

Long before Fortnite let John Wick shoot Superman, NBA Jam was the undisputed king of bizarre character cameos that led to truly wild competitive matchups.ĭepending on which version of the game you were playing, NBA Jam let you take the court as Bill Clinton, Reptile, Warren Moon, “Air Dog,” Prince Charles, Will Smith, and so many more truly bizarre characters that we used to impress our friends before we refused to tell them the cheat code we used to unlock them. Sure, it sometimes broke the game and slowed the framerate to a crawl, but those drawbacks honestly just highlight how insane and delightful this cheat was. It was the cheat you relied on when you were about to quit playing or were feeling especially frustrated/destructive. The Grand Theft Auto series belongs in the Hall of Fame of video game cheat codes, but if I have to pick one cheat from this series to highlight, it has to be the “tank” code from GTA 3.īy entering CIRCLE, CIRCLE, CIRCLE, CIRCLE, CIRCLE, CIRCLE, R1, L2, L1, TRIANGLE, CIRCLE, TRIANGLE (in the PS2 version of the game), GTA 3 players could spawn an invincible Rhino tank that could destroy any other vehicle with one cannon shot. The thing about cheat codes is that they’re rarely just about the “cheat.” Yes, there’s a certain joy to becoming invincible, unlocking new items, or just skipping a few levels, but the thing that separates the best cheat codes from an endless selection of similar cheats is the way they would often go on to define the games they were in to such a degree that it almost feels stranger to think of playing those games without cheats enabled.įrom tanks that appear out of thin air to secrets that made you the most popular kid in the neighborhood, these are the absolute best cheats in video game history. Cheat codes may not be as prominent in video games as they once were, but there was a time when entire magazines, TV shows, and websites were dedicated to sharing these commands, codes, and tactics that would change the way you played your favorite games.
