10 Times Video Games Embraced Their Glitches

8. Pokémon - MissingNo.

This entry is less about game developers, as it is about the community embracing a glitch. ‘MissingNo.’ which means ‘missing number’, is a notorious glitch and exploit in Pokémon Red and Blue. The game uses a random battle encounter system that assigns all Pokémon a value and uses an algorithm that determines which little pocket creature you’ll encounter when you’re out in the wild or spelunking in a cave. However, through a sequence of unintended steps, the game would start to trigger encounters with the non-existent Pokémon, MissingNo.

This strange glitch was also a very popular exploit as, for some inexplicable reason, encountering the ‘d’ shaped Pokemon would cause the 6th item in the player's bag to increase by 128, making it a great way to stack Rare Candies and Master Balls. MissingNo. has since been added as number 000 in the Pokédex and has a consistent move set. Despite Nintendo brushing it off as a ‘programming quirk’, most fans, including me, will tell you that MissingNo. is canon.