Best games to speedrun for beginners!
7 years ago
England

Anything you find enjoyable should be a good speedrun choice. A lot of people here are going to be preferential and biased on what they run so it's best not to ask that.

But if you insist on asking the question, then a counter-question is what platforms do you own, and what genres do you like? PC, PS4, Xbox/Horror, Action, Collectathons, etc, etc.

KaweedFul, landus and 4 others like this
France

A friend of mine guided me on Limbo when I start speedrunning, and I admit it's an interesting one to begin with :

  • Around 10 euros to buy on Steam, but the game was released in 2011, so I think it's frequently on sales (on Steam I mean)

  • Less than 100 Mo to download it, and it doesn't need powerful pc's stuff

  • Colorless puzzle game with dark atmosphere, 2D, very simple gameplay (One button to jump, one button to interact with objects, stick on controller or keyboard to move)

  • Limbo is very well programmed, so there is currently no big glitch to deal with. This game is all about exploiting the physics to find shortcuts, looking for deathless run, and getting more and more precise with your moves.

  • WR for the normal route (~New Game any%) is 40:55. So it's a sub 1 hour run

To put in a nutshell, Limbo is a 2D game which is able to fit with your PC, and help you to learn the basics of speedrunning (precision, cycles, RNG, skips, glitch)

Edited by the author 7 years ago
IntoTheFlame, Baldic and 3 others like this
United States

A lot of people start with a game that they have nostalgia for.

qhvg, IntoTheFlame and 10 others like this
Bavaria, Germany

just speedrun a game that you love, so it's the most fun and easy for you to play! :)

IntoTheFlame, KoG_L4MP and 3 others like this
Chiba, Japan

Race games I guess ???

Lithuania

Well, I have an offer, your choice to take it up though. Legacy of Kain speedrun games are generally new guy friendly, considering that I started with one and found it very easy to learn, nevertheless, what they have to offer:

  1. You said you have a bad PC, Legacy of Kain games are 1995-2003. I do not think you'll have problems in terms of graphics or anything of the sort.

2.Most of the games are more reliant on glitches than RnG, but the glitches are very consistent once practiced enough and simple enough to learn.

3.Legacy of Kain speedruns are short enough, except for Blood Omen 2. Defiance is 20-30 mins, Soul Reaver 2 is 30-40 mins, The active category of SR1 which is allbosses are 1 hour and 10-20 mins.

  1. They are pretty cheap. 7 euro per one of the games. Of course, if planning to buy 4 of the active ones then it'll be 28 euros.

So, if you are interested, I can give you my skype and introduce you to the other runners of the games and we can set you up with the routes and glitch guides of the games.

IntoTheFlame, Simudz and 2 others like this
Ohio, USA

Don't speedrun a game you love. Just trust me.

j3j_ajxx, ShaftHatesLife and 25 others like this
Alberta, Canada

You can do Outlast, Very little RNG and the glitchless and no Out of bound categories are great for getting you introduced to speed and optimisations. It also has a very healthy community that will help you out.

Quiv and Nyctomnia like this
Philippines
kaiten619
He/Him, They/Them
7 years ago

i suggest final fantasy mystic quest for an rpg that is short. i can suggest contra for nes as well

England

Speed run a game that doesn't ask a lot from you, something that has a few speed run tricks and just build from there.

MajorGamer likes this
Vienna, Austria

Little mermaid :P

Laika_the_Spacedog and JSR_ like this
Minnesota, USA

Really any game that you personally enjoy, because if you get tired of playing it easily you can't speedrun it. But for a suggestion, Star Fox: Assault is a very fun game to speedrun. It averages about 50 minutes, and it only has 2 glitches that are used in the run. It also has a very supportive and helpful community.

France

Prelude Of The Chambered on PC :3

Saxony-Anhalt, Germany
  • Freedom Planet (as mentioned before)
  • Celeste
  • Jumper Two
  • Prompt
  • Super Meat Boy
  • Boson X

I started with SMB a long time ago and it's really funny, you improve quite fast (at first you think something like "SMB is hard af ... I can't speedrun this lol" but then, after some practice "oh wait, I don't even need 5 minutes for the first chapter anymore") and the Glitches/Tricks are quite hard (imo ... this Brownie skip ... made it once xD). But all in all it's really funny.

The others I saw at SGDQ and they seem funny and might need the same "skillset" as Super Meat Boy. So, if you're into platformer... give it a try... I'd recommend playing at least Super Meat Boy anyway :). Edmund McMillen is an awesome guy!

I hope that I helped you at least a bit haha :D.

Rares103 likes this
Poland

Basically games that I run:

  • Westerado: Double Barelled
  • You Have to Burn the Rope
  • Vox Populi Vox Dei(a werewolf thriller)

Westerado costs about 12 bucks I think, the rest are flash games so they're free. And runs of them all take less than 10 minutes.

Eden_ likes this
New Jersey, USA

@Yonish, you've really been pushing the werewolf game :D

I'll give it a shot soon, and did you know that there's a sequel on Steam?

Westerado looks fun, too.

Poland

@kobepilgrim I push it cause I just got the game approved on here and there is only one run of it, mine. I am aware of the sequel, I am training to speedrun it, once I get to record a run I'll ask for the game to be approved

Gelderland, Netherlands

I would recommend Final Fantasy 1 if you wanna try getting into RPG speedruns. The PSP version is a very easy run to get down, takes less then a day to learn. PSP emu works pretty well luckily (as I'd imagine most people dont have PSP cap) so feel free to contact anyone in the FF1 community if you're interested