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Awesome Games Done Quick 2024 schedule features Super Mario 64 on drums

Plus, TwitchCon's Games Done Quick Express raises over $35,000 for AbleGamers

Ozzie Mejia

October 23, 2023 12:30 PM

Nintendo

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Awesome Games Done Quick 2024 promises to bring the January event back to live speedrunning in a big way. A lot of the GDQ staples appear to be on hand, which includes games from Nintendo, FromSoftware, PlayStation, Capcom, and many more. While there are plenty of traditional runs that will be on display, there's one specific run that stood out from the pack. Super Mario 64 will be present, as it has been at many other GDQ events, but this run will be a little different.

The Friday schedule will feature a morning Super Mario 64 run. However, the category reads "16 Star Drum%." Some might see that and wonder, "What is Drum%?" It turns out it's exactly what it sounds like. Runner CZR has been running Super Mario 64 on a modded drum kit for a few years. He most recently broke the world record in December 2022, finishing the 1996 classic in just 19 minutes and 48 seconds. For the AGDQ audience, he'll look to beat the target time of 24 minutes.

Other highlights on the Awesome Games Done Quick 2024 schedule include the following:

• The adorable Zelda-like Tunic will open the show on Sunday morning with a 30-minute run from Radicoon.
• Bomb Rush Cyberfunk will make its GDQ debut on Sunday night.
• Pikmin 4 will make its GDQ debut on Monday night.
• Night owls can catch a rare Diablo run on Tuesday night going into Wednesday as Funkmastermp attempts a Level 1% Sorcerer run.
• The annual Awful Games Done Quick Block happens on Wednesday and features games like Beetlejuice, the Game Gear version of Ninja Gaiden, and an all-time classic in the form of Sneak King!
• Thursday features a Super Mario Maker 2 Glitch Showcase from CarlSagan42. It may be the 2019 Shacknews Game of the Year, but we fully acknowledge that this game has a lot of broken nonsense and weird glitches. Anybody who has ever watched a CarlSagan42 stream knows what to expect here, but the wider GDQ audience is in for a treat.
• Resident Evil 4 takes center stage on Friday night with a two-hour New Game Professional Any% run.
• The last day promises to be an eventful one as the event closes out with The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Grand Poo World 2, and Final Fantasy V Pixel Remaster. The eye-opening run is the FromSoftware bidding war, where donors will choose between Elden Ring and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.
• There are a lot of open slots, which are being saved for a second round of submissions. The finalized AGDQ schedule will be revealed in December.

Games Done Quick remains as busy as ever raising money for charity. The team is fresh off TwitchCon 2023, where Games Done Quick Express made its triumphant return. GDQx finished the weekend with $35,575 raised for AbleGamers, which is impressive given that the streams only ran during convention hours.

Awesome Games Done Quick 2024 will take place from January 14-20, 2024 and will look to raise money for the Prevent Cancer Foundation. It will be held live from Pittsburgh, PA, after taking a one-year remote hiatus due to conflicts with the event's former home of Florida.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?