Top 5 Games for Speedrunning

I want to preface this list by saying that these five games are entirely based on my opinion. Generally speaking, you'll enjoy watching games that you are much more familiar with because you will be more equipped to appreciate the nuance required to play these games at such a high level. Growing up, I lived in a Nintendo household so you won't find me watching many speedruns of Genesis or Master System games. However, I do feel that the items on this list are popular enough that someone browsing a site like Giantbomb should still be able to derive some enjoyment from watching the games on this list.

List items

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  1. Super Mario 64

  It doesn't get much better than SM64. Mario's acrobatic capabilities are on full display and a good runner can proceed through the game at a blistering pace. If you're interested, I would definitely check out Siglemic, Toufool31, or CpKaka on their respective Twitch pages.

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  2. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

  http://www.twitch.tv/nedeahs/c/3315424

  Yeah, Ocarina of Time is pretty cool. As far as streamers go, nedeahS (Pydoyks), Zfg1, and Runnerguy2489 are your go to Zelda speedrunners.

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  3. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island

  I have probably watched hundreds of Yoshi's Island runs over the years and I am still blown away by the level of technical expertise required to play this game at an extremely high level. The community for this game is a smaller than some of the more popular speed games on Twitch (probably because it's such a hard game to run well), but if you're brave enough, you should check out Trihex, LeeSDA, or CarlSagan42 on Twitch.

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  4. Pokémon

  To the uninitiated, an RPG might not seem like the most entertaining speedrun to watch because of the slower pace generally attributed to these kinds of games, but it only requires a few tragic runs to truly understand the appeal. There is a much greater sense of randomness to these games that keep even the best players on their toes at all times. An unexpected critical hit can halt a really good run in its tracks almost immediately and the reactions generated by the streamer when this happens is extremely entertaining. For the best Pokemon freak outs, it doesn't get much better than Werster, Eekcast, and Viskiv on Twitch.

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  5. Dark Souls

  Nothing is cooler than seeing a game as punishing as Dark souls played really, really well. Vinny and friends could probably learn a few tricks from guys like Noobest, Elajjaz, and Santzo