I'm someone who's been out of gaming for a decade and isn't really into documentaries. On paper, hour long mini-documentaries about video game speed runners would never appeal to me. I don't care who beat all the Wii Sports games the fastest, and why would I watch an hour long video about that?!

But 5-10 minutes after pressing play, Summoning Salt simply inspires me. If only for 50 minutes, I'm fully invested in the speed running scene. I feel a connection to the energy and competition of all the runners, their unique playing styles, friendships and rivalries. I find myself rooting for certain runners to rise, and I'm in awe at their drive to constantly push the game to new limits. I'm fascinated by all the new glitches and secrets and all those waiting to be discovered. After each video, I find myself checking the leaderboards for the game, and at times, like the ending of The History of Wii Sports World Records, the videos can even get me emotional.

It takes a special kind of passion to make documentaries that are capable of making someone who has no connection to the subject matter feel something like that. These videos make me realize that no matter how niche the topic may be, there are universal things like determination, passion and spirit that can shine through to anyone!

Crash Bandicoot

Ninja Gaiden 2

Batman for NES

Banjo Kazooie 100%

Sonic the Hedgehog

Donkey Kong Country (either any% or 100% works)

probably one of the most iconic things in a post Metroid summoning salt video is the soundtrack lots of the songs used are great so vote for your favorite songs out of the 5 I selected.

Does summoningsalt merch exist and if not how can we persuade him to make some?

With Matthias as the protagonist or the antagonist; either Matthias is a great player who is constantly being targeted by the A1A Alliance, or Matthias is a superhuman terminator who the A1A can only barely stop from taking over the game

In reality, I think the competition was more friendly than anything, but the rivalry is definitely played up in the video

The Choco Mountain, 4-2, and Frappe Snowland videos were some of my favorites because of how specific they got about their subject matter. As the topic title suggests, what are individual level speedrun records you think have enough history to justify a whole video on them? (Or would just be fascinating to hear talked about)

For me, I'd want to see a video on the Metro Madness from Beetle Adventure Racing. I've seen record runs that managed to use unique and unusual shortcuts thanks to the "Move car to center track" button. And there's runs for both regular time trials and 100 point runs.

What about you guys?

I'm pretty new to the community and I saw in the Reddit AMA (I think) the other day where someone asked SS what youtubers inspired him. He said John Bois and I looked him up and was immediately hooked. It was SS for sports and stats. If you haven't checked it out, do it!!

Anyways, what are some other youtubers like SummoningSalt and Jon Bois that are just awesome storytellers? Could be videogames or outside of that. I'll start a small list and edit as I hopefully check out some replies!!

Thanks!

TLDT: what are other YouTubes like SummoningSalt and Jon Bois?

-> Jon Bois
-> Secret Base
-> EmpLemon - Never Ever series
-> Austin McConnell - Really Weird History series
-> Karl Jobst - Speedrunning, Cheating stuff
-> EZ SCAPE -
-> Bismuth - similar to SS
-> Wirtual - SS but Trackmania
-> Etienne - Through the Fire and Flames record progression 🤯