Despite Germany's perception of gamers we do indeed like to help people. Why just yesterday, after I was done being violent because I play videogames, I helped get a kitten down from a tree. I figure it balanced out.

I wasn’t the only gamer in the world helping people out yesterday either. The Speed Gamers kicked off their Final Fantasy marathon on that day too, and are requesting donations to help support Autism Care and Treatment Today (ACT Today). They will be playing through every Final Fantasy game (from I to XII) over the next week, which they estimate will take about 168 hours.

They aren’t playing the games in order, which is probably smart, because I’d need a break from 2D sprite, turn-based combat every so often, too. Sometimes you need some FMV to break up the monotony, right?

You can watch them charge through the marathon at their site. As for Final Fantasy XI and its online antics, the game will be played by honorary participant “Nobody X,” who has a form of Autism. She will begin streaming the morning of Friday, July 24 on an extra feed. If you’ve got a little change hanging around, head over there. You’ll be helping out a great cause, and the Speed Gamers deserve something for having to sit through that many random enemy encounters.

[Thanks, Kyle M.]

I like to think that I'm a fan of the Final Fantasy franchise, but I must admit that I'd never heard of Final Fantasy Legend until today, much less played it. It was kind of a big deal, apparently: it was the first RPG on the Gameboy, was the first Square game to sell over a million copies, and was the first game in what would go on to become the SaGa series. It's final boss, The Creator, also sparked a JRPG trope that continues to this day: the ultimate goal of most JRPGs is to kill some sort of deity. Makai Toushi Sa-Ga was released in the States in 1989, but carried the Final Fantasy title to help marketing (a nifty trick Square Enix still hasn't grown out of).

Makai Toushi Sa-Ga featured three classes: humans, mutants, and monsters. Humans leveled up by equipping and using items, and mutants by fighting in battles. Monsters, on the other hand, only got stronger by eating the "meat" dropped by enemies. It seems like a proto-Devil Summoner, except with cannibalization. That alone makes Legend the best Final Fantasy, ever. Period. But if that weren't enough, there's also a one-hit kill chainsaw weapon, and, depending on your class, your character might not have a face -- only a skull.

Anyway, that's a really long introduction for a Final Fantasy Legend speedrun video below the jump. I know that the words speedrun and Final Fantasy* seem like an oxymoron, but Legend can be beaten in about two minutes -- the ending sequence takes longer than the actual game.

As Kevin from Magweasel explains, the speedrun relies on a series of glitches that allow you to warp to different places, access characters and weapons that are stronger than they should be, travel 16 times faster than usual, and bypass all of the game's puzzles.

Hit the jump to see the speedrun in action and if, like me, you've never played Final Fantasy Legend, you can enjoy the game's final sequence -- that is, of course, if you read Japanese.

[Via TinyCartridge]

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Are speed runs still cool or are people, like, so not impressed with that stuff anymore? I still think anyone that can pull off a feat like beating a game in some sort of super speed is pretty impressive, but I suppose with computers and technologies anything can be faked these days. Well, I choose to believe, damn it! I have to believe -- it's all I have.

Thus I choose to believe that some crazy guy beat Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels in just eight minutes and 35 seconds. If you haven't played The Lost Levels they are basically the Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2 and were never released until the SNES revamp in the U.S. because they were thought to be far too difficult. So that makes beating them really quickly highly impressive. Even more impressive is the fact that they did it with Luigi. Think how much faster they would have gone if the older, better brother had been involved.I suppose Mario would not have been able to make a lot of those jumps though since they played differently in The Lost Levels. Documentary footage of the events is below.

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How in the ... oh, right. I knew The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion was a glitchy game, but hot damn, this is insane.

Almost every speedrun out there involves some sort of exploit in order to shave off precious seconds of game time (or in this case, hours), and the Oblivion speedrun located above is no exception.

By falling through the map, the speedrunner is able to initiate the game's final quest, completely skipping all of those pesky fetch missions.

While the video has no sound due to its creator being cheap and using demo software, it's still one to sit through.

A man by the name of "Groobotube" is about to simultaneously blow your mind, give you a migraine, and impregnate you with his unbelievable speedrun of Portal. He ends up finishing the game in an unparalleled 18:05, which is far better than what 99.9% of us could ever dream of accomplishing.

In all honesty, it's pretty difficult to make out exactly what's going on in this speedrun, especially during the later levels -- but it sure does look cool. It even had me yelling "oh hell naw" in disbelief on more than one occasion.

If you've been yearning to pick up on some of the more advanced maneuvers, you won't want to miss the second half of the run, which can be viewed after the break.

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While some many complain that new games are too long and involved, a small elite group of gamers are burning hundreds of hours ... to ironically figure out how to beat them in one sitting. The majority of speed runners we've covered in the past stick to retro classics and use PC-assisted emulation, so it is with great admiration (and erections) that I present to you a mad man's five hour Wii rush: The Jiano vs. Zelda: Twilight Princess speed run. The completion time? A crazy 5 hours and 39 minutes. Remember when Reggie said this game would sink 50 hours? Ha!

The embedded video autoplays, so hit the jump to view the first segment.  For  more, download the full video from the Speed Demos Archive. 

[Via Aeropause] 

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Today is intensely slow news-wise.

Instead of actually going outside and bettering your chances of procreation, I bring you the above speedrun of one of my all-time favorite, ultra-action-packed, 2D psuedo-shmups, Gunstar Heroes.

These speedrun videos are the gamer's equivalent of listening to Mozart (or, for that matter, Martin Leung); there is absolutely no way your abilities will ever approach that level of perfection, but no one can deny the unanticipated wood outbreaks that symphonies are notorious for causing.

 

With the release of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night this week on XBLA, gamers new and old to the series have had a chance to get in on one of the best 2D games since Custer’s Revenge. And like Custer’s Revenge, Castlevania is all about one thing: raping Indians. But that's beside the point. While the majority of XBLA in-game leaderboards focus primarily on high scores, Castlevania’s are focused on how fast you can get your undead pretty boy arse from point A to point B.

So in celebration of speed and perhaps to help make your way around the inverted castle a bit easier, follow the jump for a collection of speed run videos for SOTN. As an added bonus, a Maria speed run is thrown in despite her only being playable in the Japanese Saturn version. Take that democracy!!

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If you have any curiousity as to how the real Solid Snake might do his thang in real life -- as opposed to how someone like me might clumsily guide him through mishap after glorious mishap, slaying hundreds of guards and sounding several alarms along the way -- you might want to check out the above video. In the Japan-only DVD Metal Works The Perfect (love that name), professional badasses team up with the minds at Konami to bring you a perfect playthrough of both the Tanker and Plant chapters on European Extreme that will blow your mind. It's absolutely insane -- the player takes advantage of every trick and exploit to zip past guards like it ain't nothin. He or she is most certainly a freakin' robot.

I love speedruns, but not the tool-assisted ones; rather, I like the idea of a sack of meat (read: dude) honing his or her skills so perfectly that they are capable of utterly besting the code that challenges them. Though these perfect-play performances are typically reserved to bullet-hell shooters like Ikaruga and Gradius V, it's interesting to see the same brutal understanding of gameplay mechanic in a style of game altogether different than the shmup genre, like Metal Gear Solid 2. 

Hit the jump for the complete set of Metal Works The Perfect gameplay videos, complete with slowdown for those really close calls and completely incomprehensible Japanese subtitles!

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Santa's dead. HAHAHAH, pwned. OK, now that that's out of the way I got some questions for you. Are you lonely tonight? Do you find yourself with nothing to do? Are you as much of a loser as I am? Yes? OK, I thought so. Join me, won't you, in watching this amazing 30-minute speed run through the original Half-Life. Get out the popcorn and crowbars, cause you're about to be entertained.

 

 

I know what you're thinking. You're wondering what the PS3 looks like on the inside. Well thanks to TechEBlog, we can see exactly what's going on underneath the hood. The first video is just part 1. Jump in to see parts 2 and 3.

On this edition of Weekend Destructainment, we have for you CWH Nicole in video form, time attacks, a couple of AMVs, an episode of Mega Man, ghetto hacking the PSP and much more!

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As far as anyone knows, this is the first time a high score of 999,999 in Tetris has ever been recorded. I've never gotten over 300,000 let alone last a half hour playing the game. Have a video you think I should feature on Weekend Destructainment? Then send me an email! cybernetictigerz @ gmail.com

Bloodhound Gang music video. Fast forward to 2:53 to understand what this has to do with video games. (Spotted on Gay Gamer) Bloodhound Gang is a pretty good group. Hit the jump for music covers, a speed run, and a real life Pikachu.

And then send it to us. At Destructoid, we already know that we're pretty damn good at gaming. Naturally, our readers have their fair share of kick-assery, too. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that our readers are better than any others. To prove it, we want your best video achievements. Sure, I can find a Bubble Bobble speed run anywhere, but I want a Destructoid Bubble Bobble speed run. If you're to Ikaruga as Bo Jackson was to Tecmo Super Bowl share the wealth -- film yourself in all your geeky glory and then send it to me (or submit it in this thread). Speed runs, high scores, mods, general kickassery, whatchu' got?! Let's finally showcase our superiority, thus bringing us one step closer to world domination. It's kind of like Hitler Youth - just video gamey. Can you compete? [Big thanks to Fronz for the sick graphic.]