The video game industry is home to an endless amount of mysteries that can drive fans crazy. Some mysteries really stick with you though, and the fact that they remain mysteries can be nothing short of maddening. Here are Kris's Top 5 Gaming Mysteries That Need Solving.

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#5 What the heck happened to Pikmin 4?

Way back in 2015, Shigeru Miyamoto said in an interview with Eurogamer that Pikmin 4 was "actually very close to completion". A year later, Hey! Pikmin was announced for 3DS and Nintendo clarified that Pikmin 4 was in fact a different project. So… where the heck is it? The Switch saw a port of the excellent Pikmin 3, which quickly became the best selling entry in the franchise, so the question is, what happened? Where is the game? If it was that close to completion, why haven’t we seen so much as a screenshot or even a logo? Nintendo was perfectly upfront about Metroid Prime 4 restarting development, so is that what happened here? It’s a mystery…

#4 Mega Man 9’s remaining secret.

I used to love this show called Pop Fiction from GameTrailers. It’s a wonderful show that dives into video game mysteries, and they debunked a number of fascinating rumors during their tenure. However, there’s one mystery that they never found an answer to, and that their 28th episode, Mega Mystery. Basically what it all boils down to is, there’s some sort of inconsequential secret hidden in Mega Man 9’s endless mode. Apparently there’s something similar in 10’s endless mode as well, but as far as I know the actual secret was never properly discovered. Capcom’s answers have been less than helpful and well, I just want to know what it is darn it! The original Pop Fiction episode was updated in December 2012, so this particular mystery has been floating around for over a decade. Come on CApcom, tell us what it is.

#3 What was Michael Jackson’s involvement in Sonic 3?

As the story goes, Michael Jackson was involved in the creation of some music for Sonic 3, but at some point he walked away from the project, but Sega used the music anyway. For years this wasn’t any sort of problem. These games with their original music have been ported to other platforms before, but in recent years, Sonic 3 and Knuckles have remained off of any sort of collections or compilations. Now they’re being included in Sonic Origins and we’re being told the music is being “altered” to some extent. Now, there’s a ton of information out there about what exactly went down and what the real problems here are, but between conflicting interviews and Sega’s lack of official comments on the situation, speculation is all we have. It stands to reason that the rumors are likely the actual case, but until Sega comments on it we won’t know for 100% sure what really is going on there. The question then is, why the silence? I have a few guesses, but I want the truth, darn it.

#2 What exactly are the “rights issues”?

Sometimes it’s easy to tell why things don’t get re-released. We haven’t gotten a Cool Spot remaster because that would mean somebody would have to pay 7-Up for the rights to do so. They absolutely should, by the way. Regardless, there are more than a few other games out there that remain unported to this day that seriously need this question answered. If you’ve ever tried to look into what happened with Ms. Pac-Man, it’s some sort of completely insane mess involving At-Games. Or how about the Quintet trilogy? SoulBlazer and Illusion of Gaia are absolute classics that have never been re-rleased anywhere as far as I know, and Terranigma never got released in the US at all. With the success of stuff like Collection of Mana, there’s no way the folks at Square-Enix don’t know they’d easily make their money back with games like this. Unless of course they don’t have the rights to those specific games? Illusion of Gaia was published in the US by Nintendo after all. And of course, then there’s Golden Eye 007. Sure we can all assume that Nintendo, Microsoft and whoever owns the 007 license have to get on the same page, but what’s the hold up? Because the best we have are assumptions. I want concrete answers, and I can’t for the life of me figure out why those answers aren’t being freely given to the public.

#1 Why in the world won’t Nintendo localize mother 3?

What the actual heck is up with this one. Clearly at this point Nintendo has to realize that the EarthBound fanbase is not only here, but willing to spend money. Word is they made a killing on EarthBound and EarthBound Beginnings on Wii U, and that was the Wii U for crying out loud! Now, there are boundless theories about why Nintendo won’t release Mother 3 in the US. People have speculated about music rights, but the same thing was true for why EarthBound didn't’ get the digital treatment for so long and apparently that wasn’t the issue at all since the game has now shown up in multiple places unaltered. Others speculate that it has something to do with the game’s content, and the process of making it less culturally insensitive would be an extensive and likely somewhat costly process. Some even say that Nintendo doesn’t believe they’d make money selling Mother 3 in the US. All of those theories have a degree of merit, but until Nintendo actually tells us what’s going on with Mother 3, once again, all we have is speculation. No matter how right we think we are, we’ll never know 100% what’s going on until we get official clarification, and Nintendo is being typically tight lipped about it.

Why string us along? Why include people asking Reggie about Mother 3 as part of your E3 presentation if there really is no hope? Clearly they know there’s demand, so what’s the hold up? It’s baffling to me, and I’m tired of being stuck here wondering what the actual heck the holdup is.