Gaming
Games
6 of the biggest gaming myths, busted
Once upon a time, the world of gaming was full of mysteries, but we've busted some of the greatest myths in gaming history for your reading pleasure.
The feeling of discovering something in a video game that nobody else has found is one that makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up, but it's something that's going away slowly. Games are now dissected to within an inch of their lives, often before they're even released, thanks to the growing trend of data-mining.
But that doesn’t mean there aren't still secrets out there. Like they said in The X-Files, the truth is out there, and we've uncovered and busted six of gaming's biggest myths once and for all.
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1. Minecraft's Herobrine
For years, people thought this one was real. Herobrine was, apparently, a character that looked exactly like Minecraft Steve and could kill anyone and anything with one swing. Legend said he would randomly appear in your game and exact this grisly yet sudden extermination of you for no apparent reason. The trouble is, Herobrine isn't, and never was, real. Basically, it's a community created legend, and there's no reference to him in the game at all – not in the source code, and there's no code that allows him to appear in an unmodded version of Minecraft.
If someone you know claims to have seen him, they're either lying or using a modded version of the game with a skin. This doesn't stop people making videos claiming he's real, though.
2. Sheng Long is in Street Fighter II
This is one of the longest running myths out there, thanks to a simple mistranslation. Sheng Long's myth status could also be classed as a hoax, because magazines in the '90s decided to run with the mistake and turn it into a joke that people believed.
Due to a translation error in the arcade version of Street Fighter II, a message would appear stating. 'You must defeat Sheng Long to stand a chance'. These chilling words would come from series stalwart Ryu. EGM (Electronic Gaming Monthly) basically took this idea and wrote about how you could actually fight Sheng Long, and somehow it became lore. Well, we're here to tell you that you can't fight Sheng Long in Street Fighter II – it's a myth, and now we've busted it.
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3. Ermac is in Mortal Kombat
Ermac might be real now, but he wasn't in the first game
© Warner Bros.
Sticking with the fighting game genre, many believed for years that a character who later became playable, was in fact hidden in the first Mortal Kombat. The phrase 'ERMACS' appeared on the diagnostics menu of the arcade version of the game, which sent people into meltdown trying to find a way to play as him. Sadly, ERMACS in this case didn't refer to the name of the eventual character, it just meant 'ERror MACroS', which was designed to display when the game was erroring out.
Given that Ermac is now a character in the game, it's safe to say, as a character, he was willed into existence. Weird.
4. Bigfoot is in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
The thing about the Grand Theft Auto series is that it is absolutely chock-full of secrets and Easter eggs. Even in GTA V, there are things like UFOs that can be seen or references to strange serial killers. However it's everyone’s favourite in the series, 2004's San Andreas, that birthed the Bigfoot myth.
Apparently discoverable in the countryside areas of San Andreas, such as Shady Cabin or Back O'Beyond, you'd find references to Bigfoot elsewhere, too. Even the manual had a 'thank you' accredited to the myth that is Sasquatch. Moreover, it's absolutely the kind of thing Rockstar Games would put in a GTA title, and sometimes if you hear something often enough, you want to believe it. Sadly it’s not true though.
Bigfoot is not in GTA: San Andreas, and even attempts by Terry Donovan, co-founder of Rockstar Games, couldn't stop people searching. But we can. Bigfoot isn't in the game: stop looking for it.
5. You can play as Akuma in Resident Evil 2
It might actually have been cool to play as Akuma
© Capcom
You can thank gaming mag EGM for this one again, as they claimed you could unlock Akuma by typing 'AKUMA' instead of 'GUEST' into the console in the lab of Resident Evil 2. That code would merely make a new save for Akuma to be playable on, and then you'd have to complete the game six times getting an A-rank, only using the handgun and the knife. Then, starting the seventh playthrough, you'd be Akuma and be able to throw fireballs instead of use guns, while also having full access to every room in the game without a key.
It's a cruel hoax, this, because Akuma and Resident Evil are both Capcom properties, lending credence to the myth. But no, you can't play as Akuma in Resi 2, and that means no Gohadoken for you, sorry. That said, given that Resident Evil 2 is being remade, it'd be a nice touch for Capcom to actually include him this time as a cheat or bonus.
6. You can save Aerith in Final Fantasy VII
A pivotal moment of FFVII comes at the end of disc 1 (the game came on three discs), where Sephiroth kills Aerith in order to get a materia; the brute. For years, people claimed there were ways to glitch the game or do something to stop Aerith dying, but this simply isn't true. There's no legitimate way to stop this horrible, scarring moment of the game from happening. Next time, we'll bust the myth on how you say Aerith, because it is Aerith, not Aeris.
