Toad
Rumor
Dispelling
the rumor that Toad is a playable character...
Written
by DetErest
Never
since the beginning of the 'Sonic & Tails' era, has a character rumor
been so persistent in my mailbox... People are finally starting to accept
that Sonic and Tails were nothing but an April Fool's joke. But for some
reason, many have jumped onto the rumor of another hidden fighter...
Some players believe it is possible to unlock Toad as a secret character.
Apparently in order to get Toad to appear, you need to shoot all of the
credits that appear at the end of a one player game. Following this, Toad
would appear to challenge you.
Of course, a rumor can't be
taken seriously unless there is some evidence to support it. But in the
case of the Toad rumor, there are several screenshots to back it up...
But are these images fact or fiction? The conclusion is at the bottom
of the page.
Challenger
Approaching...
Challenged
by a mysterious silhouette... |
Melee
Message...
A
special reward message, informing us that Toad has been unlocked..? |
Select
Your Character...
In
stead of Sonic or Tails, this character select screenshot shows Toad
as a playable character... |
Action
Screenshots
Toad?
Running away from Mewtwo...
Mewtwo
charges a projectile attack.
|
Some
of the screenshots do appear to be rather convincing... But the strange
thing is that only two 'action' screenshots of Toad as a playable character
have surfaced. Toad can be spotted in the Mushroom Kingdom of Adventure
mode, running around in the background. And in both of these shots, Toad
is featured in poses that already appear in the game. Compare the shots
above, to the poses below that I took:
Power
Hit
Running
around like a maniac in the Mushroom Kingdom... What's this guy on,
anyway?
Just
as Toad changes direction, he moves both of his feet together, which
looks a bit like a jump from the right angle in a still frame. This
is the same pose as one of the screenshots above. |
After
closely examining some of these screenshots, it became clear that this
was just another hoax. The edited screenshots are very well done, and
appear to be quite convincing. With extreme inspection of the special
character message screen, I was able to spot evidence that the letters
had been rearranged, and copied & pasted to spell out brand new text.
These
sightings of Toad seemed to be a hopeful shining light, but if it sounds
too good to be true, it almost always is... So why did many players instantly
jump on this rumor and believe it was true? Wishful thinking I suppose,
in the fact that countless Melee fans would love to have even more secret
characters to unlock.
|