For many of us, watching a speedrun is a mesmerising, almost alien experience, as other players zip through our favourite games in minutes, clip through walls, and manipulate code in ways that seem like pure wizardry. It’s incredible to watch. But it feels locked behind a wall of impossible practice and frame-perfect inputs. 

What if I told you that the joyful spirit of speedrunning (finding clever shortcuts and bending the rules) isn’t just for the elites? There’s a world of friendly, easy-to-execute glitches and tricks waiting for you in your casual playthroughs. No stopwatch required. Let’s explore how you can add a dash of that speedrunner creativity and energy to your own gaming fun at home and online at the Granawin table games!

The Joy of the “Casual Glitch”

To enjoy playing a game, you do not have to break it. At times, it is about getting access to a small backdoor that the developers slipped in or made by mistake. They are not round-breaking achievements that force you to restart your console 50 times. 

They are just such cute little cheats, gaming versions of taking a shortcut on your way to work. They make you feel clever. They save you a few minutes of frustration. They add a new layer of discovery to a familiar world. 

The Magical World of Wrong Warping

One of the coolest concepts in speedrunning is “wrong warping,”  It when you use the game’s own teleportation systems to send you somewhere you’re not supposed to be. Well, a famous and wonderfully easy version of this exists in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

Here’s the trick. In the Fire Temple, there’s a room with a tower you need to climb. At the summit, you play the “Song of Time” to lift a block, and then roll down the tower in a hurry. You do it right, and you fall a very, very, very long time down the dungeon, and then you land just at the end of the dungeon, directly in front of the boss door! It leaves a massive section of the temple. It is truly forgiving, and you do not have to have excellent timing. All you have to do is jump and play the song. 

Simple Shortcuts That Feel Like Superpowers

Many classic games are filled with intentional (and unintentional) shortcuts. Using them doesn’t ruin the experience; it enhances it by making you feel like you’ve outsmarted the level itself.

Take the iconic Super Mario 64. Every speedrunner uses “BLJ” (Backwards Long Jumping) to ascend infinite staircases, which is tricky. But have you tried the “First Floor Key Skip” in the basement? In the room with the moving water and the cage holding the key, you can simply swim through the bars of the cage from a specific angle. That’s it. No complicated button combos. Just swim up, jiggle a bit, and you’re in. You grab the key without needing to raise the water level first.

Or consider Skyrim. The “whirlwind sprint” shout isn’t a glitch, but using it creatively is in the speedrunner’s spirit. Stuck on a mountain path? Use the shout to bypass tricky climbing sections. Even better, there’s the classic “plate glitch.” Hold a plate or platter flat against a wall, sprint into it, and you can often clip through locked doors or city gates. It’s silly, it’s fun, and it’s your ticket into places you’re curious about, no lockpicking required.

Bending the Rules, Gently

Some tricks are about resource management, not geometry breaking. In the original Pokémon Red and Blue, the “Item Duplication” glitch is legendary for its simplicity. You can use the “MissingNo.” encounter to duplicate your rare candies or master balls. While encountering MissingNo. has its risks (slight graphical mess), the process is straightforward and well-documented.