PixlBit

So today I found myself waking up thinking I was late for work because it was still dark out and didn't bother to check to see the PM/AM setting. But, that's not all today. I've also found myself watching and playing games with glitches and or bugs. We've all come across them in one way or another. At times they break a game, at times they amuse you. But where would we be if we didn't try to exploit game programming to either cheat or find things in games we aren't supposed to?

I remember my first experience in the greatness of glitches came with Pokemon and the MissingNo. glitch. This ever so famous glitch gave you a seemingly infinite amount of whatever item was in your 6th slot. Now with any glitch came nasty side effects. Catch any of the pokemon you find that have say a level 120 or more rank and your game screws up, catch MissingNo. and your game screws up/ you can't utilize the cheat anymore, also the hall of fame messes up. But gamers who did it exploited this trick for easy leveling and catching of pokemon. Another, but far less memorable glitch in Gold & Silver was called the duplicate glitch in which you equip a pokemon with some specialty item in an empty box and proceed to save. However, as you save quickly turn off, turn it back on and voila two pokemon/two items...Wash, rinse, and repeat.

Now I will admit back in the day game genie/game shark was the thing to have. Do you suck at a game? Game genie! Need a super secret awesome gun? Game shark has got ya covered! These were so innovative and such great tools. If you haven't cheated at a game....you must be a patron saint. Even so, I know most gamers who have exploited cheats or glitches at some point in their life.

Nowadays, glitches and cheating has changed. We now have action replay, tool assisted gaming, new programming errors. No game is without faults or exploits. Let's take a look at modern Zelda games. Wind Waker had Zombie hover and ledge clipping, Twilight Princess has glitches galore letting you achieve the master sword as early as the first dungeon or in the Gamecube version Super jump sword slashing, And Skyward Sword had a game breaking glitch in which if you happened to go out of sequential order and do Lanayru desert before Faron Woods, well you just screwed yourself.

Classic Mario had the minus world, Super Mario Galaxy 2 has the infinite flutter jump. All these various things have been discovered by gamers who just love to discover. I've encountered bugs and glitches myself playing many bad wii games. Let's take the wii version of Tomb Raider Underworld. A game so broken, so bug filled, and so glitchy that there are step by step walkthroughs for players just to make it through the game. And it's not hard to achieve. On a gear mechanism puzzle in Mexico the mechanism completely flipped out and crap was seemingly flying and hovering everywhere....all this due to me crashing in a certain spot on the map causes this fit that forces me to start all over from the beginning.

Bugs, glitches, and cheats can be fun or frustrating. Now with action replay or tool assisting you can break a game to cheat at say mario kart online matches. Have you ever been in a match with someone who activates infinite bullet bills? You probably have. I myself have used action replay in rpgs. I accidentally erased all my progress in Super Paper Mario, so with the power or action replay I boosted up to level 99 and flew through the game easy, peasy. And quite a few games you can do this with. I watched an arc rise fantasia playthrough and for those of you who know there are unwinnable boss fights. So what happens if you break the game to cheat and try to cheat a cheating game that is supposed to make you lose? Why the enemy never dies of course.

Anyways that's just a small little sample. I could go on and on, but I figured I'd ask you readers about examples you have encountered. Are you or have you been a dirty, rotten cheater? Have you encountered a bug or glitch or your own that fascinated you? Comments and feedback are always appreciated!