List of bugs and glitches in Super Smash Flash

A bug is an error or flaw in a computer program that causes it to behave unintentionally. On the other hand, a glitch is a short-lived fault in a system that is difficult to troubleshoot. Though similar, bugs and glitches differ in that the former often directly impacts a product negatively, while glitches may be harmless and mysterious.
Since Super Smash Flash was coded by an inexperienced Gregory McLeod as his first major project in a period of four months, it is not a very stable Flash game. Below is a list of some notable bugs and glitches in the original Super Smash Flash. Note that the majority of these bugs do not have official names and have been given conjectural ones.
== Damage input flaw ==
The most prevalent bug in Super Smash Flash is caused by the game's methods for determining damage calculations. Once an attackbox makes contact with an opponent, the attack's damage will be applied to the opponent on every frame that said attackbox overlaps the opponent's hurtbox. This results in attacks dealing ludicrous amounts of damage across the board, and moves with moderately large attackboxes and active frame counts, such as ' down attack and many of 's attacks, are able to deal over 100% damage by themselves.
This bug, combined with the instant-KO attack, notably causes unlocking to be incredibly difficult without the usage of exploits, as failing to dodge even a single attack can lead to the loss of a stock.
== Instant-KO attack ==
Alongside the damage input flaw, the instant-KO attack is one of the most infamous bugs in Super Smash Flash, being so prevalent and unavoidable that it has become synonymous with the game's physics. Hitting an opponent with attackbox that deals vertical knockback, such as any character's up and down attacks, will multiply their momentum (horizontal and vertical speed prior to the hit) according to their damage and stack the move's knockback on top of it. This causes opponents at medium to high percentages to get KO'd almost instantly.
Instant-KO attacks frequently cause matches in SSF to end within seconds. As a result of its prevalence, it almost single-handedly defines the metagame; the most important trait for determining a character's viability is based on how easy it is to land an instant-KO attack on their opponent. Despite the name, this bug is not comparable to the one-hit KO, as the damage input flaw prevents most attacks from dealing a single hit.
== Glitch attack ==
Characters in Super Smash Flash have stats that dictate how long an attack can last, known as attack length, and how long the player has to wait before being able to attack again, known as attack cooldown. If a character's attack cooldown is lower than their attack length, they will be able to attack again before finishing their current attack, resulting in glitch attacks.
When using characters with this property, glitch attacks can be performed by simply attacking and holding the move's input throughout the attack. This will result in the character canceling the current attack into another animation depending on which attack is used. Performing this with a side attack leads to a glitched up attack, doing so with an up attack leads to a glitched , and doing so with a down attack leads to another down attack. Performing this with a results in the character entering their falling animation temporarily, whereas doing so with a down aerial will cause them to flinch shortly.
The following characters can perform glitch attacks:
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== Skip bug ==
Like many Flash programs, Super Smash Flash allows the player to skip to the next or previous scripted event through its native Flash controls, with events including menus or stages in certain game modes. It can be executed by opening the right-click menu in the browser version or the Control menu in the EXE version and selecting either "Forward" (or "Step Forward") for the next event or "Back" (or "Step Back") for the previous event, or by pressing their equivalent key shortcuts.
This is one of the more popular bugs in SSF due to the beneficial results it can be exploited for, as well as for other curiosities. The most notable use of this bug is as an exploit in Classic, Adventure, and All-Star, in which skipping to the next event will cause the player to advance to the next level without needing to play the previous one. Contrarily, skipping to the previous event forces the player to replay the previous level.
This exploit is unable to function properly in Target Test or its corresponding levels in Classic and Adventure, as it instead restarts the level with another character's target layout in a fixed order, which may force unusual and occasionally impossible situations. For instance, 's layout contains a target located beyond a wall, which is impossible to reach for many characters that lack projectiles. When skipping backward with 's layout or forward with 's layout, which pertain to the first and last character IDs in the roster, respectively, the game will exit to the Target Test character selection screen, aborting the game mode.
=== Night glitch ===
thumb|Night glitch with .
When using the skip bug immediately after completing Target Test and before returning to the character selection screen or results screen, the level will restart with a purple background. This occurs due to the lack of a background on Kirby Hub Room, which makes the stage appear as though it is taking place at night. This glitch may accidentally be triggered when players, impatient after completing the level, use the skip bug to advance forward and find themselves stuck in Target Test yet again with a differently colored background.
=== Cloud and Crono's fast unlock ===
The skip bug can also be exploited to challenge and unlock and without using the intended methods of completing 100-Man Melee and 3-Minute Melee, respectively.
To perform this, the player must first start a match of Cruel Melee. Once the match has begun, the player must use the skip bug to advance forward and Multi-Man Melee will then be completely skipped, which will access the character selection screen for Burly-Brawl Melee, even if it has not been unlocked yet. The player must then start and skip a Burly-Brawl Melee match in the same way, leading them to the "Challenger Approaching!" screen and subsequent match for Cloud, where victory will unlock him. Using the skip bug once more during Cloud's unlock match or during the notice that reads Cloud has been unlocked will take the player to the "Challenger Approaching!" screen and subsequent match for Crono.
This bug can be repeated indefinitely to challenge Cloud or Crono again, and their respective unlock notices will be shown again and recorded again on the Special menu in Data upon defeat.
=== Early stages ===
Using the skip bug in VS. Mode or Training can allow the player to play on the unlockable stages and without having to unlock them first. This is done by first entering a match on a certain stage and then skipping to a match on a different stage until reaching one of said stages. For Battlefield, the player must skip forward from Peach's Castle or backward from , and for Final Destination, the player must skip forward from Emerald Hill Zone or backward from .
=== Blank menu ===
Attempting the skip bug during Crono's match or the notice screen will take the player to an empty menu screen with an unusable Back button. To solve this, the player must either close the window or, preferably, use the skip bug forward again, which will take the player to the character selection screen for Training and allow them to resume playing.
=== Null character ===
If the skip bug is used on a character selection screen to advance forward without choosing a character first, an empty character will be chosen with no sprites and no collisions. This character will fall indefinitely, self-destructing from the bottom blast line when available. When used in Target Test, the null character will fall infinitely due to Kirby Hub Room having no blast line programmed. 
Note that this will only happen in situations where the game expects there to always be a character, such as when the null character is player 1. Attempting this in VS. Mode or Training with only player 1's character selected will simply create a one-person match. In the case of the former, a stock match will end instantly, as player 1 would be the last player standing and, therefore, the winner.
=== Empty All-Star ===
If the skip bug is used in All-Star, the current opponent will be taken out of the rotation as if they were defeated, but the game will not advance the player's progress in the mode. This leaves a gap in the lineup, which is filled by an extra at the end. The more times a player uses this bug, the more times they will have to fight Mr. Game & Watch. If all characters are eliminated in this way, a single Mr. Game & Watch will be fought repeatedly, even as the mode advances to where two or three opponents are supposed to appear; the remaining opponent slots are occupied with null characters.
== Master Hand pause exploit ==
When fighting Master Hand or Crazy Hand, pausing the match during their attack animations will cause them to continue during the pause screen without having any effect on the player. This can be exploited by repeatedly pausing the instant a boss strikes, allowing them to avoid all attacks with minimal risk.
== Early Final Destination ==
The unlockable stage Final Destination becomes temporarily available for VS. Mode and Training whenever the player unlocks a character. It disappears once the player closes the game, though it reappears again upon unlocking another character. This glitch is the result of an error with Final Destination's unlock criteria after a character is unlocked, which does not check whether all characters are unlocked before unlocking the stage.
== Item glitches and bugs ==
=== Item physics bug ===
If the game is paused while an item is in midair, such as when first spawned or thrown, it will slowly descend straight downward until reaching the floor or disappearing off-stage. A thrown Bob-omb or Motion-Sensor Bomb will immediately explode upon contact with the floor while paused and will have no effect on opponents making contact with the explosions, unless the game is unpaused during the explosion.
=== Screwy items ===
In Training, generating a large enough quantity of the same item while holding or attempting to grab one of the items will cause them to flash, and a glitchy rectangle will appear around the frame of the generated items. Upon trying to use the item normally when this occurs, it produces an unintended effect and the player will be unable to use any attacks other than their down attack, as the game still registers that the character is holding the item. The character must then be KO'd in order to restore their behavior to normal.
The effect after attempting to use an item in this state is dependant on what item is used. The following effects occur:
*Bob-omb: The character gets hit by multiple explosions that deal up massive damage and will usually get instantly KO'd. Pressing attack again will do nothing.
*Fan: Every time the player presses attack, the character hits themselves and takes damage.
*Flipper: The character can throw the Flipper repeatedly by pressing attack continuously. The Flipper follows the direction the character is facing will move along with the character. When throwing the Flipper upwards, the character hits themselves and takes damage.
*Fire Flower: Every time the player presses attack, the character hits themselves and takes damage.
*Heart Container: The character can hold and use it, but it will have no effect. After this, the character cannot attack except for the down attack. There are times no oddities will happen and the player will simply pick up the Heart Container and recover damage as usual.
*Home-run Bat: Every time the player presses attack, the character hits themselves and takes damage. The bat will always automatically charge a Smash attack and will make its characteristic "Ping" sound effect upon contact with the character but it will not KO them as it is expected to do.
*Maximum Tomato: The character can hold and use it, but it will have no effect. There are times no oddities will happen and the player will simply eat the Maximum Tomato and recover damage as usual.
*Motion-Sensor Bomb: The Motion-Sensor Bomb follows the direction the character is facing will move along with the character. It will fly in an straight horizontal line forward. Pressing attack again will do nothing.
*Saber: Every time the player presses attack, the character hits themselves and takes damage.
*Shell: The character can throw shells repeatedly by pressing attack continuously. If the character is using a Shell, it follows the direction the character is facing will move along with the character. Every time the character uses a Shell, the character hits themselves and takes damage.
=== Mega explosive damage bug ===
This bug works in Training mode with either an explosive item, Bob-omb or Motion-Sensor Bomb. For Bob-ombs, the first player must place a large number of Bob-ombs around the second player, then throw a bomb so that it explodes and sets off the other bombs without touching the second player with the initial blast. In the case of Motion-Sensor Bombs, set a bunch of them in one place, then walk into them. If the player or the opponent survived, the player will not be able to use any moves at all. In both cases the bombs will explode in a chain dealing over 1000% damage but with minimal knockback.
=== Suspended automatic items ===
When hitting a Bob-omb with a battering-type item, including a Fan, Home-run Bat, or Saber, the Bob-omb will explode and the item the player attacked with will be suspended in midair, rendered unusable. Pausing and unpausing will cause the item to automatically perform an attack as if used by the player that originally held it, hitting opponents that make contact. This can be repeated until the item disappears.
== Collision detection bugs ==
In Adventure's first level, Super Mario World, there are some odd collision detection behaviors on the plateaus and Warp Pipe found on the stage. If attacked and launched far enough by an enemy, the character will pass through the solid terrain, ignoring the collision detection, and get inside the plateaus and Warp Pipes. The character can get out by merely walking out the direction they were launched in, but there are chances where they might get stuck in the area, forcing the player to quit or wait for the time to expire. This knockback behavior can also be used to clip through the Warp Pipe on Peach's Castle.
On Final Destination, it is possible to clip through the ground if or hits the player with their Stone Punch attack.
Bugs and glitches in Super Smash Flash
Category:Game mechanics
Category:Super Smash Flash
Category:Super Smash Flash series