Key Takeaways
- Lavender Town Syndrome: A creepy Pokémon legend about music that made kids sick and drove them to suicide.
- San Andreas Sasquatch: Players searched for Bigfoot in GTA, but Rockstar had to deny it.
- Herobrine: A Minecraft urban legend about a ghost player named Herobrine, debunked by Notch.
When you’re young and innocent, you have no idea what you can and can’t do in the world of video games. For those who grew up before the internet was available to research anything, the only help and advice you could get for your favorite games came from the playground. If you were lucky, you might have been able to purchase an official strategy guide. But most of the time, your information about games came from a friend whose uncle worked at Nintendo.
Video game urban legends have spread across the country (maybe even the world) without the help of the internet. We all know at least one kid who swears they entered some code, found a secret area, or did something else in a game, and now we wonder why we ever believed it. These urban legends are here to stay. Thanks to the power of the internet, it’s easier than ever to spread fake footage and information, but it’s also easier to debunk them. These are the best video game urban legends that we’ll admit we were totally fooled by.
Related
5 Terrible Video Game Movies That Do a Disservice to Their Sources
Video game movie adaptations are finally getting better, but there are still some absolute duds that should be avoided.
1 Lavender Town Syndrome
Don’t stop by Lavender Town
Pokémon may have more urban legends than any other video game series, so narrowing it down to just one was tough. Mew hiding under a truck is a staple, but it’s so well-known that Pikachu/Blue eventually solved it on its own. My favorite, albeit a bit morbid, is the legend of Lavender Town Syndrome. For those of you who haven’t played Red or Blue, each of the major towns you visit are named after a color, such as Cerulean City, Fuchsia City, and Saffron City. Lavender Town was already a creepy place, as it’s the only place in the game that has a Pokémon graveyard, but it also has a creepy tune that’s completely different from the usual upbeat soundtrack.
Legend has it that there is something about Lavender Town’s music that makes children feel sick and eventually commit suicide. The legend goes so far as to say that it uses a special frequency that only children can hear, so it has no effect on adults. Of course, this is not true, and there is nothing wrong with listening to this music all day long.
Related
5 Calming Game Soundtracks to Help You Focus
Listen to calming video game tracks like Persona 5, Kingdom Hearts II, and more to focus your mind and boost your productivity.
2 san andreas sasquatch
I want to believe
The PS2 era was a magical time of video game fakes and legends. Technology had developed to the point where people could record and share blurry photos and videos, but some people had the talent to make very convincing fakes. Similar to real photos of cryptids, footage and images of Bigfoot allegedly spotted within GTA San Andreas started to appear as blurry figures. Players shared gameplay footage of them running through the misty forests of the game and catching a glimpse of the hairy beast. Some people even made videos of themselves shooting and killing Bigfoot, but they felt too staged and fake.
The legend has endured for so long that Rockstar attempted to put an end to it by adding a real Bigfoot to Red Dead Redemption’s Undead Nightmare DLC, and a fake Bigfoot to GTA V.
Related
5 Brain-Sweeping Offline Puzzle Games for Android
Keep your brain young and sharp with amazing puzzle games for Android that can be played completely offline.
3 Herobrine
Herobrine has been removed
I was torn between choosing Herobrine and The Ghost of Lockout here, but the former has more impact, deeper lore, and is more fun to talk about. This urban legend began around the time of Alpha when Minecraft was starting to gain popularity. Players began reporting seeing this other player character (Steve) while playing alone in the game. Called Herobrine, he looked exactly like the default Minecraft character, except for the blank whites of his eyes. He tended to stand at the edge of the game’s draw distance and could not be seen clearly. He was also the cause of unexplained mysterious caves and changes in the world.
The legend took on an eerie tone as people began trying to figure out who this ghost player was, eventually claiming that he was the deceased brother of Minecraft creator Notch. From there, sightings, reports, and videos spread. Though Notch has explicitly denied any involvement with Herobrine, the team at Mojang kept “Removing Herobrine” in the game’s patch notes for years in an effort to preserve the spirit of the legend.
Related
5 of the hardest Souls-like games that will force you to get better
Souls-like games are some of the most difficult games out there. These Souls-like games will test your skills just as much as From Software’s games.
Four L is real
Luigi 64
One way to make video game urban legends more believable is to pick a game that already has a ton of secrets. Mario 64 is a perfect example, where the fact that Yoshi really is hiding on the roof of the castle and gives you 100 lives makes the appearance of other hidden guests all the more believable. In this case, people created a very convincing myth that Luigi is also there. The rumor all came from some blurry lettering on a plaque at the back of the castle. This lettering, located under a star statue, can be interpreted as “L is for real 2401”. People interpreted that L was waiting for Luigi, and the way to unlock Mario’s brother was to just collect 2401 coins and bring them to the statue. Meanwhile, some people said that you could unlock Luigi by running 2401 laps around the statue.
Either way, these are both complete wastes of time, and Luigi doesn’t appear at all in the original Mario 64. You can play as Luigi in the DS remake, though.
Related
My dream Nintendo Switch 2 launch lineup would be game over for the competition
To make the Switch 2 stand out from other handhelds, it needs some strong launch titles. That would be a dream come true for me.
Five PS2 Super Computer
Play a DVD and launch a nuke
This urban legend was so widespread that even mainstream news outlets believed it at the time. Following on from the big YSK plot, in late 2000 rumors spread that then Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was stockpiling thousands of PS2 consoles. He didn’t do this because he was crazy about Kingdom Hearts. Legend has it that he bought a ton of consoles and linked them all together to create a supercomputer for military purposes like missile guidance.
Needless to say, none of this is true, but it would have been enough to explain why the PS2 sold so well.
Related
5 Animated Video Games That Are Better Than the Animated Shows
I love anime but I hate all the extra stuff, and these anime video games cut out all the extra stuff and get you right into the action.
