Video Games Notable For Speedrunning - Metroid Series

Metroid Series

Super Metroid (Nintendo, 1994) achieved popularity with speedrunners due to the emergence of console emulators with demo-recording features. In normal Super Metroid gameplay, the player may find certain items such as the high-jump boots. Since the path through the map is non-linear, this is a complication to finding efficient speedrunning routes: Areas with such items can by bypassed at the expense of the improved mobility. This drove the discovery of "sequence-breaking" in which a player can acquire power-ups before the game design intends, allowing whole sections of the map to be skipped.