10 Scary Video Game Urban Legends Everyone Believed Were True
4. Pokémon-Induced Suicide
Listen to the music in the above video and you'll likely agree it's pretty unpleasant. Harsh, jarring and high-pitched, it seems designed to put the player on edge. Which, given Lavender Town's status as a literal ghost town, was likely the effect Nintendo were going for. However, stories began circulating round the internet that Nintendo were a little too successful in their attempts at discomfiting the player...
Lavender Town Syndrome was the name given to a story that Lavender Town's music seriously affected the mental stability of children in Japan, to the point that it was attributed as the reason behind over two hundred juvenile suicides.
Although there has never been any real evidence to back up the story, it's easy to see why the myth remains popular. As reported in Kotaku, people will always find an illicit thrill in the subversion of childhood symbols (remember Bowsette?), and the idea that sweet, family friendly Pokémon led children to their doom is one too ghoulish to pass up on.