Differences Between Glitches, Exploits, and Easter Eggs

So I often see people get these types things confused, so I'd just like to address them further. Not a huge deal mixing them up, but whatever.

A glitch is basically when you use certain combinations of maneuvers to actually cause a glitchy effect. This can be anything from animations, sprites, save points, etc. an example would be the Fierce Diety glitch from Majora's Mask. The developers didn't intend to have you use this mask outside of boss arenas, so it causes glitchy effects. Some common glitches are out of bounds and fog glitches. The "back in time" glitches from Skyward Sword and Twilight Princess, which requires you to do some mumbo jumbo with the save files, causes all sorts of effects that basically let you cheat the game. Basically, a glitch is when you use certain maneuvers to cause glitchy effects that don't behave in normal rules of the game.

An exploit is slightly different. It still involves using certain maneuvers to do something a way the game didn't intend, but this time it is still in the rules of the game, such as doing a certain combination of jumps to end up on a wall that you can walk on to skip the majority of the level. An example would be in Super Mario Galaxy. In the galaxy with Megaleg, on the first planet if you do a triple jump in a certain place, you end up getting sucked up by the gravity from Megaleg's planet. This is behaving exactly how the game should, it's just not the intended way of doing it. Speaking of Mario games, a famous example of an exploit would be the infinite lives trick by bouncing on the Koopa shells. An exploit is basically doing something in the way the game didn't intend without glitching it out.

I can understand mixing up those two, as they are very similar, but an Easter egg is completely different. This is a little secret or reference put in by the developers of the game. Let's take Majora's Mask. It has several references to Mario games, with Romani having the Bowser thing and the Gorman brothers resembling Mario and Luigi. There are also non-referee Easter eggs, such as the paper airplane on top of the roof in Ikana Castle.

So hopefully you now know the difference of these things. I hope that made sense.

Comments

Using these is fine unless it's in multiplayer. That's my opinion. - Skullkid755

I disagree, unless you're speed running. I like using glitches that simply cause amusing effects, like the glitch on Skyward Sword where you can use the ladder to fall through the ground. - visitor

Cheat Codes are the best form of cheating.
In Contra, the Konami Code made the game fun instead of frustrating, boring, and terrible.
In Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, the jet pack cheat code added a jet pack, which of course allowed for shooting in the air, going on top of buildings, and opened up more possibilities.
In DOOM II, I once got stuck in a wall because I saved on top of it and loaded that save file. I used the IDClip Cheat to go through the wall. - Skullkid755

As long as it is a cheat the developers put in and some hack, it's fine. - visitor

No game with cheat codes as fun as San Andreas. - visitor

I should do one about bugs vs glitches.
I think they're different. - Skullkid755

A bug is something the game has that the developers didn't catch, and glitch is when players purposely try to break the game. Good idea. - visitor

In the first Mario game, you get to world minus one by using a specific jump into a warp zone into the right pipe. That's a glitch.
In Skyrim, the time I loaded a save file and ended up swimming under the world once it loaded was a bug. - Skullkid755

Those are both glitches... - visitor

I am still new to the bug vs glitch argument. - Skullkid755

A bug is something where they appear in the game without having to do anything funky. - visitor