Sequence Breaking

A sequence break is an act that breaks the standard sequence of events in a game ("taking another way through the game than a player is likely to use on the first play-through"). This may amount to collecting an item earlier than intended or skipping a segment entirely. Sequence breaks usually rely on glitches, but sometimes creative thinking is enough. Efficient sequence breaking is the key to most time improvements in speed running.

With the possible exception of Metroid 2: Return of Samus and Metroid Fusion, sequence breaks are ubiquitous in the Metroid games. In fact, many sequence breaks seem to have been known to the developers. For instance, the secret wall jumping and bomb jumping techniques in Super Metroid directly lead to several sequence breaks, but these moves mostly lack practical use otherwise. Further, it is nearly impossible to get stuck or cause crashes in Super Metroid when entering areas without the supposedly required equipment, indicating that the designers were aware of the possibility that players would do so.