Summer Games Done Quick 2015: Day 3 Highlights and Day 4 Runs to Watch

If you missed them, be sure to check out highlights from Day 1 and Day 2 of Summer Games Done Quick 2015.

Summer Games Done Quick 2015 is charging strong, all the way into Wednesday and beyond, speed running through many of the best (and most interesting) games across the medium. As will be the case for the full week, the people at Games Done Quick are raising money for Doctors Without Borders. Shacknews is looking back at the best highlights across the week and here are the best runs from Tuesday.

Day 3 Highlights

The Mega Man X2 race (Super Nintendo)

There was a full block dedicated to the Mega Man X series, but perhaps none of the runs were as thrilling as the four-way Mega Man X2 race between Trogdor, bjw, CalebHart42, and cleartonic. Running through X's second adventure is more about memorizing boss patterns and stage layouts, but ensuring a fast time means knowing which boss glitches to take advantage of and also means mastering one of the game's secrets. X's Street Fighter II "Shoryuken" was quite the Easter Egg to find originally, but for this race, it's also key to victory and to a fast time. Watch the suspenseful run below.

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin glitched run (Nintendo DS)

Castlevania games are filled with dangerous creatures, intense platforming, and secrets, especially the 2D games. Portrait of Ruin falls into a special category, since it's essentially one player controlling two characters. But there's a special secret to getting through Portrait of Ruin, one that speed runner romscout took heavy advantage of to get through the game in less than 20 minutes.

Day 4 Runs to Watch

Earthworm Jim (Sega Genesis) - 9:49AM PT

Groovy! It's been 20 years since Earthworm Jim's first adventure and it's time to celebrate with speed runner Athens_ making the attempt to complete the game in less than 35 minutes. Jim's platforming mechanics were always interesting, with the character essentially using his own head as a whip. It'll be interesting to see in what ways Athens_ can utilize the whip to shave precious minutes off his run.

The Legend of Zelda swordless (NES) - 5:39PM PT

It's dangerous to go alone! But what if you never see that message at all in The Legend of Zelda? Well, it would mean you're going without a sword and you're probably an insane person. Let's just call jkoper an insane person, then, because he's going to attempt to complete Link's debut adventure without his trusted sword. Better stock up on arrows!

Prince of Persia: Sands of Time (PC) - 8:54PM PT

Arguably no series personifies the platformer as much as the Prince of Persia. The Sands of Time reinvented the Prince for a full generation, with the titular Sands allowing him to make up for some of his mistakes. But if Henneko_ hopes to finish the PC version of the game in under 1 hour and 20 minutes, viewers shouldn't expect to see the sands in action very much. Instead, expect to see some dazzling jumps and precision platforming.

Summer Games Done Quick will air all week on Twitch. To donate, be sure to visit the Games Done Quick website.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?