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In computer and video games, sequence breaking is the act of performing actions or obtaining items out of the intended linear order, or of skipping “required” actions or items entirely. Sequence breaking is often used to beat a game unusually quickly, to beat it while only completing a few objectives or obtaining a few items, or to help push a game as far as possible in some other way.
History of the term Though sequence breaking as a concept has existed almost since the inception of computer games complex enough to have sequential storylines, apparently the first documented action in a video game to be called a sequence break occurred in the Nintendo GameCube game Metroid Prime, in a thread called “Gravity Suit and Ice Beam before Thardus”*. Note the logical “Y before X” notation common to sequence breaks. “Y without X” is also common. The rock monster Thardus was designed to be a required boss before the gravity suit and the ice beam could be obtained, hence the novelty of bypassing the boss while still obtaining the items. This feat was first achieved on January 18 2003 by a gamer named Steven Banks, who posted his discovery on the Metroid Prime message board on GameFAQs. The thread attracted a number of interested gamers, and the term sequence breaking was incidentally coined*. The term has since grown in popularity and is now often applied to unintended shortcuts in any game. Examples There are hundreds if not thousands of examples of sequence breaking in video games and computer games, including the following: | ||||||||
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