While creating things for a living is definitely the dream, people forget that all types of work can sometimes be boring, meaning that the mind will wander and sometimes you will end up with some pretty silly creations. This is pretty much where the concept of easter eggs and hidden secrets comes from, allowing the creator the chance to throw something silly into all of the serious. That being said, sometimes this sort of stuff is just a mix up made by the developer or even a late feature or character that was eventually cut before the game's final release. Some of these can get pretty weird, so we thought that you may want to take a look through some of the best examples with us.
Some of these will probably be obvious to you, with many of you now going through some of the most famous developer secrets that you can remember right now, but we can promise you that there will be at least one on this list that you won’t yet know about. That is a guarantee we can give you right now because a couple of these were even news to us! Crazy to think what other secrets could be waiting out there…
So, are you ready to take a look at some of the secrets that developers didn’t want you to find? Ready to see what sort of stuff video game developers get up to behind the scenes? Well then, you better give our list a look!
20 SiN's Villain Really Enjoyed Her Alone Time
Anybody who has even a passing interest in video games should know that s*x in video games is not a new thing at all and that people have been using this trick in an attempt to increase sales ever since the first video games came out. In this game, the player is able to see the villain from behind as she "pleasures" herself alone in a hot tub. However, through the use of the noclip cheat which many older games had, they were able to phase through the walls and get a proper look at her. Much to the surprise of the people who first tried this, the developers actually bothered to animate her hands and movement as she went to town, even though most people were unlikely to ever see this. Why would you even bother doing this sort of thing? Looks like we’re dealing with some real perverts here.
19 We Always Thought Golf Was Supposed To Be Reserved
If you've only come to gaming during recent years, then you may be surprised by the sorts of things that used to go on. When video games moved to CDs, the developers were astonished by the amount of data that they could now fit into their game, as the previous method of cartridges had nowhere near the same sort of ability. This meant that they could throw extras onto the disc that was only accessible through a different platform. As an example, the PS1 version of Tiger Woods 99 PGA Tour came with the pilot episode of South Park which you could only find by placing the disc into a PC and rooting through the files. Funny to think something so crass was once packaged with something so reserved.
18 Who Is Your Favorite Bond?
Goldeneye for the N64 is the game that we can really thank for introducing us to the world we know today where Call Of Duty and Battlefront reign supreme, as it was the first game to popularize the concept of the first person shooter and bring fun local multiplayer to the masses. Seriously, this is the game that started it all and is loved to this day, although many believe that without nostalgia, this game wouldn't be touched again. One of the features that were cut towards the end of development was the ability to play as more than just Pierce Brosnan, the game offering up the choice of four Bonds rather than one. This can only be found by messing with the game though, as it was not fully implemented once the game had been shipped.
17 Suppose That's One Way To Get Around It...
We don't know about you, but we've never actually seen this game in our lives. Either way, apparently, it used to be quite a popular educational game back in the day. We've spent most of our time with video games trying to get away from anything that even slightly resembled learning, so that might have something to do with it. Regardless, this cartoonish game that was explicitly made for children contains a particular sequence that is only accessible once you mess around with the game's files. One particular segment of gameplay sees Freddi Fish attempt to get past an eel who is hungry. In the deleted, but fully animated and voiced scene, Freddi can offer up her little friend as the treat, before revealing that it was all a daydream. Somebody clearly realized it wasn't very kid friendly.
16 Hidden Racism? Yay!
If you manage to get to the end of Front Mission: Gun Hazard and sit through the credit sequence, you'll be treated to a bonus cutscene that starts with the sound of a helicopter. Throughout that sound, there is some incomprehensible dialog that not even the keenest ear will be able to hear, but it does come through ever so faintly. It's no surprise then that somebody went to work trying to figure out exactly what the noise was, although we imagine they wish they hadn't. By getting into the game's debug menu, some players found out that the noise is actually from a phone call made by a member of a neo-Nazi group named Combat 18. Yes, it is filled with slurs and no, nobody knows why the developers decided to include it. Weird.
15 Lightsabers Aren't So Family Friendly
No matter how much people clearly don't want to accept it, Star Wars is pretty much meant entirely for children and if you're an adult who enjoys the franchise, you're going to have to accept this pretty quickly! This means that the video games are often, but not always, censored to the point where anyone can play and enjoy them. However, in Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, this could be quickly changed by messing with the game's code with little to no effort. Just by moving a couple of numbers around, you were able to turn your lightsaber into a weapon that was able to dismember people. Seriously, you could suddenly chop off people’s heads or leave them as a writhing torso if you wanted to.
14 Look, Mom! I'm In A Video Game!
If you're even slightly familiar with video gaming on YouTube then you're almost certainly heard of Rooster Teeth. These guys first shot to fame after creating hilarious videos within Halo that went viral and welcomed to the world to what could be done with a few modding tools and a script. When it came round to making Halo 3 the developers decided that they wanted the Rooster Teeth guys to make a little cameo in their game. In one of the earlier levels, you can find someone attempting to talk Red and Blue into joining the fight, before they start to crack wise at the marine attempting to do so. As long as it doesn’t get into the realm of fan service, we actually like developers doing things like this.
13 Didn't Take Long To Find This One...
Okay, so while this one didn't take too long to figure out, the developers didn't actually expect anyone to use it. In the original The Legend Of Zelda, players could flip some elements of the game's map around by inputting the name "Zelda" during the file selection screen. If you did this, you started a secret quest that was essentially the same, but that swapped the shops and items around the map, thereby putting everything in different places. It may not sound like a big deal, but that’s because these days we’re accustomed to expecting a lot more from our video game developers as they’re all constantly vying for our attention. Back in the day, you could create a game for the sake of fun rather than longevity.
12 Audiences Don't Need A Debug Mode
We're always surprised when people find a fairly simple way into a game or console's secrets, secrets that only the developers were meant to see because it means the developers didn't put enough effort into hiding them. We're not talking about people going into the code here, but people merely pressing a group of buttons in a particular order to access something they shouldn't be able to. When Super Smash Bros. Melee first released it was a massive hit that managed to sell a hell of a lot of units. However, it saw a new lease of life when players realized they could access a secret debug mode, purely by pressing a set of buttons on the controller. This debug mode allowed them to play as previously unplayable characters, which is pretty amazing.
11 Who Wouldn't Want To Punch John Romero?
Look, we know that this guy essentially helped make video gaming what it is today, but we really never liked that whole rock star mentality that people often get when they become rich and famous. It probably doesn't help that this guy has come up through the business being idolized to the point of parody either. This is why it came as great news to us when we found out that in Doom II you’re able to take out your frustration on a decapitated John Romero head. You can either use a noclip cheat or walk through the final boss once you’ve killed him, but once you do you’re offered the chance to use every weapon you have on the John Romero head waiting for you there.
10 Why Would You Want To Play Pitfall?
We think this is possibly the only thing on this list that we would've been fine if nobody ever found out about it because it is pretty boring if you ask us. Seriously, Pitfall is a pretty forgotten game because it isn't that great a game. We've moved onto things much better since then, so why did the developers of Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 decide to hide a version of the old game in their game? Not only that, but you've got to pull off an annoyingly difficult set of circumstances just to play this boring old game. We don’t care if the older developers loved it when they younger because they were wrong to and shouldn’t inflict their childhood onto the children of today.
9 How Much Money Did You Spend On This Warden?
We actually think this may be our favorite example on the list because while the developers actually did want you to find this secret out, they made it so hard to find that they had to call up a media outlet six months after the game's release to tell everyone how to find it. In Batman: Arkham Asylum you're able to find a secret room by blowing up a normal wall in the warden's office. The room contains blueprints and details of what would become the plot of the second game in the Arkham series. Funny to think that these guys are so good at hiding a secret that they actually had to spoil the surprise so that people could then find it for themselves.
8 Leave It To Rockstar, Right?
While GTA as a franchise rarely messed with the video gaming phenomenon that is multiplayer until their most recent release, they have given players the ability to play with each other in minor ways at various point, specifically in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. In that game, you can play a fairly restricted form of co-op that allows you and a friend to go on a rampage in a very specific area of the city. However, two players found out that if you use a katana to chop off CJ's head, he will die and come back as a headless man with blood constantly spewing from his neck. If you save your game in this state, you're able to play the entirety of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas as a dead man walking.
7 No Wonder She's So Angry...
Sometimes in video gaming, we get a chance to play something that feels almost entirely unlike anything else we've ever played, and it's those moments that really make us want to keep playing games. For every Call Of Duty that puts us off for like, there is something like No More Heroes which reaffirms our love for the medium. If you've never played the game, it concerns a hitman named Travis Touchdown who needs to climb the hitman ranks to become the number one hitman. When he gets to the end, the woman he faces off against starts to tell him her tragic backstory but says that they'll have to speed it up to get it past the censors because it's so upsetting. Obviously, somebody on the internet slowed it down and we can tell you now, it’s pretty upsetting.
6 Who Doesn't Love A Woman's Chest?
Ratchet And Clank was a series of games that we loved as children. They gave us the ability to run around alien plants, shoot at enemies with fantastical guns and enjoy some mild comedy at the same time. However, one thing that we could've been enjoying as a child that we had no idea about was an odd glitch that the developers purposely placed in the game. As you can see above, there is a woman fairly early on in the game who tasks you with winning a race. If instead of doing that, you decide to run and jump around in circles around her character model, a certain part of her body will start to grow bigger. We think you know which part we're talking about...
5 Kirby! Who Could've Known You Were So Dirty
Unlike a lot of people, we never really played a Kirby game until we were much older, and by that point, the magic had sort of worn off. There is no nostalgia getting us to play these offensively easy games at an older age, so we imagine they will never grab us unless they drastically change how they're made. However, if we'd known when we were younger that a developer had created a level in Kirby’s Dream Land 2 that depicted a naked lady we would've been all over that game! If you pull back the camera from a series of screens and stack them on top of each other, you will find a rather rude image hidden within... Who knew video game developers could be so raunchy?
4 That's A Weird Pokémon Name...
Isn't it weird what sort of things become the stuff of legend when you're still a kid in school? We remember the curse of Missingno being a huge deal back in the day, especially with the internet not being anywhere near as widespread at the time. There was talk of some poor kids attempting to catch the weird monster, and thereby ruining their save game that they'd spent so much time on. Missingno is a glitched Pokémon that allowed the player to increase any item they were carrying to full capacity, thereby giving them x99 of anything they wanted. Rather than a mistake, we like to think that the developers always intended for someone to find Missingno. The conditions around finding one are just too specific if you ask us.
3 Release Those Rings Of Power
Yes, your eyes are not deceiving you, the next game we're talking about was made by a then unknown video game company called Naughty Dog, a company that is now famous for their Crash Bandicoot, Uncharted and Jak & Daxter franchises. From humble beginnings, anything is possible! Just like many of the games we've already talked about, Rings Of Power allowed players a shot at seeing some of the main lady's assets. To do this you had to plug a controller into the second port and then press a very specific set of buttons, so it clearly wasn't meant to be found for a very long time. If only they could do the same with some of the various supporting ladies from the Uncharted series…
2 Halo Birthday Darling!
Back to Halo 3 again, but this time with a less funny secret and something a lot sweeter. Sometimes it's easy to forget that there are people behind these games, but often they will give us a little hint that they're there. One programmer at Bungie decided to leave a happy birthday message to his wife on the title screen of the game but didn't imagine that anybody would manage to find it. You have to change the date to December 25th while not connected to Xbox Live and hold in both thumb sticks on the menu screen. Then a little Happy Birthday message will pop up. That’s pretty sweet, isn’t it? Nice to have a sweet little piece on this list, rather than something about a woman's chest.
1 The First Ever Easter Egg?
Yes, this is quite possibly the first ever video game Easter Egg. It takes place in a game called Adventure that was considered incredibly innovative at the time for its use of story and gameplay mechanics. It was likely because of that that Atari refused to credit anyone who worked on the game as they were worried that another company would attempt to poach their designers. Unsurprisingly, the designers weren't happy with this. One Warren Robinett built a secret room into the game that one young player was able to find that credited him as one of the chief developers on the game. A pretty clever way around a publisher completely screwing over their staff. Ever since then, it has become an accepted norm for video games to include a secret room or Easter Egg of some kind.