Super Mario 64/Glitches

There are several glitches in Super Mario 64, which can be useful or just weird. In particular, many glitches are handy for speed running the game.

Bridge? What bridge?

A really simple glitch. In Course 1 (Bom-omb Battlefield) go to the first wooden bridge. Go under it, where the coins are, then press and hold A. you should be holding on to the bridge. Still holding on, make your way to the lowest point possible. Release A. Mario should pull himself up through the bridge. (Note: This is fixed in Super Mario 64 DS.)

"Dark World"/Inverted Rooms

Once you have all 120 stars, a cannon near the pond in front of the castle will open and launch you to a roof, where Yoshi will be waiting. Also on the roof is a Wing Cap. There is a glitch that can be done with this:

• Get the Wing Cap, then fly off the roof and into the cannon on the ground.
• Launch towards the tower as high as it will go.
• Keep flying towards it until you reach it. The upper part of the castle has 8 sides, so when you land on an outcrop face away from the wall that is 2nd to the left of the one that is in front (the "front" wall is the wall that was directly in front of you when you blasted from the cannon.)
• Face away from the wall and then quickly turn around and run into it. You should fall down into a strange chamber. Remember that you'll lose half of your power.
• You'll be in a chamber that is inverted-- in other words, the door that looks like it's going outside goes into the castle and vice versa. The only way out is to leave through a hidden wall in the chamber that's inside the castle.
• When you fly to the castle outcrop, you can also walk straight up to the top of the castle instead of falling through (by walking up the 3rd left from the front wall)

Flying Mario Corpse I

• Go to Course 8 (Shifting Sand Land).
• With the Pink Bomb-Omb, open up the cannon in the corner of the level.
• Go in the cannon, and aim it just above the sun. (Move the cannon as far left and as far up as it will go).
• Fire the cannon, do it many times.
• Eventually Mario's power will run out but he'll still be in the cannon.
• If you fire straight out into the level Mario will technically be dead but still flying. If Mario lands though he'll die and if he gets coins they won't do anything (and if Mario lands in water he'll drown automatically).

Flying Mario Corpse II

• Go to Course 11 (Wet-Dry World)
• Go in the cannon, and aim it just above the sun.
• Fire the cannon and do it 4 times.
• After the 4th time Mario's power will run out but he'll still be in the cannon.
• If you fire straight out into the level Mario will technically be dead but still flying. If Mario lands he'll die and if he gets coins they won't do anything (and if Mario lands in water he drowns automatically.) :)

Lose a life without a cause

• Get all 120 stars.
• Go into the cannon outside the castle.
• Aim for the roof of the castle and fire the cannon.
• Land on the roof, and go to the RIGHT side of the roof in the very back (where the game ends)
• Standing next to the invisible boundary, slowly walk off the edge of the castle so that Mario will be hanging onto the edge of the castle.
• Climb back onto the castle's roof, but as you do, hold the "A" button and push the joystick up and to the right.
• Mario's cap will disappear, and even though Mario never lost any power, a Bowser face will come out of nowhere and Mario will lose a life.
• Some guess that this happens because when this trick is done, Mario steps outside the game's boundaries into a part of the game that doesn't exist, and the only way for the game to continue without corruption is to automatically make Mario lose a life.

Bouncing Mushroom

• Get all 120 stars, and make sure the moat in front of the castle has no water in it.
• Go outside of the castle, and go to the tree on the far left that contains a secret 1-UP mushroom.
• Climbing to the top of the tree and pressing the joystick up will make the 1-UP mushroom appear. Do this, but as soon as the mushroom appears, jump off the tree and make a long jump into the moat, while avoiding the invisible cap hole. The goal of this trick is to run away from the 1-UP mushroom as fast as possible, and not let it get to you.
• Without slowing down, keep making long jumps across the moat until you get to the pond. When you get to the pond make a sharp RIGHT leap into the pond as fast as possible.
• Swim out of the pond and get into the cannon.
• Aim the cannon for the castle roof and fire it.
• Once you land on the roof, get the winged Mario cap and fly above Yoshi.
• Fly straight, and fly in a circle around the perimeter of the game. This should be done to make it difficult for the mushroom to catch up.
• Once you've made a complete circle, you'll get back to the cannon. Go into the cannon and do the Inverted Rooms trick (see the first section of this article for more information.)
• When you are in the inverted room, the mushroom will try to get to you, but the wall will be blocking it. As a result, the mushroom will be constantly bouncing back and forth against the wall in a "C" shape, unable to get to Mario. If Mario moves left or right, the mushroom will follow Mario along the wall. If the mushroom gets stuck in the wall and Mario walks through the door, the mushroom will vanish, but if the mushroom doesn't get stuck, Mario will get it when he walks through the door.

Shortcut on the Second Floor Steps

If you've opened the door to the castle's upper floors...on the spiral staircase leading to them, there's an unintended shortcut. Jump along the edge of the wall just before the left turn. Mario will grab onto an edge that shouldn't be there. You can pull him up through the wall, and he'll be right there at the door that faces the painting for Wet-Dry World.

The Rabbit Trick

If you grab the rabbit in the basement at the right angle, you will warp slightly so you are in front of the rabbit in the right position to grab it without changing which way you face. This can be exploited to warp through the star door without 30 stars by placing the rabbit in the right position and grabbing so you are on the other side of the door.

Backwards Long Jump (BLJ)

In the original version of the game, the devs didn't put a speed cap on Mario's backward speeds. By long jumping backwards, you can reach extraordinary speeds. This will break the game and is prone to crashing. A common use is to use it to beat the game with 0 or 1 stars. This isn't the only way, just the fastest. Here is how to bypass the last star door and stairs:

If you long jump on the stairs at the right angle rapidly, you will go through the star door or climb the endless stairs, depending on which stairs you are doing it on. The guys doing these videos use the rabbit glitch and the stair trick: http://speeddemosarchive.com/Mario64.html

The glitch is not possible in the Japanese rereleases (Shindou) and the iQue Player versions, as it fixes the glitch. You can tell what version it is on the start screen. If it says ©1996, 1997, then it possibly is that version. It is the same version in Super Mario 3D All-Stars. The glitch is one of the most famous glitches in video game glitches.