Three speedrunners face off in 12-game NES Classic marathon

Shawn Knight

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With the Wii U essentially on life support and the Switch hybrid still roughly five months out, Nintendo seemingly found itself in a precarious transitional period heading into the holiday season. Nobody would have blamed them for mailing it in but that wasn’t an option in Nintendo’s deck of cards.

Instead, the iconic gaming giant delivered in a big way with the NES Classic Edition, a miniature replica of its original Nintendo Entertainment System that comes pre-loaded with 30 of the top NES games of all time. Priced at just $59.99, that works out to about two bucks a game – a solid deal for sure.

The NES Classic has been the talk of the town this past weekend and may very well be the must-have gift this holiday season. Don’t believe me? Head over to Amazon and check out the 2,600 people that have left the system 1-star reviews because inventory sold out so quickly.

It’s a big occasion in the gaming community and one that should be celebrated in an equally big way. That’s why Best of NES recently commissioned three of the top speedrunners – Toad22484, KHANanaphone and InfestedRiche – to compete in a 12-game marathon session of NES Classic games to see who could run the gamut in the shortest amount of time.

The trio started out playing Castlevania and followed it up with Metroid, Super C, Double Dragon II, Ninja Gaiden, Punch-Out!!, Dr Mario, Kirby’s Adventure, Mega Man 2, Super Mario Bros, Super Mario Bros 3 and finally, the Legend of Zelda. Some titles were to be completed entirely while others, like Double Dragon II, only required the players to progress to a certain point before moving on to the next game.

As Kotaku notes, speedrunning in a game you’re very familiar with can be tricky enough but doing so across 12 games – some of which you may not have played much – combined with the different strategies used makes for a very interesting watch.

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There are some games that amaze me when speedruns are done. Zelda II is a game I played thoroughly, but never beat. Then there are the games that demand twitch skill. My favorite game to master was Contra: Shattered Soldier.
 
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