Nintendo is awesome. No matter what you think of them personally, you have to agree that they are one of the most enduring influential forces in the history of video gaming, and have been ever since Donkey Kong hit the arcades nearly four decades ago now. Think about it: the standard controller design, the analog stick, platforming game standards both 2D and 3D... heck, half of the best franchises in the history of the medium are all Nintendo.

Sure, maybe they aren’t the force they used to be back in the day (after a series of stupid business decisions handed the top spot over to Sony, who has—with the exception of the Wii-era renaissance—held the title ever since), but there is no gamer in the world who does not have some fond associations with at least one of two Nintendo titles, something with Mario or Zelda maybe. At their best, their approach is something close to gaming perfection: think Ocarina of Time, think Animal Crossing, think Smash Bros.

But, of course, they are only human and, like everyone else, they have had their share of problems. And, especially because they are so amazing at their best, some of their fails are absolutely epic. From unwinnable situations on one hand to instant wins on the other, from amusing translation errors to crazy, faceless monstrosities, the history of Nintendo’s screw-ups is almost as diverse as its successes. Here are a few of the most fascinating that we found.

25 Drive The Mario Mad

Super Mario 64 was a milestone in the history of gaming. It began the era of 3D gaming and set the standard for all 3D games that followed. It was, however, also glitchy as all heck, as were a lot of games from that era. Some of them are fun, but others are just plain infuriating. Take this one (two, actually): there is an unobtainable coin in Snowman’s Land, and another in Tiny-Huge Island. The former is possible to obtain through some unconventional means, the other is simply inaccessible.

24 Happy End!

Ghosts ’N’ Goblins—an early hit for future heavy-hitter Capcom—was a great franchise back in the NES days, which has sadly long fallen off the radar. The game puts you in control of a brave knight battling the title monsters in order to rescue a beautiful princess. At the end of the game—similarly to many others of the era, most famously the original Super Mario Bros.—the player is rewarded by congratulations from the damsel-in-distress for rescuing her: or, in this case, “CONGRATURATION.” Oops.

23 I Guess You Don't Have To Pass English To Be A Hermit

The NES was rife with these kinds of mistakes, even on the labels of cartridges themselves. Not even in-house Nintendo creations were above these problems. The original Legend of Zelda was one of the greatest games ever made, and introduced the now taken for granted ability to save into gaming. But it was not quite perfect: or, at least, its English wasn’t. Or maybe this wise old man was just trying to sound cryptic and mystical and failing hard. Oh, and he can’t spell “Peninsula.” Nintendo did fix this, but it took three decades for some reason.

22 Multiple Timelines Or Something?

Metroid is a great franchise that spent most of its life sorely under-appreciated in the land of its birth, and took a decade-long hiatus as a result before it came back in a big way with Metroid Prime. The series followed the exploits of female (a milestone at the time) space bounty hunter Samus Aran in her fight against the Space Pirates and their leader Ridley, who ended her parents. While no series keeps its plot completely straight, there are some extreme consistency errors in Ridley’s story: he perishes three times, somehow, for example. At least try, Nintendo.

21 That's Some Serious Magic, Sir

The Pokémon franchise is a success story of almost frightening proportions, as every child of the 90s will remember—whether they want to or not. The games are classics in their own right. One of the cool things you could do in them was trade certain Pokémon with NPCs and then later get rewards—for example, you can trade a Raichu for an Electrode (named Doris) on Cinnabar Island and then, if you come back later, said NPC will tell you that the Raichu they got from you has evolved… except Raichu can’t evolve, so this is impossible. Whoops.

20 Identity Crisis

Majora’s Mask was rush-made using guts taken from Ocarina of Time. But it actually did a really great job of being an extremely original game, testifying to the overall genius of the game quite a few fans will argue is the best in the series. But there are some quirks resulting from its origin. Example: there is a sign over Romani’s Ranch that players of the previous game should recognize as the sign that was over Kakariko Village. But what does it say in Hylian? “Kakariko Village.” That’s right—Nintendo just hoped nobody would notice this laziness.

19 Incompetent Hero

Link is most associated with the sword as a weapon, but the bow comes as a close second—the light arrows are the only way to slay Ganon after all, everyone knows that. But it turns out he doesn’t actually know how to use the thing properly, or even consistently: they are times when he is holding the bow wrong, or aiming it in such a way that properly shooting an arrow is actually physically impossible. We guess nobody at Nintendo is an archery expert, but come on, do your research.

18 Yay, Time Paradox!

Skyward Sword is one of the more unique entries of the Zelda series, introducing an ancient version of Hyrule unlike any we’ve ever seen with a cast of races never before encountered. One of these are the ancient robots found in the Lanayru Desert area. It's wreckage in the game’s present but, through the use of time-altering stones, brought back to life along with fragments of a more lush period of the area’s history. Except, notice the letters on their design—LD, for Lanayru Desert. Even though the desert did not exist until centuries after they had been made. Whoops.

17 No Bananas For You

Donkey Kong was one of Nintendo’s original stars, premiering alongside Mario back in 1980. However, the version of DK we best remember now did not enter the scene until 1994’s Donkey Kong Country. DKC and its sequels are all classic platformers and among the hardest ever made… sometimes the frustration is a bit unintentional though. In DKC 3, there is a level in which you can actually find some bananas, normally collectable, that are located in a slope and thus inaccessible. Someone screwed up, and without the excuse of working out kinks in a new style of gaming.

16 The Hyper-Efficient Hero

The third entry in the Zelda series, A Link to the Past was the first one with much of a real plot, and established many elements that still remain part of the series. It was also just a plain awesome game, and still is, and is also to this day one of the lengthier titles in the series… unless you’re willing to cheat. And you can! A seemingly innocuous flaw allowing Link to walk through some walls can be exploited to allow a player to skip almost everything and beat the game in about three minutes.

15 Another Time Paradox!

Everyone was ready for another serious, realistic looking Zelda after the success of the N64 entries, but then they got… Wind Waker and kiddie cartoon Link. But, despite many complaints, the game actually turned out to be one of the best in the series, taking place on a series of islands in a flooded world. At one point in the game, Link uses a chart to find a Ghost Ship. This map shows several islands, notably including the destroyed Greatfish Isle—except, when the chart was supposed to be made, the island had not been destroyed yet. Oops.

14 Secret Powers, Man... Secret Powers

Plot walls are a game element that are becoming obsolete in an open-world age—but they were ubiquitous back in the day, and nobody really questioned their logic. Looking back, though, we notice they involved all kinds of nonsense. One example: in Golden Sun: The Lost Age, you go through so much to obtain the means to cross a rock barrier and head to the western sea. However, once you get there, it turns out that various other characters following you were able to do the same… without the hassle of recovering all those lost artifacts and the like.

13 Frustrate The Mario Even More

Mario games have been famous for their secret areas since the very beginning. Most of the time, finding them is a cause for great excitement, but, rarely, they are more of a frustration. In the very first Super Mario Bros, players could climb on top of Level 1-2 to find a warp zone, allowing them to skip areas of the games. If, however, they stand on the exit pipe and use a glitch to go through the wall, they can access what is called the “minus world.” This place is exactly the same as level 7-2, except uncompletable.

12 Also Frustrate The Link

Twilight Princess is one of the contenders for the title of Best Zelda Game. But there are problems. The game came out on both the GameCube and the then-new Wii, and the latter version has a one very unfortunate bug. There is a point in the game where Link, with the help of a guy named Shad, finds a cannon under Kakariko Village. When you do, make sure you talk to Shad before saving and quitting, or even leaving the room. If you don’t, he will be gone when you come back and it will be impossible to progress.

11 Processing Problem

The NES was Nintendo’s first console, and also the force responsible for establishing Japan as the holy land of the gaming world. But there were a few kinks along the way, as Japan got used to providing for foreign markets. Some of them are minor, but some of them are grating and repetitive. Take this example from Castlevania II for example: the game involves you going around Transylvania collecting Dracula’s scattered body parts. Every time you pick one up, the game announces: “YOU NOW PROSSESS DRACULA’s [body part].” So not only the wrong word, but the wrong word spelt incorrectly.

10 Yoshi Got A Tad Overexcited

This problem went away over time, especially as gaming became a much more serious operation, but some things still slipped past. In Mario 64, for example. Collecting all of the game’s 120 stars is one of the most famous feats in the history of gaming, and any player who does so is rewarded by the ability to use the cannon outside of Peach’s Castle, launch themselves on the roof and meet Yoshi. This is an exciting moment, and Yoshi seems pretty happy too, exclaiming: “Mario!!! It that really you???” Yes, even in the 3D era, nobody caught that.

9 Invisibility Is Fun

Although Final Fantasy has long since established itself as a PlayStation staple, the series came of age as a Nintendo exclusive. The original game was groundbreaking, representing the most complex and original console RPG ever made at the time—although it's pretty basic compared to some of the later entries. Although there is one strange thing in the starting town of Cornelia: in the town’s castle, you can find one room that appears to be empty, but, if you search around, you will find an invisible woman you can talk to. This is the result of a programming error.

8 It's Always Fun To Frustrate The Mario

Super Mario Bros 3 is a nearly perfect game, but there are a few flaws here and there. One of which can potentially ruin your day. To finish the first fortress in Pipe Land, Mario has to get the Tanooki suit—and to get that, he has to find a secret room he can only enter using a P-switch. But if you don’t get the suit the first time, the switch is gone and you can’t get it the room again… so you can’t complete the level.

7 And She Ran

Super Metroid returned players to the setting of the original Metroid, updated, and stands as a groundbreaking platformer. The game is, however notoriously breakable: by exploiting the game’s physics, such as by forcing Samus to stay in her speedball state—and at running speed—some ambitious speedrunners have been able to skip large sections of the game. Like all Metroid games, the player is rewarded for completing it really, really fast, so this is an especially attractive flaw—if you could call it that, really—here.

6 Seeing Double

Donkey Kong Country was another groundbreaking platformer that came out the same year and introduced the world to a modernized Donkey Kong… and his secret silver doppelgänger. Yes, really, well, not intentionally. One of the Kong’s two animal companions, available in select levels of the game, is Rambi the Rhino. In the first level in the game, however, it is possible to encounter a glitch that turns Rambi, for some reason, into a glittering, silver version of Donkey Kong—which the normal DK is still riding on top of. Not sure how this could even happen.