MarioWiki:Glitches
MarioWiki:Glitches is a writing guidelines page aiming to explain when it is appropriate to describe a glitch on the wiki, and provide an idea of how to organize the information on Glitch pages.
"Legitimacy" of a glitch
One thing to look out before adding a glitch to a page is making sure that the glitch in question is inherent to the game's code and not caused by damage to the physical media (such as dusty contacts on a cartridge or fingerprints and/or scratches on a disc). If a glitch isn't replicable on two different copies of the game, chances are that it's caused by physical damage and should not be listed.
Another issue is that some glitches may actually be only present in emulation, ether due to shortcut in the emulation or a bad dump of the game. Listing glitches only present in ports (such as the Super Mario Advance series) and Virtual Console releases (which are emulations) is fine as they are official products, though it should be identified that such glitches only exist in those versions. However, listing glitches only present in unofficial emulators and bootleg/homebrew ports, or which only occur using cheat modules like Action Replay, is not allowed.
In some instances, a glitch may be patched out or corrected in a later printing of the game. Listing the glitch is still acceptable, but it should be noted that the glitch is only performable in a given version.
Organisation
Graphical
Any glitch that causes graphical errors, such as something being colored wrong or textures not showing up properly.
Audio
Any glitch that causes the audio to not play at all, to play incorrectly or to play the wrong clips.
Freezing
Any action that, when executed, causes the game to freeze or crash.
- Example: Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story crashes if the player deals 10,000 or more damage to an enemy.
Physics
Any exploits or strange behaviours of the game's physics.
- Example: The Black Hole glitch in Super Smash Bros. Melee, in which several Turnips can get stuck floating in midair.
Scripting
Glitches that cause unintended behaviours, such as events not triggering or items not working as they should.
- Example: Several games in the Mario Kart series have an exploit where the player can trick the game into thinking that the player completed a lap when they actually didn't.
Sequence break
Any glitches that allow the player to skip mandatory events or access an item/location much earlier than intended.
- Example: In Donkey Kong 64, one can use Lanky Kong to touch portals blocked by B. Locker and thus enter worlds without the normally required number of Golden Bananas.
