A Tribute to Trolling Terry, Keeper of the Urban Legends

For as long as video games have been around, this friend has always existed.

They’ve unlocked the Triforce in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, gotten Golbez to join their party in Final Fantasy IV, caught both Mewthree and Pikablu, made it to Level 10 in Super Mario Bros., and even played as Sonic in Super Smash Bros. Melee. They’re the keeper of the urban legends, the troll who gets everybody going, the one who never met a claim they didn’t like to exaggerate. They may go by many names, come from different walks of life, but there’s one thing they all have in common: their penchant for claiming to have achieved the impossible in gaming.

For now, we will call them Trolling Terry.

Growing up, this one friend was a constant presence in our lives, never seen without their Game Boy. They’d talk all things video games, acting as if they were the ultimate authority on gaming. Though that didn’t come without good reason– they were usually very proficient at the hobby. The only thing about this friend was that they liked to spread the rumors that have permeated the worlds of gaming, infecting all those who heard them into trying to make that magic happen.

Their motives vary between the extremes. Sometimes, it’s just for fun. Their position as a gaming authority usually allowed for them to mess with their friends, which usually ended badly once they realized the truth. Sometimes, it’s because they overheard something their older sibling said that they heard from their friend’s uncle’s second cousin’s boss who golfed with someone who worked for Nintendo. Other times, they just want to reaffirm their high and mighty position by claiming the impossible so that nobody would ever question their authority again. No matter the motive, the claims were always absurd but interesting enough to actually make others try.

With the rise of the Internet, Trolling Terry has gained an even larger encyclopedia of urban legends and silly claims. And sometimes, they would even take to the web to expound upon their wacky feats, much to the eye-rolling of others who have grown wiser to these claims from their own friends. Yet despite the increased arsenal of tall tales, Trolling Terry has also lost a bit too. Now, the urban legends that they once kept are being challenged with all the information available on their friends’ fingertips. Yet, it doesn’t stop them from trying to make others believe that there’s a nude mode for Metroid and any other game with a female protagonist (yes, even if your troller is a female, there will be this claim).

Despite the frustrations and cynicism involving the urban legends that were constantly being told by Trolling Terry, we can’t lose sight that this friend at least made gaming pretty interesting. For one thing, there were some cases where this friend was strangely correct, even if it was way into the future. The Mew confirmation in 2003 is one example of our trolling friend actually being right for once. (And to throw in one more trolling claim, I had Mew in 2000. I swear I did!) Being able to revive Leo in Final Fantasy VI was also true, though he could not join your party. For another thing, this friend really did help us establish a further love for our games with his exaggerations. Without them, we wouldn’t have tested the limitations of our games and worked so hard on proving them wrong. Sometimes it takes a little prodding, and Trolling Terry was a pro at that.

Let this much be clear: we should not admonish him with disdain. In fact, don’t we all have a little bit of Trolling Terry inside of us? I know I do. I remembered trolling my friend into believing that my cousin did the music to Donkey Kong Country. Obviously this isn’t true because last I checked, I was not related to David Wise in any way, shape, or form. I mostly did this because she was being a jerk to me and wouldn’t let me play. It worked for a good week before she called me out on it. Stupid Internet. We’ve all done our fair share of trolling, so let’s not pretend we’re much better than our friend now.

So let’s raise our glass, controller, whatever you have on hand to Trolling Terry, whether it was you or someone else. They were that one friend we all had in our lives whose tales of delusional gaming grandeur have supplied us with entertainment for years on end. Whether the entertainment was frustrating or humorous isn’t what matters. What matters is that without them, gaming wouldn’t be the same.

Here’s to you, Trolling Terry. May you troll on with your claims of finding the fourth Triforce piece for years to come.