Summary
The “secrets” of various video gamesare a popular topic of discussion concerning the medium. Sometimes, these are confirmed to exist in the games, and, due to the nature of the present day internet, are not very well-kept. Other times, the rumor mill is simply blowing smoke, and there is nothing to actually support a rumor surrounding certain video games.
Due to the savvy nature of gamers, and the ability for mass documentation, it is far easier to separate fact from fiction nowadays. Sometimes, the rumor will disprove itself upon release; other times, developers will have to come out and say it’s fake.Many urban myths regarding video games have been proven fake, but some caused much more of a stir than others.
This rumor developed because it involved an area of the game that the player would not intuitively visit. The SS Anne’s port is home to truck, existing on a patch of land that can only be accessed by using HM03: Surf. This is something the player is incapable of doing under normal circumstances, as the SS Anne leaves the port after gamers finish traversing it.The player needs HM01: Cut, which can only be obtained aboard the SS Anne, to eventually access Surf. This makes the patch of land with the truck difficult to visit, and it also made some fans think that doing so would lead to the discovery of a Mew, the first ever Mythical Pokemon.
The player has to black out on the SS Anne after obtaining Cut. Then, they can return to the Pokemon Center,with the ship still docked. After using Cut, they can eventually visit the Safari Zone, where they are given Surf. This allows them to eventually access the fabled truck. Unfortunately, a Mew is not actually under the truck; it was merely programmed in as a rare piece of scenery in the original games, only coming with the satisfaction of accessing somewhere the developers did not intend for players to visit. The remakes,Fire RedandLeaf Green, acknowledge the rumor in a tacit manner, with the docked truck instead hiding a Lava Cookie. TheLet’s Goremakes put a continually spawning Revive in its place.
There was a rumor about the firstDiablogame that said if a cow was clicked enough, it would allow the player to access a “Secret Cow Level.” While this turned out to be false, it came with an interesting caveat.Diablo 2, inspired by the rumors surrounding the first game, actually did feature the fabled level. The portal to access this level can only be created by participating at a difficulty level the player has already completed.
Combining Wirt’s Leg and a Tome of Town Portal in the Horadric Cube allows players to access the level, where they can face off against demonic cows known as “Hell Bovines,” seemingly led by a being known as “The Cow King.” Other references and levels imitating this Secret Cow Level have been documented acrossthe rest of theDiabloseries.
Lara Croft, the protagonist ofTomb Raider, has long been considered a sex symbol in video games. The fascination with her body led to perverted players of the original attempting to discover a code that would make Lara Croft naked, termed “Nude Raider.” The relatively limited detail with which people were depicted in1990s-era video gamesdid not deter fans from this outcome. Despite the rumors, any method of getting Croft to strip naked does not actually exist.
The developers were annoyed by the rumor and how long the publisher leaned into it. Its popularity meant that they were negatively perceived for slipping pornographic content into a video game geared toward a teenage audience. It was apparently even requested for the game by the management, although whether this was a joke is unclear. TheGamer documents a claim made by Gavin Rummery, one of said developers, that the shower scene inTomb Raider 2whereCroft shoots at the playerfor daring to catch a glimpse of her naked, was created in response to this rumor.
Bigfoot lore is one piece of the greater trend of cryptozoology, where odd beings with unclear origins are sighted and studied by various people. Sightings of these beings tend to, at first, vary greatly in description. That is until a clear enough picture emerges, and consensus is mysteriously reached. The various beings documented are themselves fascinating examples of how urban myths get started and perpetuated. In the realm of gaming, many rumors were spread when some people claimed to have spottedBigfoot inGrand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
Most of the rumors tend to place the being at a distance, which gives plausible deniability to the nature of the claims. The popularity of the rumor also resulted in mods, which circulated and got passed off as the vanilla game. TheSan Andreasmanual also gives special thanks to Big Foot (the alias of a developer), further substantiating the rumors. The developers noted that the existence of the being known as Bigfoot was, once again, fake. However, the popularity of this myth did ultimately result inthe inclusion of the Sasquatch inGrand Theft Auto 5.
The September 11 attacks were plane hijackings committed by al-Qaeda terrorists that resulted in the tragic deaths of thousands. This has led to it being considered one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in history. Even decades later, people affected are still reeling from the damage.
Call of Dutyis a series that tends to favor a mixture of historical events and fantastical rewriting to deliver its style of military-focused gameplay. Its newest release,Black Ops 6, is slated to drop on the 25th of October this year, yet despite not even being officially released at the time of writing, it has still been dogged by rumors regarding its gameplay.Call of Duty’s prior envelope-pushing campaigns involved opening fire on civilians, and at one point, even shooting up an airport.
However, invoking 9/11 directly seems a bridge too far, and Treyarch has confirmed there will be no 9/11 level orcampaign in the game when it releases. Beyond the inherently offensive nature, a 9/11 level would not fit with the time period ofBlack Ops 6, as it focuses more on the Gulf War, which took place in the early 1990s, about ten years before the attacks took place.
