Nintendo gigaleak reveals hidden secrets from Pokemon, Mario, Zelda and more

There has been a massive leak of files showing source codes and development of classic Nintendo games posted on 4chan by anonymous users. Aptly named ‘gigaleak’, fans have since flooded social media with previously unreleased information taken from the leak. Here are some of obtained files found on Twitter:

Super Mario

The gigaleak revealed never-before-seen beta cover art and screenshots of Super Mario 64. Besides this, a Luigi head was also seen in the same game. This meant that Luigi was planned to be in the game in a 2-player-mode, but it didn’t come into fruition.

Another leak for Super Mario World revealed that Luigi appears to give the player the middle finger, although some had suggested that it looks more like a thumbs up.

Other never-before-seen characters in Super Mario World also surfaced—like an old-man Yoshi, and a weird dancing bug.

Pokemon

This part of the gigaleak is blowing my mind, personally. It’s revealed that there are multiple beta versions of the Gold/Silver era of Pokemon—and one of the reveals is such a haunting image it’s quickly becoming a meme: beta Arceus.

Arceus in the official Pokemon universe resembles like a robotic centaur with a bracelet as a belt. Beta Arceus looks like a placeholder for a demonic entity, and fans are obsessed with it. Another beta-Pokemon-turned-meme is the adorable Wooper.

The gigaleak also provided the entire catalogue of the beta Pokemon sprites. Some of them are what we’ve seen before, and some are different from the official version—plus some new ones.

The Legend of Zelda

There are early 3D models of Link from the Zelda series. There is also some very detailed artwork from the series—most likely from Majora’s Mask, due to these being a Nintendo 64 leak.

Other leaks

As exciting as the leaks are to fans, a gigaleak like this also apparently contains personal information, like a diary and calendar, along with private conversations between developers. For example, it was revealed that the real reason Star Fox 2 got cancelled was because their staff members were fighting about porn.

Game developers and commentators fear that the video game industry will become more secretive than it already is to avoid leaks like this in the future. “Security measures and surveillance will likely be increased industry-wide, adding more pressure on employees and making hard jobs even more difficult,” wrote a Twitter user.

In April, there was also a hack which breached unauthorised third-party logins on several Nintendo accounts. Users’ payment details have been used to purchase digital items from Nintendo’s eShop. 300,000 Nintendo Network ID (NNID) accounts were broken into.

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