Before Ubisoft presents at E3 this year, the company will be hosting a speedrun of Rayman 2: The Great Escape and players who watch the run live will be rewarded with a free copy of Rayman Origins for Uplay.
Well-known speedrunner Glackum will be doing his best on the Ubisoft Twitch channel to beat the world record for Rayman 2, which he held until recently before Darno_PL completed the game in one hour, fifteen minutes, and twenty-two seconds.
Once the attempt is complete, Ubisoft will gift a free copy of the game to viewers who watch the stream for 30 minutes or more.
For those not familiar with speedrunning and similar ways to play games, the object is to complete a video game as fast as possible. There are variants to how this can be done, for example, Glackum’s attempt will be “any percentage,” which means that the goal is to complete the game as fast as possible with any amount of the total content finished.
Games often have a main story mode with an established narrative, as well as side quests or additional tasks that can be done to make a character more powerful to unlock abilities or items or affect the outcome of the ending. An “any percent” completion requires only the absolute minimum completed content to accomplish this goal.
Other variants call for creativity in bypassing the established rules of the game, often considered as exploits of the game’s code. One of the more well-known cases of this can be seen in Super Mario 64, in which the game can be beaten with only 16 Stars. This bypasses the game requirement to have collected a minimum of 70 of the 120 Stars before accessing the final boss, which takes a considerable amount of time. Other speedruns may ask for the opposite, requiring 100% completion of all content before finishing the game.
The concept is popular among Twitch streamers, and websites like Speed Demos Archive serve as a platform to discuss the highest-quality speedruns of all types.
The attempt to break the current record will take place on June 10 at 1:30 PM ET / 10:30 AM PT. Be sure to check it out to obtain a free copy of Rayman Origins.