The list of games for next year’s Awesome Games Done Quick is out, and one of the annual speedrunning-for-charity event’s most popular titles isn’t on it: Super Metroid. This makes it the first time in AGDQ’s seven-year history that the Super Nintendo classic won’t be featured during the weeklong livestream.
“There is no Super Metroid on the games list for [AGDQ 2018], and if it’s not on the list or a backup it won’t be run,” the Games Done Quick organization confirmed on Twitter, after receiving tweets about the title’s surprising omission.
You're not mistaken. There is no Super Metroid on the games list for #AGDQ2018, and if it's not on the list or a backup it won't be run.
— Games Done Quick (@GamesDoneQuick) October 11, 2017
The Metroid series — and the beloved Super Metroid in particular — has gained a reputation as one of the most popular series to speedrun. Super Metroid’s non-linearity, combined with its level of difficulty, have contributed to its status as one of AGDQ’s most high-profile events every year.
Over the last seven years, Super Metroid has regularly occupied a prime-time spot during the stream as a result, often airing on the final day. Charity organizers would compel viewers to donate by having them throw their money behind whether players should choose to save or kill the animals in the game’s final stage — that is, if the speedrunners even survived long enough to get there.
For example, in 2016, three out of four players ended up dying before the end of their runs; watch that one below.
Super Metroid’s difficulty means that live speedruns can often end before players even get to that final stage. Since a big part of a successful Super Metroid speedrun (or, really, any speedrun at all) is shaving off as much time as possible, players rarely bother to save. That doesn’t necessarily make these runs less fun to watch, although the response to the game’s exclusion this year has been mixed between those for and against the change.
The Metroid franchise will still have a presence in AGDQ next year: Speedruns of both the original Metroid for the NES and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption will be streamed.
AGDQ 2018 kicks off Jan. 7, 2018.