Who doesn’t love a good mystery? Games have the ability to captivate us and engross us into a story like no other medium can. But what if there was more to a game than what was just presented? What if there were things added simply to mess with the player's mind, to expand it, or fill it with countless possibilities of what the truth can be. Kind of the like the glowing briefcase in Pulp Fiction, most gaming mysteries never get solved. When they do, sadly the answer is often, “well the developers screwed up” or that they forgot to remove something. I think writing off a mystery like that is just boring. With the amount of work, coordination, and time it takes to program anything into a game, you have to believe that every aspect of that game has a purpose, right? Even if that purpose is only known or understood to the person putting it there.

There are some mysteries in video games that are over twenty years old. Whether the developers were never asked directly, or the puzzling additions were only found at a much later date, these mysteries linger like an open wound, never giving the player closure, they so desperately crave. More modern games have their mysteries as well, to which developers either never address them, or purposely keep their intent a secret to drive their fans mad with theorizing.

So, do you have what it takes to solve these 15 mysteries? If you think you do, you better have an explanation better than “oh it’s a glitch!”

15 The Shadow People Of Hell Valley (Super Mario Galaxy)

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Super Mario has always been a typically upbeat and uplifting series. It’s more of a light romp than a gritty dark storyline with sinister undertones. I feel it is because of this that gamers love to attach their own sort of dark head-canon to the Mario-verse (my favorite being that Bowser and Peach are actually the ones dating and Mario is just insane). Well, in Super Mario Galaxy the developers decided to add their own layer to the ole mystery onion. In the Shiverburn Galaxy, strange figures can be seen peering over the cliffs at the player. When explored in the text files they are labeled as “HellValleySkyTrees,” and I don’t know about you, but I’ve never seen a tree comprised completely of shadow with two eye holes in it, in the sky or otherwise.

14 Digglett's True Form (Pokémon)

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Pokémon has always been a treasure trove of mysteries, conspiracies, and fan theories. Hell, this isn’t even the only Pokémon entry on this list. This one goes back the OG (and best) generation of Pokémon (Genwunner 4 lyfe). Diglett, and his oh so creative evolution Dugtrio (there are THREE Digletts now!) look like little brown sausages that stick out of the ground with cute little eyes and an adorable nose. The key takeaway here is they “stick out of the ground,” which tells me that there is something in fact in the ground. What could it be? A series of disgusting entangled roots? Is the “Diglett” we know and love a long elastic neck to some gruesome mole-like creature? Is there a body of a muscular man trapped beneath the ground, with no mouth to voice his discomfort and need for assistance? These are the things that keep me awake at night.

13 The Five Bug Jars (Skyrim)

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Skyrim is a land of discovery. Like most Bethesda games, the expansive map is lined wall-to-wall with interesting moments, encounters, collectibles, easter eggs, and the occasional glitch. So much so thatyour real life can be overtaken by your virtual one (I’m going to miss you all when I get Skyrim VR). Skyrim has provided us with quite the tantalizing mystery. Scattered throughout the frozen, dragon infested lands, the player can find these little jars with living insects inside. They contain a butterfly, a bee, a dragonfly, a torchbug and a moth. There is no quest tied to the bug jars and they serve no purpose other than decorating your house and showing your friends. What makes this a mystery is the strange runic symbols carved into the lids of each of the jars, leading players to believe they are in fact connected and not just a haphazard addition.

12 Treasure Chest (Banjo Kazooie)

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Is there anything more maddening in life than having a reward be dangled inches from your face, only to be reminded time and again that no matter how hard you work, no matter how much you yearn and strive for it, you will never attain it? Okay, maybe that was a little heavy for a video game list, but it still applies here. In the Mad Monster Mansion level of the original Banjo Kazooie, the players can find a very large treasure chest in the bedroom. It cannot be opened by any means and has no connection to the rest of the level, or the game. Now, one can argue that it was just a piece of decoration to the room, but that brings up another mystery. Of all the things you can program to decorate a room in a mansion, why would you choose the one thing that would drive gamers absolutely crazy in trying to open? They couldn’t have just made it a wardrobe, or maybe a nightstand?

11 Mystery Book (Super Mario Sunshine)

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It-a looks like-a Mario is back with another a mystery. During the "Red Coins in a Bottle" mission found at Noki Bay, the player can take Mario down to the bottom of the water. There they will see a strange rock formation and, oddly enough, a door. Yes, a partly open door is just sitting underwater, and if you look through this Twilight Zone-esque passageway you’ll see a large book just lying in the small spacce it creates. Now, I’m no expert on books, in fact, I just learned to read a couple weeks ago, but I’m pretty sure any book submerged in a lake would be heavily damaged. Unless this is the Mario equivalent of the Necronomicon, there is no reason for it to be sealed by a door at the bottom of a lake.

10 Whatever Happened To Tawna Bandicoot?

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The first Crash Bandicoot game followed the good 'ol, "Gotta save muh girlfriend!" trope. In this case, Crash’s girlfriend was a blonde haired, humanoid bandicoot named Tawna. As you might have guessed, Crash succeeds in saving his beloved, but then that’s it. She never appears in the canonical story again. I guess they break up? That’s pretty sad, 'cause Crash went through a LOT of trouble to get her back (I don’t think any of us remembered how hard these games were until they got remastered, right?). She appears as a picture over Crash’s fireplace, a poster on his wall, and there is even a deleted scene where Dingodile says he’s going to date her, but she never makes her way back into the story for real (I also read some non-canon stuff where she ends up with Pinstripe). I guess the bandicoot dating scene is tougher than I thought; then again, I also thought bandicoots were a made-up animal, so what do I know?

9 Sonic CD Soundtest

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Sonic CD was a classic game and introduced Metal Sonic to the franchise in an epic “race” boss fight down the Stardust Speedway. However, players can access a very mysterious screen by entering down, down, down, left, right, and pressing the A button. This will bring up the “sound test” screen and allows the players to put in different set values. Certain values will bring up easter egg images such as sonic looking very kawaii, Tails next to a car, and Sonic drawn “Batman style.” The most bizarre image, however, occurs when FM46 PCM12 DA25 is imputed. The scene shows a repeated image of Sonic with a mustache and a heavily distorted face. Spine chilling music plays as the message “Infinite Fun. Sega Enterprises. – Majin” is shown on the screen. In case you didn’t know, Majin is Japanese for “evil spirit.” Yeah, have fun with that.

8 The Truck (Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow)

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We’re back to Gen 1 (the only Gen that matters, baby) for this next entry. The original Pokémon games had 150 Pocket Monsters to collect and train (and no, Missingno doesn’t count). When the developers were told to remove the “debug” feature for the game, they decided to use the extra space to include “Mew,” the genetic codex for all Pokémon, and the 151st. Players who reported encountering Mew could only do so under glitched circumstances, but the prospect alone sent the world spiralling into “Mew Fever.” Symptoms of Mew Fever included thinking that the cute little critter was hiding under a truck near the S.S. Anne. Yes, folks, what could be more fitting an epic than finding the coveted 151st Pokémon under a freakin’ truck? We all know Mew was never under that truck that players had to use surf to get to, but what we don’t know is why that truck is there at all? Maybe they threw Blue’s Raticate onto it and carted it off to Lavender Town after you murdered it, you monster.

7 Mt. Chiliad Mystery (GTA 5)

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There are countless myths and urban legends in the GTA series that your friends swore to you were real at the lunch table. Sometimes, these stories would actually be true, but most of the times it was “Bigfoot is definitely in GTA: San Andreas.” Well, this next mystery is indisputable and has been making gamers pull their hair out since GTA V hit stories. On the top of Mt. Chiliad, there is a strange drawing that looks like a cave painting. It depicts a series of passageways then end in boxes, and at the bottom, three images are shown. One is a flying saucer, one is a cracked egg, and the final and most intriguing is a man with a jetpack. This has lead gamers to all types of theories, the most popular being that there are passageways inside the mountain that may lead you to these rewards.

6 Useless Pillar (Donkey Kong 64)

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In the "Creepy Castle" level of Donkey Kong 64, the players can freely access a useless room. Inside this useless room is a rather useless pillar. However, given how ornate the pillar is, its placement in the room, and the way it stands out against everything else in the level, one can infer that this useless pillar did, in fact, have a use. Perhaps it was part of a puzzle that was never finished? Or simply a model from an earlier design of the level that was never removed? Regardless, paranoid and curious gamers spent agonizing hours trying to figure out exactly what this pillar did, and why it was there at all.

5 The Ghosts (Halo Multiplayer)

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Dude, bro, so you’re totally pwning noobs, right? Getting all kill-a-manjaro and sh*t when you stop to take a quick sip of that ice-cold Dew you got on your desk. Before you know it, you totally get fragged by some poser named “The Guardian.” You immediately do the mature thing and start talking about how you slept with “The Guardian's” mother only to realize there is no player in the game named “The Guardian.” He’s not on the scoreboard, but he just killed you. The Guardian isn’t a player at all. He is a white Spartan who jumps and moves erratically, never misses a shot, super jumps, can teleport at any time anywhere, are invulnerable, never run out of ammo, and can throw grenades behind them. The creepiest thing is that these ghosts can be hostile, or docile. Sometimes they appear in games and just chill there. No one knows exactly what these ghost glitches are, but my guess is that Skynet is very real and the first thing it wants to do is lead the Halo 2 leaderboards.

4 Who Dropped The Bombs? (Fallout Series)

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It doesn’t take the world’s greatest detective to see that the former United States of America has been destroyed by nuclear weapons. In an effort of self-preservation, the United States put their citizens in vaults to, um, survive the fallout. For whatever reason, they also decided this would be a great time to conduct horrible, twisted experiments on people, but we’ll get to that another time. What is never made clear is who exactly dropped the bombs on the USA, or who started the nuclear war. The first and most obvious guess is the Chinese, as “Chinese remnant soldiers” can be found throughout the game, and it is very apparent that the US and China were at war before the nukes began to fall. Other theories suggest, however, that a malicious AI launched the missiles, essentially claiming the US destroyed itself. If that’s the case, our future is looking real bright.

3 Daisy's Third Eye (Super Smash Bros. Melee)

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This next mystery takes us into the chaotic and violent world of Super Smash. When you unlock Daisy’s trophy for the trophy viewer mode, everything looks to be in order. However, if for any reason you decide to slightly tilt Daisy, then zoom in past her hair, you are greeted by quite the sight. A third eye, one that does not match up with her original two, is found on the back of her head, staring right back at you. Now I’ve thought of three likely explanations: 1. Like Hiei from Yu Yu Hakusho, Daisy has implanted the Jagan Eye into her body, 2. She is an alien sent her to seduce Luigi and collect his genetic material for their research, 3. It’s a bug the developers didn’t notice. I’m leaning mostly towards number 2, cause 3 is just no fun.

2 W.D. Gaster (Undertale)

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I love Undertale. That has nothing to do with the mystery, I just feel that you should all know that. Anyway, when messing with the “fun” value of the game, the player can access a secret room near the waterfall. Inside the room is a man in black, with a white, cracked skeletal face. He cannot be run into but if he is interacted with he will let out a surprised noise and disappear. Many fans believe this is, in fact, W.D. Gaster, the rumored royal scientist before Alphys. If you chose “Gaster” as your name at the beginning of the game, the game crashes. If you continue to mess with the “fun” value, different “Gaster Followers” appear throughout the game, telling you bits and pieces of Gaster’s horrible fate. The River Person also gives you a warning to “beware the man who speaks in hands.” Fans have interpreted this to mean a man who speaks in “Wing Dings” which could be the W.D. in his name and fits the skeletal theme of having a font based them. Truth be told, this entire post could have been about Gaster, so I highly suggest going out and doing more research on the elusive figure.

1 The G-Man (Half-Life)

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Rise and shine folks, because we’ve hit number one and it’s time to smell the ashes. The G-Man is known as a sinister interdimensional bureaucrat. Leading Gordon Freeman into danger one moment, then to safety the next, his intentions and allegiances are unknown. Following him can lead to him disappearing in a dead end, and he seems to be everywhere and nowhere all at once. Having exterminating an alien species, the guy offers you a job! He makes it very apparent he is working for someone and even comments that his job has restrictions he wishes he could ignore. Most of his appearances are in out of reach places, simply watching the player before he turns to make his exit. Who is the G-Man? Who does he work for? Why does he have such an invested interest in Gordon Freeman? Will Half-Life 3 ever come out? These are some of the most vexing questions ever posed by video games.