The truth behind Golden Sun 3: The Solar Soothsayer
A day before E3 a supposedly leaked image of Golden Sun III was shown running on a DS Lite next to what appeared to be one of Nintendos fact sheets. The rumour was it was shown off behind closed doors at a pre-E3 event. GoNintendo was the first site to pick it up along with Joystiq, Maxconsole and others posting it as a rumour. Other sites such as DS Fanboy picked it apart straight away it is a fake. While we weren’t initially in on it the creator Opium, a member of our forums, owned up to it. We talk to Opium on his inspiration to make the fake and offer you the first screenshots of Golden Sun 3.
UPDATE: Funny thing today, Nintendo actually announced a real Golden Sun 3 – you’ve probably reached this page from Google because of it.
Click the image above to find out more!
Q: First off why create a Golden Sun III fake?
A: Most people would probably imagine I created the fake get people’s hopes up or hurt them when they realised it wasn’t real, that’s not the case. I created it to help generate some controversy about Golden Sun and ultimately more discussion about the series. People’s interest seemed to peek up when my fake started circulating, I saw many posts all over the internet of people who thought it was true rejoicing and telling people how much they loved the games. That sort of talk can only be good for the series. Perhaps Camelot will take a bit more notice and come out of their hole and work on a true sequel.
Q: Are you yourself a fan of the games?
A: Yes I’m a huge fan. I loved the first two games, they still stand as some of my favourite RPG’s I’ve ever played, not just on a handheld. When Golden Sun 1 came out years ago I actually raised my characters to level 99 through hours upon hours of constant grinding. So yeah, you could say I was quite dedicated.
Q: Was the pre E3 timing relevant or just convienent. A: It was very relevant. I had to spread my fake around during E3 because of the huge amount of gaming news that might help distract from whether my game was real or not. Also to have E3 as a legitimate excuse and timeframe for a game to be shown off behind closed doors. I told gaming websites I was a member of the press involved with a pre-E3 showing behind closed doors.
Q: Have you made any other fakes?
A: Yes, I also made another title screen that made its way around last year, it was called ’Golden Sun: Dawn of a New Sun’. I had the same purpose in mind of stirring up Golden Sun discussion. Another friend of mine also made a Golden Sun fake before me which was in Japanese and showed data transferring between a GBA and DS cartridge on the bottom screen. I have to hand it to him, that one was great!
Q: How did you make this one?
I made it using Photoshop. As many people pointed out the artwork on the bottom screen is a reworked official artwork from ’The Lost Age’; kind of obvious but I had to use something and I don’t draw. For the top screen, I took the Golden Sun logo and a picture of a sundial and worked them together. It took me a while to create, I’m quite proud of the result. Another friend of mine compiled the images into a homebrew ROM file that actually displays the images on a DS’s screens. The pictures I took were of the title screen actually running on the DS, it looked great to see it in front of me, even I was wishing it was real.
The Original Image
Q: Where did you post the image, did it take a while to get picked up?
A: I sent an email to GoNintendo first under the pretence that I was a member of the press who attended a pre-E3 showing behind closed doors. Shortly afterwards I sent the same thing to Joystiq and Maxconsole. I finished sending the emails late at night and by the time I woke up next morning all three of the sites had posted their stories on it. I didn’t expect it to pick up so quickly, or for them all to actually fall for it. I enjoyed reading the forum posts and comments that followed. It was something special. I think an apology is in order to NeoGAF though, I remember seeing about six threads during E3 that all ended up locked because no one could search the forums. Sorry guys.
New Screenshots
Thanks to Opium for creating the fake, and allowing us to interview him.
