I’ve been playing a lot of incomplete and glitchy games lately, from Radical Heights to Far Cry 2. Their messy imperfections often annoy players looking for sleek and polished experiences where everything runs smoothly but I find unfinished textures and falling out of bounds is strangely beautiful.
Super Mario World has plenty of warps and tricks to help players finish the game faster than usual, but none are as extreme as the credits warp. This intense glitch was once thought to be nearly impossible for a human to perform, but one speedrunner recently used it to complete the game in less that one minute.
The fastest way to beat the iconic role-playing game Final Fantasy IV isn’t to dash through the final dungeon or grind for all the best spells. It’s to walk up and down the same staircase 63 times.
Last year, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker speedrunners found a way to get to the end of the game early, but reaching Ganon for the final fight involved a risky trick that was entirely dependent on luck to complete. A new trick discovered this weekend removes the random chance and makes the game faster than ever.
Super Mario Odyssey has a hell-gauntlet at the end of the game that stymies plenty of casual players, but speedrunners have been skipping it for a while using a simple glitch. You can, too.
Patches are one of the best parts of gaming; you get to play Calvinball in real time, over the span of years. When developers announce their patches, though, they can sound ridiculous whether they’re describing what’s being fixed or introduced.
Throughout Link’s adventure in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time he must find new tunics in order to survive the extreme heat and cold. These items have been considered essential for completing dungeons, but speedrunners have found a risky way to never use them thanks to a new glitch.
The world record for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is 17 minutes and 9 seconds… but what if you pressed the A button as little as possible? Limiting Link’s ability to jump, talk, and open chests creates a new challenge for speedrunners to race through.
Destiny 2’s competitive Trials of the Nine multiplayer mode will be delayed for two weeks after a glitch involving emotes allowed players to hide out of bounds.
Yesterday, Clan Redeem was the first team to finish the harder, “prestige” version of Destiny 2's Leviathan raid. But because they used a well-known glitch, some players are calling for their disqualification.
Weird fact: there was a PlayStation 2 version of the original Half-Life. Weirder fact: it contained a file cabinet that would move to face you if you approached it.
