The 10 Fakest Video Game Leaks

10 Fakest Video Game Leaks

Welcome to MojoPlays, and today, we’re taking a look at 10 of the fakest video game leaks we have ever witnessed. Don’t believe everything you read and see on the internet, kids.

“Star Fox Grand Prix”

The “Star Fox” franchise has been away for quite some time now, the last game being the underwhelming “Star Fox Zero” which launched on Wii U back in 2016. With the next Nintendo console on the horizon, it seems Fox McCloud will miss the boat on the Switch’s success. There was a brief glimmer of hope in 2018 when word began spreading of a brand new “Star Fox spin-off titled “Star Fox Grand Prix”. While most of the internet began stewing in its excitement over this mysterious new game, skeptics were understandably suspicious. This was a leak that was getting a lot of attention as a few assets kept spreading that Nintendo would have definitely kept under a tight lid. Plus, why bring in a new racing game when “Mario Kart 8 Deluxe” was selling like gangbusters? None of it made any sense from a financial nor a portfolio perspective. Sure enough, it was eventually discovered that “Star Fox Grand Prix” was nothing more than a rumor started up by Photoshop mockups.

“Super Mario Galaxy DS”

In December 2007, a trailer was uploaded to YouTube advertising the reveal of a Nintendo DS port of “Super Mario Galaxy”. An insanely great Wii title coming to a handheld console? Of course people were going to get amped over that! Well, when you stop and really think about it and look at the footage, there was no way a DS was going to properly run a game as ambitious and complex as “Super Mario Galaxy” no matter how many compromises you make. Still, people got excited until the leaker revealed themselves in 2018. Pablo Belmonte reuploaded the trailer in a high quality and revealed the trailer was meant for a school assignment. The trailer landed Belmonte a job in the gaming industry, though according to his MobyGames page, Belmonte hasn’t worked on a game since 2011.

“Super Mario Sunshine” x “Splatoon”?

“Super Mario Sunshine”, another 3D Mario classic that would have fans foaming at the mouth just from simply mentioning it. “Splatoon” saw that hype firsthand. In 2015, a leaked screenshot was floating around that showed plans to bring “Mario Sunshine” content into “Splatoon” via the Mario amiibo. The image even used a render of Mario that had never been used in any of “Sunshine’s” marketing material. Just a few days after the leak exploded, the leaker uploaded a video on the channel “MarioInkyLeaky” that confirmed the image was completely fake.

All the “Half-Life 3” Leaks

One of the most frequent jokes made within the gaming community is how “Half-Life 2: Episode 2” ends with a cliffhanger and that Valve will never make a third game because they’re scared of the number three. The hope for “Half-Life 3” has gone on for so long that every once in a while, some schmoe gets the clever idea to create a fake teaser image or video of some kind to get people to think the announcement has leaked. What many forget is that Valve is a small company with a very tight team of people and is primarily focused on hardware and running a digital storefront these days. Even though they put out new games every once in a while, making software hasn’t really been their focus as much as it used to. But people still hold out for “Half-Life 3” so aggressively that we wonder how much of the “Half-Life” fanbase is suffering from Stockholm syndrome at this point. We know. “Half-Life” is an amazing series. But at some point, you gotta wonder if the story was left unresolved for a reason.

The Bizarre PlayStation Controllers

Much like the fake “Half-Life 3” leaks, PlayStation suffers just as much when it comes to fake leaks. For years, we’ve seen so many fabricated images with their creators claiming they unearthed details about the next PlayStation console. Who could forget the X-shaped box that was passed around as the PS5? As for controllers, you can find so many mockups of what the next supposed PlayStation controller is going to be, and most of the time, it's just mildly modified DualShock 4 controllers. Now, you have some individuals claiming they have details about PS6 controllers only to show off modified DualSense controllers. At some point, we should all just wait until we hear from Sony themselves about hardware products.

“Super Smash Bros. Melee’s” Additional Unlockable Characters

We’ve seen some pretty good fake leaks during development and marketing of previous “Smash Bros.” games. From ArtsyOmni’s Rayman render to the 2018 Grinch leak, “Smash” sees waves of leaks all the way until launch. However, the ones that were obviously fake from the very start were EGM’s claims about Sonic, Tails, and Toad being unlockable in “Super Smash Bros. Melee”. Both came with some solidly made fake screenshots, but if “Melee” fans had stopped for a few seconds from getting excited and trying to unlock these characters, they would have known it was fake before EGM published their next issue and confirmed their fraud. Guys…”Melee” tells you when you have unlocked every character. Doing so is what unlocked All-Star Mode! How did anyone fall for this??

“PlayStation All-Stars: Round 2”

Oddly enough, PlayStation’s own “Smash” clone has seen some fake leaks since its debut in 2012 on PlayStation 3. Despite seeing marginal success, “PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale” has amassed a following that has been hungry for Sony to give the greenlight to a sequel albeit with some much needed improvements. Some fans have gone so far as to try to create mockups and pass them off as “leaks”. From the usual roster images to the occasional “gameplay” footage of questionable menus and blurry imagery, the few “PlayStation All-Stars” fans that remain get a small glimmer of hope every so often only for another E3 or Summer Games Fest to go by without Sony saying a word.

The NX Controller

The mid-2010’s were a chaotic period as folks were eagerly awaiting Nintendo to reveal their next console, the next machine to hopefully not be as underwhelming as the Wii U. The hype was so huge that some began claiming they found info on what the NX (what we soon be revealed to be the Switch) would have as a controller. The most common image that was being shared in 2016 was a pill-shaped controller that only featured two analog sticks with almost the whole controller being used as a screen. This actually ignited a brief moment of panic as people thought this controller was the NX itself and that we were about to see yet another era of Nintendo focusing on touch screens. Come on, did we really think THAT was going to be the next Nintendo console? Really?

Nintendo Switch 2 Mockups

Speaking of Nintendo’s next console, the successor to the Nintendo Switch is on the horizon at the time of us making this video. And already, in this day and age where clicks and likes are the most important thing ever, people have gone to great lengths to pretend they have the deets on what the next Nintendo console is. But so far, all anyone has come up with are just chunky iterations of the Switch. Granted, rumors have suggested that that is what the next console is: a more powerful Switch. However, looking at Nintendo’s history in hardware, the company has rarely ever made sequel consoles, the only exceptions being Game Boy Advance, 3DS, and Wii U, and even then, each of those consoles had completely different looks, specs, and button layout. So, predicting the next Nintendo console is like predicting the exact spot where lightning will strike.

Just About Every E3 & Summer Games Fest Leak

If you keep up with gaming news, you’ll know that every summer, people come out claiming they have info on some yet-to-be revealed game. Heck, it’s almost an expectation to see fake screenshots because they have all become so predictable. Is the image about as blurry as a found footage horror movie? Is there so much exposure in bright spots that the image looks like you might be seeing God? Was the image taken in a seemingly dark room where you can only see the screen and nothing else? Congratulations, you have most likely spotted a fake leak! Of course, nowadays we see supposed “leaked” reveal schedules of Nintendo Directs and Sony State of Plays. It’s cool to have personal wishlists, but let’s not fool each other, ‘kay?

What’s the most ridiculous leak you saw that wound up being fake? Let us know down in the comments, and be sure to subscribe to MojoPlays for more great videos everyday!