Zelda Speed Running
Posted on June 04 2012 by Legacy Staff
The following article is part of our archives and does not reflect current style guide standards. It is kept as is for posterity.
We are sitting here on the eve of all greatness with E3 just around the corner, about to hear news of the Wii U and the Zelda game in development on this new console. But as E3 looms forward, how do we spend our spare time? Some might suggest replaying a few of our favorite Zelda games, as I know I will be replaying Majora’s Mask to pass the time.
However, there are a select few people whose sole purpose in replaying these games is to get the fastest time of completion possible. This is the art of “speed running”. Speed running originated as a small race a few people had on website’s forums, and it has grown into a major worldwide contest of skill. Only the best are displayed as trophies online.
The art of speed running in Zelda has its colors. There are different varieties, depending on the game, such as a low percent run and a glitch-less run. That’s right, speed runners utilize Zelda’s glitches to the best of their ability. For example, in Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask there is a glitch to float backwards in midair, given you have a few bombs on hand. The times they have due to this are absolutely breathtaking. Check out this run:
An hour and seventeen minutes for Pokey on YouTube! That’s an unbelievable score for Ocarina of Time. In that time, I could only get to the beginning of “Dodongo’s Cavern”, and I used to consider that fast.
Speed running for Zelda has not only become a hobby, but an art. The perfect forms that you need to utilize the glitches correctly and to get through the complicated dungeons is stunning.
Speed runs are videos that I have enjoyed watching over the years, and my favorites being Zelda. I may be a biased fan, but the speed runs for these games really have a special flare to them. Every run for each game is different. Each have a different strategy and method to them that the last one did not have before, and it’s all because of the great diversity that Nintendo puts into their games. For example, even though Majora’s Mask and Ocarina of Time have the same game engine, Majora’s Mask had refined character development and the notorious three-day cycle that changed the gameplay completely.
Games such as A Link to the Past don’t have many glitches, and are thus a bit harder to get lower times. However, a runner named Reaif completed the game whilst obtaining every item, heart container, and so forth-in one hour and fifty-two minutes, and can be found here.
Not all Zelda runners have to post on YouTube and hope someone will accept their run as the fastest. There are competitive websites that they can submit to, such as SpeedDemosArchive (SDA), that will host the fastest speed runs of any game, Zelda taking a special spot on their list.
So those of you who were thinking of replaying your favorite Zelda games, go ahead and do just that; I will be, too. However, pay a quick visit to the speed running community, experience how they play Zelda, because I can almost guarantee you it is different than how either of us play it.
I used to replay a few of my games on what I would call a speed run, only to later learn that my time was quite a few hours past what would be considered a decent time. Speed running like these guys do takes skill, and I admire them for it. It can really bring out the brilliance of these games.
So treat yourself to watching the Zelda stories unfold completely our of order, watch our hero fly through walls and enter an invisible tunnel that leads halfway across the map, experience him getting blown up by his own bomb just so he might get to a platform a little too far away to hop on over, and wear the shoes of a speed runner for an hour or two while they beat the entire game. It is another art entirely and a favorite pastime of mine to enjoy.
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