Throughout our lives as gamers, we stumble across, overhear or are directly told stories we want to question, video gaming urban legends if you will. Are they real, or are they each a particularly bored gamer’s cry for attention. The gaming world has its fair share of urban legends, and these are the Nintendo mysteries that best caught our attention.
Turns out, we should have listened to those instructions.
Blowing into your cartridge fixes it
We all did it as kids. Your Nintendo cartridge failed to load and a gusty blow from deep within your lungs gave it the incentive it needed to load past that darn screen. But does this actually work, or was it just some crazy urban legend?
All of the instruction manuals included with games said to never, and we mean never, blow into the bottom of the cartridge. Meanwhile, we still did it over and over again, and yet the game worked, some of the time anyway.
Legend debunked: Blowing into the cartridge actually does more harm than good. Every time you blew into the cartridge, moisture from your breath would build up along the lining of the microchip. This causes rusting on the bottom as well as moisture damage. Darn.
Can I has the Triforce plox.
Nintendo included the Triforce in Ocarina of time
The very first trailer showing off The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time demonstrated Link obtaining the Triforce. So it’s fair to expect players to question its existence in-game. That was until Nintendo confirmed that they actually removed the Triforce completely at least.
There are rumours that say that if you do the following sequence of events in the correct order, you will be rewarded with the Triforce. Keep in mind that this is one of a dozen ways to find it.
- Go to the middle of Hyrule field (right in the middle) and set two bombs.
- After they explode go up to death mountain into the hot place near the fairy
- Go to the right as far as you can go and play the Zelda song
- Leave the cave and then get the owl to take you to the village
- Jump off the house and go to the grave yard and into Dampe’s house
- Read his dairy, if you have done it right it should read : gone fishing
- Go to Lake Hyrule and catch two big fish, consecutively.
- Run to town and get into the court yard. If you did this right it should be there. The real blue fairy gives it to you.
Legend debunked: This is proven incorrect as players have reported doing this a few times over and have yet to receive the legendary Triforce from the Real Blue Fairy.
They’re just looking at me. It’s getting creepy.
Super Mario Galaxy 2: Hell Valley Shadows
During a level in Super Mario Galaxy 2, Shiverburn Galaxy to be exact, if you peer into the distance you will see three ghostly figures in the distance. No matter where you are in the level, you will see them peering into your soul. Although you never actually meet anything that even closely resembles these figures in the game, it was somewhat eerie.
To make the situation even more uncomfortable, modders started to go through the game’s files and found that the level Shiverburn Galaxy was actually called “BeyondHellvalley” in file. The figures were called “HellValleyTrees”, which would make sense. Then again, look at them; do they look like trees to you?
Legend not debunked: This is still a mystery as these strange looking figures have never appeared in any Mario game since. Where did they come from, and what do they want?
No Mew and bubblegum stuck to my shoe, great.
Find Mew under a truck in Pokémon Red/Blue
My childhood was enriched by Pokémon, as was all of ours, and I remember this legend quite clearly. The “legend” says that you can find Mew under a truck after you reached a particular section of the game. Mew, being one of the rarest Pokémon in the series, was definitely not one to pass up on. So why not, right?
According to the myth, if you went to the truck near the S.S. Anne and used strength on it, the truck would move and a pokéball containing Mew would appear in its place.
Legend debunked: It’s bad news I’m afraid; you cannot find Mew under a truck in Pokémon Red & Blue. Gamers have tried and there is no sign of any Mew. Not even a note letting us know when he’ll be back.
Ehw.
EarthBound’s final mission involves an Alien abortion
This might be a bit of a stretch, an over-analysis, or it could be legitimate. The legend says that the final boss in Nintendo’s highly successful RPG EarthBound was actually a foetus. Giygas was apparently inspired by a very traumatic experience that Shigesato Itoi, the game’s creator, had as a child.
The final boss actually takes place back in time when Giygas was still in its mother. In order to kill it, you had to go back to the past to when it was defenceless and kill it. The boss even looked like a foetus.
Legend not debunked: The game’s creator has yet to reveal what his intentions were for the final boss in EarthBound. He never commented on the situation, so for now it’s just a very disturbing rumour.
Lavender Town Suicides
Legends peak of a special soundtrack in Pokémon Red & Blue that caused havoc on Japanese children. Children aged between 7-12 who played the game after arriving at Lavender Town started feeling sick. Suicide rates skyrocketed and hospitals received more and more instances where children fell ill.
It was found that all of these children who were ill or committed suicide were at the same point in the game, Lavender Town. Nintendo recalled the game and re-released it with a whole new Lavender Town soundtrack.
Legend not debunked: What can we say about this one? There is no actual proof that this song ever caused gamers to go mad or fall ill, and we doubt there ever will be. Nintendo did lower the frequency of the original tune, however, and that seemed to stop making children sick. It’s fortunate that Nintendo didn’t happen upon the brown noise.
What do you think? Are there any urban legends you’d like us to talk about in future pieces, or is there a Nintendo legend you’d like to tell us about. You know where to do it.
Sources
The Triforce in Ocarina of Time
Find Mew under the Truck in Red/Blue
Super Mario Galaxy’s Hell Valley Shadows
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