Softlock

A softlock occurs when the game is put into a state where, though it has not crashed or ceased functioning, there is no way to progress without resetting the console.

Known softlocks

• Repeatedly bonking within a glitchy wall
• Getting stuck in some Black Room of Death
• Activating a death, star, sign text, or painting entrance cutscene at the same time as a specific type of star activation cutscene (mainly item box stars)
• Being grabbed by Heave-Ho or Chuckya while releasing its clone or the clone of its anchor object
• Being grabbed by Chuckya while in Time Stop
• Attempting to speak to a bob-omb buddy while in Time Stop
• Being thrown by a Heave-Ho while underwater
• Being grabbed by Chuckya the same frame he dies or being grabbed in midair and having Chuckya unload
• Collecting a star in vertical wind
• Collecting a star in a situation where Mario repeatedly ledge grabs
• Activating a star outside the 12k limit
• Talking to Yoshi while your lives counter is stuck (i.e. while having 1000 coins on the Japanese version)
• Talking to Yoshi while it's falling off the roof
• Dying when Lakitu's textbox is triggered at the start of the game (this is exclusive to the Japanese 1.0 version).
• Activating certain text boxes while the camera is stuck
• Being thrown by Chuckya while holding a handsfree teleported bloated bob-omb
• Going into a tornado while permanently squished
• Being shell Mario in certain geometry
• Repeatedly being knocked back while being pushed off a floor by an object.
• Being stuck in a sliding state while sliding into a ceiling or out of bounds.
• Activating a textbox from an object and then unloading the object