Fan theories only a GamesRadar community member would think of

Highly logical

There. Done. You just beat the game and turned off your console. You're trying to go on with your day, but the there is just... something about that story that won't leave your brain alone. It's time to fill in the gaps yourself with totally logical theories.

Last week's Top 7 discussed crazy video game theories, and on episode 72 of RadioRadar we put out a call to the GamesRadar community to give us their favorite video game theories. We've wrangled your responses into one place, and this was the resulting madness

The Mushroom Kingdom is Actually the Matrix (by Ghostwriter)

My theory is that the Mushroom Kingdom is actually The Matrix and Mario is The One. My reasoning for this is his ability to repeatedly defy the laws of physics in numberous ways in spite of his dumpy physique. This includes how he is able to dodge bullet (bill)s. Also the downloading of information directly to his brain would explain how the plumber is able to be an expert in so many fields (racing, numerous sporting disciplines &, of course, being a doctor).

Ryse takes place in an Animus (by StrayGator)

In Ryse: Son of Rome menu screen, press U,U,D,D,L,R,L,R,3,4,3, and an "Exit Animus" option will unlock, letting you explore modern day Brooklyn's sewage system as Marius Titus' descendant, Subject 64. True story.

Lightning was in a coma THE WHOLE TIME!!! (by VincentX)

Here's my theory on the plot of Final Fantasy XIII-2: the entire story is a hallucination Lightning is experiencing because she fell into a coma right after the ending of the first game. Now here are my reasons why I believe this interpretation works:

(Also please note that I am aware of the Squall dreams FFVIII after Disc 1 theory, this is not based on that and I was not consciously thinking of that theory when I came up with this.)

First: At the end of XIII Lightning just went through a very traumatic experience and also falls from a huge height. What is more plausible? That she was suddenly warped into some weird future where she becomes the champion of a Goddess that was never mentioned in the first game? Or that she fell into a coma?

Second: Her younger sister Serah, who has had no combat training and is engaged to someone Lightning dislikes; is suddenly this strong badass independent woman who is barely fazed when Snow disappears and supposedly dies.

Third: Serah is teamed up with a boy that Lightning sends to protect her and the two are only friends, nothing more. Noel never tries to start a relationship with Serah and is dead set on protecting her.

Fourth: Every returning character is treated in a way that makes sense in terms of how Lightning saw them and related to them. Snow runs off because he's the wanna-be heroic idiot and pretty much dies because of it. Sazh, who she barely knew, is only in the story for a few minutes and only appears to help Serah. Hope, who she was the closest to; is successful, confident and even gets a semi-girlfriend (Alyssa). Finally; Fang and Vanille, the two who saved her world; are the givers of sage-like advice to Serah.

Fifth: Lightning is doing what she wanted; fighting a great battle that never ends as a Goddess's Champion. This is also Goddess that has never been shown before this sequel as I cannot think of any point in FFXIII that even mentioned Etro.

Sixth: The game ends and leads to something called LIGHTNING'S RETURN. It's her power fantasy; she wants to return and become the big hero.

Extra: Im sorry but Lightning gets over/gets passed Serahs death too damn easily, though I see this more as poor character development than as a reason for the coma.

The Hero of Donkey Kong is actually King K. Rool (by shnazzyone)

Here's the theory, Donkey Kong from donkey Kong country is a HUGE ASSHOLE! Not a very large anus mind you, I mean a real freaking jerk!

You may not realise it from the games but donkey kong is the King of the DK island. There's evidence, namely that he had slaves carve his face into the main mountain on the island. The other thing is DONKEY KONG RULES WITH AN IRON FIST WITH INSANE DEMANDS. His biggest and most insane demand is noone is allowed to have bananas but him. The problem with this is Bananas grow everywhere in his island.

So what does he do? He makes every banana go to his Banana Hoard. What a dick! He hoards bananas in massive piles. A FRUIT THAT GOES BAD IN A WEEK! His banana hoard room must be disgusting.

Here's the other thing, King K Rool... HE'S THE HERO! He is a pirate sailing the 7 seas with an army and finds an island of monkeys at various levels of anthropomorphy ruled by a dictator who keeps all of their favorite food hostage in a hole underground to rot. So he sends out all his soldiers to liberate the banana supply so the people can enjoy them. Little does K Rool realise, these people who live on this island are BRAINWASHED. They help their oppressor get his stupid rotten pile of bananas back!

So what's actually happening as you play the game is Krool has scattered all the bananas all over the island for everyone to enjoy because it seems like the right thing to do. He even uses members of his own army to guard them and make sure only people who aren't donkey kong get them. Instead Donkey forces the the people(?) of his island to stay inside their houses so they aren't even tempted by HIS bananas being everywhere. Then donkey Kong, being a massive gorilla, proceeds to lay waste to the army and re hoard all his bananas until he kills the guy just trying to do the right thing.

Darkstalkers and Ghosts N' Goblins both take place in the same universe. (by DarthEnderX)

Both games essentially revolved around the Makai(the demon world). They're both obviously Capcom games. So my theory was that they were actually the same connected world. Ghosts N' Goblins just takes place in the medieval times, while Darkstalkers takes place in a comparatively modern time period.

So we could have Darkstalkers 4 with some kind of time travel angle and have Arthur and Firebrand as playable characters and they wouldn't even technically be guest characters then.

Johnny Sasaki is a figment of Solid Snake's imagination. (by TanookiMan)

Snake's teeth gritted, strained voice is due to his constant constipation. He hallucinates Johnny, a character with chronic diarrhea, to deal with the pain. This also explains how Snake can always escape from Johnny (Johnny isn't real), and yet Johnny is super kick ass at other points (it's really just Snake fighting).

COD:Ghost's purpose is to get people ready for Destiny (by archnite)

Extinction mode was included in COD: Ghosts not only as a Zombies replacement but also as a thematic bridge for those who are into COD for the "realism" to prepare them for Activision's next cash cow Destiny.

Mario is just a hobo on drugs (by samiamJack)

Mario is a real plumber living in New York who has become addicted to different drugs that he believes make him stronger, able to fly, and invincible from harm. Furthermore he hallucinates that he is really a hero living in a magical kingdom rather than a bum who has been repeatedly fired for being high on the job

We are slaves (by GenderBender_9000)

We don't play video games. Video games play us.

The Templars are actually Ubisoft!!! (by MasteroDisasta)

It's long been apparent to me that Assassin's Creed's Abstergo Industries isn't just a mere Templar front, no. It's, in fact, Ubisoft in disguise! All of those wily conspiracy theorists and free falling Assassins were poking their heads in the wrong place. French-speaking assistants, an annual release cycle for games, cheap "historical narratives," and the posh conference rooms, Abstergo is just a front for all of the world-ending powers that Ubisoft wields. The real Templars are just down the road in Montreal crafting up the next fake history lesson. Who would've thunk?

Batman is a 5 year-old cyborg (by aJAWSOMEocelot)

Bruce in Arkham Origins is in fact a 5 year-old in a cyborg suit similar to that of Crang's from TMNT because there are no other explanations for his whiny nature and complete asshole behaviour towards Alfred.

There are infinite universes with Mario (by veryweirdguy)

If you think about how Mario games work, you get so far through a level, die, and then start from an earlier checkpoint. My theory is that each of these lives spent is it's own unique universe, and there are universes where Mario dies and the princess remains unsaved.

If you die 100 times during the game, that is 100 universes where Mario fails his quest and Bowser wins. When seen this way, the Mushroom Kingdom is an incredibly bleak place, where most of the time the supposed "hero" loses to a mundane event (random goomba #819 for example).

This can be applied to any life based game, but I like it best with Mario as it paints how much of a failure this fat plumber is in most universes.

Kevin in Home Alone 2 had a psychotic break and goes on a killing spree (by JohnDagger)

During the events of Home Alone 2, I believe Kevin has undergone a psychotic break due to the stress from the events of the last film. He is already clearly autistic (I mean who records television commercials on a Yak-Bak), so he is much more sensitive to trauma. Being separated from his family in a strange city causes him to lose his mind.

His time at the nicest hotel in New York is a delusion. In reality he has been living on the streets as a homeless vagrant. This is supported by the fact his best friend in the film is a homeless lady...also why the hell would both Rob Schneider and Tim Curry work at a hotel unless it was fictional..

Eventually Kevin loses his mind and sets traps up in an abandoned building that he has convinced himself belongs to a relative of his. When the police finally arrive to take him home, Kevin proceeds to lay waste to the NYPD, believing them to be the Wet Bandits. In the film the Wet Bandits receive dozens of lethal wounds, but still keep coming after Kevin (This is because Kevin is just manifesting dozens of officers as the two bandits. He likely kills dozens of officers).

Eventually Kevin is talked down from his killing spree by his mother by making him think its Christmas and his family loves him (even though he has likely been on the streets for months).

That's my theory...I know it may not count since it's mostly about the movie....but the movie was adapted to games and I think the theory is pretty fun.

Data Theory on how Pokeballs work (by theguyinthecloset)

The pokeball is basically a USB stick with a massive memory and is similar to a quantum computer. What it does when "capturing a pokemon is it copies it's data (DNA, interior and exterior cell organisation, etc.) and stores it in a chip, like a USB stick of sorts. The bigger and stronger a pokemon the more memory it takes and the more expensive the required ball is is. When a pokeball is thrown at a pokemon, it immediately encodes the pokemon and tries to hold it. The pokemon however, struggles against the ball, and can overstress the chip and escapes, rendering the ball useless. This is failsafe where the ball releases the pokemon like when you throw it because the alternative is basically murder. Upon successful capture, the ball rewrites the pokemon's code to render it more docile and obedient (Badges being another chip containing a script that can be aplied to a ball before or after capture making the process more efficient). It also includes a part of code that prevents the pokemon from being recaptured by another pokeball, like a signature that can only be read by this unique pokeball. Stronger pokemon require "bigger" pokeballs because they have more data, physically or mentally and can struggle more by trying to overclock/overheat/stress the ball/chip. Legendaries are espacially difficult to capture because they are so rare that there is no base data on the species that can be precoded and they must build the code from scratch, meaning that the encoding takes a lot more time and therefore gives more opportunity for the pokemon to escape. It could be that either

a) memory is cheap and all balls have unnecessary huge memories, just in case, but CPU still cost more for faster speads, or

b) CPUs have a relative speed depending on how much memory is available. Like, If you have more memory, you can use a code that takes more space but still is faster.

Depending on which it is a masterball is either a ball with a CPU so fast it processes all the information quasi instantly making it is impossible to escape or it's memory is so huge that the encoding protocol is tailored to be fast but space ineficient but you don't care because of the massive memory available in it.

The reason the pokemon disapears is because the reading process of the matter they are made of, destroys the form of the matter (probably into gases) it save all the information and makes a new one appear, in this society the copy is the same individual making the destruction of the original in the capturing process not murder but the destruction of the only copy would. It also explains why killing wild pokemon seams reallistically easy, but it seams nigh impossible to kill a capturd one. Also copying the "save file" would be cloning, which is seen as bad because captured pokemon are seen in society as equals to humans. That may imply that the Team X's are copying their pokemon and explain why they seem to have an unexhautable army of the same 2-3 pokemons.

Pokemon gyms are used to train child soldiers (by SpadesSlick)

I have come to believe that the reason the gym system exists, at least initially, was to prepare trainers in case of another war. We know that wars are a thing in the pokemon universe thanks to Lt. Surge and X and Y, and it would make sense that each region would want to encourage its trainers to be ready for anything by making each leader focus on a different type, like soldiers practicing for different scenarios. The fact that pokemon centers appear to be government subsidized and cost nothing would also lead credence to this. They want the populace to be experienced and ready.

Pokecenters euthanize sick pokemon (by BladedFalcon)

Ever wondered why in Pokemon, all the healing in the pokemon centers is free and seemingly infinite, and why all the government associate figures always look the same? (Nurses, guards, police officers, etc.)

Simple answer: The government in the pokemon world has perfected and has total control of cloning technology, (Possibly based off on Ditto's ability to clone and reproduce with anything) and uses this to have complete control of their personnel, and also to keep pokemon economy booming by keeping pokemon healthcare completely free.

And what happens in pokemon centers? they don't really heal your pokemon, they simply clone a new copy of the existing pokemon, replace it into the same pokeball, and then trash or eutanize the old one.

This would also explain how using trades, some people may posses more than one seemingly one of a kind, "legendary" pokemon. It's just a clone someone else happened to find.

Pikmin is actually just Miyamoto's traumatic time attempting to maintain a garden (by GOD)

My video game theory is that Pikmin is actually a gamification of Miyamoto's traumatic time attempting to maintain a garden. The small captains like Olimar represent his helplessness against the many insects from destroying his beloved plants. The pain you feel as your Pikmin are murdered by a bulborb is meant to make you feel the sadness Miyamoto did when his flower patch was dessecated by a pack of ladybugs. The reason the levels always end at night time is because he always refused to garden at night, because shit, it's really dark out. The rock Pikmin were inspired by that time when Miyamoto was throwing rocks out of his garden and shattered his neighbors window. Also, loves ordering around what are basically colorful and mindless lemmings.

Star Child is actually a rogue AI (by rainn'sgaydar)

My theory is that the Star Child at the end of ME3 is actually a rogue AI from millennia before Shepard's saga. There are a couple of small hints at this in that last, overly long conversation you have with him at the end. Basically, my theory states that Star Child is the holographic representation of an AI that was created to sustain organic life. However, the AI's logic determined that the only way to preserve organic life would be to periodically wipe it out and allow younger organic races to evolve. This is evidenced by Star Child's line about the reapers being its "solution," and then saying that another solution was required since the reapers would clearly no longer work.

The Gold Wolf if actually Link (by g1rldraco7)

My game theory is that in Twilight Princess, you know he learns those finishing moves from the gold wolf? Well the gold wolf is actually Link from Ocarina of Time teaching the Twilight Princess Link these moves. Big hint is that the castle in the background has the exact same design as Hyrule Castle in Ocarina of Time.

Pokemon are created by childrens thoughts (by codystovall)

Pokemon are actually thought forms created by the imagination of children and teens, explains why as most people in that world age, they further themselves from pokemon and dont care and why professors would need children to explore and seek out new pokmon. Explains evolution, and the bond and training of them. Why theres no problem battling with them or them fainting, and why its easy to recharge them. Pokeballs are designed to capture the imaginative essence.

Mario and Link and linked (by universaltofu)

I've thought for some time that both Mario and Zelda have been on similarly mixed up trajectories in how they have transitioned from generation to generation. A theory in THREE ACTS

act 1

Nes - they both came in, birthed from pretty much opposite philosophies (linearity exploration) as I've seen stated somewhere whatever ideas they believed didn't fit with one, they repurposed for the other. Both had weird follow ups, Mario being quicker to action got 3 out while Zelda doesn't have a matching move.

Snes - both refined and exemplary additions to their respective series.

N64 - both nail the transition to 3d, Mario being the perfect introduction to the analog stick, and Zelda giving us z-targeting. Mario has no follow up yet, while Majora's Mask is a perfect compliment to Ocarina.

act 2

GCN - Here's the big misstep. and where I believe history should retroactively change to reflect the right game at the right time. Both Sunshine and Windwaker while being great titles, do not fit on the cube. After the spaceworld demo, Twilight Princess was the game that should have come out (and eventually did, but only technically as it was a Wii launch title). Galaxy, while being a great Wii title, could have simply been a cube game, the waggle and motion parts weren't essential and had they made Galaxy the follow up (here's where you're mind is blown)

...

Think of the progression, after Mario 64, to go directly to Galaxy, and then when the Wii comes out, and it's party games, and colorful fun, Sunshine is a perfect fit, Yoshi returns after a two game absence rather than appearing and disappearing, and if they then followed it up with Galaxy 2 giving players a space-break before an even bigger helping of planet hopping Yoshi having action.

Back to Zelda, you have Twilight Princess be the cube title, then on the Wii you do Wind Waker, the fun, summery, colorful title, the Wiimote being a perfect fit for the titular wand, and then you follow that up with Skyward Sword and you a more logical progression of cel-da back to back rather than flop-flipping between styles.

act 3

Mario 3d World and Link between Worlds recently came out and have respectively garnered praise as 'best in a while' titles, I don't disagree with the sentiment, though I wonder if that's due in part to both series simultaneously taking erroneous left turns when all they had to do was drive straight.

You murder your friends Raticate (by EAC73)

My favorite theory is probably known by many, but it has to be in the first generation Pokemon games, where you kill your rivals Raticate. After you battle your rival on the ship you find him at pokemon tower, where all pokemon are buried, but he doesn't have his Raticate with him when you battle there. This is just the tip of the dark and creepy pokemon iceberg too.

Best Theory on the internet (by Sinosaur)

My video game theory is that GamesRadar is the best video game website on the Internet /pandering

And the fan theory award goes to...

What do you think? Do you think any of them could be true? Do you have a theory you want to share with the class too? Leave it in the comments section below, we especially want to hear your theories about what is happening with Half Life 3