AGDQ 2022 full schedule revealed: Speedruns we're looking forward to
The schedule for Awesome Games Done Quick 2022 has been revealed, and as always, we've got a week's worth of speedruns to sift through now that it's live. Previously, Games Done Quick announced the games list for AGDQ 2022, but now with the full schedule out in the open, we get to see how each day of the event will play out. For Games Done Quick veterans, there's even one surprising change this year.
AGDQ 2022 schedule and details
The full schedule can be found on the Games Done Quick website. Awesome Games Done Quick will run 24 hours a day for nearly an entire week, starting at 11:30 AM EST on Sunday, January 9th, 2022, and wrapping up sometime after midnight on Sunday, January 16th. In fact, the schedule says that the finale should be going live right around midnight on the 16th, but Games Done Quick events tend to run long by a few hours.
For those who may be new to Games Done Quick, the gist is that the organization hosts a pair of week-long speedrunning marathons each year in which speedrunners from all over the world attend to show off their skills and their games. Awesome Games Done Quick takes place in the winter, while Summer Games Done Quick takes place in – you guessed it – the summer. At AGDQ, the money raised goes toward the Prevent Cancer Foundation, while SGDQ raises funds for Doctors Without Borders.
Recent events have been forced to go online because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and AGDQ 2022 will be no different in that regard. There was some hope that Games Done Quick would be able to resume in-person events beginning with AGDQ 2022, but with the COVID-19 pandemic still in full swing in many regions of the world, we'll have to wait until at least SGDQ 2022 – and possibly even later – before in-person events resume.
AGDQ 2022 runs we're looking forward to
Since AGDQ 2022 is a week-long event, it'll be packed with a ton of speedruns. There are too many good speedruns to count, but there are a few we're looking forward to specifically. The marathon gets off to a strong start with speedruns of Deathloop, Mega Man 2, The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons, and a blindfolded tanker run of Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance all on the first day, though that last one is a bonus run that will only be played if a certain donation incentive is met.
Throughout the rest of the marathon, a few of the runs that stick out include Gunstar Heroes on expert difficulty, a Super Mario Galaxy Luigi race between four different players, a New Game+ speedrun of the fantastic Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart on PS5, and a speedrun of Sonic Jam on the beyond terrible Game.com handheld.
The last day, as always, is filled with some big runs, including Mario Kart Wii, Earthbound, Subnautica, Sonic Adventure DX, and Halo: Combat Evolved. The show will be closing with a speedrun of Metal Gear Solid, so there won't be any six-hour RPG runs to cap off AGDQ this time around.
Interestingly, there's a rather sparse showing from the Metroid series at AGDQ 2022. While Games Done Quick marathons typically have a Super Metroid speedrun or race toward the end of the show – such as the Super Metroid Impossible run by Oatsngoats that we've embedded above – there will be no Super Metroid at AGDQ 2022. The only Metroid speedrun comes on the very first day, with a run of Metroid Prime Hunters on the Nintendo DS.
Still, even without Super Metroid or a long RPG to end the show, AGDQ 2022 is looking like a pretty stacked marathon. Sadly, we've still got a couple of months to wait before the marathon kicks off, as the show won't be kicking off until Sunday, January 9th 2022. When the time comes, you'll be able to watch the entire marathon on the Games Done Quick Twitch channel.