10 Most Ludicrous Video Game Urban Myths You Actually Believed

If you, like me, are a huge scaredy cat with a love of creepy video game theories, you may have also spent dozens of hours reading up on urban legends only to stay up all night because you scared yourself.

Not all the urban legends on this list that impressionable kids were fooled into believing are dark, but the spooky selections do have a tendency to spread across the internet.

Whether a creepy pasta you thought actually held water, a trick someone told you about Nintendo cartridges, or a full-blown government conspiracy, we’ve got you covered on the myths that had a significant amount of gamers convinced at one time or another.

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10. Lavender Town Syndrome - Pokémon Red & Blue

I can confidently say I hate the music in Lavender Town even without the horrifying urban legend behind it but you’re here for the horrifying urban legend so here’s the lowdown.

The story of Lavender Town Syndrome is associated with the creepy as heck location from Pokemon Red and Blue, specifically within the Japanese version of the game. For some reason the music in the town had a different pitch and frequency than the Western version. Disturbingly, it was said that some children were complaining of headaches and experiencing hysteria after hearing the Lavender Tone. A further theory even said that it was causing a peak of suicides and illnesses of children in Japan.

In 2010, somebody went a step further and claimed they had special software which revealed images of the Unown embedded in the audio spelling out “Leave now”.

This is, of course, totally bogus. It’s wildly unlikely any of this happened and the reason the Lavender Town theme was changed is probably due to Nintendo preferring to not be associated with the wildly grim urban legend. Still doesn’t make the music less creepy.