While the best video game moments often are ones scripted by the creators, sometimes it’s the unintentionally amazing glitches that stay in our mind. After all, there’s nothing gamers love more than breaking games.
Entire communities form around these glitches, and some even have a variety of practical uses. For instance, many glitches are searched out and abused by players looking to speedrun games the fastest in the world. But sometimes even the most useless and hilarious glitches keep us coming back to their videos (and games) time and time again.
With that in mind, let’s look at some of the best glitches of video games caught on film in the last ten years.
1. Swingset catapult – Grand Theft Auto IV
Whether you used this glitch or just stumbled upon someone else doing it online, it’s probably a moment you remember more than any other when it comes to Grand Theft Auto IV, despite it being one of the best games of the series.
To execute this glitch, the player drives into a seemingly innocent park. Within the park, after navigating its fencing with some solid driving, the player can then back into a swing set. Seems harmless enough, right?
But then the player is catapulted halfway across the city in the air, faster than any plane can go in the game, without an ounce of control of their vehicle until it crashes spectacularly.
You can see why players loved this glitch, returning time and time again.
You can see this glitch in action (plenty of times here.)
2. A medley of glitches - EA UFC
MMA games captured a very large audience almost immediately, riding on the back of the UFC’s success in real life. Its first renditions were solid, and had a few noticeable glitches but nothing awful. Then EA UFC came out, and for many that flew right out the window.
EA UFC is perhaps the glitchiest combat game to ever reach market, and players took plenty of joy in exposing and exploring this.
Whether it’s flying straight up out of the cage for 15 seconds, or being stuck in impossible grapple positions with limbs stretching twenty feet in any direction, the game quickly becomes a laughing stock when poked or prodded by players seemingly any amount of times.
While the gameplay of this game was lackluster in comparison to its predecesors, players returned to the game to see its hilarious and ridiculous glitches. It created for many very popular youtube videos, including one series with fake commentary as the UFC’s Mike Goldberg and Joe Rogan, found here.
3. The kissing glitch – Fifa series
While some vocal Americans have had plenty to say about the globe’s favorite sport, soccer (or futbol,) the Fifa series has always been a shining light in the world of sports gaming.
That being said, it’s certainly not free from hilarious glitches.
Due to the way that the futbol players in the game physically connect with each other, sometimes a very particular and fantastic set of glitches comes, making ai models seemingly come together and kiss.
It’s much more ridiculous than it sounds, as player models clash, then maneuver until the models seemingly meet lips in a passionate moment.
Ever since this type of glitch first went viral, there have been a few different renditions, one of the most popular and ridiculous being this.
4. Cops not waiting for cutscenes – GTA V
While GTA V is a very solid game overall, promising plenty and delivering on most if not all of its promises, it still has one of the funniest glitches in the series history. While it has a very innovative cutscene system, some players found that a glitch made it so if you entered cutscenes with the police on your tail they wouldn’t wait for your dialogue cutscenes to make their move. Instead, during dialogue, police will show up and fire at the character until scenes are finished, creating for some incredibly funny moments, one of the most popular being here.
5. “SHAAAAAAAUN” – Heavy Rain
You might remember Heavy Rain as one of the most intriguing story telling games ever to reach the Playstation. But many players left the crime thriller enjoying far more than just the story the game told.
For players reaching the final climax (without spoiling the details,) some found they can manipulate the scene, interrupting the final dialogue by repeatedly yelling “SHAUN!” over any and all lines. What results is perhaps more funny than anything a game developer could ever write.
After hours and hours of navigating an incredibly tense and dangerous crime drama story, after an abundance of twists and turns, in THE climactic showdown and dialogue, all you can hear is “SHAUN!” time and time again. Even better, you can do it when the character your yelling from isn’t even on the screen any longer, resulting in a tense dialogue between two other characters, interrupted over and over by a very faint background “…shaun!” It can be viewed here *with major game spoilers*.
While it may take a lot from the tenseness of the games finale, players reloaded their saves plenty to relive the hilarity, easily earning its spot on the list.
