Speedrunner sets world record for Pokemon Let’s GO Pikachu

A speedrunner has set a new world record for Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu by completing the game in just under three hours.

The speedrunning community never fails to impress. Games that take weeks on end to complete, can be bested in hours by the best speedrunners.

Together as a community, they share all their tricks and techniques to get through large sections of the games they run.

When not blasting their way through games, they’re raising millions for charity. It’s an area of gaming I truly admire, though I know I’ll never have the patience to speedrun a game myself.

On July 27th, speedrunner Etchy, impressed Pokemon fans and speedrunners alike by completing Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu in 2h 59m 52s.

The impressive feat of finishing the game in just under three hours was uploaded to YouTube, where you can view the speedrun in its entirety.

YouTube video
Pokémon Let’s Go Pikachu World Record Any% Speedrun in 2:59:52 [FIRST EVER SUB 3!]

“So unbelievably happy with this time and how far I’ve come since picking this game up 3 years ago”, Etchy explains within the description for his YouTube video.

“This run has it all: A Shiny Pokemon, brand new strats, an insane end game trainer skip, and one of the most ridiculous Elite 4’s I will ever get in a run. Will probably explore other Let’s Go categories soon too!”

What’s more, is that Etchy’s Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu run was a word record too!

Etchy’s Any% speedrun now sits at the very top of the leaderboards, worldwide. His runtime beats out second place by 1 minute and 3 seconds and is the first time in 3 months someone has managed to beat the previous record.

Elden Ring player beats world record speedrun in just 5 minutes

An Impressive Speedrunning Career

Credit: Nintendo/HAL Laboratory

Etchy isn’t only setting impressive times for Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu, but the speedrunner also has an active career completing runs for other various Pokemon games. For the ‘Alt Main Pokes’ run for Pokemon White 2, Etchy also takes first place with a time of 3h 58m 59s, and has recorded runs for Pokemon Brilliant Diamond, Pokemon Heart Gold and even for Pokemon Red.

The American-based speedrunner hasn’t stopped with just Pokemon games either. Etchy has also completed speed runs for games like Nintendo’s Earthbound, and Square Enix’s Kingdom Hearts 3.

When it comes to Pokemon games, I always take a long time to complete them, especially if I decide I want to try and complete my Pokedex.  So seeing a Pokemon game that I spent 60+ hours on be completed in only three is amazing to witness.

Whether you’re interested in speedrunning or not, you can’t argue that Etchy’s 2h 59m 52s run of Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu isn’t incredibly impressive.

When Pokemon Scarlet and Violet release in November of this year, I’ll be eager to see how fast speedrunners like Etchy can complete the games.


Featured Image Credit: Pokemon Company.  Source: GamesRadar.

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