10 Ways Players Accidentally Broke Video Games

As fun as it is to watch speedruns strategically use game-breaking tricks to make a fifty-odd hour game as few hours long, it's not something that most people like to try and do the first time they play through a game. Even tricks that benefit the player are generally avoided unless you're finding it impossible to finish a fight. There's something about finishing a battle through legitimate means that's just generally more appealing, regardless of how weird or amusing the trick method is.

But this doesn't mean you can't still break the game. Because video games involve such complicated coding, it's easy for there to be small things they didn't think about protecting or preparing for - or bugs that mean even things they tried to avoid becoming a problem for the game script still mess it up.

Even the most innocuous of things can end up accidentally dunking your whole game into the proverbial ocean. While this is fair when you're messing around, it's less fair when your whole game sabotages itself for crimes such as "trying to play it", or "completing the main story".

Sometimes, you have to just risk the fact that you might accidentally corrupt your own save. And, generally, most games are worth taking that risk.

While Pokémon isn't a game just for kids, it's also a game with a huge young player base - because training magical mice to defeat dragons is something that's entertaining for all ages.

And while it's unfair to say kids are more likely to do dumb things, it's fair to say that they find perhaps a greater sense of amusement in doing slightly impractical things, largely because they haven't gotten as used to the tropes of gaming as many older players are.

This in mind, it's easy to imagine a kid repeatedly trying to get into Cycling Road - which takes up Routes 16, 17 and 18 - without a bicycle. This would be fine, if it weren't for the fact that, at a certain point, the game just gives up and lets you on the road anyways, because god loves a trier.

While you can happily trot around Cycling Road this one time, you're likely a level way too low if you don't actually have a bike for it. Similarly, the fact that you've messed with the game script by walking into an area you shouldn't be able to can cause all sorts of other issues along the way - which is maybe what you get for tempting fate and going against Arceus' intentions.