For some reason, games that hide secrets from us are treasures. We pride ourselves on finding these secrets, and thus, we pride ourselves on playing said games. (Though honestly, I sometimes find it difficult to understand why we all like to find hidden goodies so much.) During the 1990s, there was a wellspring of games that offered hidden levels for eager gamers to discover. And discover them we did. (Some of us "discovered" them way after the fact and used a good search engine to help us find them. But still.)
Hidden levels are the best kind of secret to find within a video game. They offer additional content that you have to play through. So not only did you have to work to find the thing, you then had to work to complete it. (Yup, that sounds like the kind of hardship gamers willingly put themselves through.) And as a final hurrah from game developers, it makes sense that these levels would be utterly impossible to complete at times.
So buckle up, dear readers, for the list of your life. Today, we are going to explore those games from the 90s that offered us some of the best hidden levels to date. And if you've never played these games and you are not planning to, don't worry. You can just read about the troubles others have gone through to reach these things from the comfort of your chair. Read on if you want to learn about some secret levels that players still might not have reached to this day.
25 Quaking In My Boots
Quake maps were some of the best first-person shooter maps available during its prime. And what's better than a regular Quake map? A secret Quake map! Ziggurat Vertigo is a hidden level in Quake that players can find in the Dimension of the Doomed.
What is especially nifty about Ziggurat Vertigo is that the entire area has lower gravity than in other areas. Jumps can take you farther, and your grenade throws are definitely affected.
24 Jamming With Clinton
Many gamers remember playing NBA Jam both in arcades and at home when it came out on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. While this is not necessarily a hidden level, one secret the SNES game held was a cheat that allowed you to play the game as new characters.
If you input these codes correctly, you could play as someone like Bill Clinton or Al Gore. There is nothing quite like playing basketball with some aged politicians, is there?
23 Wolfenstein Is Doomed
id Software worked on both Doom II and on Wolfenstein 3D. They must have thought that a great idea for a hidden level would be to include a Wolfenstein level within Doom II. It's a perfectly designed Wolfenstein map that is hidden in the Industrial Zone section of Doom II.
A good way to take a break from shooting up demons is to travel to another world and start defeating the bad guys. It's like a mini-vacation within your game.
22 What's The Best GoldenEye Level?
GoldenEye 007 taught me the meaning of the word "tough." Accomplishing anything in this game took more determination than a save point in Undertale.
One of the best/worst hidden levels in existence is GoldenEye's Aztec Temple.
It's tough to reach and tough to beat. You know, everyone has such fond memories of GoldenEye. I bet if they played it one more time on the 00 Agent difficulty setting, they would remember why they don't play it anymore.
21 Getting On Peach's Roof
Super Mario 64 is my favorite Super Mario game. Mario's move to 3D spaces was a triumph. I wanted to spend every minute I could exploring every inch of the castle.
Funnily enough, the one place I really wanted to get to but could never figure out how to reach was the roof of Peach's Castle from the outside. If you obtain 120 Stars within the Castle, a cannon appears outside that can launch you to the roof. I was never acrobatic enough to get to the roof without that cannon.
20 Crash's Secret Warp
Crash Bandicoot has himself a secret Warp Room in most every Crash Bandicoot game. One of the best ones is the one that appears in Crash Bandicoot Warped. You have to collect five relics before you can access this Secret Warp Room.
This particular Warp Room shows the assembly of Lab Assistants.
Through a window, you can see into the background of this complex. The Lab Assistants travel past the window on a conveyor belt.
19 Your Zombie Neighbors
Zombies Ate My Neighbors was a quick and fun game released in 1993. The villain of the game was a strange half-fly creature named Dr. Tongue. (That is the most unfortunate villain name I've ever heard.) The secret level in this game is a bonus stage where you take on Dr. Tongue's son.
The level is imaginatively called "Son of Dr. Tongue."
Zombies Ate My Neighbors is quite the fun romp, and if you enjoyed the main game, the bonus level will definitely appeal to you.
18 The Hidden Hangar
Marathon Infinity was a thrilling science-fiction first-person shooter that showed us what burgeoning developer Bungie could do.
Within the story, hidden messages reference a place called "Hangar 96."
While this place does not appear within the story, the messages reveal grainy images of a map, and this map just so happens to be one of the maps available in multiplayer. I always find it fascinating when lore is connected to what could be a simply arbitrary game design choice. Makes everything seem richer.
17 Giant Ants Make Everything Cooler
Command & Conquer: Red Alert gave us more than just typical, ordinary game-play. The game also gave us a super secret campaign where we get to fight... giant ants! In these missions, you get to attack Giant Ant nests and exterminate the ant menace before it becomes a huge problem.
This is one hidden level that has provided me with gargantuan amounts of delight. Not only is it extra content for Red Alert, it's a campaign against gig-ANT-ic insects. (See what I did there?)
16 Zelda Fan Appreciation
It's not often that a fan of a game will get recognition for being a fan within the game itself. Chris Houlihan's secret room in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is an exception to the rule.
The room has a message detailing who it is dedicated to, and it has a collection of rupees scattered around as well. Chris was a competition winner, the prize of the competition being long-lasting renown by having his name placed within A Link to the Past.
15 Resident Tofu
Imagine playing the iconic survival horror game Resident Evil 2 as a piece of tofu. That concept can be a reality. Playing as Tofu is not really a secret level so much as playing the regular game with a secret character.
But come on! You get to play as a large piece of tofu! I think that rates a mention on this list about hidden levels. Seeing a piece of tofu roam the halls of Resident Evil 2 makes the entire game feel like a brand-new experience.
14 Duke Nukem And Those Darned Aliens
Area 51 is a secret level you can reach in Duke Nukem 3D. (Is it just me, or is Area 51 consistently a secret place you can reach in countless video games?) This secret level is a pile of complexity because it also contains secrets inside of it too.
Duke visits Area 51 in his quest to find the Alien Queen (how original). Aside from locating hidden items, Area 51 plays out like most Duke Nukem levels. Duke has a gun and he splatters alien guts all over the floor.
13 Earthworm Jim... And Forks?
I actually thoroughly enjoyed Earthworm Jim. It was a zany platformer that stood out from the rest because of how crazy it was. In Earthworm Jim 2, there was a secret level called "Totally Forked." (See? This is why Earthworm Jim is so cool.)
During the level, Jim has to jump from platform to platform, avoiding jabbing forks from below while spaced-out cows gaze at him from the background. That description alone should tell you how crazy-fun Earthworm Jim was.
12 In The Land Of The Cows
For some reason, the first Diablo game inspired a myth that there was a secret Cow Level within the game. This was a lie. However, Diablo II developers heard of this rumor and decided to make gamers' dreams come true by including a secret Cow Level in the sequel.
In order to reach this level, your character has to craft a red cow portal that will transport their character to the cow world. Once there, your objective is to defeat the Cow King. Well, if you can defeat the cow hordes first.
11 What Lies Beneath Mortal Kombat?
The first Mortal Kombat game held a secret boss fight with the mysterious Reptile. The steps necessary to reach him are pretty complex. A player has to get a Double Flawless victory on the Pit Stage of the game, perform a Fatality, and execute all this during a match when a silhouette flies past the moon in the background.
Once all this is done, your character will plummet to the bottom of the stage, revealing Reptile in wait in an arena filled with spikes.
10 The Not-So-Fun Secret Slide
Super Mario 64's castle contained a bunch of paintings that you had to jump into, which then transported you to playable levels. My least favorite of these "paintings" was one of Peach that then took you to a Secret Slide. Ugh, I loathed that slide.
I had the worst control over Mario at this point. I can't even begin to count how many times Mario slipped off of this slide (that had no railings) and fell into the dark abyss. Did Peach design these slides herself?
9 Perfect(ly) Dark And Hidden
Perfect Dark is a lesser-known game of the 90s that deserves more recognition. It was a fun first-person shooter, and it had a story that was entertaining enough to draw most gamers in. You play as Agent Dark, and along the way you meet an alien delightfully called Elvis.
A hidden cheat allows you to play as Elvis in the game.
It's not necessarily a hidden level, but playing as Elvis is a ton of fun. Be warned. Like GoldenEye, Perfect Dark can be one tough cookie to crumble.
8 ToeJam & Earl's Secret Level
Games in the 90s were weird. Take ToeJam & Earl, a game about two alien rappers trying to escape Earth's gravitational pull. But just because the game was off-putting doesn't mean it didn't have secret levels. ToeJam & Earl had a Level Zero.
Level Zero had a lemonade stand and a hot tub for ToeJam and Earl to relax in. As far as secret levels go, I would say this one is pretty relaxing. It was more relaxing than the rest of the game, that's for sure.
7 On The Star Road Again
The Star World in Super Mario World has become common knowledge, but getting there is still pretty arduous. You have to get to it by using a Star Road, and once you're there, if you want to complete the game, you have to beat each level within Star World.
And let me tell you, those Star World levels are not the easiest to beat. It is not surprising that the eighth and final stage of Super Mario World is packed with demanding levels that expect nothing short of platforming excellence.
6 The Hidden Head Boss
The final boss fight in Doom II was a large beast known as the Icon of Sin. But the Icon is not the real final boss of Doom II. Secretly, id Software placed an image of game creator John Romero's head within the Icon of Sin.
Using a cheat code, players could make their way inside the Icon so that they could actually witness Romero's disembodied head being destroyed with all those rocket launcher hits. Nothing screams ego like making your giant head an end-game boss.