History GoodBadBugs / PlatformGame

** In the Tiny Tiger boss fight of ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot3Warped'', there is a glitch in which Crash can avoid getting eaten by the lions.

** Similar to the "zip" glitch, and often caused by it, is the "level wrap". Essentially, if Sonic somehow manages to get further left than the very first pixel in a stage, he'll warp to the end of the level.

** The "slope glitch", which can be triggered in a variety of ways, causes Sonic to keep walking at the angle of the ground he was last walking on even after he's no longer on it - in other words, it's a sort of [[AchievementsInIgnorance "Looney Tunes physics" bug allowing Sonic to walk off of ledges and onto thin air]], and if he's walking up a slope, he can walk off of it into the sky. This is both useful and pretty wacky. Additionally, Scrap Brain Zone Act 3's win condition is, uniquely, to simply go up high enough, and the level has a steep slope right at the start. This means that right after Sonic is dropped into the area by Dr. Robotnik, Sonic can immediately use this glitch to float back out, hilariously skipping ''the entire stage'' simply by choosing to ignore the laws of physics.
** Taking damage at the right moment while drowning can cause you to lose 2 lives instead of 1. If you're on your last life, the game will [[FissionMailed appear to end... and then resume]], with the number having looped back around to 255 lives.
* There is a bug in Oil Ocean Zone, where if Sonic gets hurt and it knocks him backwards into one of the cannons, he'll fall out of them. Afterwards, his physics will be messed up in various ways: he'll move twice as fast and jump twice as high, and the slope glitch mentioned above will also be constantly occurring. Doing this with Super Sonic completely destroys the level. In a good way, of course.

** In levels which wrap around on themselves vertically, if the player holds "down" until the screen scrolls, then immediately jumps up, they'll jump offscreen and the camera will scroll wildly trying to figure out where they went. Since many objects [[RuleOfPerception only exist while they're onscreen]], this can be used to [[OffscreenRealityWarp bypass some obstacles, at the price of being unable to see what you're doing]]. This can also be combined with zipping to warp to areas you shouldn't be in, particularly if you can manage prescience maneuvers while the screen is still scrolling. This is extremely popular among players of ''Sonic 3 & Knuckles'', since many levels in that game happen to wrap vertically. It can even be used as Sonic or Tails to warp to areas in a level only accessible by Knuckles.

** The "zip" glitch is perhaps the most well-known, both due to it being a necessity for [[{{Speedrun}} speedruns]] and due to it sometimes occurring by accident in normal gameplay. Essentially, if the player character somehow gets stuck inside a solid wall, the game will try to correct this as soon as they try to walk left or right, by shoving them extremely rapidly in the opposite direction in order to eject them from the wall. If the player realizes what's going on, this can be used to skip areas; if you get yourself stuck in the floor in just the right spot, this can even be used to skip to the end of the stage. Most blatantly, the AdvancingWallOfDoom in Hydrocity Zone Act 2 can push one's character into the floor, causing this glitch to happen completely by accident.
** Similarly to the "zip" glitch, and often caused by it, is the "level wrap". Essentially, if Sonic somehow manages to get further left than the very first pixel in a stage, he'll warp to the end of the level.
** In levels which wrap around on themselves vertically, if the player holds "down" until the screen scrolls, then immediately jumps up, they'll jump offscreen and the camera scroll wildly trying to figure out where they went. Since many objects [[RuleOfPerception only exist while they're onscreen]], this can be used to [[OffscreenRealityWarp bypass some obstacles, at the price of being unable to see what you're doing]]. This can also be combined with zipping to warp to areas you shouldn't be in, particularly if you quickly maneuver while the screen is still scrolling. This is extremely popular among players of ''Sonic 3 & Knuckles'', since many levels in that game happen to wrap vertically. It can even be used as Sonic or Tails to warp to areas in a level only accessible by Knuckles.

** There is a bug regarding slopes which can cause Sonic to keep walking at the angle of a slope even after he's no longer on it. This can allow him to walk on thin air and up into the sky. Additionally, Scrap Brain Zone Act 3's win condition is, uniquely, to simply go up high enough, and the level also has a steep slope right at the start. This means that right after Sonic is dropped into the area by Dr. Robotnik, Sonic can immediately use this glitch to float back out, hilariously skipping ''the entire stage'' simply by choosing to [[AchievementsInIgnorance ignore the laws of physics, Looney Tunes style]].

** If the player holds "down" until the screen scrolls, then immediately jumps up, they'll jump offscreen and the camera scroll wildly trying to figure out where they went. Since many objects [[RuleOfPerception only exist while they're onscreen]], this can be used to [[OffscreenRealityWarp bypass some obstacles, at the price of being unable to see what you're doing]]. This can also be used to warp to areas you shouldn't be in in levels that wrap around vertically. The "screen warp spin dash", a technique frequently used by ''Sonic 3 and Knuckles'' speedrunners, exploits this; essentially, as most of the levels in the game wrap around onto itself, you can duck down until the screen scrolls down, then spin dash in place and jump. This causes the camera to get confused as previously mentioned, and can even be used as Sonic or Tails to warp in order to areas in a level only accessible to Knuckles.

** Taking damage at the right moment while drowning can cause you to lose 2 lives instead of 1. If you're on your last life, the game will [[FissionMailed show the "game over" screen... and then resume]], with the number having looped back around to 255 lives.

** The "zip" glitch is perhaps the most well-known, both due to it being a a necessity for [[{{Speedrun}} speedruns]] and due to it sometimes occurring by accident in normal gameplay. Essentially, if the player character somehow gets stuck inside a solid wall, the game will try to correct this as soon as they try to walk left or right, by shoving them extremely rapidly in the opposite direction in order to eject them from the wall. If the player realizes what's going on, this can be used to skip areas; if you get yourself stuck in the floor in just the right spot, this can even be used to skip to the end of the stage. Most blatantly, the AdvancingWallOfDoom in Hydrocity Zone Act 2 can push one's character into the floor, causing this glitch to happen completely by accident.

* ''VideoGame/Spyro2RiptosRage'' and ''VideoGame/SpyroYearOfTheDragon'' both had a few levels with the 'swimming' glitch - if you charged out of the water just ''so'' at certain points where the ground is level with the water, you can trick the game into letting you swim through the entire level. It makes finishing the stage a cinch and you can even finish a few of the challenges in a level by cheating, like swimming around collecting sprockets instead of riding a cart for them.

* There is a bug in Oil Ocean Zone in the beginning of act 2, if you jump at the side of the big purple platforms. you will shoot up into the sky. But if you get hit by the spikes and fall in the green ball-like tubes you'll fall out of them. If you've done this Sonic should be twice as fast and jump twice as high.
** Doing this with Super Sonic completely destroys the level. In a good way, of course.
** Another ''Sonic 2'' example (though it has zero impact on gameplay, it's just a glitch people have taken to fondly) is the ability to garble Sonic's colour palette. Executed using debug mode, if you place a bunch of waterfall objects on Emerald Hill Zone, when you transform back to Sonic, he'll appear out from behind the waterfalls with a neon green hue with black spots around his head. This is called the "Ashura" glitch ("Ashura" is just a name fans made up for the now-green Sonic). The fandom likes this and has turned "Ashura" into a fanon character on the side, but the glitch itself is just a simple palette error generated by the debug mode.

* Similar to the above Chemical Plant example, a staple in ''Sonic 3 and Knuckles'' The {{Speedrun}} technique is the "screen warp spin dash"; essentially, as most of the levels in the game wrap around onto itself, you can duck down until the screen scrolls down, then spin dash in place and jump. If you time it right, you'll get "lost" in the top of the screen, and the camera will rapidly scroll through the entire level in an attempt to find you again. Since sprite-based obstacles such as spikes and destructible walls are ignored when they're not onscreen, this can be used to skip to parts of the level you shouldn't be in. You can even use this trick as Sonic or Tails to warp to areas in a level only accessible to Knuckles.
** Speaking of glitching out items that are offscreen, this can be abused to let Tails jump on spikes while playing in tandem as Sonic and Tails. It's the easiest to perform on Carnival Night Zone, where Tails can stand and jump on spikes as long as the spikes themselves are out of view, treating them as a basic platform and only hurting Tails when the screen scrolls down far enough to expose the spikes.

* In the first few games, the way the engine is programmed has some interesting side-effects, which can, among other things, practically turn Sonic into WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom by letting him walk through walls, disappear, and [[NotQuiteFlight fly]]:
** The "zip" glitch is perhaps the most well-known, both due to it being a necessity for [[{{Speedrun}} speedruns]] and due to it sometimes occurring by accident in normal gameplay. Essentially, if the player character somehow gets stuck inside a solid wall, the game will try to correct this as soon as they try to walk left or right, by shoving them extremely rapidly in the opposite direction in order to eject them from the wall. If the player realizes what's going on, this can be used to skip areas; if you get yourself stuck in the floor in just the right spot, this can even be used to skip to the end of the stage. Most blatantly, the AdvancingWallOfDoom in Hydrocity Zone Act 2 can push one's character into the floor, causing this glitch to happen completely by accident.
** Similarly to the "zip" glitch, and often caused by it, is the "level wrap". Essentially, if Sonic somehow manages to get further left than the very first pixel in a stage, he'll warp to the end of the level.
** If the player holds "down" until the screen scrolls, then immediately jumps up, they'll jump offscreen and the camera scroll wildly trying to figure out where they went. Since many objects [[RuleOfPerception only exist while they're onscreen]], this can be used to [[OffscreenRealityWarp bypass some obstacles, at the price of being unable to see what you're doing]]. This can also be used to warp to areas you shouldn't be in in levels that wrap around vertically. The "screen warp spin dash", a technique frequently used by ''Sonic 3 and Knuckles'' speedrunners, exploits this; essentially, as most of the levels in the game wrap around onto itself, you can duck down until the screen scrolls down, then spin dash in place and jump. This causes the camera to get confused as previously mentioned, and can even be used as Sonic or Tails to warp in order to areas in a level only accessible to Knuckles.
*** The way that things are treated while they offscreen can also be abused to let Tails jump on spikes while playing in tandem as Sonic and Tails. It's the easiest to perform on Carnival Night Zone, where Tails can stand and jump on spikes as long as the spikes themselves are out of view, treating them as a basic platform and only hurting Tails when the screen scrolls down far enough to expose the spikes.
** There is a bug regarding slopes which can cause Sonic to keep walking at the angle of a slope even after he's no longer on it. This can allow him to walk on thin air and up into the sky. Additionally, Scrap Brain Zone Act 3's win condition is, uniquely, to simply go up high enough, and the level also has a steep slope right at the start. This means that right after Sonic is dropped into the area by Dr. Robotnik, Sonic can immediately use this glitch to float back out, hilariously skipping ''the entire stage'' simply by choosing to [[AchievementsInIgnorance ignore the laws of physics, Looney Tunes style]].
** Taking damage at the right moment while drowning can cause you to lose 2 lives instead of 1. If you're on your last life, the game will [[FissionMailed show the "game over" screen... and then resume]], with the number having looped back around to 255 lives.
* There is a bug in Oil Ocean Zone, where if Sonic gets hurt and it knocks him backwards into one of the cannons, he'll fall out of them. Afterwards, his physics will be messed up in various ways: he'll move twice as fast and jump twice as high, and the slope glitch mentioned above will also be constantly occurring. Doing this with Super Sonic completely destroys the level. In a good way, of course.
** Another ''Sonic 2'' example (though it has zero impact on gameplay, it's just a glitch people have taken to fondly) is the ability to garble Sonic's colour palette. Executed using debug mode, if you place a bunch of waterfall objects in Emerald Hill Zone, when you transform back to Sonic, he'll appear out from behind the waterfalls with a neon green hue with black spots around his head. This is called the "Ashura" glitch ("Ashura" is just a name fans made up for the now-green Sonic). The fandom likes this and has turned "Ashura" into a fanon character on the side, but the glitch itself is just a simple palette error generated by the debug mode.

** The "zip" glitch is perhaps the most well-known, both due to it being a a necessity for [[{{Speedrun}} speedruns]] and due to it sometimes occurring by accident in normal gameplay. Essentially, if the player character somehow gets stuck inside a solid wall, the game will try to correct this as soon as they try to walk left or right, by shoving them extremely rapidly in the opposite direction in order to eject them from the wall. If the player realizes what's going on, this can be used to skip areas; if you get yourself stuck in the floor in just the right spot, this can even be used to skip to the end of the stage. Most blatantly, the AdvancingWallOfDoom in Hydrocity Zone Act 2 can push one's character into the floor, causing this glitch to happen completely by accident.

* There is a bug in Oil Ocean Zone in the beginning of act 2, if you jump at the side of the big purple platforms. you will shoot up into the sky. But if you get hit by the spikes and fall in the green ball-like tubes you'll fall out of them. If you've done this Sonic should be twice as fast and jump twice as high.
** Doing this with Super Sonic completely destroys the level. In a good way, of course.
** Another ''Sonic 2'' example (though it has zero impact on gameplay, it's just a glitch people have taken to fondly) is the ability to garble Sonic's colour palette. Executed using debug mode, if you place a bunch of waterfall objects on Emerald Hill Zone, when you transform back to Sonic, he'll appear out from behind the waterfalls with a neon green hue with black spots around his head. This is called the "Ashura" glitch ("Ashura" is just a name fans made up for the now-green Sonic). The fandom likes this and has turned "Ashura" into a fanon character on the side, but the glitch itself is just a simple palette error generated by the debug mode.

* Similar to the above Chemical Plant example, a staple in ''Sonic 3 and Knuckles'' The {{Speedrun}} technique is the "screen warp spin dash"; essentially, as most of the levels in the game wrap around onto itself, you can duck down until the screen scrolls down, then spin dash in place and jump. If you time it right, you'll get "lost" in the top of the screen, and the camera will rapidly scroll through the entire level in an attempt to find you again. Since sprite-based obstacles such as spikes and destructible walls are ignored when they're not onscreen, this can be used to skip to parts of the level you shouldn't be in. You can even use this trick as Sonic or Tails to warp to areas in a level only accessible to Knuckles.
** Speaking of glitching out items that are offscreen, this can be abused to let Tails jump on spikes while playing in tandem as Sonic and Tails. It's the easiest to perform on Carnival Night Zone, where Tails can stand and jump on spikes as long as the spikes themselves are out of view, treating them as a basic platform and only hurting Tails when the screen scrolls down far enough to expose the spikes.

** The [[http://metroid.wikia.com/wiki/Door_Jump Door Jump]] which is famous enough to get it's own Wiki entry. The gist of it is there is a means to use a door to clip inside a wall which can be used for both SequenceBreaking as well as accessing the game's [[MinusWorld Secret Worlds]].

** Passwords tend to get "better" the more blue dots they have, and these "all blue" passwords will always at least work as the original intended due to a bug in the password generation system. This means you have a ''very'' good chance of "upgrading" a password by changing all the red dots in it to blue. For example, defeating the easy Top Man gave the password Red A3, Red C5. Changing these to blue would give you a password that started you out with Top Man and the rather difficult Snake Man defeated. Players swiftly figured it out and began a rudimentary form of "hacking" their game and. because of this, ''VideoGame/MegaMan4'' used all red dots, and by the time ''VideoGame/MegaMan5'' came out they had tweaked the system so this would no longer work.

** The battle against King Whomp becomes much easier once you know that if you jump when he falls forward on you, you'll pass straight through him and can ground-pound his vulnerable point immediately. This is because of a quirk of how ceilings work: Instead of being pushed down, Mario simply moves back to where he was before. Whomps fall fast enough that Mario can simply hang in place during the start of the ground pound.

** The battle against King Whomp becomes much easier once you know that if you jump when he falls forward on you, you'll pass straight through him and can ground-pound his vulnerable point immediately.

** Notably, after doing the hat-in-hand glitch, any other object Mario picks up will not be visible; presumably because his hat is already occupying the hand's "held item" memory slot. When you try to throw the item, Mario does the motion but no item appears. You can then walk around the level a bit and suddenly see the object appear out of mid-air in the same state as it was when thrown. The item was thrown at the holp. The holp in VideoGame/SuperMario64 is a global variable that stores an items x and y position when Mario is holding an item. When the hat in hands glitch occurs, the holp remains at its previous value because the item is invisible. For example if you picked up a box and threw it, after doing the glitch and throwing another, the second will appear at the same position as the first. You can even take this from level to level if you throw an item in one level, quit or die, then preform the glitch in another, it will appear at the same x and y as the last. This allowes you the throw items in places that Mario can't reach. The downside with cross level hat in hands is unless you have a tool that displays Mario's x and y position, you have little control where the item goes. The reason why it appears out of midair is that the levels are also loaded and unloaded as Mario moves to save memory. If he's not in the area, objects are deactivated and temporarily cease to exist as far as the game is concerned. This can be viewed if you enter any level with a large field and some enemies, they clearly "blink into existence" as you approach, and will appear to have been "paused" in motion.

** Almost every little interaction between every item in Super Marion Maker has been exploited by the community. A notable level maker called Psycrow has taken this to the next level, making levels that blatantly break the rules of level making (No scrolling, blending level modes, etc.) Due to Nintendo's "no glitches" policy, he's been banned multiple times, but you can see his levels on CarlSagan42's channel.

** Though whether this is [[BrokenBase good or bad]] depends on whether you're the [[TrollingCreator creator]] or [[ImpossibleTask victim]] of these levels, differences in how objects and items work between updates have allowed people to make [[UnwinnableByDesign truly unwinnable levels]]. The trick basically involved making a level on an older version of the game where beating it is actually possible, updating to the current version, and then uploading it for people to find that, on the current version, the level works differently and is now truly impossible. There's a similar equally hilarious and/or cruel trick where it's possible to make a stage that becomes impossible if you get the checkpoint and then die.

** Doing this with Super Sonic completely destroys the level. [[CaptainObvious In a good way, of course.]]

* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioMaker''. Almost every little interaction between every item in Super Marion Maker has been exploited by the community. A notable level maker called Psycrow has taken this to the next level, making levels that blatantly break the rules of level making (No scrolling, blending level modes, etc.) Due to Nintendo's "no glitches" policy, he's been banned multiple times, but you can see his levels on CarlSagan42's channel.

* ''Franchise/JakAndDaxter'':

* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy'': [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrMJDOjDQvc As discovered by]] LetsPlay/Chuggaaconroy, there are some planets you can fall through.
* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy2'' allows you to travel arbitrary distances in the air while riding Yoshi. Yoshi has a "flutter" action which adds a bit more length to his jump, which is meant only to work once per jump. However, crouching immediately after fluttering allows you to flutter again, which means with a bit of practice it is possible to chain together fluttering and crouching repeatedly and use it to fly over levels, totally breaking any level where Yoshi appears.

* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3'' has an odd bug that had no explanation for years (until about ''2005''!) and got many gamers called crazy. The sound effects for tail-wagging and a one-up interacted in a way the developers did not anticipate. Because of the way the sound chip handles interrupts, attempting to play both at the same time results in playing the one-up sound, but reading in more data than it should. Because NES sound effects are written in reverse order, this results in a corrupted beginning, followed by the complete normal sound effect. Oddly, some people have remarked that the "extended version" sounds pretty cool. The effect can be observed [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOhJk0PAp1A here]]. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2aA6Qe01NM This video]] uses a hacked RAM to "extend" any sound effect.