10 Glitches That Actually IMPROVED Video Games
1. Street Fighter II Combos
As far as video games bugs go, there are those that beg belief as to how they made it out at all, but then there are those like the combo function originating from Street Fighter II: The World Warrior, that were allegedly known to developers before hitting the shelves.
It was in that arcade smash hit of 1991 that Capcom discovered executing a normal attack prior to a special animation could cancel the latter. Not only that, it was then possible to unleash a steaming barrage of Street Fighter excrement upon one’s foe, and there was nothing they could do about it.
Of course, “steaming barrage of Street Fighter excrement” is slang for combo from someone who’s received too many and isn’t good enough at doing them himself.
According to lead game designer Akira Nishitani, this was in fact known to the Capcom team beforehand, but because it didn’t cause any bugs and players could at most take about a third of a health bar away, it remained.
The arcade combo was born.
Tekken, Soul Calibur, King of Fighters; you name an arcade fighting game these days and it’s sure to have a combo move system of its own implemented, and it all started with a simple glitch, albeit one Capcom could not have anticipated would be so warmly embraced by its users.