The Everlasting Appeal of Video Game Rumours

The latest Virtua Fighter rumours has the fanbase in a storm. But are the leaks real?

My friend had a copy of Street Fighter vs Mortal Kombat in 1996.

I’d never so much as seen a screenshot of this game, and in fact wouldn’t have known it existed if not for him telling me. This is, of course, because it only came out in America and he was lucky enough to get it from his relatives who lived in the USA. It had all the characters from Super Street Fighter 2, as well as all the characters from Mortal Kombat 2. He told me in great detail the roster and the move list for all the characters he played.

The same guy had a copy of a Mega Drive game called ‘Bullet Man’. A game about a man who was made of bullets and shot other bullets at enemies. I know he was telling me the truth, because he could recall so many details about the game. How could it be a lie? I even knew about Bullet Man’s special attack where his nose (which was a bullet) would open up and fire a bigger bullet towards the enemies. Never mind the fact that Sega Megazone had never covered it. All my magazines were local Australian mags, or came from the UK, so they probably didn’t know the game existed either!

27 years later and of course I know that my friend was pulling my leg (by the way, Bullet Man is a million dollar concept, for all you budding game developers out there). 

This is pretty much what I imagined Bullet Man to be. Even more than twenty five years later, in my restless dreams, I see that Bullet Man.

I don’t know why he decided to fabricate all these (admittedly amazing sounding) games and tell me about them. There’s probably books worth of psycho-analysis that could be done to determine his motive, but for the purpose of this article it’s just a funny schoolyard story that gives me a good laugh.

By comparison, another friend (also with a seemingly wild imagination) told me all about how he played Virtua Cop 3 in 1997 (years before it was a reality), along with the caveat that “You won’t read about it in magazines, they didn’t allow journalists to play it”. Yes, this was an exclusive playtest at some arcade in Australia, where press wasn’t allowed to publicize the game. Apparently they could identify a journalist because they always carry around a notepad and pen, so anyone with that particular accoutrement was forcefully ejected from the room.

Not the Virtua Cop 3 that my friend described.

Why did anyone believe these kinds of lies? I’ll tell you why; beyond just wanting some of this stuff to be real, it’s because the Virtua Cop 3 friend also told me about a secret level in Command & Conquer: Red Alert where you have to fight giant ants. He told me all about how there was as secret level that you could unlock where you had to do battle with these gigantic insects using the cold-war era military from the acclaimed strategy game. The only difference between this story and his others was that this one turned out to be 100% TRUE. It was also later on that I recalled my friend describing Virtua Cop 3 as being full of monsters like vampires and zombies. Was it possible he had seen a House of the Dead cabinet and mistook it for Virtua Cop 3? Then embellished the story a little to pump up his own tyres? The lines between truth and fiction were starting to blur.

Giant goddamned ants.

Yes, every now and then, some ridiculous lie would come about and turn out to not be a lie after all. It in turn meant that you would start to believe a lot of other tales from your friends. Many times these made up games were just them either having a laugh at your expense or subtly pitching their idea for a ‘sick video game that Sega should totally make’, but you’d believe it.

These days with the internet, I can quickly do a Google search to find out that (to my eternal sadness), Bullet Man isn’t a real game. I can also find out that It Came from Red Alert is a real thing, and even watch a full playthrough of it. In many ways, the days of the old school rumours feel like they are over. The kid who just got back from a holiday overseas can’t lie to you about a game that was only released in Japan. You’d know straight away because there’s a full playthrough in stunning 1080P on YouTube of every game, exclusive or otherwise, within a day of them releasing. It’s a bit of a shame really, because that sense of fun, mystery and even speculation is something I missed. It’s great to let your imagination run wild and think about these games that you’re only getting vague details about.

Show me this picture in 1990s and I’d believe that every made-up game described to me existed in Japan.

You can imagine my delight then, when X (formerly Twitter), user ‘Midori’ supposedly leaked some top secret facts about an upcoming Virtua Fighter game. (https://x.com/MbKKssTBhz5/status/1764466836718924157?s=20) 

Within the day, fighting game fans and Sega fans in general were speculating as to what was real, what wasn’t, and how these rumours might work if they were actually implemented. Honestly, it’s some of the most fun I’ve had with the community for a while (including the healthy amounts of trolling that went on). We were all discussing how we interpreted vague statements, how we would do things if we were in charge of the game, and what it might mean for the future of the series. There was a mix of excitement, fear and some genuinely good ideas that I’d love to see come true in a fighting game one day. More than anything, there was a lot of discussion and activity across social media and in chat-rooms around the web, and it was all fueled by the modern equivalent of my friend telling me about Bullet Man during recess.

Granted, it takes a lot more effort to get any traction online than just making up a story. The rumours from ‘Midori’ were talked about at length because of the supposed insider’s history and track record of actually having insider info. Maybe in effect this was closer to the other type of rumour that used to exist in the 90s… I’m talking of course about the gaming magazine rumour section.

September 1997’s issue of CVG: A Vector-Man movie in the works?

October 1997’s CVG has even more juicy tales. An accurate rumour of Command & Conquer: Renegade…

… and from the same issue, a not so accurate mock-up of the console that would become the Sega Dreamcast.

Yes, most people didn’t have the internet for the vast majority of the 90s, but we could always rely on our trusty gaming magazines to be a source of truth for all things in gaming’s past and present. For the future of gaming, we had previews, but we also often had some juicy rumours that were spread! Sometimes these would come to fruition, sometimes they would be referring to cancelled projects. Perhaps most amusingly, sometimes they were just straight up lies! Usually confined to the April edition of the magazine, the journalists would go to great lengths to make up some ridiculous stories. They were great for a laugh, not only at the initial joke, but also for the fact that many people would take the bait hook, line and sinker.

Are we currently getting some insider gossip? Or are we falling for a fun hoax? Honestly, I don’t really mind anymore, I’m having enough fun that it doesn’t seem to matter. To everyone out there, don’t ever lose your sense of wonder. Maybe more importantly, don’t lose your sense of fun.

Although it was reviewed in CVG #197, I’ve never found a copy of Ultra Fernando Cousins for Sega Saturn.