From unlocking special characters, to having the main character appear naked, there have been all sorts of video game rumours over the years. People spend hours trying to see if these rumours are true, but sadly not all of them area. Here are 7 of the crazies video game rumours people actually believed.
1. Reviving Aeris in Final Fantasy VII
Part of the way through Final Fantasy VII Aeris, one of the game’s playable characters, is killed off by the villain, Sephiroth. Because she was important to the plot and had access to some pretty cool weapons, led players to believe she could be revived at some point. Even though the game’s official strategy said there was no way of reviving her, rumours persisted that the fan favourite wasn’t dead for good.
2. Luigi in Super Mario 64
Super Mario 64 is thought by many to be one of the best Mario games ever made. One thing that puzzled fans was the noticeable absence of Luigi, Mario’s brother. They thought there was no way Luigi wasn’t in the game and rumours spread that he was hidden in the game and that getting all the coins would unlock him – this proved false, as the character was never programmed to appear in the game at all.
3. Unlocking Sonic and Tails in Super Smash Bros. Melee
Electronic Gaming Monthly started an April Fool’s joke that you could play as Sonic in Tails in Super Smash Bros. Melee and over time rumours developed and people actually believed this was true. Sonic was available in the next Super Smash Bros. game, though Tails is yet to make an appearance in the games.
4. The Chat Gem in Diablo II
The Chat Gem appeared in Diablo II’s online chat room and clicking on it would bring up the message ‘Gem Activated’ then clicking on it again would bring up ‘Gem Deactivated’. If you clicked often enough, you’d get the message ‘Perfect Gem Activated’, though no one could quite work out how this affected the game and there were all sorts of rumours about the gem (it could supposedly raise the difficulty of the monsters and increase your chances of finding magical items). In reality, the Chat Gem didn’t do anything at all and was just there to confuse and annoy people.
5. Finding Bigfoot in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
A rumour went round that if you wandered around the game’s forested mountain areas at night, you’d stumble across Bigfoot. Players would spend hours trying to find him, but to no avail. One of the game’s developers admitted Bigfoot couldn’t be found anywhere in the game, though enthusiasts of the game modified the PC version to include Bigfoot for players to find.
6. Lara Croft in the nude
The Tomb Raider games were a huge success and its title character Lara Croft became one of the most popular figures in gaming, as well as a sex symbol. The games were mainly popular with boys and there was a rumour that you could enter a code that would enable you to play the game with Lara not dressed. All sorts of fake codes could be found on the internet, though none of them worked.
7. Mew under the truck in Pokémon Red and Blue
Pokémon Red and Blue famously contained a number of secrets and glitches, including the glitch Pokémon Missingno, but one rumour about the game that proved false was the claim that if you used strength on the truck near the S.S. Anne, a Mew would appear. This rumour became hugely popular because Mew was so elusive and the truck itself was so randomly placed in a game where scenery was so sparse; players questioned why the truck existed and ultimately they decided there must be a Mew under it, but there never was. There is a legitimate way to catch Mew in the games and this can be found on YouTube.
