Toad Rumour

Dispelling the rumor that Toad is a playable character...
Never since the beginning of the 'Sonic & Tails' era, has a character rumor been so persistent... People are finally starting to accept that Sonic and Tails were nothing but an April Fool's joke. But for some reason, many have jumped onto the rumor of another hidden fighter...

Some players believe it is possible to unlock Toad as a secret character. Apparently in order to get Toad to appear, you need to shoot all of the credits that appear at the end of a one player game. Following this, Toad would appear to challenge you.

Of course, a rumor can't be taken seriously unless there is some evidence to support it. But in the case of the Toad rumor, there are several screenshots to back it up... But are these images fact or fiction?

Challenged by a mysterious silhouette...

A special reward message, informing us that Toad has been unlocked..?

In stead of Sonic or Tails, this character select screenshot shows Toad as a playable character...

Toad? Running away from Mewtwo...

Mewtwo charges a projectile attack.

Some of the screenshots do appear to be rather convincing... But the strange thing is that only two 'action' screenshots of Toad as a playable character have surfaced. Toad can be spotted in the Mushroom Kingdom of Adventure mode, running around in the background. And in both of these shots, Toad is featured in poses that already appear in the game. Compare the shots above, to the poses below:

Running around like a maniac in the Mushroom Kingdom... What's this guy on, anyway?

Just as Toad changes direction, he moves both of his feet together, which looks a bit like a jump from the right angle in a still frame. This is the same pose as one of the screenshots above.

After closely examining some of these screenshots, it became clear that this was just another hoax. The edited screenshots are very well done, and appear to be quite convincing. With extreme inspection of the special character message screen, it was easy to spot evidence that the letters had been rearranged, and copied & pasted to spell out brand new text.

These sightings of Toad seemed to be a hopeful shining light, but if it sounds too good to be true, it almost always is... So why did many players instantly jump on this rumor and believe it was true? Wishful thinking I suppose, in the fact that countless Melee fans would love to have even more secret characters to unlock.