When Nintendo tweeted a photo of the Game Boy Advance to celebrate the console's 20th birthday, it probably didn't realise that it would trigger a fan theory which had a few people expecting a big announcement this week.
Reddit user Enryx25 (original post now deleted) kicked off proceedings after gazing at the tweet below and suggesting that Nintendo might have something to announce. Why? Well, because the screenshot on the Game Boy Advance shows Super Mario Advance World 1-1 with life count of 96 and a score of 1222360, of course!
Enryx25 discovered that by rearranging the score, it's possible to get the date 23/6/2021. By swapping out 2021 with 96 – the number of lives Mario has in reserve – Enryx25 got 23/6/96, the day that the Nintendo 64 was released in Japan.
This rather random sleuthing led the Reddit user to suspect that Nintendo had something planned for the 23rd of this week, but the theory was soon shot down in the most unlikely of ways.
Another Reddit user pointed out that the screenshot used in the tweet actually dates from 2001. It first appeared in an issue of UK publication Game Boy Xtreme Magazine. Nintendo seems to have pulled that particular screen from its archives for use in this tweet – nothing more.
Sometimes, the numbers just don't add up – no matter how much you want them to.
[source gamesradar.com]
Comments 58
What a waste of everyone's time.
Ok but who's Pepe Silvia then???
Man, some people will try extremely hard to see patterns in anything...
I hope this guy didn't tear any muscles cause that was quite the stretch.
I blame reddit for this story!
When I was a kid and into all sorts of occult nonsense, I got very excited about numerology at a certain point. Eventually I realized that if you spend enough time adding and subtracting and rearranging you can make literally any number you want and therefore find any meaning you need to find in any sequence of numbers. That was the end of my love affair with numerology.
I was more interested in how it showed a 'lit up' screenshot rather than what the GBA screen would've actually looked like in real life ... as in, black unless you held it at just the right angle. This got me wondering if Nintendo were hinting at a new backlit GBA. Just imagine that with twenty or so pre-loaded games? I'd be instantly sold if they did do that!
Wasn't it a joke to begin with? You know, rearranging the numbers. I don't think anyone ever took that seriously.
Wow they planned a reveal this far in advance?? Impressive!
Numbers don't lie...but liars use numbers! 🤔
Clearly, Nintendo have been playing the long game here. Building up to this for years.
Surely the fact it's the 25th debunks this? Hahah,
Well.... that is "Illuminati Confirmed" level of conspiracy, so what did you expect?
Memes. That's what.
But if you "switch" the 1's with sixes, and the 2's with fours, then add the digits together, multiply by 0 and add 64, you get...
O
M
G
@neufel So you probably already know this theory, but my friend just told me that is is assumed that when Charlie reads Pepe Silvia it really is just Pennsylvania. That both blew my mind and made me laugh at the same time.
@MysticX I mean it's actually pretty clever though.
Just proves people read into things far too much especially if certain information is lost to time in non archived printed media.
@Zeropulse I never read this no! This is hilarious and feels so right lol
The name "Pepe" felt so out of place, too. Thanks for sharing, this made my day!
@MysticX I see what yo did by using a bold font on "anything"....
Its a code for "A Nintendo Yoshi thing"... you are telling us that a new Yoshi island is coming to Switch! Awesome!
They could have been planning this for 20 years
Nintendo never leaves cryptic hints AFAIK
4 years into the Wii U’s life cycle, we had Virtual Console for nearly every Nintendo device under the sun. What’s the Switch’s excuse?? At this point I wouldn’t even mind a price increase for NSO if they added everything else the Wii U has, I just really wanna dive into some N64 and GBA without having to swap HDMIs and power cables etc. etc.
OR! - And hear me out here - Nintendo began teasing an announcement in 2001 that they plan on springing on an unsuspecting audience on 12/2/2360! They've been playing the long game.
Man, this is some great detective work!
Apophenia at it's finest. Some people just have too much time on their hands.
It's like that movie nobody probably remembers where Jim Carrey tried to do horror. I think it was called the number 23 or something.
A mind is a terrible thing to waste.
@ExtravagantLuig I see what you did there.
LOL, nice self-own.
GBA Illumanati foiled again!
@MysticX And the problem is, you can find something that looks like a pattern in almost anything, particularly when numbers get involved.
Ahh people of the internet...always looking for and convincing themselves that something is there when it plainly isn't.
What examples are there of Nintendo ever having put such elaborate gravity falls level of Easter eggs in stuff like this that turns out to be true? Like ever?
@Slowdive Send this message to all your friends, because it's a COMPUTER VIRUS.
When Nintendo is involved, always assume that nothing is planned and you'll never be disappointed.
I don't know what any of this means, but it probably confirms that "L is real" after all this time and that Shen Long is still waiting to be unlocked in Street Fighter 2. Anyway, I still love the old GBA. Such a fun system to experience when it was current.
Can a tweet ever just be a tweet?
People come up with the most asinine theories over every nugget of information. You're not being creative and you are only setting yourself up for disappointment.
Has any game or console announcement ever been really, demonstrably teased in this way? I'll never understand why people jump to these kinds of conclusions.
If you swap around a few numbers and add a few letters, you get the entire life's work of Terry Pratchett out of this ad!
@Zeldafan79 I remember that one! I was interning at a talent agency in 2006 and hot to read the script before it was produced. It was weird!
This theory was one of the ridiculous things ive ever heard in relation to Nintendo...but then again there other examples of crazy theories like this to do with Ninty.
Because they are literally magicians.
This is like how people see something that corresponds to the Number 3 and think Half-Life 3 (or Mother 3) is confirmed. It's getting beyond ridiculous at this point.
It used to be a cute little joke, but with dangerous new conspiracy theories on the rise in these last few months and years, it's not funny anymore. It needs to stop.
@noobish_hat Almost... Eiji Aonuma confirmed the existence of the Zelda timeline, back in 2007. It was also revealed in the Hyrule Historia, in 2011.
@Zeldafan79 I actually thought of that too, tbh. Nice catch!
Pretend Nintendo did do that as a tease. That would have been pretty smart except it would have been found out.
Cryptomathematics is a great way to find anything and everything you could possibly want to find, other than the truth.
"When prophecy fails and faith persists..."
Even when people's religious beliefs and conspiracy theories are proven to have zero substance, they double down and believe it even more 😅
I swear everyone's just desperately looking for clicks and likes. That MIGHT actually make devs less likely to hide things or give out unspoken hints bc they know everyone's already looking for 'em.
Funny story, because I happened to have read another theory that was debunked because of previously-established facts.
Some person worked on a very elaborate theory, incorporating all this science, to prove that the Blood Moon was the 5th Divine Beast in BotW. This theory was posted on May 2020... and all it took was 3 words to debunk it.
Master Cycle Zero.
Half life 3 confirmed
Man, I'd like to see a GBAmini with pre-installed games (idk what would be the list, but on it I'd like to see Mario vs Donkey Kong, Pokémon Emerald, Pokémon mystery dungeon Red rescue team, and Ace attorney )
@noobish_hat Take the L.
@Zeldafan79,
I remember that movie, it was a decent little thriller as I remember, sure it's in my Blu-ray collection somewhere.
not sure the point of this article other than it shows people need to get outside more.
It's face value got taken for a long ride.
@noobish_hat No thanks, save that puddle for someone that shares your interest.
I'lll take Aunoma's word for it.
@noobish_hat Oh my... I must really be getting old. I don't remember mentioning any patterns. FYI, I used Google lol.
If anything, you're guilty of your own criticisms. I provided you the proof of confirmation, and you responded with another lame puddle joke. Also, an extremely poor attempt to psychoanalyze me.
Can we end this now, or did you pick out another puddle just for me lol?
And if you turn the numbers into random letters, it spells "Switch Pro confirmed"!
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