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This Guy Beat Castlevania Blindfolded to Help Raise Over $1 Million for Charity

July 11, 2016

  • Source: www.youtube.com / Via: www.youtube.com

  •  Video game speedruns just keep getting more impressive. From the guy who can beat Super Mario Bros. in under five minutes to the guy who can beat The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time in under 20, the creativity and technical skill of the video game speedrunning community continues to amaze. The latest speedrun tearing up the internet is a blindfolded run of PlayStation classic Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.  If you’ve ever played SotN, you know it’s tough enough to beat with all your senses and a long weekend. It took me almost 16 hours and a LOT of frustration — getting the “good ending” requires you to play through the whole map twice, first the regular way, then upside-down.  But video game speedrunner Andrew “romscout” Schroeder doesn’t need things like “logic” or even “eyes” to blast through SotN. At the charity event Summer Games Done Quick 2016, Schroeder managed to beat the entire game, “good ending” and all, in about an hour, in front of a live audience — blindfolded. The craziest part? He spends nearly half that time lost in a menu because of a broken controller, meaning he could have potentially beaten it much faster. How much faster? His current non-blindfolded record is under 17 minutes.  As amazing as this accomplishment is on its own, what’s far more impressive is what spurred Schroeder and other speedrunners to complete these runs. Over 150 speedrunners gathered in Minneapolis from July 3-10, 2016, to try to beat video games as quickly as possible — and to raise money for Doctors Without Borders, a charity organization that provides medical aid to victims of war, famine, and more.  This year’s event raised over $1.2 million in donations for Doctors Without Borders, making it one of the biggest charity gaming events in the world. It’s good to see gamers doing some good in the world. Their next event will be Awesome Games Done Quick 2017, held next January to benefit the Prevent Cancer Foundation. For more info, check out their website GamesDoneQuick.com.  What’s your favorite video game speedrun? Let us know in the comments below or @WhatsTrending on Twitter!