Back in the days before we could check everything on the internet, and when games still had secrets because of it, I'm sure we'd all been tricked or fell for some false rumours about our favourite games. There was always someone who's dad bought them a game from America that you never heard or, or who's dad worked for Sega and knew some secret cheat/level that you believed.
I think it's fun to look back at these and laugh at how gullible we were for believing them:
Bullet Man: The Game
This is from a friend in primary school who told me he was rich and had every Mega Drive game ever. When I asked him what his favourite game was, he said it was "Bullet Man".
Apparrantly it was a game about a man made entirely out of bullets and you had to shoot your way through several levels. His nose would morph into a giant gun (I assume the gun was also made of bullets) and he would shoot rockets from it.
I believed him as well, I think he told me that I wouldn't have heard of it before because it was only out in America or Japan. Which leads me to my next game...
Street Fighter Vs Mortal Kombat
Same friend as Bullet Man, he told me about this game that was only out in America or Japan or something, but he somehow imported.
I don't remember much about this except that it apparantly had Kintaro from MK2, who knew how to roll, but was a shit character regardless.
Dick Tracy's Oyster Girl
Different friend, who was also a purveyor of bullshit video game rumours. I was talking about how hard Dick Tracy on Mega Drive was (try that game out sometime, I still can't finish that with Save States!) and that I couldn't beat Lips Manlis. He told me that he had finished the game once, and continually confused Lips Manlis with some character who I never heard of called 'The Oyster Girl'.
Virtua Cop of the Dead
Same friend who told me about the curious 'Oyster Girl' boss also told me he was lucky enough to play Virtua Cop 3 (This was while I had a saturn and Virtua Cop 2 was still new). He told me all about how it's set in a haunted house and you need to kill zombies. I asked if he meant The House of the Dead or CarnEVIL or something like that, but he swore blind it was a location-test for Virtua Cop 3. By this time I was savvy enough to realise that Sega Saturn Magazine would surely have this covered if true.
"Why haven't I read about this in any magazines?"
"When you get to the door, if they see you are from the press or carrying a pen and paper, you aren't allowed to play, so the press hasn't heard about it yet!"
"Riiiiiight...."
Super Mario Bros' Secret Jungle Level!
This was my own trick I used on a friend at their house.
We were playing SMB 2 Player on his NES, and since it was his game he was much better than me. The way it used to work on SMB was one player would play until he died, and only then would player 2 get to have a go. I was waiting ages for him to die so I could have a play and got bored.
I told him if he jumps down into some bottomless pit, that it goes to a secret Jungle Level. He believed me and jumped to his death. He was pissed off but gave me the controller to have my turn.
The first bottomless pit I came across, he said to me
"HEY IF YOU JUMP DOWN THERE YOU GET A SECRET LEVEL"
"How dumb do you think I am?"
Anyone else have any pre-internet Video Game rumours that they fell for or just found really funny looking back at them?
