The races are on for The Wind Waker 100% speedruns after the online speedrunning community discovered new glitches that will allow them to beat the game even faster.
The revived momentum began late last March when glitch hunter LegendofLinkk discovered a way to bypass cutscenes with the pause menu and published it on YouTube. Then, player JakeZSR compounded the discovery by using it to multiply the capacity of Fairy Fountain upgrades for the first time. The technique is credited to him as the “Jake Dupe.”
The pause menu glitch caught fire in the speedrunning community after renowned speedrunner Linkus7 explained both the new technique in a detailed tutorial and its potential to shave off over six minutes’ worth of cutscenes in a The Wind Waker speedrun. Sure enough, Linkus7 achieved a brand-new world record at 5:11:34 in The Wind Waker HD 100% category on April 4. He hit the world record a second time at 5:09:29 on April 6 and plans to land it a third time this week. The records thus far were achieved with a combination of the pause-menu-based techniques, along with techniques of his own.
The Wind Waker speedrunning is a fascinating phenomenon to follow, especially for The Wind Waker HD. Skilled players around the world pull off various tricks and techniques to see who can beat the classic game in the fastest time possible. Many times, the techniques require precise timing of code down to the second. Clever speedrunners have figured out ways to manipulate the framework of the game to their competitive advantage, and the results are impressive.
Whether you know game code or not, The Wind Waker speedrunning takes appreciating the game’s intricate architecture to a whole new dimension.
