You have your JNCO jeans on, your Tamagotchi hanging from your keychain, and your GameBoy pocket tucked in your backpack. This right here was the perfect environment for all kinds of wild and crazy video game rumors to spread, and boy did they ever. From secret characters to secret moves, hidden levels, and tricks to catch legendary Pokémon.
Nothing was ever off the table, and whatever our imaginations could think up was unleashed upon the world for kids to repeat and spread. Let’s check out some of these rumors that have been cemented in time. Or…..maybe there is actually some truth to some of these rumors after all?
Blowing into any cartridge-based game
Let’s start with one that will seem all too familiar. Admit it. If you were around during the days of cartridge-based games, you have at least once in your life blown into an NES, N64, or any other console cartridge in the hopes it would fix the garbled mess of pixels that formed on your screen instead of your game. Hey, there’s no shame.
For a long time, this was the rumor that circulated on how to get your games working properly. The idea was that the dust messed with the connection of the pins, and by blowing the dust away, would fix the problem. It didn’t matter how old you were, or where you were from. Everybody blew into their cartridges and would pass on that info like it was a life hack. I still hear people to this very day repeating it!
We’re going to debunk this rumor once and for all. Blowing into your cartridges does not help them function better. In fact, it can actually cause more harm than good by introducing moisture to the pins on the game PCB. The reason these games would glitch out or not work was from a loose connection with the pins. As you repeatedly put games in and out of your console, the pins would get worn down and the connection would weaken, an issue that cannot be fixed by blowing into the cartridge.
Just taking the cartridge out and reinserting it was enough to get a game to work by getting a better connection with the pins, even if it took a few times. Blowing into it was nothing more than a placebo effect when the game did end up working. But that didn’t stop hordes of kids for multiple decades from blowing into their cartridges anyway!
Sonic in Super Smash Bros.
Sonic…..in a Nintendo game? That will never happ…….O wait a minute. In 2023, we’ve actually seen Sonic in quite a few Mario games. But in 2002, this seemed impossible. That didn’t stop people from spreading the idea that Sonic was somehow unlockable in Super Smash Bros. Melee.
To add fuel to the fire, Electronic Gaming Monthly put an article in one of their issues that said it was possible to unlock Sonic AND Tails. All you had to do was defeat 20 enemies in the Cruel Melee mode. Of course, this wasn’t true, and it turned out to be an April Fool's joke by EGM. And years later, Sonic is very much in Super Smash Bros.
Yoshi and Luigi in Super Mario 64
Super Mario 64 is a monumental game in video game history. From pioneering what a 3D platformer should and could be, to aiding game developers by giving them a roadmap of how to bring their 2D characters and worlds into the third dimension, it’s one of the most important games ever created.
While it was a smash hit, there were some ingredients interestingly missing from the game. Luigi and Yoshi were nowhere to be found. It seemed so unlikely that Nintendo would leave these 2 out of the game that all kinds of rumors began to circulate about them being in the game and how to get them.
One of the main rumors that continued to spread was that if you collected all of the stars in the game, you would be able to use the hidden cannon in the castle courtyard and shoot yourself onto the roof where Yoshi would be waiting. This rumor actually turned out to be half true. You CAN find Yoshi on the roof! Unfortunately, he is only there to give you 100 lives and nothing more. A very odd prize for completing the game, as at that point what would you need the extra lives for?
This caused people to go crazy trying to figure out if there was a way to ride Yoshi and if there was more content in the game to use the lives and Yoshi in. But it was nothing more than a rumor. I’m still wondering how Yoshi ended up on the roof??
Luigi was another character with all kinds of theories about how to obtain and play as him in the game. In fact, there is an entire conspiracy around him labeled the “L is real” conspiracy. What kicked this rumor off was a statue in Peach’s castle that contained extremely blurry text that was taken to be “L is real 2041”. Kids all over were doing everything they could to find luigi, and collecting 2041 coins became the prime suspected way of how to do it.
Again, nothing more than a rumor as Luigi is nowhere to be found in the game. Poor Luigi, always be left out, Unless…..you happened to check the game’s source code and in that case many years later, someone did find a 3D model for Luigi in there bringing the L is real conspiracy back around again.
Ermac is unlockable in Mortal Kombat
Mortal Kombat has always been a game that thrived on easter eggs, secrets, and rumors. Creators Ed Boon and John Tobias got a kick out of getting gamers to comb through the game looking for things to unlock, and it was a genius way to get people to keep funneling quarters into the machine.
The character Reptile was so hidden and required such specific parameters to unlock and battle, most people didn’t actually think he was even real. It was a secret done so well that most people just assumed it was a rumor like so many others on this list. But Reptile was, in fact, in the game, and if you managed to get a double flawless victory without blocking and perform a fatality while on the pit stage, you would meet Reptile at the bottom of the pit and fight him.
Oh, and did I mention you have to do all of that while a silhouette flies past the moon? Something that only happens every 50 matches. This blew the minds of gamers all over. Imagine being the fan that first discovered this obscure secret, and not a single soul would believe you, yet you knew what you saw with your own eyes!
After finding out about Reptile, the imaginations of fans went crazy imagining what else was in the game. What other characters could there be? It didn’t take long, because after coming across an error message in the audit screen of Mortal Kombat labeled, “Ermacs”, people began speculating Ermac was a secret character.
Magazines actually had articles about this character, and Electronic Gaming Monthly had a polaroid sent in that showed a red ninja in battle with the words “Ermac Wins”. This made the rumor explode and gamers all over were desperately trying everything they could to unlock and play as the red ninja, Ermac.
Sadly, this was just a rumor and not a case like Reptile where he actually existed. The person who submitted the photo edited the picture to make it look like Ermac was in the game. This character was so popular that the developers decided to put Ermac in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 just a couple of years later.
The Triforce is in Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Even if you’ve never played a Zelda game, you are still probably familiar with the golden triangular artifact known as the Triforce. Showing up in nearly every Zelda game to date, and every Zelda game up until Ocarina of Time, it was expected to be in the game. Heck, Nintendo themselves showed an early teaser trailer that showed Link obtaining the Triforce, and there is even a spot in your menu shaped like the outline of the Trifoce, so of course we all figured it was obtainable somehow. Yet, when we completed the game, we all were feeling a little triforce-less.
The credits rolled and you were wondering, wait……did I miss something in the game? Is there a better ending containing the Triforce? There has to be some way to obtain it, right? It didn’t help that someone on a very popular message board by the name of Almandox claimed they found the Triforce and even posted a picture of it. They even supplied 2 more pictures, but refused to detail how they unlocked it.
People tried absolutely everything and spread ideas of how they thought it could be obtained. Jumping into Volcanoes in the right spot, not getting hit a single time, or beating the running man character in a race. And one of the most popular, and one I tried myself, was bombing every single gossip stone in the game.
The gossip stones were a very peculiar object that could be interacted with in many different ways. Different actions would cause them to interact with Link in different ways, whether it be hitting with your sword, shooting with a projectile, or playing a certain song on the Ocarina. All of these methods were rumored in some way to unlock the Triforce if done in a very specific order, or with a specific item. This included bombing every single one of them, and there are 32 of these spread out throughout the game.
But of course, all of this was just an elaborate hoax by Almandox, and she eventually admitted it was nothing more than a joke. In her defense, the signs were there in the pictures, as oddities like Link’s sword being on the wrong shoulder, were present. But that didn’t stop people all over from being disappointed when they tried all of these methods and came up with no Triforce.
Reviving Aerith In Final Fantasy VII
If you’ve played Final Fantasy VII, then one scene is bound to be etched into your memory forever. One of the most positive and upbeat characters, and a character that is part of your team from early on, gets slain right before your very eyes out of nowhere. We had seen character deaths before in video games, but none of them hit the way Aerith being murdered by Sephiroth(Jenova) did.
Aerith is stabbed through the stomach by Sephiroth, who drops into the frame out of nowhere. And before you can process what your eyes have just seen, you are thrust into another boss battle. But unlike other battles, the regular boss music is nowhere to be found, and instead, Aerith’s peaceful but melancholy theme plays throughout the battle instead. A reminder that this battle is like no other, and what comes after is still waiting for you.
The entire scene is brilliantly done to pull at your heartstrings and remind you that video games are so much more than just games. They are epic stories that can take you on a ride of all different emotions, no different than books or movies. This scene was so powerful, that many gamers just couldn’t accept this was the end of our beloved flower girl.
There just had to be a way to bring her back, and many rumors were passed around of how to bring her back to life. Being mean to Tifa at every chance, and nice to Aerith instead was one way. But the most popular was leveling up your “Cure” materia to get an ability called “Restore” and then maxing out your “Underwater” materia to a whopping 16,777,215 AP, and a new area would be available where you could revive her.
It didn’t help that this rumor was spread by someone claiming to work for Squaresoft. But like many rumors in this Blog, it was nothing more than a lie. A way for all of us to cope with the possibility that maybe, just maybe, we could rewrite the story to an ending that wasn’t so painful. And after all of these years, the Final Fantasy 7 Remake seems to be hinting that Aerith might have an alternate fate in this release. One can only hope.
Catching Mew in Pokémon Red & Blue
You knew this was coming. It was inevitable. Like taxes. Possibly one of the most popular, if not the most popular rumor in all of video gaming. A rumor that had just enough substance to it, that it seemed so possible, so plausible, that it might be true. And boy, as kids did we want it to be true.
In Pokémon Red and Blue, there was a rumor that spread like wildfire that if you did a very specific sequence of events, you could unlock the secret Pokémon, Mew. Mew had been mentioned in the game, and teased, but was never meant to be obtainable outside of Nintendo promotional events. In fact, Mew was released this way on purpose to drive more interest in the game and increase sales. Eventually, the first Pokémon Movie would come out in 1999 and would revolve entirely around this Pokémon, further attributing to the allure of this Pokémon and rumor.
The process to get Mew involves surfing in a very specific area, which under normal circumstances is not possible as it is blocked off when you finally obtain the surf ability. You would be able to surf to a patch of land that had a hidden pickup truck. You would then use the move Strength to move the truck aside and find a Pokeball containing the legendary Pokemon, Mew, because this pickup truck sprite is found nowhere else in the game, and cannot be accessed in any other way than tricking the game into letting you surf the area near the SS Anne.
The rumor actually seemed like it was more than just a rumor, and quite possibly a way to get something special. Why else would that hidden pickup truck be there? And why would they hide it? You couldn’t escape kids talking about this and spreading the idea that this Pokemon was out there waiting for you under that truck. Unfortunately, this was not the case, and countless kids would get all the way there only to find out the rumors were false. No Mew. Just sadness and disappointment.
And while this was highly disappointing, and the truck was nothing more than an unused sprite they didn’t remove from the map, there still was hope! Because despite not being able to obtain Mew by the method above, in around 2003 it was discovered you could still in fact get Mew with a very specific sequence of events that would trigger a glitch that would make a catchable Mew appear.
In fact, there were even multiple ways to set this glitch off. Glitched or not, finding this out years later as a teen was mind-blowing to me. I dusted off my old Gameboy and sure enough, after successfully pulling the glitch off, there it was, the Pokemon I had always dreamed of being able to catch. Take that, Game Freak!
*Any perceived investment advice is that of the freelance blogger and does not represent advice on behalf of GoCollect.
