Game designers are creative people, but even they have a hard time topping the stuff that gamers invent. Complicated rumors about hidden content in games pop up on a regular basis, and although the internet tends to debunk them faster these days, people still get taken in. These eight internet hoaxes have fooled many gamers in the past.
Don’t see the one that got you? Tell us what is was in the comments!
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas – The Sasquatch
The Grand Theft Auto games are well known for the large number of easter eggs that are typically hidden within them. So when rumors started flying that you could find Bigfoot in the woods around Mount Chilliad or Back O Beyond in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, it’s not surprising that people believed it. No matter how many people failed to find the beast, the rumor persisted until Rockstar finally debunked it. Of course, if you want to find the mythical creature, there’s a mod that adds him to the game.
The Majora’s Mask HD Remake Trailer
Nintendo games tend to attract lots of rumors, mostly because the company is so tight-lipped about everything. Not long before E3 2012, a video (embedded above) surfaced that appeared to show off a new project: the HD remake of The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask. The video excited fans and by the time of Nintendo’s E3 presser conference, you could almost feel the anticipation. Of course, Nintendo didn’t mention it, and it turned out the video was made by two fans who were hoping to encourage Nintendo to a remake. At least they got us a 3DS version.
Getting Mew In Pokemon Red And Blue
Remember when you thought you had all 150 Pokemon, and then you heard that there was a secret, 151st monster to catch? All you needed to do was find the truck outside the SS Anne by never going onboard the ship, then play the rest of the game as normal. Later you’d fly back, surf across the water, and use Strength to move the truck out of the way. Mew would pop out, and you’d go into battle! Except that none of that was true. The only way to get Mew was at an official Nintendo event, but once you’d put in enough game time to catch 150 Pokemon, I guess it’s only natural you’d be willing to give more.
Street Fighter II – Sheng Long
Sometimes hoaxes are created by carefully crafting a story, and sometimes they just fall in your lap. The case of Sheng Long in Street Fighter II is the latter. In the arcade version of the game, Ryu’s victory screen read “You must defeat my Rising Dragon Punch to stand a chance.” But thanks to a mistranslation, some machines replaced “Rising Dragon Punch” with “Sheng Long,” the Chinese translation of the phrase. EGM Magazine took that ball and ran with it, saying in the April 1992 issue that not only was Sheng Long real, you could fight him by playing as Ryu and beating the entire game without taking damage, and then fight M. Bison without hitting him or taking damage. Completely false, but just imagine the time people sunk into that.
Goldeneye 007’s 24th Cheat
If you played Goldeneye 007, you remember the cheat codes you could unlock. There were 23 of them, but the menu always looked like one was missing. This lead to a rumor that the 24th cheat could be unlocked, and that it would let you play the “All Bonds mode,” which would let you play as any of the James Bond actors up to that point. Although this was something that was worked on development, what really happened was that Rare couldn’t afford the cost of licensing all the faces required to make the mode, so it never made it to production. You could hack the cartridge to get at the assets for the mode, but the rumor itself was clearly false.
Sonic And Tails are in Super Smash Bros Melee
Electronic Gaming Monthly used to run an April Fool’s joke every year, and sometimes these jokes got taken way, way too seriously. In this case, the joke was that Sonic was going to appear in Super Smash Bros Melee. All you had to do to supposedly unlock him (and Tails, for good measure) was to take down 20 wire frame enemies in the Cruel Melee arcade mode. Videos have shown players beating 500 or more of the wire frames, and still no Hedgehog.
Polybius
This may be the first really big video game hoax. The year was 1981, and there were rumors out of Portland, Oregon of an arcade game that was developed by the government. Players said that it would cause headaches, amnesia, and some even claimed that they could no longer feel sadness after playing it. Supposedly men in black suits would periodically visit the arcades and retrieve data from them. This farfetched story still pops up from time to time, with some people claiming that they still have ROMs of the game.
Diablo’s Cow Level
If you played Diablo, I’m sure you noticed that there were cows all over the place. Although they were merely there for decorative purposes, some people couldn’t accept that explanation. Enter the rumored “Cow Level.” Here’s what people said: If you could find the right cow in Tristram, and then click on it the right number of times, you would be transported to the secret bovine area. It didn’t exist, but no matter how many times Blizzard said so, the rumor continued to circulate. Blizzard must have liked the idea, because they included a cow level in Diablo 2 (pictured above).
