A glitch is, usually, a good game’s arch nemesis. Things aren’t always so black and white, though, and there are games out there that provide experiences so great that they aren’t hindered by a few glitches.
There are even some games that are actually improved by a bit of wonky code — spiced up by a few inspired glitches. Some glitches don’t get enough credit for the fun they add to the game — or for their instrumental role in shaping some projects into the masterpieces they are today. This list aims to celebrate some of the great games out there with glitches that actually enhance player fun.
The originalPokémon Red and Blueisn’t a particularly difficult game. At some point during their first playthrough, players will find out how to become rather overpowered and cruise through most of the game. Still, there’s no such thing as having too much power — or the ability to attain a vast amount of power in a shorter amount of time.
The gateway for that is Missingno, a glitch in the system posing as a Pokémon that players who surf along the coast of Cinnabar Island or Seafoam Island might come across. In a way, this is the most powerfulPokémonin the game, not because of its fighting prowess (pretty much any hit will immediately cause it to faint) but because of what it might grant players when handled right. The Missingno is such a strange glitch that it can duplicate items like Rare Candies — or partially corrupt the save files if misused. Despite the risks, this glitch felt like something of a secret endgame.
The Magnum for the originalHalo —a weapon the players pretty much start the game with access to — is by far the most powerful weapon in the game. None of the weapons in the super-advanced Covenant’s arsenal can even compare. In fact, no weapon in the history of theHaloseries can quite compare to its overall awesomeness.
The most interesting part, however, is how it was never meant to be that powerful. The Magnum inHalowas supposed to work as the weapon players would use once the assault rifle’s ammo got depleted, but it ended up as a much more powerful weapon than the assault rifle could ever be. Why? Because rushed pre-release changes to the game accidentally made it way more powerful than it was supposed to be, and the rest is (video game) history.
The Minus World from the originalSuper Mario Bros.is arguably the first truly popular glitch in mainstream gaming. It’s about an area in the game that players could accidentally enter but not leave. It’s called Minus World because it’s displayed asWORLD -1at the top of the screen, and it looks like a regular underwater map would.
The problem, however, is that players were never meant to get there, so there’s no exit other than via Game Over. Though entering the Minus World means doom for the player, the very existence of Minus World sparked a sense of wonder in players and developers alike, who have been using this cursed area as inspiration for their own versions of evil secret areas.
“What ifGTAhad fast travel?” is a question nobody ever asked beforeGrand Theft Auto 4, but it was one that the game did answer, albeit in a completely accidental manner. Walk — or drive a car — into any of the swing sets in Liberty City’s parks, and players will see them catapulting toward the skies.
Doing this without a car will most surely result in death, but doing so while inside a car might actually result in landing on the other side of the city with only a minor concussion. It’s not the healthiest way to travel, but it’s one of the most fun and original ones, which makes the Liberty City parks one of thegreatest landmarks in the game.
Some glitches, even some of the best ones, are hard to reproduce. Thewooden bridge glitch fromRed Dead Redemption 2, however, is so easy to trigger that it might as well count as a feature. All players need is to find a wooden bridge and have some throwing knives in their pockets.
Putting someone (perhaps someone tied up in ropes), or even Arthur himself, on the bridge, then throwing a few knives at the portion of the bridge that’s still in contact with the ground on one of its edges will cause the bridge to malfunction in the best possible way. It’ll begin to twitch erratically, and this will always culminate with it sending whatever’s on top of it into the skies as if it got catapulted. The originalRed Dead Redemptionwas known for many riotous physics glitches, but this one outdoes them all.
There’s a room inSkyrimwhere all the bodies of dead NPCs land when they despawn. It’s real, and, scariest of all, this room filled with tons of death was created on purpose. Luckily, there’s a wholesome counterpart to that:the room of dogs. Yes, it’s born out of a glitch — likely brought about by the universe’s need to balance things out — but it’s beautiful.
This is a room inSkyrimwhere one player found out dogs would spawn, which immediately sent the community into a frenzy. Why is this a glitch and not a feature? Not a stretch for a series where players can do so much cool stuff under the guise of “magic,” so, if anyElder Scrolls 6developer is reading this, then knoweveryonewould love this.
Sometimes, it’s not just the case of a glitch accidentally making a game better; sometimes, it’s straight-up the case of a glitch making a game happen. And, as fate would have it, the most successful franchise in history — a game famously about crime — owes its entire existence to malfunctioning cops.
As the developers of the originalGTAhave previously shared, the game wasn’t originally about crime, or at least not about the same type of crime. The whole thing was meant to be about illegal racing, where players would attempt to outdo each other, and the cops would chase them, but there was one problem. Due to a glitch, these cops were too aggressive and turned every race into something more akin toCarmageddon.This inspiredthe developers to shift the focus of the gameto getting away from these fast and furious cops, and the rest is history.
