Awesome Games Done Quick (AGDQ) — the annual charity marathon — featured a surprising highlight from Nintendo’s Switch 2 title Mario Kart World. Instead of a standard race-focused run, speedrunner Helix demonstrated a category called All ? Panels, where players must activate every single question mark block spread across the game’s open-world Free Roam mode.
That category reframes Free Roam as a dense, speed-runner-friendly platforming stage. The run clocks in under 30 minutes, thanks to a composed routing and a toolbox of movement tricks: grinds, wallrides, and precise jumps. Helix also leans into niche techniques such as object boosting—hopping off objects like telephone poles to gain momentum—and relies on the game’s rewind function to back up and re-route on the fly. A small but telling detail: if a player is approaching a ? Panel and warps to another part of the map, credit is still awarded for driving over the panel, a quirk that makes the routing even more flexible.
Free Roam’s initial reception had critics pointing to an empty open world. The speedrun, however, turns the map into a skatepark of routes and ramps, pushing the camera and physics into unexpected places. That change has led some observers to jokingly suggest Mario Kart World is secretly a 3D Mario platformer—an interpretation that feels earned after watching the run's precision and ambition.
AGDQ's current showcase includes several of 2025's standout releases, and this Mario Kart World highlight sits alongside titles such as Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Hollow Knight: Silksong. The event supports the Prevent Cancer Foundation, and viewers can watch the marathon live on Games Done Quick's Twitch channel, with replays available later on YouTube as the runs are posted.
Taken together, the speedrun demonstrates how a game’s movement system can unlock surprising depth, even in a mode that originally faced criticism. It frames Free Roam not as filler but as a physics playground that rewards route-planning, timing, and creativity, offering a fresh lens on a familiar karting world.
The marathon itself remains a broader celebration of community-driven play and charitable fundraising, with AGDQ set to conclude on Sunday, Jan. 11. Viewers can tune in live via Games Done Quick’s Twitch channel and catch up on runs afterward through YouTube uploads, ensuring that even those who miss the broadcast still get a front-row view of this unconventional Mario Kart World display.
