Glitch

Glitches are the term for when something strange happens in a Mario game. Two examples of glitches are Dark World and Minus World.

When glitches happen, either something weird will happen (such as Mario being able to walk underwater a glitch in Super Mario Sunshine) or the screen will freeze and sometimes some random pixels appear on screen. Some glitches are caused by damaged games. Some only activate when the player presses a certain sequence of input commands (pressing buttons). Also, as seen in Super Mario 64, if a person is to tilt the game console itself, Mario's limbs will be dislocated and become really weird, although players can still play in that position.

Trivia

 * Glitches have been parodied and even used in the plot of Mario games. Examples of this include TEC-XX, who had the "glitch" of falling in love with Princess Peach in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, and Fracktail of Super Paper Mario, who shouts many lines of dialogue spoofing glitches and errors.