7 Glitches In Video Games That Became Essential Features In Their Franchise
Life's a glitch.
"There are no mistakes, only happy accidents," said the late, great Bob Ross. Sure, he was talking about painting, but the quote bares just as much relevance to the equally valuable art form of video games.
That said, sometimes mistakes are just mistakes. It’s insanely frustrating when a game bugs out and traps you in an invisible wall, or sends you spiraling forever down, through the floor, and into the video game aether until you give your PC a healthy kick to the motherboard and force reboot.
But sometimes, these happy little programming accidents can be awesome. It could be that they allow you to cheat your way to infinite Rare Candies in Pokemon, or glitch a deceased pet out into the overworld and unleash a deadly corrupted blood plague in World of Warcraft. Sometimes they can even be so awesome they go on to hugely influence the gaming franchise they ‘broke’.
With that final point in mind, let's take a look at those games which might have had ninety-nine problems, but a glitch ain't one.
7. Zoo Tycoon - Killer Penguins
Zoo Tycoon is a business simulation game series that revolves around the building and maintenance of a successful zoo. You have to build and upgrade animal habitats, buy creatures, allocate staff and resources for animal care, provide drink and food stands for customers and fulfil your wildest, capitalist fantasies by taking in millions of virtual dollars profit.
In the first game of the series there is an entertaining glitch that meant an emperor penguin would savagely murder any other non-penguin herbivores placed in the same exhibit. This was fixed in the sequel, but the developers kept the spirit of the glitch alive by introducing the ‘Killer Penguin’. If you fail the lab cloning mini-game, you have a chance of receiving a Killer Penguin Egg. Complete with sharp teeth and glowing, yellow eyes, the beast will kill any animal it’s placed near, including Orca Whales, a T-Rex, or even a stray customer.
They can’t be sold either, meaning you’re trapped with the monster forever. Ain’t life a glitch like that?