Awesome Games Done Quick 2025 is in the books, with this year’s version of the annual speedrunning event raising over $2.5 million for the Prevent Cancer Foundation. Among the most memorable runs of the weekend–and perhaps one of the most memorable runs in GDQ history–came right before the end, when a player ran through Crazy Taxi on Dreamcast while a live band played the soundtrack behind him.
Runner “chuckles825” completed the Crazy Box mode–a series of individual skill-based trials–while his accompanying band Limiter Cut played the music that the game would normally be playing. This includes the drum-centric menu track, which drummer “The Sound Defense” recreated with every trip back to the Crazy Box menu.
Crazy Taxi features licensed music from The Offspring, which created a legal snafu for the Games Done Quick foundations thanks to copyright laws in the US–namely the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1999. The use of a live band to play the music instead is allowed by the DMCA, and thus the run came to fruition.
The four-piece band Limiter Cut featured “Metallama” on lead vocals, “2dos” on guitar and backup vocals, “SquidDilla” on bass, and the aforementioned “The Sound Defense” on drums. The run was completed in just under 20 minutes.
This live band run was not the only musical run during Awesome Games Done Quick 2025. The week-long event also saw Elden Ring played with a saxophone, as well as a New Super Mario Bros. Wii run where the player used his feet and head to control Mario–while also playing the soundtrack on a piano.
Replays for every speedrun shown during Awesome Games Done Quick 2025 can be found on the official Games Done Quick YouTube page.