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Urban Legend of Zelda: Difference between revisions
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* There were a few rumors about some bizarre, secret levels in ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog 2]]'' and at the time what presumably was ''in'' these levels took on mythic proportions. Turns out the levels existed, kinda', but were basically left overs from the development phase. The levels existed at a certain point in development, hence the music from them and the screenshots (which spawned the urban legends) were real, but [[Dummied Out|they were later axed]]. This is similar to ''[[Mega Man X|Mega Man X1]]'''s fabled "White City" and "robot partners"—mentioned and shown in early previews and screenshots but removed during development.
** ''[[Sonic 3 and Knuckles|Sonic & Knuckles]]'' was subject of numerous rumours regarding connectivity and several magazine hoaxes; claims that you could play as Knuckles in ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog (video game)|Sonic 1]]'', ''[[Ecco the Dolphin]]'' and ''[[Streets of Rage]] 2'' were the most memorable, but there were also some related to a secret if you played all the blue sphere levels with Sonic 1 connected, such as playing as Hyper Tails, Metal Sonic or Robotnik. Nothing would actually happen, and if it's assumed every blue sphere level is solvable in two minutes, it would take roughly 400 years of solid play to finish them all (there are over 100 million).
*** In an example of [[
*** Of course, there have been [[Game Mod|ROM hacks]] [[Hilarious in Hindsight|since then]], so you actually CAN play as them, if you know where to look.
* ''[[Sonic Adventure]]'' and ''[[Sonic Adventure 2]]'' gave us [[Ridiculously Cute Critter|Chao]], a mon that was a little like Pokemon. As with Pokemon, rumors spread.
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* Due to a number of odd "clues" in the game, a number of people are searching ''[[Shadow of the Colossus]]'' for hidden secrets and a "17th colossus" that keeps coming up in discussion despite absolutely no evidence or reason for it. Via emulation, glitches, hacks, and probably caffeine, a few members of the official forums have discovered some interesting [[Dummied Out]] sections of the map. Look for PikolUploader on [[YouTube]], or "last big secret" on Google, which points to the forum thread for finding such things.
* ''Buck Bumble'' had a cheat actually published as legitimate cryptically called "Dark Stinger" which had you input a long button combination before the opening logos appeared.
* ''[[
* An interesting example is in ''[[Chzo Mythos|Art of Theft]]'', by [[Ben Croshaw]]. As a [[Self-Imposed Challenge]], the player can put on a special outfit that makes them ''more'' visible to guards, thus making the game more difficult. There was a rumor that if you complete the bonus mission (all seven of the previous levels in a row) using this outfit, it unlocks a minigame. {{spoiler|What you actually get is a message that assumes you heard the rumor already and encourages you to continue telling people that the minigame exists, making this a rare example of a Urban Legend Of Zelda executed by the game designer}}.
** In a similar vein, beating [http://armorgames.com/play/1846/shift-3 Shift 3] {{spoiler|unlocks [http://www.fancypantsadventures.com/ Fancy Pants Man] as a playable character; reviewers are encouraged by the game's ending message to identify the unlockable character as Mel Gibson instead.}}
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** Likewise, there were many, many rumors about Shang Tsung being able to transform into the character Kano, who was absent from ''MK2'' for plot reasons. The message "I HAVE NEVER SEEN A KANO TRANSFORMATION" briefly became a fan meme as a result. (This was all caused by a counter in the Arcade's test mode reporting the number of Kano morphs.)
** Similarly, in ''MK2'', it was heavily rumored that the trees in the Living Forest stage could eat the opponent as part of a secret stage fatality. Not only was this bogus, but it remained so for all subsequent remakes of the stage.
*** Referenced in ''[[Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks]]'' (It was actually a requirement to progress in the Living Forest stage) and finally made into a real stage fatality in ''[[Mortal Kombat 9]]''.
** ''Mortal Kombat 2'' had a very well known rumor that you could knock people onto the hooks in the Dead Pool stage.
** The first ''[[Mortal Kombat (video game)|Mortal Kombat]]'' allegedly had a rare occurence where Scorpion or Sub-Zero would appear in a red outfit (believable since some other characters are [[Palette Swap]]s of each other), and the words "ERMAC" would appear over the life bar, as shown by a faked screenshot in ''Electronic Gaming Monthly''. There hasn't been a single case where the supposed Ermac "glitch" was triggered without hacking into the game (the name, short for "error macros," only appeared on a debug menu). Ermac nevertheless made his official debut in ''Ultimate [[Mortal Kombat 3]]''.
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* Fighting games seem to attract these sorts of things. In ''[[Killer Instinct]]'', one of Orchid's finishing moves was flashing her opponent (though of course the player couldn't see anything). Reportedly, on one stage, if you positioned her in front of a mirror and performed the finisher, you could see her breasts. The developer's response? "I don't recall a mirror in that stage."
* There is a cheat that was in some early FAQs of the first ''[[Guilty Gear]]'' for the [[PlayStation]] that would unlock Justice, Testament and Baiken without having to beat the game all the way through. Turns out it really just increased the game's difficulty in Normal Mode.
* There was a rumor in Japan that if the player completes the Famicom version of ''[[Kung
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** People also insist that you heal each other instead of yourself because it makes the AI Director "reward" this teamwork action with more first aid kits in the maps. There hasn't been any hard proof that supports this theory but people will still push you to heal them instead of yourself as if the theory were true. This is actually stated on the L4D wiki, so true or not, it's pretty widely believed.
** There's also another myth passing around with the bots of the old survivors in The Passing. It is believed that giving Louis (or any of the other guys) pills or shots will make the bot have better aim and give players better items. The bots will only give certain items based on the situation; if the survivors are hurting, health items are more likely to be given. If the players are doing well, they will generally get bomb items. The bots can also toss down an [[BFG|M60]] and a [[Chainsaw Good|Chainsaw]], [[Randomly Drops|but those are extremely rare.]] On top of this, the bots do not get any better in their shots since it is possible for the team to get wiped, even if you gave the other bots items beforehand.
** The rumours about [[Fan Nickname|Church Guy]] then? Some believed that he could become a Tank or a [[
* Many previews for the dino-hunting game ''[[Carnivores]] 2'' said it would feature a secret, unlockable rocket launcher. Subsequent examination of the game's data files, and later its source code, have shown that there is no trace in the game of a rocket launcher, though one may have been planned early in development.
* One persistent rumor among the ''[[Modern Warfare]]'' community is a program, snfg.exe - nicknamed "Sniper Frog", supposedly running in the background and doling out "luck" like headshots and better kill streak crates. Of course, there has never been a source for this beyond unnamed "hackers" and worst of all, the people spreading the rumors can't even agree who the program is supposed to be benefiting. Some claim that it favors low-level players to encourage newbies and others claim it supports high-level players to keep them interested and buying map packs as opposed to moving on to new games.
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== Hack and Slash ==
* The original ''[[Diablo]]'' game had a rumor of a "secret cow level" that the player could access by clicking on a certain cow in the town of Tristram. Although this rumor proved false, in ''Diablo 2'' the developers put in an actual cow level in homage to the rumor; similarly, a secret Cow quest was added to the third-party expansion Hellfire, although it wasn't a genuine "Cow level". The phrase "There is no cow level" is also a [[Classic Cheat Code]] in ''[[
** The Diablo II instance of the secret Cow level was again referenced in one of their most recent April Fool's jokes: an advertisement for their new "Diablo 3 body pillow" featured a disclaimer at the bottom warning users "do not transmute the pillow with Wirt's Leg and a Tome of Town Portal."
** Also, in the Battle.net chat interface in ''Diablo II'', there is a gem that can be clicked on to toggle a lit/unlit state, but appears to do nothing functional. Occasionally when you click on it, it will give a message, such as "Perfect gem activated." Hundreds of rumors about the gem's actual, secret function have spawned. All [[Blizzard Entertainment|Blizzard]] has said about it is that it is "Working as intended." It is possible, by clicking the gem a certain number of times, to trigger a message saying "Perfect Game Activated" (normally the message is "Gem Activated/Deactivated"), but the number of clicks required to do so is random and has no effect on anything else.
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== [[MMORPGs]] ==
* In early beta versions of ''[[Dungeons
* [[MMORPG]]s tend to develop a ton of rumors due to their fluid and ever-changing nature.
** ''[[Final Fantasy XI]]'' is a magnet for this. The game has a ton of dead end caves, background details, and sealed off portions of the world, which were placed to give possible expansion areas. The latter, in particular, draws a lot of rumors. Sealed off portions (presumably abandoned due to most of them being in the "old world") include the Mithra-only part of Kazham, the ship port in Norg, the Galka-only part of Bastok Mines, and the roped-off stairway in Tenshodo headquarters.
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* The German-based MMORPG [[Tibia]] had a number of these for a number of years, with ways to get legendary items like the Sword of Fury (a converted spike sword that was readily available outside the beginning area) in the first levels, access to a GM island, and of course, a way to open up the Pits of Inferno or fight the Ruthless Seven.
** The Pits were eventually opened and the Ruthless Seven became playable bosses.
* ''[[
** There is a rumor about Jagex hiding a secret item in the free version of the game and leaving an incredibly cryptic trail of clues in random junk items. Supposedly, anyone who found said item would get a free lifetime membership.
** There was another pervasive myth, dating back to 2001, about an underground farm that could be accessed by using a sapphire on a particular tree. Later versions of the myth swapped the sapphire for a herring. The farm was generally rumored to contain fantastic new armor; the herring era whispered of a place where the then-rare rune armor could be found scattered on the ground. One early resurgence of the story can be found [http://web.archive.org/web/20020512023931/http://runetipit.board.dk3.com/viewtopic.php?topic=26759&forum=1&24 here]. It's been said that this was the inspiration for the city of Zanaris.
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** She comes onto you at one point, describing...er, in good detail the things she plans on doing to you. Any further dialogue choices will result in her backing off and claming she wasn't serious.
* ''[[Lufia]] 2'' for the SNES had a locked door in the final area rumored to be openable if all the Iris Treasures were obtained from the Ancient Cave. The woman who stores them for you hints that something may happen if they're all gathered, one of the Sinistrals is named Iris, and the Iris Treasures were ''extremely'' time-consuming to collect (one can only be obtained through a boss battle that's all but rigged, while the others are [[Randomly Drops|random drops]] in a 99-level dungeon). For years, gamers looked for an explanation beyond them just being [[Bragging Rights Reward]]s until the rumor was finally killed by [[Word of God]]...which didn't help, as realizing that one spent fifty hours of their life collecting useless artifacts for shits and giggles makes one want to climb a bell tower with a rifle.
* Back in the days before GameFAQs, YouTube, and others, there were NUMEROUS examples of these. Some were true, others weren't. One good example is the ''Mother'' trilogy, with numerous rumors that were both true and false. Two of them in particular surrounded the final boss of ''Mother 2'' aka ''[[
** [http://herbaldrink.deviantart.com/art/VGMythBusters-Giygas-67655728 Somebody on DeviantART] in fact could've been a [[Trope Namer]] had it not already been named, since he actually shows an image of when you can see the Fetus in ''Mother 2''. He also confirms that when the game starts to become staticy near Giygas' defeat, you do NOT hear Giygas crying for help, as the SNES' sound technologies are unable to handle that. (even ''[[Tales of Phantasia]]'' and ''[[Star Ocean]]'' sound staticy and distorted).
** Part of why the story's survived for so long, other than the vagina/birth canal/whatever part of it corresponding with the biological background in the area where you fight Giygas, is that the final battle takes place in the past and Giygas's infancy and childhood are a big part of the first game's plot.
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== Wide-Open Sandbox ==
* ''[[Grand Theft Auto]]: [[Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas|San Andreas]]'' had two recurring rumors. One was that there existed a Yeti character somewhere on the map, and the second that there were "ghost cars" that would spawn in some precise locations and drive around without a driver. The first rumor was "proven" by some people with photoshopped images. They both turned out false — there's no Yeti in the game code, and "ghost cars" were just abandoned, wrecked cars that the game spawned in hilly areas. Since new cars don't spawn with their parking brakes on, they'd sometimes just roll down the hills. Then there were the rumors about zombies being in the game, fueled by a rather mysterious corporate building in San Fiero. Many similar rumors abound, such as the existence of Jaws, the Loch Ness Monster, [[The Texas Chainsaw Massacre|Leatherface]], etc. Most of these have been officially refuted.
** ''[[Grand Theft Auto IV]]'' has Lola the prostitute, who was featured on the PS3 box and has a page on the police archives (accessible if you use the computer in the police vehicles), so there's rumors that she's in the game.
*** One piece of fan rumor turned out to be correct. In ''IV'', you receive an achievement called "Impossible Trinity" after completing a mission in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. After it was revealed that Johnny (who appears in that mission) was the playable character for the first [[Expansion Pack]], players seized upon the achievement name and correctly predicted that Luis (who also appears) would star in his own DLC.
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