I remember on the Old Cult, there was a section dedicated to stop the spread of misinformation by championing the truth on common misconceptions about the sonic franchise. So, how about we do the same for other games and series?

Right now, because I'm too much of a Sonic Fag, I can't think of any others. 'Mobius' strips and Yuji Naka myths really get my goat.

I was going to suggest the ET buried in the desert was a myth, because Howard Scott Warsaw didn't think it was true based on the impracticality, but it turns out it was true - there are newspaper clippings and everything.

I corrected Saz about the Lynx being the first coloured handheld, although I don't know whether that's a widespread myth or whether it was just Saz.

I don't know, any ideas? Any modern myths. How about the PS2 'Emotion Engine'? People who refer to any graphical trick on the SNES as 'mode 7'?

Blast Processing?

How about how everyone seems to think there is a d at the end of Gameboy Advance? Pronunciation of Pokemon?

Lots of speculation surrounding games like Thrill Kill, Propeller Arena, etc.

I can't really think of anything very good or specific at the moment either.

Pokémon. There's an accent, so it should follow to pronounce the vowel hard.

Oh, anyone who believes that the Western name "Mobius" is a result of a translation error. The oft-quoted article happened in 1992, when a comic depicting Sonic's homeworld was printed in 1991. Naka, working with STI at the time, said "Mobius" because that was American canon, speaking to an American audience. Naka's also fluent in English, so a mixup of "stage" and "corkscrew" is pretty odd.

hard? lol wut? it's an acute accent.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89

"In English it has some uses, mostly in words of French origin such as Café and Sauté, and names such as Beyoncé and Théo. Pokémon, the media franchise owned by Japanese corporation Nintendo has also come into common use."

would that not be more like "eh" or "ay"? A hard e is pronouncing it as the letter itself is said, correct? Do you say Cafee? i say Cafeh/Cafay. Perhaps I am *massively* incorrect here, all I know is POKEYMON drives me crazy when not satirical. Pokehmon damnit.

No, on second thought, you're right. I thought I pronounced it Poe-key-mon, but I said it aloud and got Poe-kay-mon. Just a bit of hasty thinking. Mostly so I could show that I memorized the ASCII for é (130).

Yeah, Pokeymon (or, in the event of plurals, Pokemans/Pokemen) gets on my nerves. Almost as much as when people add an "s" to the word "Chao" in an attempt to make it plural, when, in reality, it creates a new, differently pronounced, word, Chaos. Kay-os. Not Chow-z. This usually doesn't annoy me when a fan does it, but when pretty much the entire marketing for Sonic Chronicles - including interviews with Sega and Bioware - pronounce it this way, it just cheeses me off.

I can see at least 3 factual errors with this paragraph, including the one above plus 2 more. This was from a recent issue of NRevolution (UK Magazine).

But we should be steering this away from Sonic.

I've played Thrill Kill about 10 years ago. You aren't missing much. Also, Poke-E-Mon is how I pronounce it. Pokemon and Thrill Kill in the same paragraph?

I have played it too. I'm more referring to how there are at least 4 different copies out there, how people still argue about if it was printed before being pulled, etc.

Yeah, some people claim that Ura Zelda got a commersial release under a very very short time in Japan aswell. Altough I've yet to confirm or disconfirm it, I find it hard to believe. Aswell as people saying the same about Half Life for Dreamcast just because it was leaked out on the internet.

And I pronounce it.... Pocket Monsters!... What? Not funny?... Okay then. Poke-eh-mon, but that's just because I've listened too much to Bill Cosby.

Sonic-related:

Pigs in Casino Night.
Colored Sonic 2 ending.
Dust Hill desert. =P

Well, that could be believable, I mean, I an old interview that asked Miyamoto if Ura Zelda was finished, Miyamoto confirmed that they finished it already. I bet there's some copies floating around.

The pronunciation of é depends on where you're from, really. British people often pronounce the "é" as "e", even though we do say "Caf" or "Cafay" for Café. Although I'll send a few eyes rolling, you can best see this in the mess that was Kingdom Hearts 2's localisation, you had a mix-mash of American and British voice actors trying to pronounce "Naminé" from the Japanese "ナミネ" (Na-mi-ne). It's funny because eventually everyone gets confused how the fuck to pronounce it and there ends up to be about 10 different ways they say it by the end of the game. (Na-mine, Naminey, Na-mi-nay, Namineh, etc)

It's poke-ay-mon.

Also, memorising the ascii for é? Dunno about Yank keyboards, but on UK ones it's just Ctrl-Alt-e. =P

Confirmed: Doesn't work on "Yank keyboards".

Also, yeah, it's Poh-kay-mon.

or Alt Gr + any vowel to add a foreign accent onto it.

áéíóú

How about Luigi not actually being in Super Mario 64?

Only idiots believe that. That L is real 2041 is the most pathetic thing ever.

Hell, now that I think about it, Pokemon is full of speculatory shit. The truck? Down+B?

I still hold down A every fucking time I attack, even though I know it doesn't have any effect!
Also for me it was always Pok-uh-mon.

The Down-B rumor has evolved to its logical conclusion: stupid people are saying the word "Ball" into the DS Microphone for the newer games now. Yes. I can understand pressing A for an attack (the average layman doesn't know how the random-number generator works), but... saying something aloud?

The truck still confuses me, as its a waste of perfectly good memory for two tiles that you don't ever see during normal gameplay. It must be a developer in-joke of some kind. It also appears in the remakes, albeit in a very different form. The sprite is larger, it was used in Ruby/Sapphire, the whole area is redone (you can no longer Surf around the ship), and there's a Lava Cookie hidden on that same piece of land.

Fun fact: Pikachu's Volt Tackle? In Japan, it's name is Volteccer, the same moved used in the other GameFreak developed game, Pulseman. Here's some more references.

Yeah, I'd imagine that's just a translation mishap or something. There's a lot of random trainers who are supposed to have names of specific characters here and there who ended up wiht name changes in US versions due to the translators not knowing the reference.

I can already imagine them in the bus, playing pokemon and screaming "BALLS" at their DS.


Another good one is the whole Missingno thing being a removed pokemon.

I remeber back when i was 17-ish, around 1997 after mario 64 came out my best friend Goomba and I came across a "code" to get luigi in mario 64. It involved plugging the controller into the 4th slot, and doing all kinds of crazy shit

Actually, Alt-GR is in essence the same as Ctrl+Alt, so that'd be why.

Alt-GR+Del does not do a Ctrl-Alt-Del though, so there must be a SMALL difference.

inb4 tails is a girl

A lot of people I know think that DS stands for double screen. It's dual screen, raaaage.

Actually it's Developers' System if the early info is to be trusted. Looking up what wiki sez...:

"The system's code name was Nitro,[5] and this can be seen in the model codes that appear on the unit (NTR-001). The console's name officially refers to "Developers' System", in reference to the new game design the system was meant to inspire, and "Dual Screen", the system's most obvious and distinct feature"

OK so maybe it's both. I however have always preferred Developers' System.

You sure it wasn't Donkey Scrotum? I'm sure I read that somewhere.

In actual fact, it was a translation error. It was actually meant to be Stubborn Scrotum.

Hahahahaha

"Developers System" is the only acronym which Nintendo has ever used for the DS, back at E3 2004. Ever since, they've always referred to it as "DS". "Dual Screen" or "Double Screen" may have been the original thought behind it though, while making the system.

"Double Screen"? I've never heard that before. Sounds like a bad rip of "Dual Screen" which in my opinion, is the public; ordinary view of the DS whereas Gamers and more technologically knowledgable people refer it as a "Developer System"

Definitive pronunciation of Pokemon: Punkawalla.

Speaking of which, what's the official word on Donkey Kong's name origin? I've heard mistranslations, phone mishearings, and thesaurus misuse, but I've never been sure which is correct.

I guess the story about the mistranslation is the real one because of this interview:
http://www.miyamotoshrine.com/theman/interviews/051601.shtml


If anyone is interesed, there's some of the others stories here:
http://www.snopes.com/business/misxlate/donkeykong.asp

Hmm... Zelda's named after F. Scott Fitzgerald's wife. Wonder if those Great Gatsby-ish allusions that I'm getting from Daisy Circuit in Mario Kart Wii aren't just a coincidence.

Oh yes. Oh yes indeed.

I must concur with my esteemed countrymen, especially the really tall ones. ;P