In the original Nintendo 64 version, if you input too many "illegal" cheats in the sandcastle in Treasure Trove Cove, Gruntilda will permanently delete your save file. This won't come into effect until you have saved and quit or turned off the console though.

In the Xbox Live Arcade version, entering any cheat except for those given by Cheato and Bottles will disable saving for the current playthrough and remove the player's score from the leaderboard. Oddly enough, there is no penalty for inputting too many cheat codes in this version, even though all the text about erasing the save file is retained. This was fixed in the 2026 Evercade port of the game.