Creepy and Surprising
From Mario to Final Fantasy to Pokemon, these games may be hiding creepy and surprising secrets. Some game theories have more basis than others but are all made to make you question the reality of your games. With that in mind, here are 20 video game conspiracies you’ll have to think twice about.
1. Majora’s Mask
A legend was started about a haunted Majora's Mask cartridge on 4Chan, where a user posted about a blank N64 cartridge that he or she labeled with a Sharpie. Odd things began to happen to the cartridge. An unrecognizable save file named "Ben" began to appear when the cartridge was booted up. NPCs started to call the player Ben, music would start to play backwards, and a statue began to "chase" the character. This story lives on to this day, and the reality behind it is unclear.
2. PS3 Remotes
In 2010, a PSN glitch caused every single PS3 in the world to go inoperable at the same time. This led to the rampant conspiracy theory that Sony has a "Big Brother" switch to control or monitor every console remotely. The reality? It was just a hardware clock error that thought it was a leap year.
3. Pokemon Protagonist
A widely held fan theory is that the Pokémon world is in a post-apocalyptic age, with a global war having taken place in the past. Supporting evidence includes the rarity of male adults, only a few of whom show any signs of having been involved in a war. Dialogue in a few situations referencing previous battles or injuries is also cited in support of the theory that Ash and the other trainers live in a post-war world.
4. Holding Back
Whenever a popular game system sells out, some conspiracy theories arise that the company is restricting the number of units they are producing to create artificial demand. This has happened for consoles including the PS5 and Xbox Series X, despite having more tangible causes, such as global chip shortages and pandemic-induced supply chain disruptions. In practice, game console production is based on contracts and predicted sales, and shortages are typically not deliberate but rather a natural byproduct of those plans and manufacturing constraints.
5. Squall
A conspiracy theory regarding Final Fantasy VIII is that Squall actually passes on at the end of Disc One, after being impaled by the ice. He reappears at the start of Disc Two with no visible wounds and nobody acknowledges what happened to him. The theory continues, pointing out the increasingly unrealistic tone of the game after his “passing.”
6. Missing PS2s
In the 2000 holiday season, a rumor was spread that Saddam Hussein had been buying thousands of PS2s for use in a supercomputer. Headlines said that up to 4,000 consoles had been bought in the U.S. and shipped to Iraq, thereby creating the PS2 shortage that Christmas.
7. Fallout Future
A conspiracy theory suggests that Fallout 3 was able to predict the future. In the game, the player picks up radio signals, which occasionally broadcast sequences of numbers in a Morse code-like style. It is said that this code accurately predicted the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion down to the day and hour.
8. Atari Concrete
In 1983, millions of unsold Atari game cartridges, including E.T. and Pac-Man, were dumped in a landfill in New Mexico. The company had manufactured far more copies of its games than the market required, resulting in significant financial losses and a contentious decision. The cartridges were crushed and covered in concrete, creating one of the most infamous video game mass graves in history.
9. The Wii
Nintendo's announcement of the Wii came with the surprise of a weird name. Initially, the console was to be called "Revolution," but when Nintendo changed it to "Wii," many people criticized it. Some people thought the name sounded stupid, or even gay, which led to rumors that it was part of a viral marketing campaign.
10. WOW’s Seventh Circle
Karazhan Crypts was a removed dungeon from World of Warcraft that has never been fully deleted from the game. In the early days of WoW, some players accessed it through a glitch. They found that it was full of unsettling scenes. It was removed due to rating concerns, but it is still present in the game, if you know where to look.
11. Digital Sabotage
Michael Bay accused Microsoft of working to secretly end the HD-DVD and Blu-Ray format, and get consumers to buy digital downloads instead. He said Microsoft was offering film studios millions to back HD-DVD and working to confuse the market, so studios would switch to digital. Although Blu-Ray won the war, digital downloads have exploded since then and some have wondered if Microsoft's "long game" theory was in fact true.
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12. Hell Valley
Players of Super Mario Galaxy 2 noticed creepy looking figures in Shiverburn Galaxy that appear to be staring at you from mountain ridges. Fans who dug into the game files noticed that the area is actually called “BeyondHellValley,” and the figures are known as “Hell Valley Trees.” The disturbing artwork and ominous names have led to a creepy conspiracy theory.
13. Curse of Madden
An infamous video game conspiracy is the supposed jinx that EA Sports' NFL cover athletes fall victim to, seemingly becoming injured the season after being featured on the cover. Dubbed by fans as the "Madden Curse," many believe that being featured on the cover brings bad luck to players.
14. Animal Crossing
Animal Crossing has a fan theory that has been circulated for a while, that the village is actually a form of purgatory. When you start a new town in the game, you are alone. You are forced to work constantly to pay back Tom Nook and there is no escape.
15. Mario’s Imagination
A long-running conspiracy theory about Super Mario Bros. 3 is that the game takes place within a play, with Mario, Luigi, and Princess Peach acting out the story on a set. Supporters of this theory use as evidence things such as support mechanisms for the floating platforms and the stage-like curtain in the game's intro. An alternate theory says that the play itself is part of Mario's subconscious.
16. Ditto Clones
A well-known fan theory is that Ditto was intended to be a failed clone of Mew, due to its similar appearance and their shared mysterious ability. Junichi Masuda, GameFreak's art director, stated that the games feature individual Pokémon and that Ditto is not a failed experiment. That doesn’t stop many fans from speculating.
17. Toad’s Hat
Toad's head is actually a hat is one of the oldest Super Mario Bros. community conspiracies. The debate has been speculated for many years from a hat/hood-like illusion of Toad's head, due to evidence spotted in-game that's been proven both true and false. It originated from The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, a non-canon animated series that featured Toad's head as a hat or hood.
18. Luigi the Villain
Another fan theory in the Super Mario series has it that Luigi is secretly evil. The theory bases itself on Luigi's frequent carelessness and causing havoc by accident and references that he has the potential to be the vessel of the enigmatic "Chaos Heart." He's also commonly shown as being kept under control by his brother Mario.
19. Mother GLaDOS
One theory about Portal 2 is that GLaDOS is your mother. You see, because Caroline was apparently uploaded into GLaDOS, the machine which is speaking to you is in fact a version of your mother. If this is true, it would make each little interaction with her a lot more... personal.
20. Polybius
Polybius was an arcade video game that appeared in the early 1980s in a few select venues in Portland, Oregon. The short-lived game has since been the subject of an enduring conspiracy theory. Eyewitness reports say that it gave players nightmares and even extreme psychological reactions.
