Awesome Games Done Quick 2025, the annual speedrunning charity event, has been especially musical this year, and to keep up the streak, a live rock band jammed out alongside a speedrun of Crazy Taxi.
A classically trained Opera singer capped off their Ratchet and Clank speedrun with a belter, a pianist played the entire New Super Mario Bros. Wii soundtrack while running through the platformer, and another speedrunner did a no-hit Elden Ring run with a saxophone - making AGDQ 2025 a more musical event than most years.
But the award for most creative musical speedrun has to go to the 19-minute Crazy Taxi run, embedded below, that had a live rock band playing in sync with the game. Speedrunner chuckles825 tackled the 16 levels included in the arcade classic's Crazy Box mode, all while riding an in-game bike, and the band behind him played along on stage, resetting a song every time the speedrunner failed or finished a level. Obviously, this meant there was considerably less commentary on the speedrunning techniques and glitches used than usual, but the sick tunes and riled-up crowd more than made up for it.
All the musical jams contributed to another massive pool of cash for the Prevent Cancer Foundation as AGDQ 2025 viewers raised over $2.5 million during the week-long event, bringing Games Done Quick's 15-year lifetime total to $54 million raised for various charities. You can catch up on all of this year's best speedruns on the Games Done Quick YouTube channel. And, of course, charity-oriented speedruns are returning with Summer Games Done Quick 2025 in July, this time raising funds for Doctors Without Borders.
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