Loading error

A loading error is a phenomenon in which the game fails to load part of a stage correctly. This can include entities failing to load or loading with textures missing, the backdrop of a stage not loading or loading incorrectly, or even the famous case of the Airswim glitch. Currently, loading errors have no known causes but are theoretically useful in some circumstances. All known loading errors are extremely rare.

Examples

There are a few different variants of loading errors that have currently been documented. These include:

• The water level in the Lake Kingdom or Seaside Kingdom loading at the wrong height, allowing the player to swim higher than normal. This phenomenon is known as Airswim.
• The fog effect surrounding a kingdom failing to render. This has been documented in the Cap Kingdom and Cloud Kingdom, and is thought to be closely related to Airswim.
• Most surfaces in the Cap Kingdom overworld loading with incorrect or blank textures, with some producing an intense visual bloom effect. Additionally, various light sources seem to flicker.
• Various rocks in the Cascade Kingdom failing to load their textures. Their collision is still there, but they appear invisible. The texture seems to reappear once the rock is offscreened.

It is speculated that airswim may be useful in Koopa Freerunning in Lake Kingdom, but the extreme infrequency of the glitch occurring has prevented it from being tested in practice.