Developers love to hide easter eggs, goodies, and collectibles in their games but sometimes they can go a bit too far. Whether it's on purpose or they simply "thought people would have an easier time finding these things," sometimes secrets and easter eggs can go undiscovered for decades.
To be fair, some of the items featured on this list are locked behind gates that are seemingly impossible to understand from a "hidden standpoint." Some required gamers to perform a massive chain of mind-numbing commands, or to check locations an absurd number of times. Join us as we go through 10 Weird Easter Eggs In Video Games That Took Decades To Find.
10 10. A Candid Photo (Resident Evil 2)
Sometimes an easter egg is so obscure and pointless that it goes completely unnoticed and the developers themselves (or a really dedicated outside source) have to nudge everyone in the right direction just to uncover it. Such is the case with this strange Resident Evil 2 easter egg that may have stayed buried if not for a game guide titled; Research on BioHazard 2: Final Edition.
To see a strange (and pointless) picture of Rebecca Chambers in a basketball outfit, all you have to do is search Albert Wesker's desk 50 times in the S.T.A.R.S office of the police station. No wonder this one stayed undiscovered.
9 9. Chris Houlihan's Secret Room (The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past)
This "secret" has become commonplace by now but it bears repeating simply for the fact that it became obscure thanks to the company that created it. Chris Houlihan won a Nintendo Power competition back in 1991 and was promised a "spot" in the official release of The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past.
Chris would get his prize but thanks to runaround between debugging teams, the secret only ended up in the North American version and was "closed off" to boot. The room was finally discovered in 2002 via some strange glitching and features a plaque and an abundance of blue rupees.
8 8. Unlock It All (Metroid)
Back when games were in their infancy, most cheats and "save states" were activated via passwords. A lot of games featured secrets that could be activated using codes and there were even devices (Game Genie, anyone?) that were dedicated to giving gamers a helpful hand with some of the harder content available at the time.
Metroid was a different story. Apparently, the traditional password system was "impossible" to crack and codebreakers were having no luck reverse engineering anything thanks to "security measures" the development team put in place. It's for this reason that the code "NARPAS SWORD0: 000000000000" went unnoticed for so long. Entering it gives Samus a multitude of items and health.
7 7. Underground Duck Racing (Shenmue 2)
Shenmue 2 was an odd game in its own right. In fact, the series has developed a cult following thanks to its strange Yakuza-like vibes and its titular action-hero, Ryo Hazuki. But this particular easter egg took all the light-heartedness of Shenmue 2 and amped it up to eleven.
By performing a series of odd tasks, including speaking to a particular set of NPCs, winning a street fight, and finding a bronze medal, Ryo would be able to engage in an Underground Duck Race.
6 6. PuPu The Alien (Final Fantasy VIII)
Easter eggs become increasingly difficult to find when the scale of a game is as imposing as Final Fantasy VIII's. The four-disc (at the time) 60+ hour adventure was filled to the brim with sidequests so it's no wonder a couple of secrets escaped over the years.
PuPu the alien could only be hunted down by first investigating a stack of inconspicuous magazines a few times (something most gamers wouldn't do in the first place). After an arduous quest and the tracking of a set of precise locations, you get to battle the little monster. You can either slay him or turn him into a playing card.
Final Fantasy sure is weird sometimes.
5 5. Hidden Diagnostics Menu (Mortal Kombat 3 Arcade)
Finding an easter egg is hard enough without having to worry about feeding quarters to a hungry arcade cabinet, so it's no wonder this Mortal Kombat 3 "diagnostic menu" was so difficult to locate. In order to unlock certain characters, play a mini-game, and issue sound tests, players would have to enter a staggering 27-button code correctly (sometimes multiple times in a row).
The code is an obnoxious series of precise alternating presses of the Player 1 and Player 2 block buttons.
4 4. Watch The Crowd (Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!)
Few games go almost 30 years with undiscovered secrets but that's exactly what happened with Mike Tyson's Punch-Out! If you find yourself struggling with two particular fighters, namely Bald Bull and Piston Honda, you can actually knock each one of them out immediately if you pay close attention to the crowd.
A bearded man on the left side of the front row will "duck" at the exact moment Little Mac needs to toss a punch. Doing so grants you sweet automatic victory.
3 3. Play As The Duck (Duck Hunt)
This one stings because it was never really "hidden" to begin with. In fact, it was right there, printed in the instruction booklet for this NES classic all along. The issue is that, well, people weren't usually scrambling to read the instruction manual for Duck Hunt. After all, it was simply a "point at the screen and shoot" style of game.
Nevertheless, plugging a controller into the second port while you hold the zapper in the first port will allow a friend to "control" the duck.
2 2. Play As Master Hand (Super Smash Bros. Melee)
Some secrets should just stay buried, as is the case with Master Hand "joining the roster" for Super Smash Bros. Melee. Unfortunately, the code is rather simple (or, odd and tricky depending on how you look at it, we suppose). Regardless, it's the hell it unleashes that leaves a bad taste in our mouth.
Master Hand is every bit as annoying to fight outside of a boss battle. This is especially true when you have that one friend that loves spamming his most damaging moves.
1 1. A Rather Pointless Hidden Quest (Final Fantasy IX)
Like its predecessor, Final Fantasy IX is so chock full of content and side quests that one particular quest went completely unnoticed for an alarmingly long period of time. The quest in question is activated near the endgame and has you traveling to nine different locations just to speak to a group of NPCs (The Nero Brothers).
Your reward? A Protect Ring, which is pretty "meh" by this point in the game. It's a secret that's definitely not worth the hassle.