MEGATON: The story behind the meme

by Blake Snow { Sep 15th 2006 at 9:00PM }

It was a big week for Nintendo and the gamers that enjoy the company's offerings. Was it a "Megaton" week? That's subjective. But it's interesting to note our culture's understanding of the term, and not just for Nintendo related announcements. So where did the Megaton meme come from? Wikipedia explains:

"Megaton is a meme among Nintendo fans that resulted from a vastly over-hyped rumored announcement around 2002. Individuals on the Gaming-Age Forums uncovered an article from Japanese magazine JUMP! that mentioned in one of its pages that Nintendo had a very big announcement to make... such that it could make their GameCube console a bestseller worldwide... Eventually it came out that the Japanese magazine that had reported the Megaton in the first place had merely been hyping up an unannounced game... leaving Nintendo fans with something of an anticlimax."

To this day, Nintendo fans, gadget jockeys, and internet users still draw on the term "Megaton" in reference to potential industry-shaking news. Though the idea behind the word will most likely never live up to the hype, the expression is here to stay.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Tre @ Sep 15th 2006 9:06PM

What is this?

subnet6 @ Sep 15th 2006 9:14PM

Thanks Blake,

I enjoy Nintendo's products (as well as those of their competitors so back off flamers) and I was always curious where this verbage originated but never really pursued it.

This is a perfect example of why blogs rule. (even ones with as many troubles as this one has had lately with its management) This isn't really news but its informative and poignant.

Amos @ Sep 15th 2006 9:27PM

I've never even fricking heard it before...popular in *your* kneck of the woods, maybe :P.

Rick @ Sep 15th 2006 9:31PM

If I remember correctly when the Megaton thing hit someone blurred some pictures of Mario, Sonic and Megaman claiming they were going to be in one game.

Negativecool @ Sep 15th 2006 9:31PM

I wonder if Sony's MEGATON announcement will fare for them the same way that it did for Nintendo back in 2002.

Zachary Hinchliffe @ Sep 15th 2006 9:36PM

Like the MEGATON that was the Wii's chips being in production?

(sorry, couldn't resist the jab. you're still my favorite game news site)

Gavin @ Sep 15th 2006 9:45PM

MEGATON was used in the SomthingAwful gaming forums back then. There were heated nerdy arguments and, of course, Gord was all up in the middle of it. Was it only four years ago? Man, how time flies.

FSK405K @ Sep 15th 2006 10:31PM

Mega-what? The hell are you talking about?

Pikachelsea @ Sep 15th 2006 11:30PM

You people obviously do not read Nintendo blogs like 4CR, where Megaton comes up all the time...

http://www.4colorrebellion.com/archives/2006/09/13/japanese-wii-megaton-event-chat-it-up/

SquashedYoshi @ Sep 15th 2006 11:32PM

I thought it started when Sega had a huge announcement to make, (Joining Nintendo? Making new hardware??) and it turned out to be The Matrix Online.

wuddersup @ Sep 15th 2006 11:52PM

WTF is Megaton? Can you guys write articles that the general gamer can understand? Thanks.

RakubikiJiten @ Sep 15th 2006 11:55PM

No, SquashedYoshi, you're referring to the "SEGATON", a derivative of the original "MEGATON". And, how can people not have heard that term before. IGN has used it. Joystiq has used it before. Every videogame site I read has used it at least once. The Jump Magazine story -is- the origin of the MEGATON, but it has been used to refer to about a million things since then. Anyone remember the THURSDAYTON that was the interview with Reggie like...2 or 3 E3s ago?

dc @ Sep 15th 2006 11:44PM

Yoshi, that's where I thought it came from too. The Segaton. But I guess that could have been a spin off of Nintendo's original Megaton announcement.

Grant @ Sep 16th 2006 12:03AM

I'm surprised this many people don't recognize Megaton. I mean, freaking IGN used it in their big Wii news headline, and they're pretty damn mainstream. I don't really consider myself a hardcore gamer but I've seen it plenty of times here and on other gaming sites. I never knew where it came from till now, though.

clay @ Sep 16th 2006 12:04AM

MEGATON refers to two things, and two things only when it comes to a definition. first, the roots is from the MEGATON HAMMER from ocarina of time (yes the hammer appeared in other zelda titles, but was never called megaton). then it was used as a description of the magnitude of the announcement from nintendo. jeez, am i the only nintendo fanboy here?

Miniboss @ Sep 16th 2006 12:04AM

Wow. And I thought everyone had heard of Megaton.

schtum @ Sep 16th 2006 12:05AM

I thought it was a style of music characterized by shouty latinos rapping over coarse beats.

somatix @ Sep 16th 2006 12:21AM

I remember the original Megaton announcement era pretty well when there was a lot of speculation on what it would be. Did the Megaton end up being the five Capcom games that were supposed to be exclusive to the Gamecube? If I remember right I think they were Resident Evil 4, PN0.3, a legendary wings remake looking game that was cancelled, Killer 7, and one more that I can't remember.

subnet6 @ Sep 16th 2006 12:57AM

.....and one more that I can't remember......

Viewtiful Joe.

RakubikiJiten @ Sep 16th 2006 1:45AM

The infamous Capcom Five was:

Resident Evil 4
Viewtiful Joe
P.N.03
Killer7
Dead Phoenix

All five were supposed to remain exclusive to the Cube. In the end, it really turned into the Capcom 2.5ish because RE got ported, Killer 7 got ported, Viewtiful Joe got ported eventually, PN03 was...less than stellar, and Dead Phoenix got cancelled.

BIGmog @ Sep 17th 2006 5:16AM

I thought Megaton was a reference to a Kirby minigame called Megaton Punch where you attempt to split a planet in two.

SquashedYoshi @ Sep 16th 2006 2:53AM

Wow, I just checked where it originated and i don't remember that at all.

The word certainly does deserve to pop up a lot.

TibrisXVII @ Sep 16th 2006 4:38AM

I remember that. Good times good times.

james Spiers @ Sep 16th 2006 7:19AM

I was working in finance at the time and I remember telling our Japanese shares trader to get long nintendo - one of the rumors I read was that due to its involvement with Sony in '91-'92 making a CD-ROM drive for the SNES, it was going to be announced that Nintendo had rights to the Playstation name and was due royalties from Sony on that name and all software sold for that platform. It was a pretty ridiculous rumor, but the sort of thing that gets your pulse going until you realise that Sony would never, ever be that stupid...apart from that immersion rumble thing.

MetaHuman @ Sep 16th 2006 12:10PM

Meh, I thought it was spawned from Ocarina of Time.

BYAHHH! @ Sep 16th 2006 3:50PM

Guys... We all know that Apple is god at this thing and since Nintendo went pearl (apple) white with their system, do you think it was contagious? Well, companies these days over hype things all the time like how the PS3 were to have god of all graphics but ended up being degraded a few times, or microsoft ummm... uh.... well I will think of something that they did later...

My point is, every company does it (sadly) and I do agree that it was a Megaton... A microphone add-on in the controller would have been nice... WAIT!

Didn't Nintendo claim that there were much more secret s within the controller? Or was it all about the memory that is inside? ...lame...

Monster @ Sep 18th 2006 2:06PM

Wow, some interesting comments here on why the term "Megaton" was used and whether it came from a Nintendo game (Kirby, Zelda, etc). A megaton (as in mega and ton... literally a million tons of TNT) is a measurement used to describe the potency of a bomb. Just as "blockbuster" was originally used for bombs, so is "megaton". The usage didn't originate from any Nintendo game. It's just that the people who originally used the term to describe big news (megaton... huge, powerful, explosive) used it for the same reason the Nintendo games used it. It's a freaking adjective.