Top 10 Video Game Shortcuts

Players of the franchise know tons of secrets. Everything from the quickest path with a Powderstone to the locations a wyvern is most likely to go is fair game. And in a game where maneuvering the various areas on the map quickly and efficiently is absolutely necessary, learning the various unmarked shortcuts around are important. Whether it be hopping across the palm trees in Area 3 to get to Area 11 in the dunes at night, or dropping down the hole in the starting zone to get to area 3 in the Primal Forest, these shortcuts are bound to be useful to all players.

While some shortcuts are easy and maybe even made purposefully, others require a bit more effort to let you skip ahead. Jumping the wall in the Abyss area in the Crota raid is certainly helpful, but it takes a bit more preparation than some. You need to have high agility and the jump height boosts on for this to work, but the payoff is worth it, allowing you to skip the lantern path, which is pretty annoying even for experienced players. While this shortcut may only skip a couple minutes’ worth of gameplay, those few minutes could be the few your group needs to clear the final battle.

Are you capable of listening and doing what you’re told? Most players will get to the opening part of Farcry 4 and leave the dinner table when Pagan Min takes that ever important call, the way they are expected to. However, those players that actually decide that waiting around for their new potential friend is worth it are treated to a quick ending to the game, which ends with Pagan Min returning as promised. He quickly befriends the player, takes him to deliver the ashes, and they go out to hang at a shooting range. Boy that was easy!

Battles involving trains always have a few distinct tropes to watch for; going through a tunnel, wires and signs above it, unclasping various cars…well, Star Fox 64 put some of those to use. During the fight with Mech-beth – who is attached to a train that you’ll have been dealing with for the duration of the level – you’ll have to hit 8 switch flags and then finally a switcher, which Peppy will point out to you. If he hits all 9 targets, the train will crash into the enemy weapons facility, ending the battle early and destroying Mech-Beth.

If any series is famous for their shortcuts, it’s Mario Kart. With almost every track having at least one useable short cut that requires a mushroom to make it any faster, few tracks rely solely on driving ability. However, Rainbow Road is that one legendary track known for its incredible length, that doesn’t really have any shortcuts – or not official ones. In fact, with proper timing and positioning, you could hop the track in Mario Kart 64 to skip a massive portion of the track. You could easily hop from last to first with good use of this one, but the risk is huge.

Few games put quite as much effort into level and world design as Dark Souls did. With different shortcuts opening constantly, gave the impressive of being set in a huge area, instead of a sequence of corridors. With options like using the Master Key to skip Blighttown by passing through the Valley of Drakes or making use of Havel’s Tower, it’s hard to ignore the shortcuts here. However, using the shortcut to Lost Izalith that the Chaos Servant covenant opens up for you skips almost the entire area, placing you right before the Bed of Chaos. And not having to traverse the dreaded lava area will save you tons of time and frustration, especially on a New Game.

Super Metroid has a lot of sequence breaking exploits, though this one is by far the most useful. With some practice, Metroid’s map style was be abused to get the Power Bomb really early. What it required was only some repeated wall jumping to climb a long vertical corridor, followed by a well-timed shot upward to open the door. Then do the same process and hop through the door. If you can survive the next few rooms as well as trigger a few trapped doors to progress, you’ll be treated to your reward – the Power Bombs.

Every kid that’s grown up around a pick-up truck has, at one point or another, wanted to ride in the back. Snake had exactly that chance in Metal Gear Solid, if he was smart about it. During the game, if you hop in the back of a truck and hide in one of the boxes, Snake will get dropped off at a new location. In fact, with the three boxes you get throughout the game each labeled “Helipad, Nuke Building and Snowfield” respectively you can get dropped off at any of these locations. And this mode of transport has even remained in later games.

Open world sandbox games like the GTA series are just perfect for players that love to explore and just run around. And it’s players like this that tend to find quick and easy ways to get to places that you really shouldn’t be at yet. GTA 3 actually has a few ways for players to get to Staunton Island, that coveted 2nd island well before they’re meant to, both through glitches, as well as just exploits. And in addition, considering the game includes cheats for players to have fun with, you can easily hitch a ride on a flying car.
Before we unveil our top pick, here are some honorable mentions.

Skipping the Pridelands
“Kingdom Hearts 2” (2005)

Rat Race Shortcut
"Battletoads" (1991)

The Mario games are pretty well-known for their shortcuts. Between Keys in various games, and the Flute in Super Mario Bros 3, finding your way to the end of a game isn’t as hard as it appears. However, none of these are as useful as the warp zones from the original Super Mario Bros. With the first warp zone in the easy to reach world 1-2, getting to a later stage is actually quite easy! And then again in world 4-2, you can find a warp zone that’ll bring you to worlds 6, 7, or 8. Say goodbye to all that wasted time!

Do you agree with our list? Are there any good shortcuts that you know of? For more quick top 10s published every day, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com