Just under 25 years after the initial release ofThe Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, a player has done the impossible: getting the blue dog to win the race without cheating or using glitches. Inthis uniqueZeldatitle, Link can participate in a series of races via the Doggy Racetrack. The idea is to bet on which dog will win and, while hints are available, the outcome is mostly random. But not all dogs are created equal: infamously, the blue dog is least likely to take first, to the point that it was long considered impossible.
But the naysayers were proven wrong whena speedrunner by the name of falkush finally managed to get the blue dog to win a racewithout using glitches or cheats this past August. The winning run itself is available viafalkush’s YouTube channel, but a full recap of the effort to score a blue dog win, as well as the mechanics involved in achieving one, is detailed in a new video byVidya James.
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The mechanics of the Doggy Racetrack mini-game are surprisingly complex, and are detailed extensively in the video above. The basics hold that each dog has a set base speed, which fluctuates randomly throughout the race, and players can read their thoughtsusing the Mask of Truthto determine which one is most likely to win. But the gold dog’s base speed is by far the fastest, whilethe blue dog’s is the slowest. That means the gold dog is most likely to win any given race, the blue dog is least likely, and all the rest are just about tied for second place.
Dogs whose dialogue begins with “Ruff” are statistically more likely to place closer to the front.
Speedrunners have long since made it their business to score a blue dog win, andat least one had already achieved it before falkush - but they’d only done so with the help of a rare glitch. This glitch causes the results of the race to be called early, so even if the blue dog is fated to lose, if it happens to be at the front of the pack when the glitch is triggered, it’ll still be considered the first-place winner before it crosses the finish line.
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But that wasn’t good enough for falkush, who wanted to see the blue dog eke out a legitimate victory. He first orchestrated a situation in which the blue dog’s pre-race condition was as good as it could possibly be, and all the other dogs' conditions were poor. He then used custom code within BizHawk, a versatile speedrunning tool, to simulate race after race until the blue dog finally won. He expected the project would take much longer, butafter just three days, he managed to get the blue dog to win.
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This probably isn’t actually the first time the blue dog has won; with millions of players around the world, it’s bound to have happened at least once before. It’s just that the odds are so low thatall these other blue dog victories went unnoticed, or at the very least, unrecorded. And it’s certainly not the first time a player has achieved such an unlikelyZeldaoccurrence after several years of trying. FromA Link to the Past’s unexplained ghost glitchtoTOTKsecrets that remained hidden for a yearafter release, theZeldaseries is rife with rare discoveries.
That, along with its games' carefully curated sequential progression, makesThe Legend of Zeldathe perfect series to speedrun. Its speedrunning community has shown nothing but resourcefulness, creativity, and dedication throughout the years, whether it’s discovering a new boundary break that shaves an hour off a 100% run or simply helping an unlikely dog win a mini-game inThe Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask.
The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
A direct sequel to the iconic Ocarina of Time, The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask sets players loose in the parallel world of Hyrule, Termina, as they face a new impending disaster. Set months after Ocarina of Time, Link wakes up in a world similar to his own and discovers that the moon will crash into the planet in three days and bring about the end of days. Players will utilize a unique time travel mechanic that forces them to relive the same three days to attempt to avert catastrophe. An enhanced Nintendo 3DS version of Majora’s Mask was released in February 2015.
