Gaming Urban Legends

With the recent excavation of discarded E.T games from a New Mexico landfill, a gaming urban legend has been put to rest.

To honour this momentous occasion, we have tallied some of gaming’s best urban legends that are still around today.

Lavender Town Suicide

After the release of Pokemon Red and Green in 1996, the child suicide rate in Japan went up, while many fell sick and passed away from their illnesses.

The strange thing about this statistic was that all the children who fell ill or died did so after reaching the same point in the game – Lavender Town.

It is said that the score from the game used when entering the town resulted in depression, which lead to sickness or suicide.

The score was then changed when the game launched internationally. If you are brave enough, the original score is below.

Polybius

Back in the early 1980s there was a game that mysteriously started appeared in arcades.

The black machine had standard joysticks, and contained games like Pacman and Tempest, but when gamers had a go on it, they suffered various afflictions such as: amnesia, blackouts, nausea, seizures, headaches, nightmares, and, in some reports, committed suicide.

A freaky government experiment, or an old urban legend that won’t die?

Polybius

3 Shadows in Hell Valley

While Super Mario Galaxy 2 is one of the best Mario games ever made, it is also one of the creepiest.

During a level named Shiverburn Galaxy, 3 figures stand on a hilltop looking down at you – apparently some gamers went digging into the code and found out that the level was actually called Beyond Hell Valley, and the figures were trees from Hell Valley itself.

Not exactly the Mario we know and love today.

GTA 5 and the ghost of Los Santos

Have you seen the ghost of Los Santos? If you visit the website whokilledlenorajohnson.com in the game you come across a site filled with fake newspaper stories that lead players to an in-game murder scene.

The deceased is an actress, killed during the golden age of Vinewood Cinema.

The murder is alleged to be based on a real murder case, though, which took place back in the 1940s and was called the “Black Dahlia Case”.

If you find the in-game murder scene and visit it an 11pm, you will find the ghost of the slain actress, Jolene Cranley Evans.