Set Records With Our 5 Favorite Speedrunning Games
Video games are made to be played in a certain way. Sometimes there’s a slow-burning story to follow, a long mission that takes some careful planning or a quick burst of action. Speedrunners ignore all of this and have only one aim: to play through a game as quickly as possible.
What is a speedrun?
Speedrunning has been around since the 1990s when Super Metroid became the first popular speedrunning game. This meant that originally, the most popular genre to speedrun was platformers, especially those from Nintendo, such as Super Mario 64, Super Mario Bros, and Super Mario World. Early on most of this was informal, just competitions between friends to see who had the fastest fingers.
Over time though, a fully-fledged speedrunning community has emerged that is far more complex and serious. Pretty much any game is now open to being speedran, no matter the genre. Some modern examples include Minecraft and the incredibly difficult Dark Souls. The speedrunning scene is now so popular that there are verified world records for popular games and an entire website dedicated to tracking playtimes called speedrun.com.
Some gamers have managed to work out clever ways to get through games even quicker using glitches, which is why you might see some leaderboards divided into ‘glitchless’ and ‘glitched’ categories for fairness. For similar reasons, there are also categories for those who play on PlayStation, PC, and Xbox.
If this has got you interested, there are always streamers speedrunning on Twitch that you can check out later, or even the bi-annual speedrunning convention AGDQ if you’re really interested in the speedrunning games community. But for now, let's get you started and run down the best games to speedrun right here on Coolmath Games!
1. Bloxorz
Who doesn’t love Bloxorz?! It's a classic game on Coolmath Games that has entertained people for years. Even without trying to play it as fast as you can, Bloxorz is a challenge. In fact, we don’t know many people who have ever got to the end! For this reason, it might be overlooked as a game to try and speedrun but we at Coolmath Games think it's the perfect place to start.
With different levels clearly segmented, Bloxorz means you can practice each level separately over and over. The difficult part about Bloxorz is the treacherous edges which you can easily fall off, especially when you’re speeding along in a rush!
Want to have a go? Well, the speedrun.com record is currently 10 minutes and 23 seconds for all 33 levels. So get your timers ready and start training for one of our most popular speedrunning games.
2. Learn To Fly
You may have played Learn To Fly before and had a great time guiding that determined penguin on its journey through the skies. Gliders, rockets, and ramps are at your disposal as you earn money. You can spend this income on upgrades for your flying equipment so your feathered friend can soar through the air.
It's just one of the awesome titles here at Coolmath Games that can be even more fun once you turn it into one of our speedrunning games. This one’s different from speedrunning something like a platform game because you’ll need to plan how best to spend your money and squeeze the most out of your upgrades in the shortest space of time.
3. Run
Run is such a challenging game that you may never have even completed a single level! As it turns out, Run is a series of very difficult levels which means it presents one of the toughest speedruns on Coolmath Games.
To nail Run and get through the levels quickly you’ll have to learn the most efficient route as you dash through a series of outer space tunnels full of treacherous holes. Speedrun.com has the fastest time at 9 minutes and 34 seconds, so this one will take patience to master. Just remember; it's a marathon, not a sprint!
4. OvO
OvO is a platforming game made for speedrunning. There’s a perfect mix of slick gameplay controls, pesky obstacles, and a rising difficulty as you progress through the levels. A bit like Super Mario Odyssey, you can jump, slide, slam and wall climb your way around the maps as you try and dodge holes in the floor and spikes on the way to the finishing flag pole.
Along with this, there is a timer in the game that keeps track of how long it takes you to complete all of the levels. This is a perfect feature for those who want to turn OvO into one of their go-to speedrunning games.
5. Mini Stilts
The game design for Mini Stilts is truly something unique and it has some beautifully simple yet vibrant graphics to match. Never played as a small green blob on stilts? Well, there’s a first time for everything!
Much like OvO, the great thing about Mini Stilts is that it comes with a speedrunning mode built-in so you don’t even have to worry about stopping your timer. Make sure you invest some time into this one because the game keeps throwing you new challenges as you progress that will definitely make speedrunning a challenge.
Well there you go, our favorite speedrunning games on Coolmath Games that we think are best to introduce you to the world of speedrunning. Good luck! All the talk of old, retro games at the start of this article got you thirsting for a throwback? Then look no further than our list of games that evoke nostalgia!