Speedruns That Defied Expectations and Physics

5 December 2025

Alright, buckle up, buttercup—because we’re about to dive headfirst into a dimension where time bends, gravity takes a coffee break, and logic throws itself out the nearest window. Yep, we’re talking about the wonderfully chaotic world of speedruns—but not just any speedruns. Oh no. These are the speedruns that defied expectations and physics.

If you thought beating a game faster than your microwave heats a burrito was impressive, just wait until you hear about gamers who phase through walls, moonwalk past bosses, and straight-up delete parts of the game to shave off seconds. These madlads aren’t just playing the game—they’re breaking it. Let’s get into the juicy madness.

What The Heck Is a Speedrun Anyway?

Okay, for the uninitiated, a speedrun is when players try to complete a game as fast as humanly (or inhumanly) possible. It’s like the Olympics of gaming, but with more mountain dew and fewer steroids.

Speedrunners dedicate hours—no, weeks—to perfecting their craft. They memorize every pixel, frame, and RNG pattern like it’s gospel. But the real showstoppers are those runs that don’t just exploit a flaw—they tear the very code apart like it owes them rent money.

Let’s talk about the absolute WTF-level speedruns that not only broke records but also broke the rules of reality.

1. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time – Beating Time Itself

You’d think a dense game like Ocarina of Time would take a good 20+ hours to complete, right? Nope! Some absolute wizard figured out how to beat it in under 7 minutes. Yes, you read that right. SEVEN. FREAKIN’. MINUTES.

How? Welcome to the magical world of wrong warping. By executing an ungodly precise series of backflips, pause menu buffers, and door manipulations, speedrunners literally teleport Link from the starting area to the final boss fight. Physics? Log out. Logic? Canceled.

This isn’t just fast. This is bullet train on rocket fuel fast. Ocarina of Time is basically the holy grail of speedrunning—and it got wrecked.

2. Super Mario 64 – The Backwards Long Jump Heard 'Round the World

Ah, the good ol’ BLJ—Backwards Long Jump. If you know, you know. And if you don’t, let’s just say this is Mario moonwalking up stairs at Mach speed to bust through locked doors like Kool-Aid Man.

In Super Mario 64, speedrunners discovered that jumping backwards up a stairway at just the right angle glitches out the game's momentum mechanics, allowing Mario to literally phase through solid objects and game logic.

What should've taken hundreds of stars and dozens of hours to unlock? Yeah... try 16 stars and a handshake with physics on your way out.

It’s iconic. It’s hilarious. It’s pure, uncut gaming rebellion.

3. Portal – Breaking Science With Science

You’d think a game designed around manipulating space-time would be unbreakable. Ha. That’s cute.

Portal has become a playground for speedrunners who said, "Cool mechanics, Valve. Mind if we abuse them?" Through a technique called Accelerated Back Hopping (ABH)—where players move backwards faster than the speed of light (not even exaggerating)—they zoom through rooms, skip puzzles, and send GLaDOS to therapy before lunch.

Take a moment to appreciate the irony: a game built on bending physics gets absolutely clobbered by people who bend its bending of physics.

4. Minecraft – Beating RNG at Its Own Game

Alright, let’s talk Minecraft speedruns. At first glance, Minecraft seems like a sandbox paradise, not a speedrun-ready title. But enterprising lunatics on the internet said, "Hold my diamond pickaxe."

Minecraft Any% Glitchless runs are a tightrope walk across a casino floor. It’s ALL about random number generation—from finding a good spawn, to locating a village, to piglin trades. You’ve gotta be part gamer and part gambler.

Add in mechanics like bed strats (yes, killing the Ender Dragon using explosive beds), and you've got a run that laughs in the face of strategy guides. It’s unpredictable. It’s explosive. It’s beautifully chaotic.

5. Doom (1993) – The Godfather of Glitches

OG Doom has been around longer than some of you reading this, but trust me—granny’s still got moves.

Using wallrunning, mass clipping, and Voodoo doll mechanics (don’t ask), speedrunners sprint through demon-infested corridors like they left the oven on. In some levels, they bypass entire maps by merely staring at a wall at the right angle.

Yeah, Doom doesn’t care about your spatial awareness. Just hug a wall and hope for the best.

These speedruns are pure nostalgia and nerd sorcery rolled into one.

6. Celeste – Precision Platforming at Its Most Beautifully Broken

Here’s a game that’s basically a love letter to precision, difficulty, and mental health. So naturally, speedrunners said, “Let’s abuse the crap out of it.”

Celeste speedruns are an art form. Between pixel-perfect dashes, corner spikes, and hyperdashing, runners pull off moves that the devs never dreamed would be humanly possible.

But here’s the kicker—speedrunners don’t just break the game, they elevate it. Watching a Celeste speedrun is like watching a ballet performed by caffeinated ninjas. It shouldn’t work—but it does. And it’s mesmerizing.

7. Skyrim – Fus Ro Done in 5 Minutes

Skyrim is an open-world behemoth filled with dragons, lore, and enough side quests to last a lifetime. But speedrunners look at that hundred-hour journey and say: “Nah, got somewhere to be.”

By using load warps, strategic saves, and a little thing called bucket clipping (yep, literally using a bucket to clip through doors), they bring down Alduin in under five minutes.

Imagine spending more time in the character creator than the actual game. That’s not just efficiency—that’s savagery.

8. Super Metroid – Where Gravity Goes to Die

Super Metroid isn’t just a classic—it’s the Mona Lisa of speedrunning. But what truly makes it iconic is how runners defy the very gravity that defines the game’s physics.

Technique names like “Mockball,” “Moonfall,” and “X-Ray Clipping” sound like sci-fi jargon, and that’s because they kind of are. These tricks allow players to reach places they shouldn’t, do things they can’t, and beat bosses before the devs even realized you showed up.

The end result? A game that once required meticulous exploration becomes a space sprint through hell. And we’re here for it.

9. Tetris Grand Master – Human or Cyborg?

Okay, technically not a speedrun—but it deserves a spot because it’s basically speedrunning on crack.

Tetris: The Grand Master is a Japanese arcade game that cranks difficulty up to inhuman levels. At the top ranks, the pieces fall so fast that they’re basically invisible. You don’t see the piece—you predict it.

These players move so fast it actually leaves you wondering... are we sure they’re not robots? The only thing they’re speedrunning is the human nervous system.

10. Getting Over It – Pain Becomes Art

If “rage game” was a genre, Getting Over It would wear the crown. It’s literally a guy in a pot with a hammer trying to climb a mountain of junk.

And yet… the world record? Under 2 minutes.

Let that sink in.

While most of us rage-quit within 30 minutes, speedrunners ascend like angry Buddha with a sledgehammer. Through sheer memorization, swagger, and what I can only assume is a pact with the devil, they traverse madness with surgical precision.

It’s like watching someone do open-heart surgery while blindfolded… on a rollercoaster.

Why Do These Speedruns Matter?

These runs aren’t just about showing off (okay, maybe a little). They’re about understanding the game on a molecular level. They bend possibility, flip the game inside-out, and leave devs both horrified and impressed.

Every glitch exploited? It’s a testament to player ingenuity. Every trick discovered? A love letter to the game itself.

In a way, these speedruns are less about destruction and more about intimacy. These players know the games better than the people who made them. It’s performance art with a side of caffeine.

So… Could You Speedrun?

The answer? Absolutely.

Anyone can dip their toes in the pool of speedrunning. You don’t have to break a world record—just break your own expectations. Whether you’re clipping through dimensions or just trying to beat that one level faster than your friend, it’s all about shaving seconds and flexing skill.

Just… maybe don’t start with Getting Over It. Unless you enjoy screaming into the void.

Final Thoughts

Speedruns are the ultimate playground for gamers who ask, “What if...?” They aren't just about going fast—they're about thinking differently, pushing boundaries, and happily breaking every rule in the book.

So the next time someone tells you you’re “playing it wrong,” just smile, do a backwards long jump over them, and warp straight to the credits screen.

Because in the world of speedruns, the only rule that matters is this: go fast, break everything.