10 Video Game Bugs That Became Features

7. Skiing - Starseige: Tribes

Wildly popular cult favourite FPS Starsiege: Tribes was the first game in the Tribes series. It was released by Sierra in 1998 and offered up a squad-based multiplayer playground with a story set in the 40th century. Players are equipped with various weaponry and, crucially, a jetpack. While there were plenty of traditional ways for players to get around levels, it was discovered that speedily tapping the jump button while running down a particularly steep slope would result in the character going really, really fast.

This exploit was called “skiing” and especially clever players learned to use it in conjunction with the jetpack to absolutely blitz through the maps.

While in most other games an exploit like this would have elicited a good laugh from the developers and been promptly patched out, Dynamix decided to make it synonymous with the Tribes name and playstyle. This reputation went as far as to extend to the branding upon release of the latest Tribes title, Tribes Ascend, which was slated as the, quote, “World’s Fastest Shooter.”

In Tribes 2, the studio adapted and made maps that would better accommodate skiing so the glitch was no longer an option but a necessity for competitive play. Pretty impressive, really.