List of rumors and urban legends
Being a long-running and popular franchise, there have been various rumors, misconceptions, and urban legends regarding the Mario series' fiction and production history.
Production
Donkey Kong's name origin
There are several explanations for the name origin of Donkey Kong. According to the myth and its variations, Donkey Kong is a mistranslated[1], a typo[2], or a blurred fax[3] from Monkey Kong. There is even an explanation that donkey is used to avoid copyright issues with King Kong.[4] Monkey and donkey are, first, two completely different names in Japanese, so it is unlikely to be a translation error. While typos resulting in popular names do exist, the myth's multiple variations make this explanation dubious at best. Finally, it is absurd to assume that Nintendo used "Donkey Kong" rather than "King Kong" to avoid copyright issues because they were sued for name similarities.
Another explanation is that Shigeru Miyamoto looked up the English variation of "stubborn" in the dictionary and found "donkey"[5], although, normally, it would be unusual to find "donkey" lumped with other adjectives in the dictionary.
Shigeru Miyamoto himself has asserted multiple times that he used the word "donkey" to convey stubbornness.
Gunpei Yokoi's departure
It is frequently said that the poor commercial performance of the Virtual Boy caused Gunpei Yokoi to leave Nintendo, with variations claiming Yokoi left "out of shame" or was otherwise demoted by Nintendo prior to his departure. One article goes as far as to claim that the Virtual Boy was somehow indirectly responsible for the car incident that killed Yokoi.
However, in an interview made for the book Nintendo Magic, a business partner of Yokoi, Yoshihiro Taki, stated that he had long planned to retire from Nintendo and would've done so regardless of the Virtual Boy's performance. The biographical book 横井軍平ゲーム館 provides a similar explanation, stating Gunpei Yokoi had grown cynical about the video game industry and that the Virtual Boy actually delayed his departure, as he decided to design one last successful product (The Game Boy Pocket) as to not look like he was parting on bad terms.
Larry Koopa's namesake
Several articles (such as this one by the British Official Nintendo Magazine) purports that Larry Koopa is named after the talk show host Larry King, perhaps due to the writer's inability to think of a famous musical "Larry". According to former Nintendo of America employee Dayvv Brooks, however, Larry is also named after a musician as his siblings: in this case, Larry Mullen, Jr., the drummer for the rock band U2[6].
Luigi playable in Super Mario 64
Because of the game's popularity, rumors about glitches and secrets spread rapidly after its release. A common rumor was that Luigi was a secret character in the game, fueled by illegible symbols in the castle courtyard that resembled the text "L is real 2401". This same texture would reappear in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on a plaque in Dodongo's Cavern. IGN received so many questions and supposed methods to unlock Luigi that the staff offered a US$100 reward to anyone who could prove that Luigi was in the game. The number of false codes submitted to IGN dropped dramatically, as Luigi's inclusion was proved to be a myth. The April Fools' Day 1998 issue of Nintendo Power claimed that the cryptic phrase would be discussed on the non-existent page 128, and also featured a facetious article titled "Luigi 64", commenting humorously on the rumor. Various explanations have popped up for the "L is real 2401" phrase, one of them being that the text is actually supposed to read as "Eternal Star" (as the texture is found under a statue of a star).
Luigi would later become playable in Super Mario 64's remake, Super Mario 64 DS.
Super Mario Galaxy DS
On the 10th of December 2007, a video showing a downloadable, Nintendo DS version of Super Mario Galaxy emerged, which was supposedly hidden inside the Wii version of the game. The shaky-cam footage showed Mario and Luigi jumping from the Wii to the DS using a previously unknown, hidden galaxy and the DS' WiFi download capabilities. It showed low-resolution versions of Mario and Luigi running around low-resolution versions of familiar Mario Galaxy levels. The video promised each DS star would be redeemable for 10 Wii shop points. (Nintendo, for their part, said they didn't comment on rumours). However, a slightly shorter, more stable version of the same footage was posted on the video-sharing site Stage6 by user psycho3ler. It was shown to belong to Pablo Belmonte, a video editor behind a "Nintendo ON" hoax video posted in 2005. The extended footage on Stage6 even shows a Nintendo ON-shaped planet.
Super Mario FX
It is frequently rumored that a 3D platformer named "Super Mario FX" was in development for the SNES, using the Super FX chip. Variants of this rumour claim that the game was turned or otherwise repurposed into Super Mario 64.
As elaborated in this SnesCentral article, there are no actual proof that such a game was into development (which would have been unlikely due to the timetable of Super Mario 64's development), and claims of its existence seem to originate from IGN misinterpreting an interview in the January 1996 issue of Nintendo Power, where Shigeru Miyamoto stated he got the idea of developing a 3D Mario platformer (without specifying platform) while making Star Fox. Furthermore, said article's writer contacted Dylan Cuthbert (a game programmer who designed the Super FX chip and collaborated with Miyamoto on Star Fox), who confirms that no 3D Mario platformer was in development for the SNES and that "Super Mario FX" was actually a codename for the chip itself.
Mask Cup
Issue 110 of the British version of Official Nintendo Magazine featured 15 cups for Mario Kart 8 that were hand-crafted by the ONM staff. However, the 15th Cup, called the "Mask Cup". It was listed as an online tournament that opens at 12am and shuts at 1am, in which every player plays as Shy Guy. It is unknown whether the tournament actually exists, as it is only mentioned here. The four courses in the Tournament are Twisted Mansion, Toad's Turnpike, Mario Kart Stadium and Bowser's Castle.
Fiction
Ashley's age
It is commonly claimed among online fans that Ashley is 9/10-years old in Japanese WarioWare material and that her age was "changed" for the western localization. The claim was featured for a time on the wiki's Ashley and Red page, although it was later removed for being unsourced.
While there are hints that Ashley is meant to be younger than 15-years old (such as her voice and Ashley referring to herself in the third person in her Miiverse Sketch Masterpiece Collection video, a verbal tic that usually denotes young, immature characters in Japanese media) she has no specific stated age in any Japanese WarioWare media, including the official Japanese WarioWare: Touched! website[7].
King K. Rool's costumes are separate characters in Japan
King K. Rool's trophy description in Super Smash Bros. Brawl states that "His brother, Kaptain K. Rool, made an appearance in the game Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest". This lead to several fans wondering if this was a change in the Japanese localization, which, due to the broken telephone effect, was morphed into a "fact" that King K. Rool's disguises are separate characters in Japan.
In truth, Japanese material for the Donkey Kong Country series also have K. Rool aliases being mere disguises[8], and thus the trophy description is merely an error. Furthermore, several of Super Smash Bros. Brawl's trophy descriptions features errors about the subject they describe, including ones about games director Masahiro Sakurai worked on, an example being Kirby's latest appearance, which was actually Kirby: Squeak Squad, was listed as Kirby: Canvas Curse.
External links
- The Transformer's Wiki "Misconceptions and urban legends about Transformers" page
- Smashwiki's "List of rumors" page
References
- ^ "It seems the entire game is a misnomer. Legend has it that the Japanese wonk who developed the game made a mistake when translating the Japanese for 'Monkey Kong' into English. By the time the error was discovered millions of labels had already been printed." 1.Dougherty, Kerry."Pretendo — Oops, Nintendo — Separates Males from Females." The [Norfolk] Virginian-Pilot. 4 January 1997 (p. A11).
- ^ "Why exactly the giant ape is called 'Donkey Kong' is a mystery, although I heard one story that sounds plausible: The original arcade game, designed in Japan, was supposed to be called 'Monkey Kong,' but somebody misspelled it and the name stuck." Burrill, William. "Game Boy Cart More Fun Than Barrel of Donkeys." The Toronto Star. 4 August 1994 (p. F5).
- ^ "According to Mark Smith, editor of the Club Nintendo magazine, the game should have been called Monkey Kong — it did indeed feature a large gorilla, with nary a donkey to be seen — but there was a typing error on a fax from Nintendo (Japan) to Nintendo" Bailey, Eric. "Is There No Rescue at Hand in This Super Mario Land?" The [London] Daily Telegraph. 23 December 1991.
- ^ The word "donkey" is, given a poor grasp of english idiom, the opposite of the word "king" (etymology: donkey — ass — fool; fool is traditionally the opposite of king). The title "Donkey Kong" is supposed to be a clever pun, but it doesn't translate well. It also serves as a way to refer to the movie King Kong without violating copyright.
- ^ "[Miyamoto] consulted a Japanese-English dictionary and found 'donkey' listed as an English equivalent to the Japanese word for stupid or goofy. He decided that Kong would be a good name for the gorilla, so he called the game Donkey Kong." Mingo, Jack. How the Cadillac Got Its Fins. New York: HarperBusiness, 1994. ISBN 0-88730-677-2 (pp. 136-141).
- ^ Dayvv Brooks (former Nintendo of America employee), on July 18, 2012.
- ^ Ashley's page on the Japanese WarioWare: Touched! Website, Nintendo of Japan, (accessed February 25, 2014)
- ^ Japanese Wikipedia page for King K. Rool, Wikimedia foundation (accessed August 8, 2014)
