Lester the Unlikely (1994, SNES) by DTMC

Current Any% Leaderboard (speedrun.com)

I remember accidentally renting this as a kid. Don’t ask me how I managed to do that. I don’t remember. Perhaps it was all they had. Maybe we were just kids and thought “hehehehe let’s play a game where you play as a dork”. Whatever the case, I remember playing this and kind of liking it casually. Once you figure out how to control Lester in “Lester the Unlikely”, it’s not that bad. The speedrun also continues that tradition, but this is still a mediocre platformer with some fun speed tech that salvages this speedrun from the pit of “F hell” for me.

Lester controls like a drunk penguin on a merry-go-round. It’s awful. But I think that the developers did that on purpose; it feels like the awkward controls were intended that way. Lester is not a super hero, or a plumber, or an elf, or a warrior. He’s a nerd. And this game plays that angle realistically, or as much as a SNES platformer could in 1994.

The game is quite nice-looking, but nothing special. The music is pleasant, but nothing memorable here, either. Overall, this game’s presentation is average at best, and with the awful controls, how could this possibly be saved?

Well, saved is a strong word, but the speedrun is fun! It was easy to learn, and there’s some cool tech here! For example, you can skip a section where you must break a pillar of rocks down in order to advance. You can jump backwards up cliffs, skip doors entirely, and cancel fall damage with a timely press of a button! However, swinging on ropes or jumping to platforms is a chore, and makes it feel both frustrating, and rewarding when you nail it.

Do I recommend this run? Heck no! But it’s not the worst game I’ve ran yet, and you could certainly do worse…