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Video Games: The 6 Cruelest Urban Legends in Videogame History
Member Since: 2/9/2012
Posts: 10,283
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The 6 Cruelest Urban Legends in Videogame History
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In the days before the internet, urban legends and straight-up hoaxes spread like wildfire, thanks to an overeager willingness to believe anything and nothing to keep the rumors in check. There was no one to deny the existence of wild claims like bringing dead characters back to life, with the exception of a few gaming magazines (such as EGM, which – as you’ll see – often perpetuated the hoaxes themselves). And when they turned out to be untrue lies, the harsh reality of our crushed dreams stung. But you know what stung more? TRYING TO BEAT MORTAL KOMBAT 100 TIMES IN A ROW WITHOUT SUFFERING ANY DAMAGE IN ORDER TO UNLOCK THE SONYA BLADE NUDE CODE. Ahem. These are the 7 cruelest hoaxes and urban legends in videogame history.
6. Luigi is in Mario 64
Mario and Luigi go together like spaghetti and meatballs, like donuts and coffee, like mushrooms and fire flowers – so it wasn’t unreasonable to assume Luigi would be a playable character in Mario’s first foray into the 3rd dimension. Sure, Nintendo had specifically said it was a single-player affair, but that didn’t mean whoever was playing couldn’t choose between Mario and Luigi, right? Why would Nintendo leave its 2nd most recognizable plumber out of the game entirely, when even Yoshi makes an appearance?
That was the attitude the internet seized upon at the release of Super Mario 64 (note it wasn’t “Super Mario Brothers 64”). Luigi had to be there somewhere. Why would Mario leave his taller, weirder brother behind? The first “clue” the internet found was “L IS REAL 2041” (or something like that) illegibly scrawled on a statue: somehow, this meant Luigi was real and in the game (other theories included promotion for Paper Mario). Coming in with the assist were numerous texture hacks, photoshopped screenshots, and tales of playing as the green plumber flooding the internet.
Shockingly, he was not in the game. But then Nintendo released the Super Mario 64 remake for the DS and he was included – along with Yoshi and Wario. It’d be nice if every rumor was eventually validated with a handheld remake.
5. Get the Triforce in Ocarina of Time
In most Legend of Zelda games, you get the Triforce at some juncture. That’s kind of the point of most of the games – it’s the big MacGuffin you’re after the whole time. Sure, you want to save Zelda and defeat Ganon, but the real goal is reuniting the Triforce and restoring order to the world.
Supporting this was an early trailer that actually showed Link getting the Triforce. That settled it. Nevermind that videogame companies can and do change their games significantly between early trailers and the ultimate release. Of course, Nintendo did remove the “getting the Triforce” thing from Ocarina of Time. And, as with most of these hoaxes, the rumor mill had a way of still getting it, and of course it was needlessly and hopelessly complex.
That was the beauty of these rumors, and what allowed them to spread so widely: they were so difficult that most people would never attempt them, and (if they did) they were often too demanding to be accomplished. Therefore people would assume they screwed up something in the delicate procedure and try again and again. The requirements of this one had you running around all of Hyrule, doing weird, vague, and pointless tasks, and getting nothing in return.
If we only would have had the Triforce of Wisdom to begin with, we may have seen through this dumb hoax.
4. Fallout 3 Morse Code Predicts the Future
As gamers grow older and more suspicious, the rumors need to get more difficult to debunk. We live in an age where the rumor birth/death cycle happens months before a game is even released. So – the Fallout 3 morse code rumor. Each Fallout game has been filled with obscure references and secret Easter Eggs that are still only now being discovered, so a lot of people were ready to believe strange morse code messages might be real in Fallout 3 – even if they were predicting the future.
If you killed Three-Dog and completed the game through the destruction of Raven Rock, Galaxy News Radio would occasionally turn to a “numbers station” (think Lost) followed by morse code messages.
The creepier interpretations of these involve the exact date of the Queen of England’s death, Britney Spears winning an Oscar, and someone rambling about the end of the world. What gave these messages credence were some other supposed decoded messages – predicting Gary Coleman’s death and the BP Gulf oil spill. The real advantage of this hoax was that the messages were hard to come by, and even if you could find some, most gamers can’t easily interpret morse code transmissions. So instead, our instinct was to trust the internet. Internet rumors…internet rumors never change.
3. Sheng Long in Street Fighter
Before the internet, the only widespread way of getting solid videogame information was magazines. When rumors were flying that there was a secret character in Street Fighter 2 (due to a translation mistake for the US release), EGM came forward to confirm the existence and detail how to get the character of Sheng Long to appear, in their April 1992 issue (part of their notorious series of April Fools jokes). However, for young, impressionable, naive gamers everywhere, the April Fools part of the reveal was completely lost on them. Many went through the arduous process detailed by EGM to get to the character – involving playing the whole game as Ryu without taking any damage, then fighting M. Bison without giving or receiving any damage, only to get…nothing. EGM didn’t even reveal the joke until December of that year, giving some players 8 months of misery and confusion.
They did it again in 1997, for the release of Street Fighter III. This time, people were more skeptical, but the bottomless fountain of hope amongst Street Fighter fans to finally encounter Sheng Long overcame the skepticism for many, only to be burned again.
The final, cruel straw came when Capcom itself hinted that Sheng Long would be playable in Street Fighter IV. These are sad times when a new character is a joke, and DLC costume colors are a reality.
2. 24th Cheat in Goldeneye 64
Goldeneye is actually party to a few major hoaxes/urban legends: the secret base across the bay in Dam (which does exist and is visible through the sniper scope, but unable to be traveled to since the method of getting there was cut from the final release), the mysterious Spyder gun (named in the instruction manual, but renamed “Klobb”), and the fabled 24th cheat.
The 24th cheat is essentially this: there are 23 cheats available for Goldeneye 64 built into the game, split into two rows. Because of the format of the cheats, it looks like there’s one missing (since the slot is open) once you’ve obtained all 23 cheats. Even if no one had told you about the rumors of what the 24th cheat was, you would assume you were still one away from completing the cheatlist.
There were two theories of what the 24th cheat was, Line Mode and All Bonds Mode. What gave credence to the All Bonds Mode (which would allow you to play as previous incarnations of James Bond in multiplayer) was an early screenshot that actually showed the iconic Sean Connery-in-a-white-tuxedo version of Bond. And to add fuel to the fire, EGM Magazine made it their April Fools rumor in 1998. Again – the rumors were all fake, and no such 24th cheat existed. Although we can always hold out hope there’s a No Oddjob code out there somewhere, just waiting to be found…
1. Pokemon Black
No, not that Pokemon Black. This was before the release or even the announcement of Black & White. This was something sinister.
Legend had it there was a specially modded version of Pokemon Red/Blue, called Pokemon Black – and it’s creepy as hell. The game begins very much as Red/Blue did, with one exception – in addition to your chosen starter Pokemon, you have another Pokemon, caled “Ghost” – and you cannot remove it from your party. It’s represented by the unidentified Ghost sprite you see before obtaining the Silph Scope, and it knows one move, called “Curse” (although – not the same “Curse” move present in later generations of Pokemon). And when you use Curse on wild Pokemon, the screen will simply go to black and you would hear a low-pitched cry. When the battle screen came back, the opposing Pokemon was gone. When used against a trainer’s Pokemon, they would be left with one less Pokeball.
What was happening was you were actually killing Pokemon. And it gets worse.
If you used Curse once all the trainer’s Pokemon were gone, the overworld trainer sprite would be gone, replaced with a tombstone. Yikes.
There’s more to the game (eventually, the game flashes forward to decades in the future – everyone in the world is dead but you, now an old man. Then Ghost reappears and curses you), but that’s not the point of this. The point is – it’s not even real. But the incredibly detailed and fascinating story drew in a lot of people. You can still find copies of Pokemon Black (Creepy As Hell Edition) floating around on eBay, and they never are what the legend promises they are.
The beauty of this hoax is that it taps into some of our deepest fears – Pokemon is a series about terrifying violence and fighting in a world absent of consequences for your actions. No one is ever permanently hurt or dies (well, maybe your Rival’s Raticate…), and this game promised a true change to the status quo.
Of course, it was fake. The good ones are always fake.
At least we don’t have to ever wonder whether it’s worth trying to slog through 100 matches unharmed in Mortal Kombat just to get some dumb nude code. Nowadays we can just download a nude mod.
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Source: http://www.dorkly.com/article/39521/...eogame-history
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Member Since: 6/15/2011
Posts: 41,028
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Of course, it was fake. The good ones are always fake.
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It sounded really interesting 
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Member Since: 9/4/2011
Posts: 22,946
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Omg Pokemon Black.  
I think I remember the Pokemon Black rumors when I was younger. They'd always talk about the possibility of a new color game. 
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Member Since: 5/22/2011
Posts: 21,227
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Pokemon Black sounds creepy.. and amazing
What about the Mew cheat when you surf down the place where the S.S Anne is? 
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Member Since: 1/3/2010
Posts: 21,098
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I always wished Pokemon Black was real.
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Member Since: 4/1/2011
Posts: 6,382
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Britney will win an Oscar in 2023!
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Member Since: 9/11/2011
Posts: 6,140
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Lavender Town Syndrome and the Hand in Lavender Town i thinkk
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Member Since: 5/22/2011
Posts: 21,227
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Originally posted by Scheisse
Lavender Town Syndrome and the Hand in Lavender Town i thinkk
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What's the Hand in Lavender Town? 
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Member Since: 6/6/2011
Posts: 29,899
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That Pokemon Black one 
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Member Since: 4/21/2012
Posts: 2,805
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Originally posted by Sunlighter
Britney will win an Oscar in 2023!
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Uhm... what? 
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Member Since: 3/25/2011
Posts: 10,337
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Pokemon Black was a LEGENDARY urban myth.
No child felt safe when hearing the Lavender Town music.
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Member Since: 10/15/2011
Posts: 1,877
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You spelled "cruelest" wrong in the title.
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Member Since: 4/1/2011
Posts: 6,382
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Originally posted by Maven
Uhm... what? |
Read the first post.
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Member Since: 1/13/2010
Posts: 5,334
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Quote:
Originally posted by Sunlighter
Britney will win an Oscar in 2023!
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Not this getting warned 
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Member Since: 1/19/2012
Posts: 13,768
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Lavender Town is seriously creepy 
Cubone's mother being killed and him wearing her skull
The music
Ghost
Gary's Raticate dying
Lavender tower/graveyard
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Member Since: 3/30/2011
Posts: 9,692
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Britney Spears winning an Oscar
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Member Since: 9/23/2009
Posts: 26,796
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The creepier interpretations of these involve the exact date of the Queen of England’s death, Britney Spears winning an Oscar, and someone rambling about the end of the world.
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Member Since: 4/21/2012
Posts: 2,805
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Quote:
Originally posted by Sunlighter
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Oh! I'm a derp.
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