10 Video Game Mysteries That BAFFLED Gamers For Years

Being one of the most influential platformers of all time, it's no surprise Super Mario 64 had one of the longest enduring rumours in gaming. 

In the Castle Courtyard, a stone plaque can be found in front of Boo's fountain. Although the text is blurry, some players suggest it reads, "L Is Real 2401." 

Many fan-theories were thrown around surrounding the plaque's significance, but the common consensus was the "L" stood for Luigi, hinting that Mario's cowardly brother was an unlockable character. It was hypothesised the "2401" was a reference to how many coins were in the game (which seemed like a reasonable guess), indicating players needed to collect every coin to find Luigi. Of course, there was no substantial evidence to back this up, so all gossip surrounding Luigi fizzled away.

That is until the 2020 Nintendo gigaleak, which confirmed code for Luigi was in Super Mario 64's source files.

According to Mario creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, Super Mario 64 was meant to have a split-screen co-op mode, with Luigi serving as a playable character. 

Even though this rumour has been supposed quashed and debunked time and time again, it turns out L Was Real all along.