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Video games have always been full of surprises, but sometimes glitches turn out to be even more legendary than the games themselves.
Over the years, fans have shared stories of weird bugs that break the rules of certain games, add a bit of whimsy or change the game mechanics that no one had expected, yes, a shock to developers themselves. This is what makes these glitches memorable; they still get talked about decades later.
The titles came during the early phase of game development, mostly witnessed these sorts of glitches. Reliving those moments, we are going to explore some of the iconic video game glitches that fans still talk about.
Minus World Glitch in Super Mario Bros (1985)
Starting this list by talking about the glitch from one of the most popular video games that has defined our childhood, Super Mario Bros. The Minus World glitch in this game still gets fans' attention who have experienced this legendary glitch in a fun way. It occurs at the end of world 1-2, which is just before the Warp Zone.
There are two main ways to do it. The first involves breaking the brick near the exit pipe and then performing a backward jump so that Mario’s head clips into the wall, while the second is a little simpler and only requires a crouch jump into the corner of the wall without breaking anything. Once Mario is inside, if he enters the first pipe, he will be taken to a world level that shows up as “World -1.” Now, this is a computer graphics glitch that has been named as minus world by fans.
This level is basically the same as World 7-2, except it never actually ends and loops indefinitely. There is only one way to clear this level, which is to reset or restart your game. The way this glitched level worked, fans assumed it was intentional, but the creator of Super Mario Bros., Shigeru Miyamoto, completely denied this.
Super Bounce Glitch in Halo 2 (2004)
This glitch from Halo 2 on the original Xbox allowed players to launch themselves many feet into the sky. Players started using this glitch to access certain heights for their advantage, a classic case where a bug becomes a feature itself. Now, if you are wondering how this glitch used to be executed, the very first thing you had to do was to store your crouch.
This could have been done by walking into a tight corner or a small space where your character could barely stand up. Here, the game engine will get confused and will lock your crouching state even when you stop moving. Storing that crouch energy, you just had to jump on any grid line or exact place where two textures meet, and it will launch you upwards.
How someone would have discovered this glitch still perplexes the fans, but the most reasonable assumption is that it would have happened accidentally while crouching and jumping, by pausing and resuming the game, because the map would briefly load without textures, revealing the cracks where different parts of the map connected.
MissingNo. glitch in Pokémon Red and Blue (1996)
The MissingNo. glitch was first discovered in Pokémon Red and Blue (1996) on the Gameboy and at that time, it had become one of the biggest mysteries and playground rumors among many Pokémon fans. Actually, this was a case of memory duplication effect, or you can say a glitch in memory handling. While it looks like a mysterious secret Pokémon, it was just corrupted data, which was showing up as something that you weren't meant to see in the first place.
The well-known method to encounter this MissingNo., or you can say secret Pokémon, starts when you talk to the Old Man in Viridian City, who will teach you about catching Pokémon. Afterwards, you had to fly to the eastern shore of Cinnabar Island. Since the game did not overwrite the data from your tutorial, it gets mixed with your player name, and this confusion leads to a MissingNo. encounter.
Encountering this MissingNo. came with its weird effect, also like it used to duplicate the sixth item in your bag, and not to mention, this was also the reason that many players used this trick and ended up with 99 Master Balls or Rare Candies.
Nuclear Gandhi glitch from Civilization (1991)
Pioneer in turn-based strategy games, the Civilisation series gives players the power to build powerful empires and lead historical figures like Stalin, Naplion, and many more. Gandhi was also one of them, representing the Indian Empire. As we know, Gandhi is seen as a figurehead of peace and non-violence, and that is why he was given the lowest aggression rating of 1 among all other leaders in the game, which makes it highly unlikely to have any aggressive traits. Then how come Nuclear Gandhi bug came into the picture? Well, it's one of the best-known gaming myths, which is also a half-glitch, as per fans.
In the first game, if you adopted democracy, your aggressiveness was reduced by 2. Because Gandhi's aggressiveness was already 1, and you subtract 2, the game's underlying code would go into an underflow instead of going to zero; it would wrap around to 255, which is effectively "maximum aggressiveness." So, you had peace-loving Gandhi now as a warmonger who couldn't stop launching nukes at everyone.
While, creator of the game, Sid Meier, debunked as stating it as just an urban legend. Many fans still believe it was an unintentional glitch that should not have happened in the first place.
Giant Launch Glitch in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011)
When we talk about legendary glitches that became part of gaming culture, Skyrim’s giant launch glitch has to be one of the funniest. Giants in Skyrim are already terrifying enemies with their massive clubs, but thanks to a ragdoll physics bug, fighting them turned into something completely different. Instead of simply knocking you down, a single swing could send your character flying straight up into the sky, sometimes vanishing into the clouds before crashing back down.
What made this glitch so memorable is that it was not just a one-time accident but something players could repeat whenever they fought a giant. Many fans even started provoking giants on purpose just to enjoy the hilarious sight of being launched hundreds of feet away. Instead of being patched out immediately, the glitch stuck around and became part of Skyrim’s charm. Even Bethesda seemed to enjoy how much fun players had with it, and to this day, the giant launch remains one of the most iconic and meme-worthy glitches in gaming history.
Some More Iconic Video Game Glitches
- GTA IV Swingset Glitch: An iconic bug from the early days of the game's release. Located at a playground in Broker, if a player drives a car into the swingset, the game's physics behave abruptly and launch your vehicle high into the air.
- Donkey Lady Glitch in Red Dead Redemption: One of the strangest bugs ever seen in any Rockstar title. The Donkey Lady is a glitched NPC. This character possessed the body of a normal female peasant NPC, but instead had the head and animations of a donkey. Not only can you even climb on its shoulder and ride it like a donkey.
- Rocket Jumping in Quake (1996): Rocket jumping began as an accidental find in Quake, but went on to become one of the most well-known “player-created” tricks in gaming history. Players discovered that they could fire a rocket at the ground while jumping, effectively launching their character much higher than they could normally jump.
- Combo Glitch in Street Fighter II (1991): Glitch might be a harsh word here; it’s more of an unintended feature. Players discovered that certain attacks could be linked together before the opponent recovered. Guess what? This has become a very foundation for modern fighting games itself.
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