Hoaxes have always been a part the video game community. Since gaming increased in popularity in the early 1980s, rumors spread about exclusive content. Most ga⭕mer🍎s want to be the first to make the news go viral to gain popularity. Others may be heavily invested in a series and wait impatiently for news on a new game.
Gamers deliberately spread this false information to weed out the casual and hardcore gamers. Some may ℱjust believe it when they read it, and others will attempt to find the hidden content in the game for themselves. Now gamers can use th🔴e internet to research a hoax thoroughly before investing their time in finding the hidden secret. It was almost impossible to prove someone wrong before the internet was in most households.
Though friends may share rumors, gaming publications are not innocent in spreading hoax information. While some information may be an honest mistake, in earlier gaming days, it was deliberate. When all gamers had was the latest GamePro or Electronics Gaming Monthly, they believed in everything these magazines printed. I𝓰t was hard to prove these magazines wrong, and young gamers would invest their time into finding the hidden treasures♔ their favorite games.
Though most news released by popular news outlets is genuine, there are some hoaxes you’ll kick yourself for believing. We’v🎃e compiled a list of some of the most hyped video game news and hidd💜en content that turned out to be nothing but a hoax.
15 Unlocki💝ng Sheng Long In Street Fight൩er II
Mistranslations have long plagued the video game world. That's why the existence of Sheng Long in Street Fighter II was believable. In the Super Nintendo port of Street Fighter II, a mistranslation of the phrase "If you cannot overcome the Rising Dragon Punch, you cannot win!" to "You must defeat Sheng Long to stand a chance." made gamers believe that Ryu was referring to a person and🍷 not an attack move.
Though the hoax was clarified, gamers still believed Sheng Long was an unlockable character. Gaming magazine Electronic Gaming Monthly only fueled the hoax hype in 1997 by announcing Sheng Long was unlockable in Street Fighter III. The hoax would soon become a running joke for decades. In 2008, Street Fighter IV Producer Yoshinori Ono announced his team was turning the hoax into a reality. Thanks to numerous fan requests, Sheng Long finally appeared in Street Fighter IV.
14 🐽 Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask ꧟HD
After the successful HD remaster of The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, fans hoped for the same treatment of other Zelda titles, such as Majora's Mask which was originally releaseꦇd on the Ni💟ntendo 64. Fans hoped for an HD release on the newest Nintendo console.
In June 2012, fans believed Nintendo fulfilled their requests. A Majora's Mask HD trailer popped up on YouTube. Fans didn't consider that the trailer the video was not uploaded on an official YouTube channel. The description also stated that it was created by a small team who work in the video game industry. Since June is also E3 season, fans believed the trailer was real. News of a Majora's Mask HD re📖lease spread like wildfire online. Though this hoax was unintentional, the timing of the trailer and E3 caused many fans to get ꦍtheir hopes up.
13 Fallout 3's Morse Code Predicts 🌺the Future
The Fallout series contains many hidden secrets. This hoax came to life after a set of conditions was completed in Fallout 3. Three Dog is the upbeat DJ of Galaxy News Radio. If you decide that Three Dog must die, he is a non-essential NPC and can be killed. Three Dog will be re🐠placed by a technician named Marga꧂ret. Instead of informing residents of news and playing music, Galaxy News Radio will become a Numbers Station, which broadcasts messages in code.
After time has passed, you'll hear Three Dog on the radio again, even though he's dead. He's not his usual upbeat self and starts saying numbers. These morse code messages were then interpreted by gamers. Some of the messages were news of actual real life historical events. Others accurately stated the time of Gary Coleman's death and predicted the BP Oil Spill. Bethesda has denied all claims that Fallout 3 can predict the future.
12 Bigfoot In Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas ꧂ ꦜ
Bigfoot is not only a hoax in gaming but also a fictional creature many claim exists in real life. The large ape-like creature is said to be roaming the forests in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Gamers claim Bigfoot can be found roaming the countryside in the areas of Flint County and Whetstone since there are ꧟many forest areas and 🍎more creepy hidden areas.
To prove Bigfoot is in the game, players have taken video using mods or gone so far as to edit screenshots. One mod creator developed an elaborate side-mission to find Bigfoot, but it was not an official part of the game. The co-fo💞under of Rockstar Games, Terry Donovan, tried to end the rumors by stating "There is no Bigfoot, just like in real life," but there are some gamers who refuse to believe him.
11 Mushroom Kingdom Hearts ಞ
Kingdom Hearts combines characters from several different Disney and Final Fantasy series. In 2007, Electronic Gaming Monthly released news about Sora traveling with Nintendo characters instead of the Final Fantasy cast. A promotional image was printed of Sora, Mickey Mouse, and Mario ready to take on a new threat together. Sora would take his adventures into Hyrule and meet popular Nintendo characters, such as Mario and Zelda. He would also get to travel to space with Samus from the Metroid series. Over 41 characters would be featured in the game. Mushroom Kingdom Hearts would have been released on the Nintendo Wii.
Since EGM was becoming more notorious for their elaborate April Fools Day pranks, many gamers took to the internet to discuss the validity of this news. Unfortunately, Mushroom Kingdom Hearts turned out to be another April Fools Day prank.
10 ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ Unlocking Street Fighter's Akuma In Resident Evil 2
Electronic Gaming Monthly had a large part in many video game hoaxes in the 1990s and early 2000s. In another hoax, they claimed that Akuma was unlockable in Capcom's Resident Evil 2. The player first had to complete the game six times as Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield on A Rank, only using the handgun and knife. With a variety of weapons, including a grenade launcher and shotgun, it was a difficult task, but not impossible. EGM stated that to unlock Akuma, gamers had to type in "AKUMA" instead of "GUEST" on the computer in the laboratory. This would allow you to create a seventh saved game and choose Akuma instead of Leon or Claire. Akuma would attack the u🍷ndead with fire attacks instead of firearms and did not have to use any keys. Fans believed this hoax since many game developers will feature their characters in other titles as hidden content.
9 Dead Or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleybal🐻l Code
In a majority of video games featuring beautiful women, there are usually rumors of nude codes to accompany it. Dead Or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball was first released in 2003, taking the female characters from the battlefield onto the beach. In the volleyball game, there are a wide variety of revealing swimsuits to show off the game's jiggle physics, but some gamers wanted to see the women nakeܫd.
In another attempt to troll gamers, Electronic Gaming Monthly revealed a nude code. The magazine stated that using the code would unlock a new game mode that made all of the characters topless, while still keeping the game's Mature game rating. Unfortunately for gullible gamers, the code turned out to be another one of their infamo𓆏us April Fools Day pranks.
8 T𝓰he Existence Of Herobrine 🌞
Herobrine is a darker character resembling the male lead character of Minecraft, Steve. He is often featured by Minecraft's community as a secret, hidden character. However, he had not been present in any version of Minecraft. Gamers claim that Herobrine is Notch's dead brother that haunts the game. He appears when you are mining with a diamond pick axe. After encountering Herobrine, gamers claim their game started acting strangely. Crafted items suddenly appeared, trees went missing, pyramids appeared in the ocean, and 2x2 tunnels lined with redstone torches appeared underground. Notch tried to put the rumors to rest. After getting a flood of emails and Twitter tweets about the character, he stated "I don't hav𒈔e a dead brother, and he never was in the game. Not real. Never ♕was."
7 Obtaining The Golden Warthog In Ha🍨lo 2
The M12 Light Reconnaissance Vehicle, or Warthog, is one of the most well-known vehicles used in the Halo series. It features a mounted Light Anti-Aircraft Gun. Using it on the battlefield will make you a harder target to hit for players running on the ground. Though there are different versions of each Halo game, the golden version in Halo 2 caught players' eyes.
There is a billboard of a golden civilian model of the Warthog featured in Halo 2. It has no weapons attached 𓄧to it and looks like a regular vehicle. That didn't stop gamers♍ from desiring it. Gamers began creating fake videos, explaining how to obtain it. These videos were often low quality and provided unhelpful information. The Golden Warthog turned out only to be a billboard and was unobtainable in-game.
6 Unlocking Luigi In Super Mario 64 ꧟
The main feature of the Super Mario Bros series is getting to play as Mario or Luigi. It's rare that one of the brothers is not a playable character. Luigi was not playable in Super Mario 64, but gamers still tried to prove he was playable. The hoax stated that in the courtyard, there is an inscription on a statue. Gamers claimed the scribbled inscription read "L is real 2401." Many interpreted L to stand for Luigi and 2401 was the exact number of coins that had to be obtained to unlock him. Though this was a hoax, it was a stretch from Luigi fans. The statue is only there for decoration, and developers added a plaque beneath it to make it more realistic. Fortunately, the Nintendo DS port allowed gamers to play asꦏ ♌the green plumber.