Top 10 Video Game Hoaxes of All Time
04. Sheng Long in Street Fighter II
When the iconic sequel to the original Street Fighter became a smash hit it was not long before the decision was made to port it to English and that process was quickly completed. Unfortunately there were a few of those Lost in Translation moments in the game -- one of which would end up being the biggest unintentional hoax of the year causing untold man hours of fruitless search.
After each battle a Fight Card was displayed -- the one in question was supposed to list Ryu's move 'Rising Dragon Punch' was mistranslated, and as a result the card that should have read 'you must defeat my Rising Dragon Punch to stand a chance' ended up reading 'you must defeat Sheng Long to stand a chance.'
This could have been easily explained save for the fact that the magazine Electronic Gaming Monthly, when asked by readers if there was such a character hidden in the game, decided to perpetrate a hoax on the gamer community and confirmed that there was such a character, but to be able to battle them you had to play through the entire game as Ryu -- without taking ANY damage -- and then upon reaching the final character battle allow the timer to run out without either being damaged or inflicting damage.The hoax was actually part of their April Fool's Issue -- so you would think that the fact that it appeared in an April issue of the magazine would be sufficient to tip off the faithful but no, this became one of the best known (the word infamous really applies) hoaxes for the one reason that these things usually grow legs and walk: the Faithful Want to Believe.
03. MAVAV - Mothers Against Videogame Addition and Violence
Created as a fusion of satire and hoax -- and as a final project for grade -- by gamer David Yoo, who was at the time a student at the Parsons New School for Design, the MAVAV website claimed to be 'dedicated to educating parents of the world's fastest growing addiction and the most reckless endangerment of children today.'
The cleverly crafted website dishes up the sort of tongue-in-cheek and cleverly sarcastic news coverage engineered to foment confusion among the lowest common denominator of the ostensible target audience.
The effort is very much like that of comedian and pundit Stephen Colbert -- who to this day appears to retain a Republican viewer base that remains convinced his program is, in reality, anti-Democrat.
Making extensive use of the widely published tantrums of outspoken video game critic and ex-Florida-lawyer Jack Thompson, samples of recent industry and news articles related to games and the game industry, to which are added the sort of clever and over-the-top observations that are at once witty and sarcastic at the same time.
With headlines for news pieces like the recent 'Video Games Not Fun' as well as features including 'EverQuest: A Threat to Society?' and 'E3: Evil Entertainment Expo' one is forced to wonder just how daft the anti-game crowd really are.
02. The Final Fantasy VII Hoax
Another one to file under the power of We Want to Believe -- at E3 2005 Sony had a very stunning series of technology displays at its booth that were intended to demonstrate the capabilities of their new PS3 -- among which was an absolutely stunning remake of the Final Fantasy VII opening CS.
The wizards at Sony made it crystal clear that this was a technology demo -- not the port of a classic game from the FF series on to its newest platform -- and yet despite this disclaimer at the show, it was a minor typo in another game that lead to the hoax...
Later on when Final Fantasy: Advent Children was released among the closing credits was a note of thanks to the Final Fantasy VII PS3 Team -- and naturally when eager gamers began to plug in the search phrase 'Final Fantasy VII PS3' the tech demo showed up -- seemingly confirming that Sony was in the process of porting over if not the most successful game in the FF series than one of the most successful. The rumor quickly grew legs.
The problem was that the thank you note was supposed to read The Final Fantasy VII PSN Team, not PS3 -- but the damning evidence of the tech demo opening CS -- on the PS3 no less -- for FF VII was so powerful that nothing Sony said would convince the faithful. I can only imagine they are still waiting for the game to release.
Check the next page forour top video game hoax of all time...
weird
To the Guest who has so strongly protested the issue of Mew in Pokemon Blue...
I mean no offense when I say this, but you have taken the entire issue way out of context. It is clear that you have decided that the issue at hand and what we were focusing upon in terms of the Hoax is the matter of Mew in Pokemon Blue and Red.
That is NOT what we were focused on.
What we said is that the Truck cheat in Pokemon Red and Blue IS a Hoax. And it is. You can NOT obtain Mew using it.
What I do not understand here is why you have decided to be so insulting and judgmental? You did this by recasting the issue in your terms. But that does not match the topic you are attacking.
Unless you can prove that Mew can be obtained by moving that truck, you make yourself look like a complete fool.
So CAN you prove that the Truck cheat is not a hoax? Well?
KNOW YOUR FACTS!!! I played pokemon blue, and it took 10 years for the truth to be unraveled, but getting mew is NO HOAX. I never had a gameshark, and I did the trick to get mew, and it worked. seriously, google how to get mew and try it. this article has no credibility.
I think herobrine was never in minecraft in the first place
You are very welcome - and sorry about the name spelling oddity - it is just one of those things where the fingers do not always type what the brain is thinking. I do that with the word "every" when I mean "ever" quite often as well...
Lara...not Laura or Lolra
Besides this, thanks for this superb article
The Pokemon and Minecraft entries are in fact hoaxes. Just because you can obtain Mew using a glitch does not mean that the widespread widely shared hoax is not just that - a hoax.
The pokemon and the minecraft ones were not hoaxes
I found hero brine and he sacred the Sugar Honey Iced Tea out of me.
I completed all the pokemon and got all the pokemon in red and blue I have mew
Mew actually is obtainable in red/blue. You can either use a gameshark, do the mew glitch, or you could have just gotten him legit by doing that contest thing nintendo did...
Mew is actually coded into the game. It shares an almost identical setup to ditto. Here...For this method, the player first needs a Pokémon with a Special stat of 21. It doesn't matter if the stat was naturally leveled or boosted with stat experience, as long as it's not due to an in-battle Special-stat boosting skill. The player needs to find any Trainer in the game that will engage in battle the moment the Trainer is on screen and the player is in the Trainer's line of sight. The player then needs to take one step down closer to the Trainer, but make sure that the Trainer does not see the player, and then immediately press the "START" button. Once the player has pressed Start and the menu appears, the player needs to Fly or Teleport elsewhere. The location being traveled to must have a path via which the player can walk both to a place where there are wild Ditto (Route 15RB or Pokémon MansionY) and a Trainer to fight. This is because the Start button will no longer work until after
Yes it is LARA not LAURA... I apologize but the thing is that my fingers and my brain are not always in synch. I often type every when I mean to type ever, and Laura when I mean Lara - and because they do not get flagged by the spell checker, I don't always catch it and am not always aware of it.
Sorry that ruined it for you...
The triforce is actually in OoT... It's power radiates from the Temple of Time into Link, Zelda, and Ganondorf.
Also, maybe a tongue-in-cheek reference to Nintendo anticipating this rumor, a triforce symbol can be found under Zelda's courtyard in Hyrule Castle (viewed using GameShark hover cheats of course).
Herobrine CAN'T be real; the coding of minecraft doesn't allow it.
For the love of everything people hold sacred! Her name is LARA not LAURA! jeez! if it had been once okay, but you're repeating it every 2 lines on the last page!
I don't know why this wasn't added, but what about supposedly being able to revive General Leo in the World of Ruin after he was killed by Kefka in the invasion of Thamasa?
That thing caught fire fast, I remember trying to do it on the SNES many times..
(signature since this is guest post)
--barbed_wire83
For Goldeneye, the other Bond actors images actually were in-game, and you could unlock and play as them in multiplayer - but only with a gameshark. Trouble was, they all still used the same Pierce Brosnan character model.
you forgot about the unlock-able akuma in re2 rumor
mew is cool and canbe found in nugget bridge as 4herodork hes a gaming ghost mostly called aglitch you can find him if there is something strange in your game
GTA San Andreas:
IT'S OBVIOUSLY A MOD! C'MON!
"Laura" Croft, LOL
Igg juice virgin blood potato!
alright yea i tested it out. takes a while to get to the nugget bridge but I did get a mew. Used the red version. Not a hoax. The game just sometimes does this.
I was going to battle my "enemy" that you meet at the beginning of the game and instead a mew faced me in battle. took 3 pokeballs to catch it at low hp. came at me at level 16.
So no, not a hoax.
i went here just to say that you can actually catch mew. Got it in pokemon red and blue. I never tried it in yellow, however. It's very random, I don't remember the steps to how I came across one but I know I didn't use a gameshark. I'd even go out and buy the game again just to show people
It's like getting that weird missingno pokemon, that I am pretty sure was a glitch, or getting a level 490-500 pokemon on that island, which would fall to level 99-100 after using it in battle, but you could always get another one.
As for real hoaxes, the hoax I always spread around was the "121st star" in Super Mario 64. Annoyed a lot of people with that one when they kept trying to find it in the game :D
the video from game theory isn't about aerith being alive, it's about Cloud being the one responsible for her death.
"in flagrante delicto" does not mean what you think it means
Herobrine is fake, I don't know who came up with it but I do know Mojang only said they removed him as a joke cause they knew the hoax was getting bigger
Yup
How is stop and swap not on here?
There actually is a way to catch Mew in Pokemon Red and Blue (And yellow) without using a gameshark.
You need to teleport (or fly or dig) the exact second specific trainers spot you (the most popular being the trainer in the grass near nugget bridge). Then you walk up nugget bridge and you'll end up in an encounter with a Mew.
Other FFVII ones I've heard: Play as Sephiroth after the initial flashback sequence with him. Find Aeris alive and well if you beat most of the game (including all weapons) without certain items, like the gold chocobo and knights of the round.
As for Herobrine I sure as heck have seen him. Scared the hell out of me. I don't care if it's supposed to be a hoax or that I WAS playing at 4am, I SAW HIM.