Nintendo fan theory about potential announcement debunked by a 2001 magazine article

Nintendo Game Boy Advance 2021 key art — (Image credit: Nintendo)

An utterly wild Nintendo Fan theory has surfaced and speculated that Nintendo was to announce something today.

Despite recently hosting a Nintendo Direct, one Reddit user Enryx25 has got their whiteboard out and come to the conclusion that Nintendo is due to announce something today. Yesterday, Nintendo was celebrating the 20th-anniversary of its Game Boy Advance handheld console, but Enryx25 took a closer look at the promotional art. They noticed that the game on the screen is Super Mario Advance and is playing through World 1-1 with an absurdly high lives count of 96 and a score of 1222360.

For most, these details would often go overlooked, but Enryx25 found that by rearranging the score, you can get the date 23/6/2021. They also noted Mario's odd number of lives, which when combined with the date, points to 23/6/96 which is when the Nintendo 64 released in Japan. These dates and "hidden clues" are certainly interesting.

However, one user highlighted that the screenshot on the official tweet actually appeared in an issue of Game Boy Xtreme Magazine. This was a UK magazine that ran from 2001 to 2002, and the particular article about Super Mario Advance looks to have been published in 2001 around the release of the game in that same year. So really, it just seems as if Nintendo has that particular asset lying around in their archives and threw it on for modern marketing.

Time flies! On this day 20 years ago, the Game Boy Advance was released. What was your first & favorite memory with the portable system? pic.twitter.com/G8PhbmdhTQJune 11, 2021

Despite the debunk that Nintendo was slyly teasing an announcement through jumbled scores and lives through promotional material, it's still interesting that the dates line up. But alas, it all seems coincidental.

For now, Nintendo doesn't appear to be indicating that they have plans to reveal anything. But speculation is understandable seeing as the company announced a new Game and Watch for The Legend of Zelda's 35th-anniversary, and last year it did the same for Super Mario Bros.

Nintendo is currently said to be planning to reveal a new Nintendo Switch Pro and was said to be revealing it around E3 2021 but nothing came from that. Nintendo president, Doug Bowser has recently side-stepped commenting on the rumors and instead talked about the company being dedicated to "looking at tech".

If you love retro consoles, don't miss our round-up of the best retro consoles in 2021.

I'm partial to an action adventure RPG such as Skyrim and Cyberpunk 2077. I enjoy the occasional open-world driving games and even those skateboarding titles. But really, if any game I'm playing has a photo mode, I'll likely be found snapping pictures of anything and everything.