Why Glitches Matter in Speedrunning
Glitching in speedrunning isn’t just about cutting corners it’s an artform. It takes instinct, technical skill, and obsessive repetition. A good glitch isn’t just a trick; it’s a breakthrough. It rewrites what’s possible in a game, often revealing just how shaky the foundations of even the most polished titles are.
These exploits also shaped the way speedruns are categorized. In an “Any%” run, almost anything goes glitches, skips, you name it as long as you reach the end. “No Major Glitches” (NMG) sets some guardrails: small skips might slide, but game breaking exploits are off the table. Then there’s “Glitchless,” the purist category, where the route sticks close to intended design. The glitch defines the path.
Leaderboards now reflect that complexity. Sites like Speedrun.com sort runs into distinct categories, creating fair comparisons and encouraging experimentation. One run might take 20 minutes using heavy glitches; another might clock in at 2 hours without touching a skip. Both might be world records in their own lanes.
But not every glitch gets a free pass. Communities draw lines between innovation and illegality. If an exploit involves external tools, hacked files, or game breaking manipulation outside accepted norms, it may be banned. The conversation’s ongoing, shaped by ethics, intention, and the rules each game’s community builds. For a deeper look at that boundary, check out this breakdown of legal vs illegal exploits.
Super Mario 64: Backwards Long Jump (BLJ)
What is the BLJ?
The Backwards Long Jump, commonly referred to as BLJ, is one of the most iconic glitches in speedrunning history. It exploits Super Mario 64’s momentum and lack of speed limits when moving backwards on staircases.
Players perform repeated long jumps in reverse
Momentum accumulates rapidly due to lack of backward speed cap
When used on specific staircases, it pushes Mario through barriers and doors
Why It Changed the Game
The BLJ didn’t just save time it shattered expectations of what was possible in an Any% run.
Allowed players to skip major parts of the game, including full levels
Became the core technique for the fastest Any% category
Encouraged runners to explore other staircase and collision exploits
Origins and Early Reactions
First discovered in the early 2000s, the glitch took the speedrunning community by storm.
Initially seen as an anomaly rather than a reliable technique
Forums lit up with discussions and experiments
Quickly became a staple in all major Super Mario 64 leaderboards
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Wrong Warp
How the Wrong Warp Works
In Ocarina of Time, the Wrong Warp glitch allows players to manipulate game data to warp to unexpected locations. It hinges on stressing the game’s memory and tricking it into misinterpreting loading zones.
Involves specific frame perfect inputs and item usage
Data from one scene influences the next, leading to unintended transitions
Utilizes Farore’s Wind, death warps, and precise timing
The Routes It Unlocked
This glitch opened up an entirely new dimension of route planning.
Enabled players to warp directly to end game areas
Bypassed long dungeons or item requirements
Created a whole subgenre of glitch based Ocarina of Time speedruns
Influence on Glitch Hunting
Wrong Warp didn’t just break the game it reshaped how people looked for glitches.
Inspired detailed memory and data analysis of other games
Set a precedent for routing built on glitch chaining
Became a learning tool for TAS developers and live runners alike
Pokémon Red/Blue MissingNo
The Glitch That Started It All
MissingNo is arguably speedrunning’s most famous accident. At its core, it’s a result of calling unassigned memory due to programming oversights. Yet what began as an urban legend became vital to speedrunning strategy.
Triggered by flying from Cinnabar Island and using the Old Man’s tutorial
Causes an encounter with a glitched Pokémon (MissingNo)
Duplicates the 6th item in the player’s inventory when captured or run from
Speedrunning Potential
While initially considered just a strange curiosity, MissingNo evolved into a useful speedrun tool.
Helped generate rare items like Master Balls or Rare Candies instantly
Became central to routes in glitched gameplay categories
Led to advanced inventory manipulation to complete the game quickly
A Glitch Icon
MissingNo became more than a speedrun tool it defined a generation of hidden mechanics.
Revealed how much of Pokémon’s code was exploitable
Inspired similar glitches in later generations
Cemented itself as game history, not just a useful bug
Glitch Discovery: Not Always an Accident
Glitch hunting is part science, part obsession. While some exploits are found by accident, most of the game breaking discoveries come from days sometimes months of testing, poking, and flat out breaking the rules of a game’s code. It starts with trial and error. Runners try weird combinations of inputs, inventory manipulation, and frame perfect timing just to see if anything strange happens. When it does, reverse engineering kicks in.
That’s where tool assisted speedruns (TAS) come in. TAS isn’t just about showing off impossible tricks it’s a lab tool. With frame by frame precision, creators force the game into edge cases that human hands can’t reach. A glitch that takes 200 inputs in a single second? TAS finds it. Then human runners step in to figure out what’s actually doable in a live run.
None of this happens in a vacuum. Glitch hunters live in niche corners of the internet forums, pastebins, and ultra specific Discords. There, people swap save files, experiment logs, and raw footage. Collaboration is king. What starts as a sketchy exploit in a TAS video can snowball into a new category or world record if the right people see it and obsess hard enough.
Glitches aren’t just stumbled upon they’re hunted.
The Legality Debate
Glitches might bend a game’s rules, but not all bends are considered breaks. In speedrunning, the line between fair and foul isn’t drawn by the developers it’s defined by the community.
Most speedrunning communities split their leaderboards into well agreed categories: Any%, No Major Glitches (NMG), Glitchless, and more. These aren’t just about fairness they’re about transparency. Players want to measure skill on level playing fields. If one run uses a frame perfect trick to bypass 90% of the game, and another sticks to core mechanics, both deserve recognition but not in the same bracket.
Developer intent? That’s background noise. Once a game’s in the wild, it becomes something else. Communities decide what’s allowed, what’s not, and whether a trick gets its own place or gets banned altogether.
Sure, there are always edge cases exploits that feel too powerful or too easy but even those get judged on the same criteria: does it break the definition of the category? If not, it usually stays. If yes, it goes or splits into a new one.
For more on how glitches get labeled and sorted, check out legal vs illegal exploits.
Future of Glitch Centric Speedrunning
Some modern devs are finally catching on: speedrunners aren’t breaking their games they’re redefining how players engage with them. A few forward thinking studios are starting to bake in that possibility. Games like Neon White and Celeste come with built in timers, leaderboards, even community modes geared toward speedrunners. It’s not mainstream yet, but the message is clear speedrunning is part of the culture now, and some devs want in.
But here’s the rub newer games also ship with tighter code and quicker patch cycles. The moment a weird exploit makes the rounds, it’s getting hotfixed, often before it’s even fully weaponized by the speedrun community. That makes glitch hunting harder in new titles and shifts a lot of the action back to older games, where patches are rare or nonexistent. Think SNES classics, early 3D console titles, or pre 2010 PC games these are the treasure troves, still coughing up strange new skips decades later.
And yes, there are still hidden mechanics and edge case bugs out there, waiting to be found. It might take years, but speedrunners are patient. Armed with emulators, memory viewers, and a practiced intuition, someone’s always tearing into a game’s guts, chasing the next big break. This isn’t a dying art it’s an evolving one.
Glitched, But Brilliant
Speedrunning doesn’t suffer because of glitches it owes much of its evolution to them. Glitches turned unintentional programming quirks into creative fuel. Where most players see a mistake, speedrunners see opportunity. Warping through walls, breaking level triggers, duping inventory slots these aren’t cracks in the game that ruin the challenge; they’re alternate doors into mastering it.
Glitches are more than shortcuts. Each one forces the runner to understand the game at a deeper level: physics systems, memory limits, animation timings. A well executed exploit isn’t random it’s precision. And that precision blurs the line between player and developer.
Ultimately, every major glitch tells a story. A story of how systems interact, where they break, and what it takes to twist the rules. Speedrunners aren’t wrecking games they’re rewriting them. It’s not chaos. It’s craft.
