Has GameFreak started officially acknowledging the playground rumors?

[Cute Charm]

I didn't know where to put this since it's more of a general/meta video game thread then just an ORAS thread or pokemon as a whole. Also there's still some slight ORAS spoilers here so be warned.

With the news about how to obtain Deoxys it's getting pretty hard to ignore that GameFreak has started to incorporate the rumors we have all heard as kids into the games. First it was keeping the Mew truck and putting a lava cookie under it. After skipping a couple generations Mega Evolution could be considered a nod to the PokeGods lore and the Mewtwo Megas could be the Mewthree and Mewfour respectively. And

Spoiler

now you can finally go into space

.

There's also the fact that Bagon looks a little bit like a blue angry Yoshi and there was that lesser rumor floating around about Yoshi being a pokemon that you could obtain in the grass outside of Pallet Town. To hammer this theory in even even more, its shiny is green. Maybe the choice to keep the Mew truck wasn't the first shoutout and Bagon was in fact the first tip of the hat to those rumormongers.

Sure they did take some liberties, Bagon doesn't have a back shell or a tail, has ear holes, and evolves into a European dragon, Mew still isn't under the truck, there are no mega Nidos, and

Spoiler

the rocket is in no way connected to the space trip.

But by taking these liberties they managed to fit outrageous and stupid sounding rumors into the game canon.

What are your thoughts? Is all this just a happy coincidence or has GameFreak known about all those rumors we used to fall for as kids and they spent their time planning and rewriting them to fit within the actual context of the games?

 

[Champion Red]

*cries under truck clutching Mew plushie*

I just want Kanto Remakes and Episode M D;

 

[Silktree]

First it was keeping the Mew truck and putting a lava cookie under it.

Were they supposed to remove it? It isn't as if they connected it to Mew, so I don't see what the big deal is.

 

[The_Pikachu]

This might be true, and it's a good idea. The Bagon-Yoshi idea seems a little too far fetched however.

 

[Cute Charm]

Were they supposed to remove it? It isn't as if they connected it to Mew, so I don't see what the big deal is.

I always assumed that the original truck was something of a leftover or placeholder that they forgot to take out of the final game. It was the only vehicle that wasn't a bike in the entire game, it was in a spot where no casual first time player would think of looking, it served no actual purpose, and it was in a temporary area. It just seemed like something that if they wanted to could have just gotten rid of in the remakes. But instead they made a new sprite for it, added little planters off to the side to doll the barren off screen area up, and put an item under it.

It just really seems like they wanted people to look for the truck again. If it wasn't for the Mew rumors the pickup would have gone unnoticed and they would have probably shrunk the map down and put generic road blocks there.

 

[Beth Pavell]

I reckon the Lava Cookie was certainly meant to reference the Mew glitch rumour. I'm not sold on those other ideas, though

 

[Osprey]

Mew was definitely an easter egg acknowledgment. I think that

Spoiler

riding the Rayquaza train into space to find Deoxys

was also big-time fanservis. It doesn't hurt that Game Freak throws in things to show they listen to the fandom. As far as I can tell, it's good to give the fandom a shout-out every once and a while.

 

[Aulos]

Yeah, I mean re-adding the truck and making it movable for an object just *has* to be a nod. But the rest of them are just really stretching it. Although I admittedly don't recognize the rumors back in the day beyond moving the truck to find Mew.

We had all kinds of crazy ones back when I was in elementary school. Like I remember one being spread around (probably was just locally spread around, I don't know) that if you dig in a certain spot of Diglett's cave you end up in the grass outside of Pallet Town/Route 1 and can catch the starters. Lol.

Pokemon was so mysterious back then, and that was all we had... So we wanted to believe these things might be true. Lol. By Generation III I wouldn't believe any of them.

 

[kaiomann]

Yeah, I mean re-adding the truck and making it movable for an object just *has* to be a nod. But the rest of them are just really stretching it. Although I admittedly don't recognize the rumors back in the day beyond moving the truck to find Mew.

We had all kinds of crazy ones back when I was in elementary school. Like I remember one being spread around (probably was just locally spread around, I don't know) that if you dig in a certain spot of Diglett's cave you end up in the grass outside of Pallet Town/Route 1 and can catch the starters. Lol.

Pokemon was so mysterious back then, and that was all we had... So we wanted to believe these things might be true. Lol. By Generation III I wouldn't believe any of them.

I heard that too! Someone said you can get all the starters in yellow (well you can, but in the wild), they're outside of pallet town and you get there by using dig in some corner.
Oh how much I was searching to get to starter garden (that's what everyone called it)...

 

[Champion Red]

Yeah, I mean re-adding the truck and making it movable for an object just *has* to be a nod. But the rest of them are just really stretching it. Although I admittedly don't recognize the rumors back in the day beyond moving the truck to find Mew.

We had all kinds of crazy ones back when I was in elementary school. Like I remember one being spread around (probably was just locally spread around, I don't know) that if you dig in a certain spot of Diglett's cave you end up in the grass outside of Pallet Town/Route 1 and can catch the starters. Lol.

Pokemon was so mysterious back then, and that was all we had... So we wanted to believe these things might be true. Lol. By Generation III I wouldn't believe any of them.

I heard that too! Someone said you can get all the starters in yellow (well you can, but in the wild), they're outside of pallet town and you get there by using dig in some corner.
Oh how much I was searching to get to starter garden (that's what everyone called it)...

I heard that if you caught all 150 Pokemon and talked to Professor Oak with Pikachu, Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres, Eevee and Mewtwo in your party, you'd be able to go into the grass near Pallet Town and catch the starters, Eevee's, Ditto's, 'baby lapras' and Mew.

 

[AntmAllStar]

im so glad they're putting the space thing in. i really did believe the rumors, and when i got to launch 100 finally and it didnt work i was so disappointed and thought i did something wrong XD my poor 3rd-5th grade brain haha

the craziest rumor i heard growing up was if you had a team of all charizards, then left your game boy on inside bills house and didnt move for a week, then at the week mark moved up up left up a b a b start select, bill would take you to his secret garden where you could catch togepi mewthree and then battle ash LOL

 

[Warrior of Fire]

im so glad they're putting the space thing in. i really did believe the rumors, and when i got to launch 100 finally and it didnt work i was so disappointed and thought i did something wrong XD my poor 3rd-5th grade brain haha

the craziest rumor i heard growing up was if you had a team of all charizards, then left your game boy on inside bills house and didnt move for a week, then at the week mark moved up up left up a b a b start select, bill would take you to his secret garden where you could catch togepi mewthree and then battle ash LOL

I'm surprised that code wasn't the Konami code.

 

[Robo-Floatzel]

If anything these are likely just coincidental and aren't based on the rumors at all, with the exception of getting a Lava Cookie under the truck in FR/LG, which they decided to put a lava cookie under the truck there because Mew is an event legendary, and they are unlikely to ever make an event legendary obtainable by normal means, which makes me think that Episode Delta will be only accessible by download due to the involvement of Deoxys, which is an event legendary like Mew is. Game Freak doesn't like changing their traditions on how certain things are, they rather add new things, but they do seem willing to use these rumors as inspiration for ideas, but aren't likely to incorporate them word-for-word.

 

[Kallyle]

While I do think that the truck thing in FRLG and the Deoxys in space thing is definitely a shout-out on Game Freak's part, I doubt that things like Mega Evolution and Bagon are based off of the PokéGod rumors and the Yoshi April Fools prank, respectively. Some of these thing are purely coincidental, but others are definitely shout-outs! The rule of thumb you should follow is this: the actual references are very obvious.

 

[Life]

My answer is no.

With the Mossdeep Space Center and multiple Pokemon with space-themes/origins, going to space was never an odd thought to think. In my opinion, getting to fly around in space is just one of the features Game Freak decided to add in OR/AS to spice up the story and give us a taste of what they can do with fancy Gen VI graphics.

Going in to space was something people had been wanting, and it's obvious that it was also for fan-service, as someone mentioned above. I don't think they really care too much about implementing the rumors we all heard as children.

 

[Muur]

The Mew Lava Cookie was 100% a reference, I'd say the same with the space thing. Easter eggs are always fun and it's good to see they keep up with things.

Even with things like Espurr becoming a meme and Hoenn Confirmed, which they play about with on social media.