This week was a great snapshot of what makes the speedrunning scene special: deep technical breakthroughs, brand-new games entering the spotlight, personal passion projects, and the ever-present hunt for world records.
A Major Technical Milestone: Twilight Princess Decompiled
The headline of the week was the announcement that The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (GameCube) has been 100% decompiled, even if it isn’t fully linked just yet. This is a massive win for preservation, modding, and long-term research. While decompilation doesn’t instantly translate into new glitches or categories, history shows that projects like this often lead to deeper mechanical understanding and, eventually, routing innovations. For a game with such a dedicated speedrunning community, the long-term implications are exciting.
Indie Speedrunning on the Rise
Solo developer Simple_Ghost shared a speedrun competition for the SECTOR ZERO demo, a physics-based puzzle adventure. The incentive is delightfully speedrunner-coded: top times get their name hidden in a secret room in the full release, plus a Steam key from a prize pool. This kind of collaboration between developers and runners continues to be one of the healthiest trends in modern speedrunning, especially for new and experimental games.
Beyond GDQ: Expanding Marathon Horizons
One discussion thread asked an important question: What are some of the best non-GDQ marathon runs of all time? While GDQ dominates the spotlight, the replies highlighted a growing interest in smaller, more niche events. That theme paired nicely with the NissanTV Speedrun Marathon (Winter Edition), where NilssonAlex92 is once again hosting a marathon almost entirely solo—handling scheduling, setup, and a roughly 36-hour broadcast. It’s a reminder that grassroots marathons are the backbone of the scene.
World Records Keep Falling
It was a strong week for competitive runs:
- Sega Rally Online Arcade (Hardware) saw multiple championship-level WR posts, showing how tight optimization can still shift by fractions of a second.
- Evil Islands hit a new WR at 40:11.
- Snowboard Kids had an especially impressive showing, with multiple categories, new jump boosts, safer strats, and rule discussions sparked by a sub-33 Copper Pass NG+ run.
- Even niche categories got love, including a potential Stranded Deep Poop% world record clocking in under 38 seconds.
These posts highlight a recurring theme: even in older or less-popular games, innovation is still happening.
Games With Room to Grow
Another standout discussion asked which games still have “much room for improvement.” Super Mario 64 was cited as a game so optimized that breaking into the top is incredibly difficult without revolutionary discoveries. In contrast, newer or underexplored games were framed as fertile ground for runners looking to make a real impact quickly—a useful reminder for anyone wondering where to start speedrunning in 2025.
Community Appreciation and Helping Hands
Not everything this week was about records. One heartfelt post simply thanked the speedrunning community for years of incredible content, while others focused on helping newcomers with LiveSplit issues, hotkeys, and manual timing. Alongside the recurring Weekly Help and Who Are You Watching? threads, it reinforced the supportive, knowledge-sharing culture that keeps the scene thriving.
Final Thoughts
From a legendary Zelda decompilation to indie dev competitions and obscure category world records, this week showcased speedrunning at every level—technical, competitive, and communal. Whether you’re chasing milliseconds, discovering new games, or just watching your favorite runners, the scene continues to evolve in ways that feel both exciting and welcoming.
Until next week: good luck on your runs, and may your splits always be green. 🟢
Source: reddit.com