Category: News

How does a shoe from 1997 manage to stay looking futuristic almost 25 years later?

No, really, we’re asking. Because Nike has an astounding track record when it comes to designing sneakers that look and feel timeless. The Nike Cortez (1972), The Jordan 1 (1985), the Air Max 1 (1987), the Air Max 90 (1990) the Air Max 95 (1995), the SB Dunk (2002) — the list goes on. Even Nike’s discontinued silhouettes remain hype-worthy, and that’s all thanks to Nike consistently calling on the talents of some of footwear’s most innovative designers.

For the Nike Air Max 97, that designer was Christian Tresser, who had the revolutionary Reebok Aztrek under his belt and would eventually go on to work with Kanye West on the Yeezy 700 VX. Designing the Air Max 97 was no easy task, Tresser would be following up Tinker Hatfield’s revolutionary Air Max 95, which is still one of Nike’s most beloved silhouettes. But Tresser knocked it out of the park with a wavy futuristic design inspired by mountain landscapes — managing to evoke the sleek speed and look of a Japanese bullet train.

The sneaker looked next level in 1997 and even now, in 2021, it still manages to look like the footwear of the future. In celebration of one of Nike’s greatest silhouettes, we’re running through the greatest colorways of all time for the Air Max 97. Let’s dive in!

Nike Air Max 97 Silver Bullet, 1997

Kicking off our journey is the design that started it all, the Nike Air Max 97 Silver Bullet. Featuring a metallic silver upper with varsity red accents, the Silver Bullet was made to recall the Japanese Silver Bullet trains that helped to inspire the silhouette’s design.

Despite this being one of Nike’s most futuristic sneakers, the Silver Bullet looks refreshingly dated. It has a sort of 1980’s-view-of-the-future vibe to it.

Union Nike Air Max 97 One Time Only, 2005

Look at this thing! It’s kind of ridiculous. Made in collaboration with streetwear brand Union, the One Time Only combines the 97’s upper with the tooling of an Air Max 360. Released as part of Nike’s Clerks Pack, the One Time Only has a Saved by the Bell-esque colorway, mixing rave pink and military blue with elephant print paneling along the base.

Nike Air Max 97 Kashima Antlers, 2006

An early classic, 2006’s Kashima Antlers were released as part of Nike’s Sportswear pack in tribute to the Japanese football club, the Kashima Antlers. This iteration of the 97 features a mesh upper with leather overlays and an elephant print mudguard with a green-tinted Air Max unit.

Had Nike released colorways like this of the 97 stateside, it might not have taken 20 years for the silhouette to really get the love it deserves. It’s no wonder the 97 has long been popular with the best-dressed streetwear stylists of Japan.

Nike Air Max 97 Jacquard Rio de Janeiro, 2014

One of Nike’s most fun designs, the Air Max 97 Jacquard Rio de Janeiro is the only Air Max 97 that doesn’t strike us as looking futuristic. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, the sneaker doesn’t look outdated by any means, instead the jacquard upper with its pixelated camo design manages to look like another sneaker entirely.

The 97’s trademark waves are less prominent in this design and come via a transparent overlay that seamlessly stretches into the sneaker’s mudguard.

UNDEFEATED Nike Air Max 97 Black, 2017

When Los Angeles-based label UNDEFEATED put their spin on the Air Max 97 they single-handedly created a whole audience of new fans for the silhouette. If you’ve been enjoying the Air Max 97s resurgence over the last few years, you have UNDEFEATED to thank for this sleek black, red, and green Gucci-inspired pair.

To this day, it’s one of the most valued 97 colorways on the aftermarket.

Nike Air Max 97 Sean Wotherspoon, 2017

Released as part of Nike’s Air Max 90, the Sean Wotherspoon’s are the sneakers that made Wotherspoon a household name amongst streetwear fanatics. Before Wotherspoon was known as streetwear’s corduroy king, he was just a scrappy kid who entered Nike’s design contest and managed to make one of the hottest sneakers of the 2010s.

Inspired by Wotherspoon’s love of Vintage 1980’s Nike caps, this Air Max 97 features a wavy corduroy upper sitting atop an Air Max 1 sole unit. Peep that stiched swoosh!

Off-White Nike Air Max 97 “The Ten,” 2017

Released as part of the second drop from Virgil Abloh’s “The Ten,” this Off-White iteration of the 97 features a white, cone, and ice blue colorway with a translucent outsole and an oversized Swoosh. Despite very minimal alternations to the original design, Abloh still managed to deliver a sneaker that looks markedly different from its source material.

If you’re a 97 stan, you either love what Abloh did with the shape or you hate it — there’s really no in-betweens here. On the inner side of the sneaker, the words “Off White for NIKE “Air Max 97” Beaverton, Oregon USA” are stamped, part of Abloh’s deconstructionist aesthetic. That stamp, it should be noted, is the worst part of the shoe. By far.

Cristiano Ronaldo Nike Air Max 97 Golden Patchwork, 2017

Made for football star Cristiano Ronaldo, the Golden Patchwork 97s were inspired by Ronaldo’s youth, back when he could only afford two pairs of shoes, one for play and one for school. When his rundown sneakers would get holes in them, his mom would patch them up and send him on his way. The Golden Patchwork consists of patched-up panels dipped in a celebratory golden colorway that reflect how Ronaldo didn’t let his impediments stop him from being one of the greatest players in the game.

Nike Air Max 97 Skepta, 2017

Designed by British-Nigerian rapper Skepta, this iteration of the 97 looks straight-up alien. Featuring a polyurethane-coated copper and rose gold upper composed of leather over black mesh, this design is meant to evoke both Morocco and London, by way of the braided tongue and the graphics meant to recall UK electric outlets.

It’s highly conceptual and super dorky in theory, but the execution is a sight to behold.

Off-White Nike Air Max 97 Black, 2018

It’s funny to think that with all of the eyes of the fashion world fixed on his every move, Virgil Abloh chose to follow “The Ten’s” 97 by simply giving us the same design in a black iteration. If you loved “The Ten’s” 97, all the same design touchstones are here — the translucent upper, the large swoosh, the stupid production stamp on the inner side. Only this time it has a sort of sinister Darth Vader vibe.

It’s amazing what a single color can do, but we prefer these to the all-white “The Ten” makeup.

Off-White Nike Aix Max 97 Serena, 2018

Made and named for Serena Williams and the 50th U.S. Open tournament, the Off-White 97 Serena features an elemental rose, black, barely rosé, and white colorway with a head-turning gradient midsole. Each pair comes equipped with Abloh’s signature zip-tie, this time in a hard to avoid Volt colorway.

Nike Air Max 97 Smokey Mauve, 2018

There isn’t an interesting story or collaboration behind Nike’s Smokey Mauve Air Max 97, it’s simply a beautiful looking shoe. That mix of smokey mauve, black midnight, and navy sail is the moodiest this silhouette has ever looked. We love it.

Nike Air Max 97 Desert Sky, 2018

Clearly Yeezy inspired, the 97 Desert Sky combines black desert, and sand royal tint for an aged-looking but eye-catching colorway. Our only gripe with this design is the weird, out-of-place stark black midsole that the sneaker sits atop. A white or off-white midsole would’ve been more complimentary. If contrast was the goal, a yellow or mint midsole would’ve added to the serene quality of the design.

But what do we know? (We only look at shoes all day.) This pair continues to exceed expectations — fetching a high price on aftermarket sites.

Nike Air Max 97 MSCHF x INRI Jesus Shoes, 2019

Made in collaboration with Brooklyn-based creative house MSCHF and the artist INRI this is easily the weirdest 97 colorway, ever. Aside from the Matthew 14:25 inscription at the toe box, the aptly named Jesus Shoes actually contain 60cc of holy water from the River Jordan.

It’s excessive and ridiculous sure, but with its clean white upper and light blue accents, it’s one of the finest Air Max 97 colorways of all time. It might even be the best.

Nike Air Max 97 Shanghai Kaleidoscope, 2019

Like the Sean Wotherspoon’s beloved colorway, the Air Max 97 Shanghai Kaleidoscope came about through a design contest set up by Nike. Ultimately six winners were chosen, but Cash Ru of Shanghai’s Shanghai Kaleidoscope rises above the rest.

It’s hard not to love this icy blue colorway which sits on a white middle with a crimson red swoosh accent. The triple heel tags are a bit excessive, but we dig Ru’s design work, which is just slightly distorted, like waves rippling in a pond.

In an obviously calculated move to service her well-known intentions to launch a presidential run in 2024, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and South Carolina governor Nikki Haley has distanced herself from Donald Trump despite being one of his most vocal supporters during his four years in office. Haley’s public breaking from Trump arrives in an exhaustive profile on her political career and ambitions. It also examines her attempt to redefine the Republican Party just a month after a MAGA rally ended in an insurrectionist attack on the U.S. Capitol building. Via Politico:

“We need to acknowledge he let us down. He went down a path he shouldn’t have, and we shouldn’t have followed him, and we shouldn’t have listened to him. And we can’t let that ever happen again.”

Haley claims that she hasn’t spoken with Trump since the attack on the Capitol. “When I tell you I’m angry, it’s an understatement,” she told Politico. “I am so disappointed in the fact that [despite] the loyalty and friendship he had with Mike Pence, that he would do that to him. Like, I’m disgusted by it.” However, these remarks fly in the face of Haley’s defense of Trump just a few weeks ago when she told Fox News in late January that she doesn’t think there’s a basis for impeachment and that people need to leave him alone. “They beat him up before he got into office. They are beating him up after he leaves office. I mean, at some point, I mean, give the man a break. I mean, move on.”

It’s that brand of clear-cut hypocrisy that’s getting Haley roasted for her sudden 180 on Trump:

And the hits kept coming for Haley as her very active role in pushing Trump on the Republican Party resurfaced along with her own warning in 2016 that Trump’s rhetoric could lead to violence, which she conveniently abandoned when he won the election:

As for her opponents in the Democratic Party, they’re not about to let Haley pretend she wasn’t defending Trump less than a month ago and that she had no qualms giving him a pass for the Capitol attack, which she now claims “disgusted” her.

(Via Politico)

This weekend is Valentine’s Day! And this year, for the first time in a long time, society can’t pile tremendous pressure on you to make elaborate dinner plans at an overcrowded restaurant — leading to stress for you, your date, and the poor overworked employees trying to make you look good. Welcome to our first (and hopefully only!) pandemic-era Valentine’s Day!

In 2021, this greeting-card-created-but-also-too-thoroughly-established-to-ignore holiday will see you and your date hanging at/near the house. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Pour a glass of your date’s favorite vintage, turn off phones, light a joint, take a stroll through the neighborhood, and then have some intimate fun together. Because Valentine’s Day may be a sham, but the alchemical formula of effort and focused attention leading to cool sexual escapades is very real.

To help get you in the mood for this weekend, we’ve rounded up our favorite CBD and THC products specifically geared toward enhancing your sex life, this weekend and beyond. Even if you’re flying solo this year, the items on this list will relax you and add to your pleasure — two things we all deserve at the tail-end of this indeterminable pandemic. Enjoy!

Kiva Confections THC-Infused Love Sauce

Price: $5

Kiva Confections THC-infused Love Sauce admittedly has a pretty disgusting name… or an arousing name depending on what you’re into. Name aside, what we love about Kiva Confections is that unlike High On Love’s paintable body chocolate (see below), this body chocolate is THC-infused, which means it won’t just have you feeling good, it’s going to get you high.

Each serving of Love Sauce (so long as you’re following dose suggestions) sports 10MG of THC, so ditch the paintbrush, dip your fingers in, and start spreading it wherever your Valentine wants the extra attention. Unfortunately, this one is exclusive to the Southern California market — have a friend grab some and overnight it to you!

Playboy CBD Bath Bomb

Price: $15

What better way to get things started — or close things out — than with a relaxing CBD-infused bath? Playboy’s CBD Bath Bombs feature an aromatic blend of CBD and essential oils that will help you melt into a puddle of relaxation while you unwind in the tub.

Whether you’re sharing this experience with your Valentine, or enjoying it solo while you get ready for the weekend ahead, this bath bomb will have you feeling squeaky clean, your muscles relaxed, and your senses sharpened — all the elements required for good loving.

1906 LOVE Chocolate

Price: $32

For people outside of California who feel bummed about missing out on Kiva Confections body chocolate, 1906 is a well-respected brand, and their 1906 LOVE chocolate covered coffee beans, which feature 5mg of THC per bean are available in dispensaries across Colorado, Oklahoma, Illinois, and Massachusettes.

According to 1906’s website, LOVE is formulated for both a physical and psychological high, which should enhance your overall sexual experience. LOVE is also fast-acting, kicking in at 20 minutes — making it one of the fastest working edibles on the market right now.

High On Love Dark Chocolate Body Paint

Price: $35

Made with premium-grade hemp seed oil, High On Love’s Chocolate Body Paint comes in a cute heart-shaped bottle equipped with a paintbrush to help you paint on your Valentine’s body. Real talk, this Brussels-inspired chocolate actually tastes pretty damn good on its own. We’re not suggesting you eat it straight from the bottle, but go nuts when it comes to painting the chocolate on your partner.

That’s a win-win for both of you.

Dosist Arouse Vape Pen

Price $36

Dosist makes THC vape pens specifically targeted to specific tasks, such as relaxation, bliss, or — our personal favorite — Arousal. Dosist’s Arousal pen features an 11:1 THC to CBD formula with a time-controlled drag feature that will automatically shut off the pen at three seconds (a complete dose) providing a head change that doesn’t get you lost in your own thoughts, but instead relaxes you, and sharpens the mind for a more creative bedroom performance.

If you need a little something more to get you going, Dosist also has an Arouse THC-plus, which is designed with a stronger formula to awaken the senses and get you laser-focused on stimulation.

Foria Quickie Kit

Price: $44

Whether you already love Foria’s sex-enhancing products or you’re just discovering the brand, Foria’s new Quickie Kit is easy and fun. The bundle includes a small sample of Foria’s arousal oil and lubricant, as well as two suppositories, which deliver 50mg of broad-spectrum CBD vaginally or rectally — increasing your arousal and easing any discomfort or tension you’re about to subject yourself to.

Playboy CBD Arousal Spray

Price: $45

Specifically designed for women, Playboy’s CBD Arousal Spray is formulated with 250 mg Broad-Spectrum CBD oil, Horny Goat Weed, and kava root for a warming spray designed to heighten the senses, whether you’re with a partner or all alone.

Playboy’s Arousal Spray is formulated for quick absorption and features a soothing vanilla scent.

Playboy CBD Intimacy Gel

Price: $47

If you’re looking for a CBD infused lube that feels silky and smooth, Playboy’s Intimacy Gel is a great pick. Not only do you still get that fast-absorbing blend of broad-spectrum CBD, kava root, and Horney Goat Weed, the Intimacy Gel also has maca root extract to kick your sex drive straight into overdrive.

It doesn’t have the same great smell as the Arousal Spray, but… I don’t know, light a candle or something — we’re not here to plan your entire date!

Foria Intimacy Botanical Vape Pen

Price: $78

Foria’s Intimacy CBD vape pen is specially formulated using a blend of organic botanicals and broad-spectrum CBD in order to instantly melt away anxiety, dust the cobwebs from your mind, and relieve any pain you might be feeling (or you know, preparing yourself to feel).

Foria’s Intimacy pen will relax muscles and ease tension, as well as increase blood flow to the places that count. The pleasing mix of peppermint and vanilla is also way more enjoyable than a more herbal-scented product.

This one is a bit on the pricey end, but the attention to detail and quality is worth it, plus replacement cartridges are a steal!

High On Love Objects Of Pleasure Gift Set

Price: $125

High On Love has all sorts of CBD-heavy products worth your time and money, but we figured we’d close this list out with a big one. The brand’s Objects of Pleasure gift set features 30ml of High on Love’s stimulating O-gel, made with a blend of cannabis sativa oil and peppermint and designed to increase blood flow, boost libido, and supercharge your natural lubrication. They pair that with a seven setting, five-speed silicone vibrator, designed by Jopen.

If the vibrator proves too intimidating, High on Love also features an Object of Desire gift set which swaps out the Jopen vibrator with a palm massager and shaves $10 off the price. The stimulating O-Gel is also available separately. But those aren’t the gift we recommend — instead, just get over your hangups and go for the full gift set.

Looking for weed?

If none of these products were quite what you had in mind, check out our two sex-enhancing weed strain roundups: The 10 Best Weed Strains For Sex and, for the more adventurist amongst us, Weed Strains To Smoke For More Creative And Energetic Sex.

Comedy’s preeminent MAGA scholar, Jordan Klepper, returned to the scene of the crime (literally) during Thursday’s episode of The Daily Show. The correspondent / thirst trap was back in Washington D.C. for the first time since witnessing the failed coup at the Capitol on January 6. There’s now more fencing around the building “and the thousands of screaming MAGA folks is down to two.” Klepper asked the die hards for their thoughts on the impeachment trial. “What I saw and what there’s a lot of evidence showing is that many of the initial people who entered the building violently were leftists, you have Antifa…” one of them said. Klepper responded that he “was here and it seemed like a lot of people were Trump supporters. A thousand people broke into the Capitol, erected a noose outside, and tried to kill the Speaker of the House and the vice president.”

Klepper compared the second impeachment trial to a sequel that’s “bigger and louder and more cinematic than the first one. Because as we all know, when you’re dealing with American audiences, stunning imagery goes farther than facts.” He also spoke to Adam Schiff (D-CA), who was one of the lead investigators in Trump’s first impeachment trial.

Schiff urged Republicans “to find the courage to tell their constituents back home that what they were fed by Donald Trump was a bunch of lies.” After Klepper pointed out that maybe “banking” on the courage of someone like Ted Cruz (“He won’t even stand up for his wife, let alone the country”) maybe isn’t the best idea, Schiff replied, “If I was going to bank on that, I’d be bankrupt a long time ago.” You can watch the clip above.

Tomi, stop trying to make “SHAMpeachment” happen, it’s not going to happen.

The Fox Nation contributor has not only been pushing made-up nonsense about election fraud, she’s also been trying to attach a clever (?) nickname to Donald Trump’s impeachment trial. Or should I say, Trump’s SHAMpeachment trail? No, I shouldn’t, because that’s dumb. But it hasn’t stopped Lahren in the past, and it won’t stop her now.

“SHAMPEACHMENT!” she tweeted earlier this week, along with a video of herself defending former-president Trump on Fox Nation. “Pointing out instances of potential voter fraud is not incitement: FACTS. Instructing your supporters to ‘peacefully and patriotically’ make their head voices heard is not incitement: FACTS. You can’t incite something that was pre-planned: FACTS. And lastly, you can’t impeach a president simply because you do not like him and are terrified of his electoral comeback: FACTS,” she said. I’m sorry, but you lost me after the “SHAMPEACHMENT 2.0” chyron.

Lahren used the not-viral term on Twitter on Friday, as well. Imagine being such a DC swamp rat you think this SHAMpeachment trial matters to any everyday American outside of the trash bin that is liberal Twitter…” she wrote. Lahren’s replies are filled with people pointing out the fallacy of tweeting about something you supposedly don’t care about (“If it doesn’t matter, why do you care? Why waste time posting about something that doesn’t matter? If something doesn’t matter to me, I don’t make time for it. You’ve made time for this, so it clearly matters to you,” one reads), as well as:

Even her fans are rolling their eyes:

It’s like giving yourself a cool nickname that doesn’t stick. But Toyota Lasagna? Now there’s a good nickname.

(Spoilers from Marvel Studios and Disney+’s WandaVision will be found below.)

The first few weeks of WandaVision laid plenty of HYDRA-related easter eggs to remind everyone Wanda Maximoff’s traumatic past. We’ve since received confirmation that this past is precisely why Wanda has manipulated the reality of Westview to fashion a happy, sitcom-y world where everything is perfect, including Vision being alive. She’s apparently reanimated him into a Zombie-vision-popsicle, and the town’s residents are pushed into personalities that are not their own. We’re not sure if this includes Agnes, or whether she’s truly Agatha Harkness, a sorceress from the comics who helped Wanda come into her powers while training with HYDRA.

The biggest issue of this week’s episode, though, is whatever the hell is going on with Pietro. Much to Marvel fans’ delight, Kevin Feige used Wanda’s brother as the perfect reason to thread the MCU and Fox superhero universes together. As such, Aaron Taylor Johnson is no longer playing the Age of Ultron version of Pietro (RIP). Instead, the character has been “recast,” and we’ve got Evan Peters, who played Quicksilver/Peter in the X-Men movies.

This week, we learn that Pietro is… not exactly Pietro. He doesn’t seem like Peter either, although the title cards from this episode (which plays like a Malcolm in the Middle homage) try to tell us that nothing is amiss, and he’s definitely Pietro.

Yeah, this ain’t Pietro. In fact, it kind-of feels like he’s secretly Mephisto (the MCU’s vision of the Devil), which throws a wrench into hopes that Agnes Husband is really Mephisto (and that he’ll be played by Al Pacino). Pietro is acting very strange, kind of cool-uncle-y, but also referred to as a “man child,” and at the end of the episode, his hair looks like devil-horns.

Fans on Twitter seem to agree that while Evan Peters is doing an amazing job at whomever he’s portraying, Pietro is definitely not himself, and he’s not Peter, even though he’s technically Quicksilvering all over the place. He appears to be pushing Wanda to go further with her powers to control the town, he’s digging for information, and at one point, he also goes zombie-like (perhaps a nod to Pietro being dead, or it this could be an even more sinister thing, pointing toward true evil… is he the Devil?).

Whatever the case, he means to shake sh*t up, and Wanda doesn’t appear to have any control over him at all. I’m rooting for him to be Mephisto, and here’s what people think.

One thing we do learn this episode, which is a marvelously Halloween-themed one, is that Wanda is becoming Scarlet Witch, with or without the help of Agatha.

This week didn’t provide many clues on Agnes and whether she’s able to pull strings on Wanda’s state of mind, as some suspected, but she did speak with Vision, who’s increasingly uncomfortable with what Wanda’s doing to the clearly-disturbed townspeople. Wanda then ended up sucking in part of reality into Westview. It was an emotional end to the episode, with Vision dying again and being brought back to life and sucked back into Westview, along with Darcy.

Beyond this, there’s still a real question of who the series’ villain shall be. Hayward is clearly up to no good, and I suspect from the way that he pushed back at Monica Rambeau, he’s a HYDRA guy. Scarlet Witch is now in play, and so is the multiverse, so the MCU is now hurtling towards Wanda in the next Doctor Strange movie. And don’t count out Agnes! She clearly wants to shake off Wanda’s control, and who knows what will emerge if/when she does so.

Disney+’s ‘WandaVision’ streams new episodes on Fridays.

When it comes to Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s “WAP,” it’s immediately obvious what the song is about. When it comes to Cardi’s new single “Up,” though, the lyrics are a bit less transparent and more open to interpretation. Well, Cardi guested on The Tonight Show yesterday and she told Fallon that “Up” is also about the body, albeit in a markedly different way than “WAP” is.

Fallon asked about Offset’s role in the lyric and Cardi answered, “He says that a lot. I don’t know if it’s a down south thing. After the song came out, I thought it was a Georgia thing, but then people were like, ‘We say that in New Orleans,’ ‘We say that in Florida.’ I’m like, ‘OK, man, listen. I guess, whatever.’ […] So, have you ever taken a poop, right, and it don’t come out? It’s just up and it’s stuck. Yeah.”

A stunned Fallon then offered his own take, suggesting the phrase could be about reaching a certain level of success and then maintaining it. Cardi followed up, “It’s a metaphorical quote,” suggesting that achievement and constipation are just two of many possible interpretations of the song and that poop probably wasn’t actually on Cardi’s mind when she wrote the tune.

Elsewhere during the show, Cardi and Fallon faced off in the “Mimic Challenge,” so check out clips from the show above and below.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Video game glitches are always going to exist, simply by the nature of gaming. The idea of a game that is perfect and has no glitches doesn’t exist because no matter how much a game is stress-tested, there is nothing like putting it in the hands of regular people. Developers can spend months fixing bugs and polishing a game up to perfection and then as soon as it releases you have tons of people finding bugs that you never even knew existed, because every user is going to do something unique.

The range of these glitches can vary. Sometimes they’re infuriating and break the game entirely. Other times they’re minor and only exist when the game has been pushed to its absolute limits. Then there are those glitches that we just can’t help but laugh at. They don’t ruin the experience but instead enhance them. Glitches are as much a part of the gaming experience as anything else and some of them have become very famous. Some of them have even changed video games as a whole!

Here, we’ll take a look at some of the most legendary game glitches of all time.

Minus World

Possibly the most famous glitch on this list, the Minus World, or as it’s shown in the game World -1, is a “hidden” level that you can access via World 1-2 in Super Mario Bros. on NES. At the end of the stage, you need to jump backward and glitch your way through the wall until you reach the secret entrance in the back. Enter the first or third pipe and you have entered World -1 which is in reality just World 7-2 but on an endless loop.

In the game’s code World -1 is actually considered “World 36-1” but 36 is the same number used for blank tiles so it merely shows up as “-1” and this led to fans dubbing it “Minus world.” Compared to many other glitches this one is fairly tame, but Minus World became infamous among fans of the game and as time has gone on it’s become part of Super Mario Bros. lore.

This is also a good example of pushing a game to its limits and trying to break it on purpose. The process of reaching the minus world is something you almost have to force yourself to do. Rarely if ever is someone going to reach this on accident.

MISSINGNO

Arguably the most infamous Pokemon glitch, MISSINGNO became a major part of gaming culture because of just how weird it is. To activate this you need to do a careful series of steps that include re-doing the Pokemon catching tutorial in Viridian City, flying to Cinnabar Island, and then surfing right on the coast of the island back and forth. After running into wild Pokemon for a little while, at completely random levels, you will eventually run into the legendary MISSINGNO.

What MISSINGNO is in reality is nothing more than a placeholder program for when the game can’t find the number it’s seeking. Thus MISSINGNO= Missing No. = Missing Number. However, you’re not supposed to be able to find MISSINGNO in normal circumstances so when you do find it you are going to begin seriously corrupting your game. Catch it with a Masterball and then you can start putting on a magic show for anyone watching.

Culturally, MISSINGNO became infamous in the Pokemon community and has spawned fan art, creepypasta stories, and tons of fan theories about what MISSINGNO is or what it was supposed to be. As time went on though it became a trick for duplicating items and other fun tricks.

Wavedashing

If you’ve ever watched someone play Super Smash Bros. Melee professionally you’re probably amazed at just how fast they can move. A part of why they’re able to cover ground so quickly is a small glitch fans dubbed “Wavedashing.” The glitch itself is rather harmless. Press the buttons on your GameCube controller correctly with the proper timing and you will slide across the stage during matches. It’s what wavedashing became that makes it such a famous glitch.

You can argue that there’s a direct correlation between wavedashing and the growth of professional play with melee. Players who learned how to wavedash made the game faster, they got better at it, and these days it’s a high-speed eSport featuring some of the top players in the world going head to head in tournaments.

Without wavedashing it’s hard to see the game ever becoming as quick as it is. It completely changed the game and added a layer of skill that benefits the hardcore crowd of the game. It’s also a fun glitch because it’s not required to enjoy the game. You can still play the game casually with friends and never once use it, but if you want to be part of the hardcore then you need to learn how to wavedash. It’s almost like a rite of passage.

Speedrunning

This one is kind of cheating, but speedrunning has played a huge part in changing how glitches are viewed among gamers. For the longest time, when you found a glitch, it was an annoyance that hampered your enjoyment of the game. However, as speedrunning has gotten more popular it has led to players seeking out more ways to play the games faster. So they seek out glitches, ways to teleport ahead of where they should be, break through invisible barriers, and complete hour long games in sometimes literal minutes.

Utilizing glitches is a major part of speedrunning and it leads to players seeking out new ones. They’re constantly pushing games to their limit and seeing how they can bend them to their advantage. The craziest part is sometimes the most important glitches they find are the ones that only save precious seconds. It may seem minor, but when the difference between the world record and your time is three seconds, those glitches become extremely important to your run.

The Corrupted Blood Plague

What if a pandemic happened virtually? It’s already happened before and it became one of the most infamous glitches ever!

A raid in the popular MMO World of Warcraft featured a boss with an effect where they would infect players and drain their health. The effect was highly contagious and if the player ran near other players or their pets it would infect them as well. The effect would eventually go away on its own or when the player died, but where the glitch occurs is that the effect could be taken outside the dungeon.

If a player’s pet was infected during the raid and they de-summoned it in the dungeon, they would keep the effect outside of the dungeon and if the player chose to release their pet back outside the dungeon they could infect themselves and other players with what was essentially a virus. Other players, other players’ pets, and even NPC’s could all get the virus. Even worse when an NPC got it they would remain unaffected while still being contagious. So if an NPC had the virus and you went up to them then you yourself would become contagious. World of Warcraft had a pandemic in their game due to a glitch.

The aftereffects of this ended up becoming worldwide news with media outlets, the CDC, and terrorist prevention organizations all keeping a close eye on the effects of this in-game outbreak. It was the closest they had to a virtual example of what a pandemic might look like at the time. It even got referenced in the TV show Mythic Quest.

CyberPunk 2077

Call it recency bias or call it over reactionary, but the glitches of Cyberpunk are going to have a massive effect on video games as a whole.

The glitches themselves can be hilarious, featuring flying cars, and players being launched into space, but they aren’t always funny. Many of them were game breaking and actively ruined the experience. It became such a problem that CD Projekt started telling players that weren’t happy with the game to ask for refunds. Sony responded to this by pulling the game from their online store.

There is no telling what kind of pandora’s box was opened with this. Games shipping broken is becoming a little too much the norm these days and fans are growing increasingly tired of it. You can see this in more than just Cyberpunk. Just look at the response to Madden 21‘s release. What is stopping fans the next time this happens from demanding a refund again? We’re seeing more pressure than ever for games to release in a more complete state, especially with prices increasing to $70 in this new console generation.

Cyberpunk isn’t the first game to be a buggy mess, but it might have been the final straw for fans. Glitches can be fun, they can change the entire course of a game’s history, but when you see too many of them they can ruin a game.

Taylor Swift has said that she enjoys leaving Easter eggs and clues for her fans to discover and analyze, and it looks like Swifties have found another one in the album art of Swift’s recently announced re-recorded album Fearless (Taylor’s Version).

The new art is based on the original, as Swift is in a similar pose. A big difference that fans noted this time, though, is Swift’s shirt, which they think is intentionally similar to the one the Romeo character wore in her original “Love Story” video. As one fan put it on Twitter, “taylor is wearing romeo’s shirt, she no longer needs a knight in shining armour because she is her own.”

Swift said of her new version of “Love Story,” “‘Love Story’ is a song that I wrote when I was 17 and I think it involved some teenage angst I think I was mad at my parents for not letting me go on a date or something and it also was a good example of what a hopeless romantic I was and and still am I really loved the story of Romeo and Juliet except for the ending because that was just like two devastating for me to process so I changed the ending in the song and I’ve just ever since been so honored by the fact that people have celebrated this song so much I feel really lucky that people responded to it the way that they did and continue to.”

Check out some other fan reactions to the Fearless (Taylor’s Version) cover art below.

Netflix knows that love is in the air, but it’s an unconventional year, so how about a little unconventional love, too? The massive streaming service is up to that challenge and more, but first, one must witness Noah Centineo doing his best Lloyd Dobler in the conclusion of the To All The Boys I’ve Loved trilogy. There’s also a horror-thriller about a married couple trying to put it all back together, and once you’re tired of the romantic vibe, Joe Berlinger’s latest crime documentary is coming at you in series form. Netflix simply cannot stop loving its subscribers, and the feeling is mutual.

Here’s everything else coming to (and leaving) the streaming platform this week.

To All The Boys: Always And Forever (Netflix film streaming 2/12)

Noah Centineo’s reign as the Internet’s Boyfriend may be coming to an end with the conclusion of Netflix’s smash-hit, romcom trilogy. Lana Condor’s still keeping Lara Jean’s head on as tightly as possible while things get dreamier with her boyfriend, although everything could change with their oncoming plans for college. Will they both go to Stanford and keep their love alive, or will Lara Jean depart school in New York City? Long distance love isn’t so lovely, and god only knows what else can be revealed in this film that they haven’t shown in this trailer (this franchise is a master at the art of revealing the whole movie in a few minutes), but fans will be excited to find out whether Peter and Lara Jean can actually make it beyond their idyllic high school setting.

Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel (Netflix series 2/10)

(Netflix series) — Director Joe Berlinger (Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, the Ted Bundy movie starring Zac Efron and Paradise Lost, the HBO documentary trilogy about the West Memphis Three) launches this new anthology series that explores why some notorious crime locales gain their reputations. This season’s all about L.A.’s so-called “hotel death” and what happened when a young woman named Elisa Lam disappeared without a trace and after behaving bizarrely. Along the way, Berlinger seeks to crush conspiracy theories and vanquish ghost stories, although the whole affair is still a spooky ride.

Red Dot (Netflix film streaming 2/11)

This might be a cautionary tale for people who decide it’s a great idea to rekindle their marriages in the unforgiving wilderness — who knows? For sure, though, this is a claustrophobic tale about what happens when a sadistic killer points a red laser dot into Nadja and David’s tent, and that act sends them fighting for their lives. Naturally, a lot of marriage drama will happen along the way, as they attempt to save themselves in the snowy terrain. I guess couple’s counseling was a no-go, but that’s not nearly as entertaining as escaping into other people’s hell when they find themselves feeling like they’re on the other end of a video-game gun. Also, there’s a dog in this trailer, and nothing had better happen to him, or I’m gonna call for John Wick vengeance.

Squared Love (Netflix film 2/11)

This romcom follows a teacher who’s moonlighting as a model, all to pay off some debt, but then she meets a womanizer/journalist, who’s being blackmailed to appear in some advertisements. They become worst enemies, and we can probably guess (given the whole romcom thing) how these two will proceed, right?

Here’s a full list of what’s been added in the last week:

Avail. 2/8
iCarly: Seasons 1-2
War Dogs

Avail. 2/10
Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel
The Misadventures of Hedi and Cokeman
The World We Make

Avail. 2/11
Capitani
Layla Majnun
Middle of Nowhere
Red Dot
Squared Love

Avail. 2/12
Buried by the Bernards
Nadiya Bakes
Hate by Dani Rovira
To All The Boys: Always And Forever
Xico’s Journey

Avail. 2/13
Monsoon

Avail. 2/15
The Crew

And here’s what’s leaving next week, so it’s your last chance:

Leaving 2/14
Alone in Berlin
Hostiles

Leaving 2/16
Brave Miss World: Collection 1

Leaving 2/19
Bates Motel: Seasons 1-5

Leaving 2/20
A Haunted House

Leaving 2/21
Trespass Against Us

Leaving 2/24
Dolphin Tale 2

Leaving 2/26
The Frozen Ground

Leaving 2/28
A Walk to Remember
Basic Instinct
Easy A
The Gift
GoodFellas
Gran Torino
Haywire
LA 92
Little Nicky
My Little Pony Equestria Girls: Friendship Games
Retribution
Saving Mr. Banks
Sleepover