While some cheats and power-ups are intentionally part of a game for players to find, there are just as manyglitches and exploitsthat offer an edge that the developers and programmers never intended. Speedrunners, powergamers, and the casually curious all use these tricks to blaze through their game of choice by any means necessary.
While even the most polished game is likely to have some glitches (coding is hard and unforgiving), a few such exploits have gained legendary status for their power, ease, or the impact they’ve had on a game’s community as a whole.
8Sword Glitch
Ninja Gaiden
Ninja Gaidenhas been notorious for its punishing difficulty since the very first game in 1988. Damage knockbacks, relentless enemies, and tricky platforming are all a big part of the original’s challenge, but one of the biggest stumbling blocks is theamount of health bosses havecompared to how much you can deal at a time.
Speedrunners have developed a trick to drain bosses' life bars many times faster than normal. While in the air,holding Down while attacking, then releasing it and pressing it again, stops the cooldown between sword swings. By repeatedly pressing Down and B in a single jump, Ryu can rapidly strike with his sword, damaging a nearby enemy each time.
7Item Duplication
Diablo 2, Minecraft, And Others
One of the most popular types of glitches allows item duplication, adding extra stuff to your inventory that you never actually found in-game. For games heavily dependent on loot or resource gathering, this can be a huge timesaver.
In multiplayer, item duplication is considered cheating unless everyone has agreed ahead of time to allow it.
Many of these glitches, originally popularized withDiablo 2, involve interrupting the game as it calculates inventory totals, or taking advantage of server lag to make the game perform the same action multiple times.
6MissingNo
Pokemon Red & Blue
While this is technically an item duplication glitch, the infamous “Missing Number Pokemon” deserves its own spot in the Exploit Hall Of Fame. As fans are well aware, playing the Old Man’s catch tutorial, then using Fly to travel to Cinnabar Islands, keeping to a set group of tiles so as not to reset the game’s random encounter generator.
Without a list of potential Pokemon counters (it was removed for the tutorial and won’t reset if you stay within the bounds of the glitch zone), the game defaults to facing you with a wild MissingNo, a placeholder that was never meant to be seen. Whatever you do in the encounter, thesixth item in your inventorywill be duplicated.
As I learned the hard way back in 1999, this can also cause your Pokedex to permanently glitch… even if it’s completed.
5Screen Scroll
The Legend Of Zelda
The originalLegend Of Zeldaoffers a large (by 1987’s standards) open world to explore, with obstacles like rivers and walls in the way that you’ll need to overcome. Or you could just teleport using the Screen Scroll glitch.
A Screen Scroll requiresboth frame-perfect and pixel-perfect timing, making it a tall order even for experienced speedrunners. By standing preciselyfive pixels from the edge of the screen, facing away from the exit, then turning 90 degrees forexactly one framebefore leaving, you can cause Link toreappear on the opposite edgeof the screen you just left.
4Rocket Jump
Quake
The granddaddy of multiplayer tricks, rocket jumping was an essential part of any serious FPS competitor in the late ’90s and early 2000s. First popularized during deathmatches inQuake,whose physics engine made it an especially useful strategy.
In any game where explosions cause knockback (which is to say, most of them), you might be able to get extra momentum or height by purposefully getting hit by an explosion you know you can survive. Quake players did this byfiring a rocket launcher straight at the groundat the height of a jump, using the ensuing kaboom to propel them wherever they needed to go.
3Pause Trick
Mega Man
One of the most formidable bosses in the originalMega Manwas the Yellow Demon, a blob-like monster with lots of health and whose only vulnerable spot was its small eye. Normally, you’d have to jump and shoot,plinking away at the eyeone shot at a time, all while dodging the Yellow Demon’s projectiles.
An unintended glitch made this boss fight, and others, a breeze. Equipping the weapon taken fromElec Manearlier in the game allows you to fire a large blast of lighting that takes up several tiles. Under normal circumstances, it only hits a target once, but if youpause the game and then unpause it, another hit is registered.Mashing the pause buttonuntil the bolt has passed the target allows for multiple hits in succession.
2Stair Skip
Super Mario 64
Super Mario 64is brimming with exploits if you know where to look, and many require precise execution. Combined with the game’s pitch-perfect platforming and heavy nostalgia value, it’s no wonder it’s one of the most popular titles to speedrun.
Normally, the stairway to the final showdown with Bowser is infinitely long, looping forever unless you have70 Power Stars. However, by perfectly executing abackwards long jumponto the stairs, you can cross the threshold before the game has time to check your Star count, bypassing the loop. From there, it’s just a rush through the final gauntlet to rescue Princess Peach!
1Wave Dash
Super Smash Bros Melee
Imagine an exploit so useful and so ingrained into competitive play that removing it made players furious. Although it was never meant to be a part of the game, the Wave Dash is part of Super Smash Bros history, and a big reason that many tournaments still use the 2001 edition of the famous brawler.
By performing an air dodge into the ground, you can transfer the downward momentum into a slide. Not only does this keep you moving, but it also cancels the dodge, allowing you to go straight into a combo or other movement.
Wave Dashing was removed from the next two Super Smash Bros games, as it was considered to make competitive play too daunting for aspiring beginners, but can be done in the current game,Super Smash Bros Ultimate- albeit in a less powerful form.
