6 Biggest Video Games Myths

There's a South Park episode hidden in an old Tiger Woods game.


South Park Long before South Park became an omnipresent television staple, it was all over the Internet. In 1995, creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone were paid $2,000 to make an animated short for a Fox network executive. The film, dubbed "The Spirit of Christmas," featured the then-unknown quartet of foul-mouthed tots from South Park and quickly spread like wildfire online.

An unknown developer at EA Sports was one of the many to download and watch it -- which wouldn't have been a big deal, except when the publisher mastered the game disc for the PlayStation version of Tiger Woods '99, it accidentally copied that folder off of the server as well. That meant the 5-minute short shipped with the game.

You had to put the game disc into a PC and dig around a bit to find it, but it was there - and ultimately EA had to recall the game due to the inclusion of the profane cartoon.

Fact or fiction? Fact!


The mafia developed a game console.


The Gizmondo Organized crime has at some point had its hand in virtually ever corner of the entertainment industry, but what about video games? You certainly won't find La Cosa Nostra's fingerprints on the Xbox, PlayStation or Wii, but dig a little deeper into the annals of gaming hardware and things get much murkier.

The Gizmondo, a handheld system released in 2005, never took off. In fact, with less than 25,000 units sold, it's the worst selling handheld of all time -- and for good reason. After the system died, though, more details came out about one of its executives: Stefan Eriksson, who allegedly ran a loose Swedish criminal organization known as "Uppsalamaffian" (The Uppsala mafia) before joining the company.

He left in spectacular fashion. After wrecking an Enzo Ferrari sports car (worth $2 million) in 2006, Eriksson's house was raided on suspicion of embezzlement, grand theft auto, drunken driving, cocaine possession, and weapons charges. He served three years in jail due to a plea bargain and has since been deported to Sweden.

Fact or Fiction? Fact!


A built-in code let you undress Lara Croft in the original version of Tomb Raider.


Lara Croft Lara Croft was a geek secks symbol years before Angelina Jolie donned the famous short-shorts.

Even the blocky graphics of the original PlayStation weren't enough to turn off some overly hormonal players, and it wasn't long before whispers began in gaming channels that the developers had created a cheat code for the original 1996 game that stripped Lara to her birthday suit as she quested for Atlantis.

It turned out to be little more than the fantasies of love-starved teens, however, as no code was ever actually built into the game. But the talk did inspire some modders (who obviously needed to get out more) to create a patch called 'nud3 Raider' that accomplished the same goals. Eidos ultimately shut it down with a cease and desist order.

Fact or Fiction? Fiction!

Michael Jackson wrote the music for Sonic the Hedgehog 3.


Sonic the Hedgehog Michael Jackson created some of the most iconic music of the '80s and '90s, but did that include video game tunes as well?

The singer lent his image to Sega for titles like Space Channel 5 and Moonwalker, but after his [rip], rumors began to circulate that he had secretly worked with the publisher to contribute music to the third Sonic the Hedgehog game.

In 2009, Jackson's composer and musical director Brad Buxer addressed the reports in the French magazine Black & White (which calls itself the "official magazine of Michael Jackson"), saying Jackson did, in fact, write some Sonic 3 compositions, but the performer wasn't happy with the sound quality in the consoles. Frustrated by the process, he chose to have his name removed from the credits, but the music remained.

There's evidence to the contrary, though. And Sega still refuses to divulge the whole story, giving this myth nearly as much staying power as the King of Pop himself.

Fact of Fiction? Neither? Both? Let's go with the Mythbuster's hedge answer and call this one "Plausible."

E.T. almost k!lled the video game industry.


E.T. was as big as it got in 1982 -- but just one year later, the Reese's Pieces-munching, bug-eyed alien found that going home was much easier than going to the Atari 2600.

By rushing the development process and bypassing QA in its E.T. video game, Atari ended up with a confusing, buggy title that lacked any viable entertainment qualities. Consumers avoided it, and the company ultimately buried millions of unsellable copies in a New Mexico landfill.

Alongside a few other missteps, the debacle brought an abrupt end to that generation of consoles. Several publishers filed for bankruptcy in the following two-year period, prompting analysts to question whether home video games would survive. It was only the U.S. release of the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985 that would turn things around for the industry.

Fact or Fiction? Fact!

Mario is a communist.


Mario He wears a lot of red and looks a little like Stalin, so it was inevitable that in the conspiracy-filled Internet someone would start to wonder if Mario was actually harboring a Communist agenda.

He was, after all, trying to overthrow a king. And the flag he put up at the end of every level had a red star. Building a case, block by block?

Alas, it's nothing but the usual rampant paranoia of chatrooms. Mario was designed to wear red and blue because the contrasting colors helped the character stand out against the background, and that famous moustache was simply an easier option than drawing complex facial expressions back in his early days.

It turns out has no ties to the Communist party -- just the Mario Party (all eight versions of it).

Fact or Fiction? Fiction, comrade!

Fact or Fiction: Video game myths revealed - Video Games Blog Plugged In - Yahoo! Games

Good read.

lmao........i remember that lara croft rumor in middle school i think i was in the 6th grade

at No

Luigi in Mario 64

unlock Zack in FFVII (smh @ this not being on the list)

Play as Akuma in RE2

niccaz had me believing that shyt for the longest

Edit: matta fact the only one I heard of from that list was the Lara Croft myth.
shyt I looked everywhere and asked everyone for that code

What about Nudalities in MK3?

I remember that was going around as much as unlock nak3d tomb raider...then the nak3d patch for the PC version came, then I came...haha

Fight Kano in MK2

Bull!!! Mario is such a !!ing commie

another fun fact indirectly related to #2: Nintendo originally made playing cards that were used by the yakuza for gambling

good read

^^^^Nintendo actually started off as a playing card company.

Hell yea .. me and my brothers herd that !! and tried for days ....it was like a super Vega or sumthin?? lol

aya that micheal jackson one is true theres youtube videos on it comparing the music

How about Big Foot in GTA San Andreas

good read another one:

Inferno match in wwf no mercy for n64

My dumbass stayed up all night trying to find him.

wow after googling this i found some bugged out !!:

has anyone heard of this bs "Curse of the tails doll" check this bugged out !! here



9. Playing with the Tails Doll in Sonic R causes a horrible curse

The myth: This was one I actually hadn't heard of before I started researching this article, but it seems to be quite prevalent among a certain subset of the Sonic fandom community. The myth centers on the Tails Doll, an unlockable, smaller version of Tails in the relatively obscure (and relatively awful) racing game Sonic R. According to numerous Internet stories (and at least one really crappy Flash game), you might want to leave that character locked, since anyone who races as the Tails doll will suffer real-life consequences ranging from bad luck to creepy messages and even [rip] and "soul-sucking" at the hands of a REAL, red-eyed version of the doll. Hey, I read it on the Internet so it must be true, right?

The truth: OK, there's obviously no truth to this one (news flash: videogame characters ARE NOT REAL) but the phenomenon of the Tails Doll curse story is just incredible to me. The rumor seems to have its seeds in the game's tendency to freeze when you play as Tails Doll, but I have no idea how this small glitch ballooned into a much larger story about a red-eyed, soul-sucking horror. However it happened, the fact that the myth has survived and spread in the community says something about the power of these characters and the use of fandom as a storytelling medium. Or maybe I'm just overanalyzing a stupid fanfic story that's gotten out of hand. Your call.

Status: Busted.








8. You can fight Sheng Long in Street Fighter II

The myth: "You must defeat Sheng Long to stand a chance." Ryu says it regularly after defeating chumps in Street Fighter II, but no matter how hard you look or how well you play you'll never face, let alone defeat, Sheng Long. Or will you?

The "Tricks of the Trade" section in the April 1992 issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly sure thinks you will -- if you're good enough. All you have to do is play through the entire game without getting hit, then fight M. Bison to a pacifistic draw 10 times in a row. If you can complete this awesome feat, the ultra-powerful Sheng Long will supposedly appear to fight you with his super-fast projectiles, k!ller spinning-bird kick and ultra-powerful dragon punch.

There used to be some mewtwo myth on pokemon blue/green/red. YOu would go to some citty and use strength on a rock..some truck would move and mewtwo wud appear.