List of Super Mario World glitches
This is a list of glitches in Super Mario World. For glitches found exclusively in the port, see Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2 § Glitches. Unless otherwise noted, all names are conjectural.
Audio
Eat Control Coin glitch
If Yoshi were to eat the leading coin in a Control Coin before it collides with platform objects or blocks, such as the one at the very beginning of Donut Secret 2, the Switch Block theme plays indefinitely. The overlapping music only stops until the player runs out of time, loses a life, warps to a different location in the level via Warp Doors, Pipes, or other methods, or completes the level. This is fixed in Super Mario Advance 2.
 Eat Control Coin glitch | File info |
In underground levels, there is an echo effect on all sound effects. This echo effect stops when the player pauses, with the pause effect sound playing without an echo effect, but when the game is un-paused, the pause sound effect will have an echo effect despite the pause sound effect not being caused by any physical phenomenon in the underground level.
Green Berries and music speed glitch
Music speed increases when the timer reaches 99, warning the player of the time limitation. Usually this can only happen once in a given level. However, on Funky, where the Green Berries appear, the player is given 20 extra seconds for each berry eaten by Yoshi. If timed correctly, the player can eat all nine Green Berries, each when the timer is somewhere between 80 and 99 seconds, and it increases the music speed up to 10 times, making it very fast.[1] For a hacked ROM, the music has been discovered to speed up to 20 times. However, as the music speed modulator overflows the 21st time it gets modified, it overflows, slowing down the music drastically.[2]
The glitch was fixed in the Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2 remake, as the music does not speed up should the player attempt to try this glitch.
Silence after beating Sunken Ghost Ship twice
If the player replays and beats Sunken Ghost Ship, the music on the world map will not play until the player goes into the Valley of Bowser, the pipe leading to Chocolate Secret, or the Forest of Illusion.
Spin Jump sound glitch
In #4 Ludwig's Castle, in the room with the spiked ceiling falling down, the player must wait for it to touch the ground. If the player Spin Jumps afterward, the sound played is the one that plays when the ceiling hits the floor, instead of the normal Spin Jump sound.[3]
Graphics
Bouncing on Morton glitch
In either #2 Morton's Castle or #5 Roy's Castle, the player must wait for the Koopaling to run up the walls. The player must jump on the boss's head as he starts climbing the wall, when either Morton or Roy is invulnerable. If they continue to bounce on their head until they reach the ceiling, the player begins bouncing upside down onto them.
Cheep Cheep map glitch
If the player crosses a bridge in the overworld where a Cheep Cheep jumps out and pauses the game in the middle of the bridge, the Cheep Cheep will repeatedly jump out of the water.
Color-Changing Shell glitch
If the player picks up a Yellow Shell on the same frame a Koopa Troopa enters it, then performs a cape spin, it becomes an upside-down flashing shell. If the player then stops it with another Cape spin, the shell turns into a light-bluish or gray color.
Disappearing lift
The first Lift in Donut Plains 3 will disappear when it falls off of the Track and touches the Mushroom Platform. It is unknown why this happens, especially because the second Lift in the level does not do the same thing when it falls off of its track and touches a Mushroom Platform.
Glitched graphics from defeated enemies
There are a handful of sprites that were never intended to be defeated normally, but can be done via various methods, such as a sliding attack, a body press from Cape Mario, or using a Super Star (usually by additional glitches to obtain one in the Item Stock). These result in glitched graphics as the sprites are thrown offscreen, as they point to incorrect defeat graphics since the developers did not intend for these enemies to be defeated.
Sprites with glitched defeated graphics includes:
- Iggy/Larry's magical balls, which can be defeated by sliding or invincibility.
- Blarggs, which can be defeated by invincibility or by Cape Mario's body press.
- Diagonal lava bubbles, which can be briefly seen when they enter lava and can also be defeated by invincibility.
- Grinders, which can be defeated by sliding or invincibility.
- Ball 'N' Chains, which can be defeated by invincibility.
- Falling spikes, which can be defeated by invincibility.
- Flames from Ludwig, which can be defeated by invincibility.
- Fishing Boos, which can be defeated by invincibility.
- Flames from gray Bowser Statues, which can be defeated by invincibility or by Cape Mario's body press.
- Golden Bowser Statues, which can be briefly seen when they enter lava and can also be defeated by invincibility or by Cape Mario's body press.
- Big Steelies, which can be defeated by Cape Mario's body press.
Two other enemies are also glitched when defeated by unconventional means, being Torpedo Teds and Fish Bones. Although they do not have glitched graphics, they will continue to move forward and still be able to collide with the player to damage them. While this can only be observed in the original SNES version via having a Super Star in the item stock by other glitches, it is possible to see this in Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2 via playing as Luigi and having Yoshi hurl a projectile at either enemy.
This glitch was partially fixed in Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2. Magical balls displays their normal sprite when defeated by sliding, Blarggs simply disappear in a puff of smoke when defeated, and Torpedo Teds and Fish Bones no longer hurt the player or move forward when defeated. However, all other sprites are still glitched, but glitched graphics appears differently compared to the SNES version and largely varies on the location of where they were defeated - they may either appear as a static sprite or a rotation of several sprites.
Defeated magical ball
Defeated Blargg
Defeated Lava Bubble
Defeated Grinder
Defeated Ball 'N' Chain
Defeated falling spike
Defeated Ludwig fireball
Defeated Fishing Boo
Defeated Bowser Statue fireball
Defeated golden Bowser Statue
Defeated Big Steely
Glitched key
To make this glitch, the player must have already pressed the Red and Green ! Switches. The player must have Caped Mario and a Yoshi in Star World 4. At the level's secret exit, they must make Yoshi keep the Key in his mouth and fly with Caped Mario to hit all green ! Blocks at the left. If the player drops the Key, it becomes an item that changes from a yellow unshelled Koopa and an upside-down Cheep Cheep.
The glitch was not removed in Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2 since it functions exactly the same way, except that the glitched key now looks like Mario's face.
Glitched smoke graphic
In order to do this glitch, the player must go to Yoshi's House and keep pressing the 
and 
buttons. Sometimes the birds and berries pause and the smoke from the fireplace skips. Sometimes, the smoke becomes glitched. If the player cannot reproduce the glitch after about a minute, they must re-enter Yoshi's House and try again.
Glitched walk animation
If the player holds up on 
after defeating Bowser and into the credits, Mario's walking animation is glitched where he switches between his sprinting and looking up poses.[4]
Holding an item while riding Yoshi
If the player grabs an item on the same frame they mount Yoshi, they can hold an item while riding Yoshi, which is normally impossible.
Hurt while on Yoshi
Several objects in the game can hurt Mario/Luigi even while riding Yoshi. This causes Mario/Luigi to lose his powerup if he has one or a life if they do not. In the latter case, Yoshi will fall off the screen with Mario/Luigi, just as if they had fallen in lava or exceeded the Time Limit while riding him.
Objects that can harm Mario/Luigi while on Yoshi include:
- The side of a Mega Mole.
- The side or bottom of tiles that causes damage on contact, such as spikes or a Muncher.
- A Dino-Torch's flame breath.
- The sides of a Wiggler's body segments; this can be incurred not only by walking into the body segments from behind or when the Wiggler is turning around, but in a further glitch: by running too fast while on Yoshi and touching them partway through eating their Wiggler. Eating a Wiggler causes the Wiggler's head to be rendered intangible while it is on Yoshi's tongue and travelling to his mouth, but the Wiggler's body segments are still tangible until the Wiggler's head reaches Yoshi's mouth and he swallows it; this phenomenon allows Mario/Luigi and Yoshi to run through the Wiggler's intangible head and unexpectedly touch the side of a body segment, damaging him.
This glitch was partially fixed in Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2, as sprite-based objects (Mega Moles, Dino-Torch's flame breath, and Wiggler's body segments) no longer directly hurt Mario while on Yoshi and only results in a loss of Yoshi instead. However, damaging tiles like spikes and Munchers will still directly hurt Mario while he is on Yoshi.
Key glitch
The player can do it in Donut Secret 2. To do this, the player must be riding a Yoshi, the Yoshi must have something in its mouth (e.g. a Koopa Troopa), then fly to the left of the pipe near the exit without damaging the Koopa Troopas near the exit so that it reaches the sprite limits of the SNES. Because all of the sprite slots are occupied, and the Giant Gate Tape sprite is forced to spawn regardless of the occupied slots, if the Tape happens to override what is something on Yoshi's mouth, Yoshi will have the Tape instead in its mouth. Upon spitting it out, the graphic for the "kicked state" of the Tape will appear glitched because sprites like this are not intended to be in that state.[5]
Lack of falling animation
When Mario hits a sprite-based block such as a Message Block, a Flying ? Block, the Amazing Flyin' Hammer Brother's platform, Reznor's platform, the red ? Block to turn on the spotlight, or a roulette block in the bonus game, he will keep his upward jumping animation after hitting the block and falling. This glitch is easier to see with Cape Mario's slower falling.
Misplaced tongue
This glitch can be done in Vanilla Dome 3. The player needs to stick Yoshi's tongue, then immediately drop him to lava. While sinking, the tongue is a little above Yoshi's mouth.
Miscolored overworld
Warning! Performing this action may corrupt your game's save file.
In order to do this glitch, the player must go to the end of Chocolate Island 3. Under the goal, the player must jump off Yoshi to the Giant Gate so that the screen does not scroll up. If done correctly, Mario is barely seen when he finishes the level, and because Mario is not present on the bottom of the screen, the screen begins to flicker in many colors as the stage begins to fade out. When he comes back to the overworld map, the entire world is glitched and colored with red and blue. If Mario visits Forest of Illusion or Valley of Bowser and comes back to the main overworld, the entire world is ivory colored instead, but the sprites have their normal palettes. Entering a level will see the colors back to normal, but with black vertical lines in the background. The glitch ends if the player completes a level, visits Star Road or enters a pipe. In rare instances performing this glitch will cause the game to crash instead of going back to the map screen, with all save files being erased upon the game being restarted.[6]
Miscolored pipe
In Donut Secret 1, Mario must enter the Warp Pipe to the secret underground area. While Mario is on the ground, the pipes are orange, however, when Mario flies up and comes down, both pipes are miscolored green. Sometimes, the pipe gets only one third green-colored.[7]
Pipe cancellation glitch
If Yoshi eats a power-up very soon after the player enters a pipe but before the player is taken to the pipe exit, the power-up animation can interrupt the pipe transition, causing the game to behave in some ways as if the player was still entering a pipe, but allowing the player free movement around the level. The effects of this glitch can vary depending on the level, but common effects include Mario (but not while riding Yoshi) losing interaction with most sprites, Mario being rendered behind some background elements, and being able to destroy some objects such as Yoshi and the moving tape of the Giant Gate with Fire Mario.[8] The glitch can be canceled by entering a pipe transition or finishing a level.
Freezes
Eating a berry after death
This glitch can be done in Forest of Illusion 1. Mario must be Small Mario and be riding Yoshi. On the wooden platforms, Mario must place Yoshi below a berry, then jump so that he hits the Wiggler and lands on Yoshi at the same time. If done correctly, Mario will fly into the air while riding Yoshi, and Yoshi will eat the berry. This freezes the game, and the timer stops counting down, so the game must be reset.
Frozen Yoshi
The player must find a Fire Flower and Cape Feather in reserve (or vice versa), Yoshi and level with berries, like Yoshi's House. By collecting the stored item while eating a berry with Yoshi at the same time, the game stops responding, as well as causing Mario to flash from red to green like if he touched a Super Star. It can also have a more helpful effect of infinitely raising the player's coins, giving the player up to 99 lives in the process. The only way to end the glitch is by exiting the level, if a level is completed; otherwise the player must reset the game.
Offscreen transformation freeze
If the player transforms into Caped Mario while at least partially offscreen in an autoscroller level, the game will freeze. If the level has already been beaten, pressing 
and 
to exit it will work.[9]
Physics
NOTE: These glitches result from how Mario and/or other characters and objects interact with the world.
Anti-gravity room
In Vanilla Dome 2, Mario must be Super, Caped, or Fire Mario. The Switch Block must be active; when the player sees a rectangle-shaped structure of coins sitting on the ground, Mario/Luigi must duck while running, and wait for the Switch Block to become inactive. After that, he must stop ducking. He will be in the floor. Even more worth noting, Yoshi and any grabable items slide and do not react to gravity. This glitch is not possible in the GBA remake.
Chargin' Chucks and Flip Blocks
In Valley of Bowser 1, a Chargin' Chuck will break a group of two Flip blocks if both blocks are unflipped, and will pass through both of them if they are both flipped, but if the upper block is flipped while the lower one remains unflipped, the Chargin' Chuck will break both flip blocks.
Corner clip
If Mario is moving at full running speed, he can sometimes clip inside of 90 degree corners. It is very rare and can fail seemingly at random due to the way Mario's speed works.[10]
Corner death glitch
In Chocolate Island 4, the player must be small and jump into the right corner of the wall at the very start of the level. If done correctly, Mario or Luigi clip through the wall and die. This glitch was fixed in Super Mario Advance 2 due to better collision physics on slope ceilings.
| Corner death glitch | File info |
Enemy through wall
In any level with a falling yellow wall that can reach the floor and an enemy nearby, such as Donut Plains 2, if the enemy gets stuck between the floor and the falling wall, the enemy is forced into the wall and gets stuck.
Falling through floor
In Vanilla Dome 2, it is possible to fall through the floor via a glitch in both the original game and the Game Boy Advance remake. Towards the end, the player has to take a left and go through the "secret" passage. Then the player has to get a Buzzy Beetle shell and toss it at the first two blocks. Then the player has to quickly get a running start and slide under the blocks before they harden. Once there, the player must not release the 
button. Once the player is completely surrounded, if the player presses 
, Mario Spin Jumps through the floor, causing him to lose a life.
Fireballs bounce off of Haunted Holes
Despite Haunted Holes making the player fall through them, fireballs still bounce off of the Semisolid Platforms that the Haunted Holes overlap without falling through them.
Fireball teleportation via Escalators
If a fireball touches an Escalator when going in the same direction that the Escalator is going (i.e. if the Escalator is moving to the left), it will be teleported higher in the air when it touches the Escalator.
Flying storage while climbing
If the player makes Cape Mario fly, and then grabs onto a Vine or Chain-Link, he will be able to climb normally, but when Mario jumps off, he will start to fly. The direction in which Mario flies when he jumps off the fence depends on which frame of the climbing animation he is in, just like how which direction he punches is based on the particular frame.
Immunity to Fuzzies and Chainsaws while on Yoshi
While Mario is riding Yoshi, he cannot be hurt by Chainsaws or Fuzzies that are on Tracks. However, Fuzzies that move around Hard Blocks can still hurt the player.
In the Pillar
This requires precise timing. If Mario or Luigi spin jumps at just the right time while a Pillar is falling, he goes inside the Pillar.
In the pipe
This glitch occurs in both the original game and the GBA port. In any level with a pipe that extends and retracts into the ground, the player must get an item that Mario can carry around (Koopa Shells, Switch Blocks, etc.) and drop it on the pipe. When the pipe retracts, the item falls normally, however, when the pipe extends, the item gets stuck in the pipe. The item "vibrates" back and forth and eventually move out of the pipe after a few seconds. Yoshi can also be in the pipe, as long as Mario is not riding him.
Mario climbing in mid-air
If Mario is climbing on one of the moving rope sprites, and the movement of the rope pushes Mario against a solid tile far enough, he will be pushed off of the rope and be able to climb on nothing. He can even stop climbing and reclimb at will. The glitch ends if Mario exits the level ends in any way, goes through a pipe or door, or makes any form of contact with a moving rope sprite.
Mushroom block glitch
In Star World 5, the player should fly up to the area with the blocks that are activated by switches near the secret exit. They must be Caped Mario or Caped Luigi and spin with the Cape at the end of the yellow switch blocks while standing on the green ones. The bottom block is hit and produces a mushroom, however, due to having a block placed directly above it, begins to glitch in through the blocks. The player can still acquire it, but they do go through the blocks.
Objects moving during short pauses
While most objects in gameplay pause while the player is collecting a power-up, getting hurt, or losing a life, several objects continue to move during the pause in gameplay. These objects include:
- An Unshelled Koopa jumping out of a shell after it has been in the shell too long
- An Unshelled Koopa jumping out of a fake Rotating Block
- Sumo Bros.' lightning
- Yoshi's tongue
Power Balloon hitbox glitch
If the player is ducking and touches a Power Balloon, they will retain their ducking hitbox despite looking visually identical to the normal Balloon Mario form. This smaller hitbox can help with tricky areas such as Tubular.
Sand clouds on sand tides
In Valley of Bowser 2, the player should find a way to give their Yoshi sand clouds, such as using a yellow Yoshi and eating any Koopa Shell, eating the flashing shell, or eating the Yellow Shells that show up during Fall. When making the sand clouds on the sand tides, they will appear at the vertical position that the sand tides started at, regardless of what vertical position they are at now.
Shell jump
It is possible to throw a shell while in midair in such a way that the player can jump of off it to gain increased height.
Slope clip
By very precisely jumping or catching air with Caped Mario, it is possible to pass through solid slopes.[11]
Smashing item glitch
In both versions of the game, in a level with an object such as a Switch Block or Key, the player can dash to the direction of a wall holding the object. To do the glitch, Mario or Luigi must throw the item and swiftly dash to the wall, or drop it while standing next to a wall. The player gets stuck between the wall and the object and start to shake. The glitch can be ended by jumping or grabbing the item.
Spike Top in midair
If Yoshi grabs a Spike Top with his tongue and, before he manages to eat it, gets hurt, the Spike Top will be released and, deprived of a surface to walk on, the Spike Top will spin mid-air.
Springboard glitch
If the player steps on a Springboard on the same frame Yoshi's tongue licks it, the player will be launched into the air. Pressing 
and will increase the height achieved. This can result in going through walls.[12] This also results in a minor graphical glitch.
Sticky fly
If Caped Mario does a big air catch but interrupts the upward part of it by hitting a ceiling early enough, then the player will stick to the ceiling.[13]
Walking through floor
In some of the underground levels, it is possible to walk through the floor to the exit. First the player must grab a Koopa Shell or flipped Buzzy Beetle, then move between platforms that can defeat Mario almost closed in. The player must jump on it and Mario is able to walk through the ground until they reach an area requiring a jump.
Wall death glitch
The player must go to Donut Secret 1 and access its bonus area. The player must get the Power Balloon and hold left and right on the directional pad. Mario travels very swiftly, and if the player holds left and right with the Power Balloon and touches a wall on the side of the screen, Mario loses a life.
Wall jump glitch
If the player jumps into a wall with enough speed, they can rarely clip slightly inside of the wall, during which the game considers the player to be grounded. This allows a brief moment for the player to jump off of the wall.
Wall springboard glitch
The hitbox of the wall springboard wraps around the camera so that if it is part way off of one side, it will be on the other side of the camera. This can cause the player to appear to be bouncing off of nothing.[14]
Yoshi Clip[15]
Mounting Yoshi next to a corner can allow the player to clip into the corner.[16] This is easiest to perform in water levels.
Yoshi in a Warp Pipe
The player must place a Yoshi on an extending and retracting pipe. Whenever the pipe moves, Yoshi moves blocky. This glitch occurs in both the original SNES game and the GBA port.
Scripting
NOTE: These glitches abuse interactions that cause objects or displayed information to perform unintended behaviors.
Berry relocation glitch
If the player has Yoshi grab a berry on his tongue while it is extending, and then the tongue later attaches to an enemy in the same motion, the berry is left where the enemy was, without being swallowed. The berry also lacks animation, but can still be eaten. In some cases, the berry changes color (and behavior). For example, on Funky, the first Green Berry (after being moved) sometimes turns into a Red Berry if Yoshi eats the nearby Jumping Piranha Plant or another berry.
Block Duplication[15]
By throwing an enemy or object at a block very close to it, the block can be duplicated near it, unveiling the item, leaving the original block untouched. This can be done to either side of the block, above it, or above-diagonally to either side. This is because of a difference between which tile is hit and which tile is activated.
Also the game differentiates certain items by the block's horizontal position in the level. For example, blue Switch Blocks and gray Switch Blocks are actually the same object, but their type depends from the horizontal position of the blocks that contain them. Thus, by duplicating a block to the side with a Switch Block inside, it gives a Switch Block of the other color.[17]
Block Duplication can also be used in some instances to obtain items or other objects normally unobtainable in a given level. For example, if a Rotating Block is duplicated onto one half of a Dragon Coin, collecting the other half will transform the Rotating Block into a ? Block containing an item which also depends on the block's position in the level. It will always contain either a Key, Yoshi's Wings, a Power Balloon, or a Green Shell.[18]
Coin carryover
If the player presses as Mario is collecting a coin on the title screen demo, it will count as collected if the player then starts a new game in an empty save file. This allows the player to start the game with one coin instead of zero.
Credits warp
By defeating enemies and loading and placing objects in precise locations in Yoshi's Island 2, it is possible to warp directly to the game's ending sequence. This is caused by the placement of the objects, which writes data into the game's memory and can be exploited by an arbitrary code execution bug to cause the warp.[19]
Despawn Yoshi tongue glitch
If Yoshi is despawned three or fewer frames after sticking his tongue out, then if another Yoshi is spawned from a block in the same level, the newly spawned Yoshi will automatically stick out his tongue in a glitched way before it has completely hatched.
Double block activation
If either the player or a solid item hits a ? Block on the same frame as a second solid item, then the block will be activated twice.
Double tongue
If the player collects a power-up at a very specific time after pressing the button to stick out Yoshi's tongue, Yoshi will stick out his tongue twice. This glitch can be used to accomplish other unusual effects such as obtaining null sprites.
Eating dust with Yoshi
After an enemy is stomped on by Yoshi and turns into a cloud of dust, Yoshi can eat the cloud before it disappears, giving the player one Coin.
End game with Yoshi
This glitch happens in Yoshi's Island 3. The player must go with Yoshi into the Yellow Warp Pipe. Once they are there, the player must press the Switch Block and Yoshi must eat the pressed button a