10 GENIUS Ways Players Outsmarted Video Games
There's thinking outside of the box, and then there's smashing the box to pieces!
Let's admit it: It's fun to bend the rules from time to time.
Knowing we can get away with doing something we're not supposed to is an illicit and decadent thrill that permeates through most avenues of life and video games are no exception.
It goes without saying that if players can find a way to bypass a whole area of a game or get away with slaughtering countless NPCs without any consequences, then you can bet your boots that's exactly what they're going to do.
I mean, if the tools are there, why not use them?
Throughout the years, dedicated players have often sought out new and inventive ways of outsmarting their favourite games. Be it through sequence breaks or exploits, players can and will search every nook and cranny for an easy way to bypass something or simply unearth a nifty little trick that makes the game a lot more fun.
So with that, let's dive on in and look at some of the best ways that players have managed to outsmart their favourite games.
Hopefully you'll pick up a trick or two while we're at it.
10. Sequence Breaking - Super Metroid
Perhaps the earliest known example of players outsmarting video games came with the release of the highly anticipated and utterly fantastic Super Metroid. A groundbreaking title in every sense of the word, it greatly expanded upon the original's non-linear approach to gameplay and implemented many key features that would become series staples.
Throughout the game, players must traverse an open-ended landscape and recover each of Samus' lost abilities in order to unlock new areas. For the most part, players follow a linear path, encountering particular enemy types, bosses and additional upgrades at predetermined intervals.
Dedicated fans soon realised that there are ways to obtain Samus' power-ups far earlier than intended, meaning that large stretches of the map could be traversed in mere seconds and boss encounters were far easier to deal with due to the increase in firepower and energy reserves.
In some instances, entire sections of the game could be skipped, cutting down completion times by a substantial amount. The combined efforts of these early pioneers lead to the rise of speedrunning, a practice that remains incredibly popular to this day.
We can say with certainty that without Super Metroid, gaming culture wouldn't quite be the same.