http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/UrbanLegendOfZelda

This entry is trivia, which is cool and all, but not a trope. On a work, it goes on the Trivia tab.

A hidden clue! I think the inscription says, "L is real 2401." Or maybe "Paul is dead."

Anonymous Sonic Team Member, Sonic the Hedgehog 2: Special Edition "We added a shitload of secrets into this thing. Seriously. You thought Hidden Palace was bad? This thing is gonna be like goddamn JFK."

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Every popular game has a rumor around it that is capable of turning it into a urban legend, and due to an oversight or hanging plot thread, it just seems plausible. It's not hard to believe them, since the games often have real secrets and glitches that are so bizarre that they sound made-up. But the rumor persists in spite of all the evidence against it.

A common source of these is April Fools' issues of popular gaming magazines. After all, if it's in print, it must be true! Other sources include mistranslated lines, aspects of the game being Dummied Out, and Missing Secrets. The Internet doesn't help either; while it's quick to debunk rumors, it's also very good at generating them.

A frequent motif in such rumors is that of a secret supposedly unlocked by performing some action in the game for hours on end, pulling off a difficult feat several times in a row, or just doing something complicated exactly the right way, which makes the rumor harder to verify and contributes to its longevity.

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These days, this has been becoming more and more a thing of the past, thanks to advancements in cracking physical copies of games to dump their ROMs online and allowing people to look through the game's code becoming easier and quicker with each generation. As such, a lot of these old rumors tend to come from the the sixth generation and what came before it, back before such advancements had become commonplace.

Sometimes, the game's creators will include a character or a feature in a sequel because of these rumors. See Ascended Meme and Ascended Fanon.

Some games have so many rumors that they can result in the creation of a "FWAK", a parody/troll walkthrough containing intentionally fake "secrets". The most infamous of these is undoubtedly Eggnog's hidden character FWAK for Final Fantasy VI. FWAK stands for "False Wisdom and Knowledge." And as a side note, that isn't his only FWAK guide either (there was also a Final Fantasy IV version, which is widely agreed to be where a widespread rumor regarding Palom and Porom originated), and just to garner the reader's trust, also contained just enough legit info for completing the games. And helping propagate things was that the guides were often mistaken for ones by a very prolific writer from the same era named Mynock .

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Compare Wild Mass Guessing and Fandom-Enraging Misconception. If the rumor is about something a creator allegedly said in an interview or fluff, see God Never Said That. If a rumor is video game related but not gameplay related, see Pop Culture Urban Legends. For more information, check out Pop Fiction , an excellent MythBusters-type show on this very subject, or Did You Know Gaming? , which features gaming urban legends and Easter Eggs.

Please do not confuse this for an Urban Fantasy edition of The Legend of Zelda. Even if it's an urban legend itself .

Game Examples:

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Action-Adventure/Action/Adventure

Beat 'em Up/Fighting

Collectible Card Games

Supposedly, Konami and Upper Deck Entertainment have created several Yu-Gi-Oh! cards that have never been released to the public, only allowing them to be played by R&D employees at Upper Deck in specialized "Duel the Master" matches at tournaments. These include the Seal of Orichalcos, Power Balance, and alternate versions of the Egyptian God Cards. Since the only "proof" of these cards existing are proxies, there's no way of knowing if this is actually true. The anime gives this a nod very early on, establishing that Pegasus' Toon monsters are one-of-a-kind cards that were never released to the public due to them being "too powerful". During the last parts of the KC Grand Prix arc, it's revealed that Pegasus' company routinely gives away copies of unsanctioned cards as prizes (a habit that the actual card game took up). This has been proven to be true, at least for the Seal of Orichalcos . As for the Egyptian God cards, alternate, tournament-legal "effect" versions have been released for Obelisk the Tormentor , the Winged Dragon of Ra , and Slifer the Sky Dragon. The latter addition has prompted the creation of the long time anime-only The Creator God of Light, Horakhty as an actual card. It even has its own type, "Creator God". The Seal of Orichalcos too has been released legally, though obviously with a very different effect to that of the anime or the Duel the Master version. No word on Power Balance, though. Prior to the official release of Primal Origin, there were sources depicting "Starduston" as a fake "Duston" version of "Stardust Dragon". It also was claimed to have an effect highly reminiscent of "Stardust Dragon": During either player's turn, when a card or effect is activated that would destroy a card(s) on the field: You can Tribute this card; negate the activation, and if you do, destroy it. You can only control 1 face-up "Starduston".

Magic: The Gathering: In the early days, when cardlists were not available and the first big expansion set (Legends) was coming out, a rumor was started among the then-nascent Internet about the card "Throat Wolf", a creature which supposedly has "firstest strike". It also was rumored to have the ability to attack on your opponent's turn. Usually guides on how to get the super rare card mention other non-existent cards, like the Clockwork Doppelganger. Of course, spoofed in the parody set Unhinged, which actually has a secret card that only exists in foil and is not listed in most spoilers. It's "Super Secret Tech," and its collector number is 141 out of 140. Unstable, the third parody set, made the long-fabled "Last Strike," (a creature that deals combat damage after both First Strike and normal damage), along with Triple Strike (a creature that deals First, Normal, and Last Strike damage). Unstable also kicked out a few Urban Legends of Zelda of its own by breaking the long-held rule that each card must have a unique name. The set features a number of cards with the same name and cards type but different stats, rules text, and/or art. This led to some very interesting discoveries in the time between the official "complete" spoiler of the set (which listed one version of each card) and the product's wide release a few weeks later.



Driving Game

First-Person/Third-Person Shooter

Hack and Slash

Magazines

Game Informer does an annual April Fools' Day prank called Game Infarcer. Its first edition in 2006 featured fake articles on such new game tools as the Wii Balls, world events such as "Game Designers Inciting World War III", interviews with the CEO of Sony (who also happens to be a cyborg), and a review of downloadable content for Madden 2008, where players would have to purchase such elementary things as air for the ball. People who didn't notice the word "PARODY" at the bottom of the page sent angry letters after they realized they were tricked — or in one notable case, went to the local Gamestop to preorder the Wii Balls in either the flesh colored sack or the blue one.

MMORPGs

Platform Game

Puzzle Game

In Antichamber, some cheat code sites say pressing ESC before capturing the black cube entity will allow you to retain the black gun. This is a cheap trick to get you sent back to the starting chamber when you're about to win. You can turn your gun black this way, but it gives you no special abilities aside from leaving black cubes; when you restart the game, your gun will be red again.

will allow you to retain the black gun. This is a cheap trick to get you sent back to the starting chamber when you're about to win. You can turn your gun black this way, but it gives you no special abilities aside from leaving black cubes; when you restart the game, your gun will be red again. Catherine: Due to the nature of the game, rampant rumours around the time of the game's initial release focused on alleged ways of seeing both Catherine and Katherine naked in-game. With the release of Full Body, a new rumour regarding one of the game's new endings ended up causing controversy. The ending in question has Catherine travelling back in time to Vincent's high school days so she could date him in place of Katherine. During this ending a pre-transitioned Erica can be seen, this led to a rumour that the ending retconned Erica's character so that she never transitioned in the new timeline Catherine had created. After people who had played the game pointed out that Erica's dialogue in this ending mentions that she still intends to transition, this rumour died down.

Myst: The original game was once rumored to have a fifth age called the "Thelastic Age", as well as a red button in the Selenetic Age maze. The later realMyst remake (as well as the PSP release) does add a fifth age, Rime — but still no red button, other than the one that replays the sound clue. realMyst is rumored to have an as-yet-undiscovered Easter Egg which allows the player to carry a working gun around Myst Island. There is an easter egg that gives the character a gun, but it can't be fired.

Originally, Portal 2 was going to include the scene where Caroline is forcibly uploaded into GLaDOS , but it was deemed unnecessary (and doesn't mesh with the final game's story) and cut. However, some of Caroline 's dialogue from this scene were still Dummied Out in the game files, consisting of many variations of the sentence "Mr. Johnson, I don't want this" . Some people started the rumor that the scene was cut for sounding too much like a rape scene, which many assumed to be true.

, but it was deemed unnecessary (and doesn't mesh with the final game's story) and cut. However, some of 's dialogue from this scene were still Dummied Out in the game files, consisting of . Some people started the rumor that the scene was cut for sounding too much like a rape scene, which many assumed to be true. Tetris: The Grand Master 3's Shirase mode ends at level 1,300, assuming you've met the time requirements to be allowed to continue past levels 500 and 1,000. Allegedly, there exist levels beyond 1,300, but no one has been able to confirm this rumor. Its source is none other than Ichiro Mihara, the producer of the TGM series.

Rhythm Game

Rock Band 2 has a "Game Modifiers" menu (basically Guitar Hero's "Cheats" menu under a different name) which include a modifier called "Awesomeness Detection"; its description says only that it "[l]ets Harmonix know that you are awesome!" It has no apparent effect on gameplay. There are lots of rumors, though, as to what its true purpose is; one suggests that it changes the singer's vocals when playing online, although that one's been proven false. Harmonix enjoyed being cryptic about what it does, suggesting that things will totally happen if you truly are "awesome enough", and that high-level players should definitely be playing with Awesomeness Detection on; they eventually copped to it doing absolutely nothing.

Guitar Hero: Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock has two bonus characters available for purchase in the shop. These characters are different depending on your platform (Wii or PS2 give you Elvis Presley wannabe Elroy Budvis and rock 'n roll robot Metalhead, but PS3, Xbox 360, and PC give you Grim Ripper, a recurring member from the previous games, and the God of Rock, who is shown in the opening cutscene). Also, the creepy vocalist can be replaced by Bret Michaels — but again, only on the PS3, Xbox 360, and PC versions through a cheat code (the non-HD versions technically load Bret's model when you play his songs, but it's been overwritten with a duplicate of the default male singer, so it's impossible to tell anything's different). Some people fell for a rumor suggesting that you could unlock all missing characters via a cheat.



Role-Playing Game

Shoot 'em Up

Star Control II: There was an extremely persistent myth of a cloaking device for the main flagship. Despite Word of God that such a device is not in the final game, screenshots of it are actually printed on the back cover of the game, and it wasn't until the source was released that it was confirmed to be absent. Likewise for the secret code that makes the Pkunk Fury ship immortal. There's also the legendary Black Spathi Squadron, a splinter faction of the Spathi composed of brave warriors who fly Eluders painted jet black and fight bravely throughout the universe! They're not actually in the game, of course. A new player asking where to find the Androsynth is always a source of humour on the Ur-Quan Masters forum. (You can't find them. Don't ask about the Androsynth. You make me *frumple*.)

There were many theories back in the day that there is a way to shoot the dog in Duck Hunt for the NES. One is that you have to get to Stage 99 to do it. Easily the most straightforward example of wish-fulfillment on this page, and a good chunk of Duck Hunt hacks let you do just that. It's entirely possible in the arcade version, but only in the bonus round  if you accidentally shoot the dog, the bonus round immediately ends and the dog walks out in bandages and on crutches to admonish you to "SHOOT THE DUCKS, NOT ME!"

Older-than-NES example  Spy Hunter. There was an urban legend about there being a run-and-gun shooting level taking place in a graveyard. Completely bogus...although it may have led to the addition of the third-person shooter levels of the second PS2 game. There were also rumors of a flying level, which actually appears in Super Spy Hunter, although that's a Dolled-Up Installment.

Every time a new Touhou game is announced, the fans will say that Mima will be in it. Even if it makes no sense. Ditto Shinki...until ZUN trolled all the Shinki fans by giving Byakuren one of Shinki's most distinctive attacks.

When Galaga was released, rumors were that you can get a triple ship. That isn't true. You can in Galaga '88, though.

Rumors in arcades in the early 80s convinced several teens that NORAD kept track of high scorers of Missile Command, just in case of World War Three.

Simulation Games

Sports Game

In the arcade versions of Punch-Out!!, rumors abounded that, should you build up a string of repeated victories over the final champ, you'll be challenged by audience member Donkey Kong. If defeated, he will be knocked back into the audience. Maybe that has something to do with why he's in the Wii game.

NBA Jam has myriad rumors about additional secret characters with souped-up abilities. The most popular of these are Michael Jordan (who can dunk from the three-point line), Superman (who can dunk from halfcourt), Shaquille O'Neal (who can't be knocked down), and select characters from Mortal Kombat (which were planned for the console release but dropped). The next-gen remake restarted the cycle.

WWF Smackdown 2 has Ken Shamrock and Big Show's names as part of screenshots on the back of the case. They were dummied out, but still (very rarely) can appear randomly as 'Unknown' in a Royal Rumble or Slobberknocker match. Rumors persisted that you can unlock them, but it isn't possible without a cheating device, and even then they lack entrances (you have to turn entrances off to prevent the game from crashing when playing as them). What's more, most of their parts and moves can be unlocked to create them except for their heads.

A nude code for Dead or Alive: Extreme Beach Volleyball was the subject of one of Electronic Gaming Monthly's infamous April Fool's Day jokes. It consisted of playing the 2-week vacation in 13 minutes, which basicly amounted to Button Mashing to skip everything as fast as possible. Suffice to say, the few people who actually managed this can confirm it doesn't work.

Stealth-Based Games

Rumors of secret weapons and characters for multiple completions of Metal Gear Solid were widespread. Claims that completing the game 50 times with Otacon and 50 with Meryl will garner you Raven's Vulcan Cannon were mentioned in magazines such as Powerstation. Even more widespread were rumors of the possibility of replacing Raiden with Solid Snake during the Big Shell in Metal Gear Solid 2. This one became partially true with the release of Substance, where you can play as Snake on the Big Shell in a series of non-canonical scenarios (or go skateboarding on it). There's still no way to control Snake during the actual Big Shell Incident, however. Also rumours of a FAMAS being available on the Tanker chapter; these are based on early trailers, and the weapon itself doesn't show up in the final game. This was further fueled by the flashback footage showing Snake using the FAMAS against the guards on the Tanker. Hard-working perverts have confirmed neither Johnny Sasaki in the first game or Raiden in the second game have any junk in their texture sets for any hypothetical action to uncover.

The release of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain spurred a large number of rumors and alleged missing content, due to the Troubled Production that ensued between Konami and Hideo Kojima. Some of the biggest include: That there was something planned with all the unused level space outside Camp Omega in Ground Zeroes. Various videos showcase all of the buildings and terrain outside Omega itself via clipping through the gates, including detailed textures and far more space than what is normally visible inside the camp. While this may have been intended to be part of an Old Save Bonus that would have transferred to Phantom Pain, nothing appears in the final version and the only remnant of Camp Omega is in a Metal Gear Online map, now cloaked in fog and called "Black Site". That the "Classified Intel Acquisition" tape found in a Side-Op in Ground Zeroes is actually a secret audio recording that contains untranslated data from the MSX game system . There was rampant speculation as to its true purpose, including claims that it might be a secret message from Kojima himself or used to unlock additional content in Phantom Pain (and there is an additional MSX-related tape that could be found in that game). It was eventually discovered that the MSX data is an incomplete ROM for the game "The Portopia Serial Murder Case" (which inspired Kojima when he was younger), and that there is no hidden secret to be found. That there is an alleged missing chapter of the game, referred to as "Chapter 3", which was removed prior to the release of the game and was/is intended to be released as a content patch. Fans often refer to this missing content due to the unfinished nature of some plotlines (notably, Eli and the child soldiers steal Sahelanthropus from Mother Base and fly away to parts unknown). Evidence pointing to this includes a supposedly-unused entire ending detailing Mother Base celebrating global disarmament (in actuality, it's a difficult-to-unlock ending that requires the online FOB mode), the existence of an unused and incomplete mission called "Kingdom of the Flies" (which appears in a pre-viz/animatic form on the Collector's Edition extras disc) and supposed hints in-game that there is more content to be discovered. This even got the attention of producer Ken-ichiro Imaizumi , who stoked the fires by claiming that he "couldn't tell" the fanbase what needs to be unlocked. It even inspired an entire sub-Reddit forum dedicated to datamining its secrets. Although there are aspects of a "Chapter 3" still on-disc (namely, text files referring to a number of scrapped missions that are all Hard Mode Filler of missions from earlier in the game) and a "Chapter 3" title card, it appears that nothing new was intended and most people have given up on waiting for the alleged content patch. There were also rumors that an alleged content patch would be unlocked on September 11, 2015. This is in reference to an image of the World Trade Center towers that appears at the end of the unused "Kingdom of the Flies" mission with Liquid Snake's famous line ("It's not over yet!"), as well as a site called Ingsoc.org that referred to an unrevealed game called "Black Hound". While the "Black Hound" game is a real title (though not developed by Kojima or Konami - it's developed by an individual coasting on the uncertainty and confusion around Phantom Pain), no such content patch ever arrived.

Thief: The Dark Project: There's an underground graveyard level called the Bonehoard. You have a rough map of this place, which insinuates the existence of an area called "The Alarus Extension", which players tried for years to find. Not only is the extension sealed off, but it doesn't even exist in the level! Additionally, Thief players love to spread the falsehood to newbies that within this non-existent area exists a Bow Upgrade, along with complicated instructions on how to get into the extension. It often takes the gullible neophytes hours, if not days, to realize they've been duped. What doesn't help is that the Bonehoard level is one of the most frightening in the game, which puts players on edge right from the start. So you'd assume that, if you couldn't find it, you just weren't looking hard enough, and were being distracted by all the eerie noises and creepy rooms Many of the numerous fanmissions for the series like to make reference to one or the other, as well, either because the author thought it was funny or because s/he was deliberately messing with people's heads.



Survival Horror

Turn-Based Strategy

Visual Novels

Wide-Open Sandbox

Hardware

Naturally, while the Virtual Boy was on the market, there were persistent rumors that color graphics are indeed possible through the use of cheat codes, system modifications, and what have you. There are even mock-ups circulating the internet of VB games with colorized graphics. This was in spite of the fact that Nintendo themselves unapologetically proclaimed that the Virtual Boy's internal graphics processor has only a two color palette, and thus more colors would've been physically impossible given the hardware specs. Needless to say, these rumors died when the VB did.

Owners who poked around with their NES found a port on the bottom of the console covered by a piece of plastic, and there were many rumors as to what this was for. In reality, this is where the Famicom Disk System would go, but no NES equivalent was ever released. There's converters that let you do this, though, albeit through the cartridge slot.

There was a rumor that the original Xbox One included a secret second GPU based on a revised AMD architecture that MS would activate when AMD announced the update with the apparently weaker GPU (12 CUs v 18 in the original PS4) being an (incredibly expensive given that many versions of the rumour had this supposed secret being stacked on the processor and the difficulties that would present for manufacture and cooling) ruse by MS to fool Sony. This persisted for a surprisingly long time even after the XB1' release.

Pinball

A rumor persists that setting the DIP switches for Gottlieb's The Amazing Spider-Man pinball to a certain combination will cause the game to play the theme music from the Sixties animated series during the attract mode.

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