starter speedrun title. With a relatively passive approach and a gentle mix of tricks, skips, and clever mechanics, it stands as a gateway game for many runners.
24. Super Mario 64
Super Mario 64 remains a perennial favorite speedrun title. Super Mario 64 is the best game for new speedrunners looking to learn and submit their first runs. Even rookie speedrunners finish a run within forty-five minutes for a 16-star run. The current world record for a full 120-star run is 1 hour, 36 minutes, and 21 seconds.
The number of stars and the different star-based categories make Super Mario 64 a fantastic speedrun to watch and play. With multiple runnable routes, there is always a new stat or star order to try.
Super Mario 64 places different demands on gamers depending on the category being run. The 70 or 120-star runs are more movement-focused, while the 0 and 16-star runs are more focused on skips, clips, and tricks, which can overwhelm beginners.
25. Super Meat Boy
Super Meat Boy fits the same style as Celeste and sees gamers skipping and jumping through levels, avoiding traps and enemies, all of whom deal death at a single touch. Difficult games are great for speedrunning, whether it's the drive to conquer something unbeatable or an innate masochistic side to speedrunners that rarely enters the general conversation.
Players can avoid every death in Super Meat Boy. The key to success lies in understanding where things went wrong and looking for a better way of landing a jump or completing a stage. The fast-paced nature of the game makes it an ideal speedrun title. The world record is 17 minutes, 27 seconds, and 267 milliseconds, but those starting out on their speedrun journey should cast their eyes lower down the ranking list.