Dive into the world of hidden video game secrets that took years, sometimes decades, to uncover! From mysterious Easter eggs to developer-hidden features, we'll explore the most fascinating and elusive secrets that stumped players for years.
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00:00Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for secrets and easter eggs
00:11in video games that took players years to uncover.
00:21Number 20.
00:22Calendar Man's Clues Batman Arkham City
00:25In Arkham City, chatting with the villain Calendar Man on 12 different holidays can
00:37get you an achievement or trophy.
00:39However, there's another seemingly ordinary date that reveals new dialogue and a nod towards
00:44the game's sequel that took three years for anyone to hear.
00:48If you set your console or PC's date to December 13th, 2004, the date developer Rocksteady
00:55was founded, Calendar Man gives a cryptic clue about Arkham Knight.
00:59This may have taken longer to find if not for a mysterious YouTube channel, J.G.
01:04Jour, uploading a single video that only shows the beginning of the exchange.
01:09Since Calendar Man's real name is Julian Gregory Day, and Jour is the French word for
01:16was likely someone within Rocksteady itself.
01:27Number 19.
01:28Skipping to the End, NieR Automata
01:38Nearly four years after the release of NieR Automata, its final secret was revealed.
01:43Developer Lance McDonald was reverse engineering the game when he found a bit of code he didn't
01:48recognize.
01:49After defeating the prologue boss, McDonald stood in between a set of barrels within the
01:53room and entered a cheat code.
01:56Players wishing to replicate this will find that it takes them straight to the epilogue
01:59of the game's final, true ending, being the shoot-em-up credits sequence.
02:05Not only that, but it unlocks the chapter select and debug menus, features that are
02:09normally unlocked only after beating the game three times.
02:13That can definitely save you time on a replay.
02:22Number 18.
02:24Seal Rescue Mission, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Double Agent
02:28This rescue mission is another secret that might have taken longer to find if not for
02:33developer interference.
02:34In the Xbox version of Splinter Cell Double Agent, there's a hidden co-op mission to
02:39rescue five baby alien seals, Cookie, Muffin, Vanilla, Pepperoni, and Buddy.
02:46Players can find it in the Ellsworth Penitentiary level.
02:48It requires several obscure steps to find each one, which is probably why no one ever
02:54stumbled on it.
02:55In fact, after four years of no one finding it, level designer Simon LaSalle, the one
03:00responsible for putting it there in the first place, uploaded a video of he and a friend
03:04completing the mission.
03:06Number 17.
03:07A Vulgar T-Shirt, Splatoon 2 Deciphering a fictional language is no small
03:13feat, but Splatoon fans are a passionate bunch.
03:18Following the release of the second game in 2017, players took up the task of compiling
03:22all the text across various signs and pieces of clothing to bring together the inkling
03:28alphabet.
03:29They eventually got there, and so the next step was finding out what everything said.
03:34By far the most entertaining discovery to come from this endeavor was revealed around
03:38five years after launch.
03:41When translated, a t-shirt that Gelfonzo the Clothing Merchant wears on Tuesdays reads
03:46F.U., though not so family friendly.
03:50It's surprising to find this in a Nintendo game, but undeniably hilarious.
03:58Number 16.
04:00Locust Shooting Range, Gears of War 3
04:04When we hijack the barge, let me drive.
04:06I think I've got a way to control it.
04:08Gears of War is a series that loves its easter eggs, but some of them can squeak by unnoticed.
04:14In Act 2, Chapter 2 of the third game, there are three golden coins hidden at the top of
04:20various trees.
04:21Shooting them in the proper order leads to you dropping into a shooting range, where
04:26you'll gain access to a mini-game.
04:28Five enemies will pop out of the ground at different spots, and depending on how many
04:32of them you're able to hit, you'll get better rewards.
04:36This hidden mini-game wasn't found until five years after the game's release, by the YouTube
04:42channel Taccom.
04:44How they were able to spot coins in those trees is beyond us, but it's a neat secret
04:49regardless.
04:56Number 15.
04:58Homage to Sci-Fi Classics, Titanfall 2
05:07One of the best missions in Titanfall 2 sees you shift through time.
05:12At a certain point in Effect and Cause, players will come across a flaming hallway and are
05:18meant to shift to the past, where it's safe.
05:21You can open a certain locked door after having shifted 88 times, a nod to the DeLorean in
05:27Back to the Future.
05:29Inside the room, you can find two bodies, one on the floor electrocuted, and one propped
05:34up on tables in a split.
05:36This references another time travel movie, Time Cop, in which Jean-Claude Van Damme avoids
05:42being electrocuted like his opponent with a well-timed split.
05:46This took players six years to find, and only after developers at Respawn gave out some
05:52hints.
05:57Number 14.
05:59The Infection's Origins, The Last of Us
06:07Things begin ramping up during the prologue of The Last of Us, when Sarah witnesses the
06:11onset of the outbreak on TV and sees an explosion outside the window.
06:16You're then meant to head downstairs to continue the story.
06:19Well, if you stop on the stairs, quit the game, reload the save, and head back to Joel's
06:25room, the TV will now display the picture of an ant infected with the Cordyceps fungus,
06:30the real-life inspiration for the game's version.
06:33This was found in 2021 by streamer and speedrunner Anthony Calabrese, seven years after the game's
06:40launch.
06:41Designer Kurt Marginal stated it must have been a bug left over from a shader test, but
06:47it definitely makes for a cool easter egg.
06:54Number 13.
06:55A Hidden Birthday Message, Halo 3
07:02This easter egg makes us feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
07:06For a while after Halo 3's launch, developer Bungie hinted towards the existence of a final
07:11secret that players had yet to find.
07:14In 2014, seven years after the game's release, it was finally uncovered by YouTube user LordZed.
07:21On Christmas Day, or with your console's date simply set to December 25th, load into any
07:27campaign mission.
07:28While on the loading screen, pressing down on both thumbsticks causes the image of the
07:32Halo ring to change and display a message that reads,
07:36Happy Birthday Lauren.
07:38This was put in by programmer Adrian Perez, immortalizing his wife in one of the best
07:43games of all time, Lucky Lady.
07:49Number 12.
07:51Bored Commentary, Wave Race Blue Storm
07:59As with most sports games, the commentator in Wave Race Blue Storm is appropriately excited.
08:06But if you're hoping to switch things up, there's a hidden code that will give you
08:10the exact opposite experience.
08:12If you go into the audio settings and enter a specific string of buttons, your first race
08:17will be commentated by someone who sounds like he wishes he was doing anything else.
08:22Not only that, he'll also insult literally everything you do.
08:35This easter egg didn't begin making the rounds until 2010, nine years after the game's
08:41release.
08:42It was posted on NeoGAF by user RoaldDuke, though how they could have possibly stumbled
08:47upon this is anyone's guess.
08:49Number 11.
08:51A Friendly Rover, Mass Effect 3
09:01Here we have another easter egg brought to light by a dev who got tired of waiting for
09:05someone to find it.
09:07On Mars in Mass Effect 3, if you walk a specific path through the group of solar panels, you'll
09:13trigger an interaction where a rover drives up to you and gives you a friendly nod.
09:18No one realized this until 2021, nine years later after the remastered Legendary Edition
09:24had come out.
09:25It was ex-Bioware designer Richard Boisvert who put the easter egg in the game and revealed
09:31it to the world, even drawing players a map of the path to follow.
09:35Guess it was just too well hidden.
09:37Number 10.
09:41A Company in Need, The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt
09:48Somehow a game as picked over as The Witcher 3 still has secrets to give.
09:53In 2024, nine years after the game's release, YouTuber xLetalis was told by a viewer of
10:00hidden artwork they found by glitching under Novigrad.
10:04After some digging, they found the artwork.
10:06A drawing of a Temerian soldier doing his best Uncle Sam pose, with the text CDPR NEEDS
10:13YOU underneath.
10:14Why does this exist?
10:16xLetalis speculated it could have been an artist's joke, or an actual recruitment
10:20tool from CD Projekt Red for game testers who can find bugs.
10:24Regardless, it's always cool to hear about new secrets in a game we all think everything
10:29has been found in.
10:30Number 9.
10:37The Mystery Person, Resident Evil 4
10:43One of the most famous easter eggs in Resident Evil 4 is still a mystery today.
10:48In Chapter 5-4, after Mike's helicopter explodes, you can spot a mysterious figure
10:54in a distant building.
10:56It's incredibly hard to see, and only by using a sniper rifle can you even make out
11:00the shape of someone.
11:02Using a no-clip mode to move the camera closer, we find a 2D image of an Asian man in a green
11:08jacket.
11:09YouTube user SR212787 first uploaded the footage of this discovery in early 2017, 12 years
11:18after the game's initial release.
11:20While the person is probably someone who worked for Capcom, no one knows for sure who this
11:25is, and that mystery has remained over the years.
11:30We have to get that parasite out of your body.
11:32Number 8.
11:33A Secret Weakness, The Legend of Zelda The Wind Waker
11:42The Legend of Zelda series is packed with secrets, many of which aren't found by fans
11:47until long after release.
11:50One of the coolest concerns Kaledimos, the second boss in The Wind Waker.
11:55Inside of the forest haven, Link can find mystical spring water that gives life to the
11:59Great Deku Tree.
12:00Well, if you take a bottle with you into the boss fight of the Forbidden Woods dungeon
12:05and sprinkle the pure water onto the monster, it instantly dies.
12:15That's a great secret mechanic and small bit of world building, and it wasn't discovered
12:20until 2016, 14 years after its original Japanese release, when Fishwaffle64 was streaming the
12:28HD version on Twitch.
12:31Number 7.
12:32Company History GoldenEye 007
12:42Before Rare made it big developing classic Nintendo games in the 90s, it released multiple
12:48games in the early 80s on the ZX Spectrum, a series of 8-bit home computers.
12:54It seems the company once toyed with the idea of emulating its old titles, as it's possible
12:59to access them in GoldenEye 007 on the N64.
13:03It was merely a side project that was abandoned, with the code disabled but never taken out.
13:09It wasn't until 15 years later in 2012 that a user known as Spoon Diddly uploaded their
13:15discovery on the RWP forums.
13:18Accessing the hidden emulator is very technically complex, but still possible in an original
13:24copy if you know how to do it.
13:31Number 6.
13:32Totaka's Song Pikmin 2
13:35Famed game composer Kazumi Totaka hides a simple 19-note song in each Nintendo game
13:42he works on.
13:43Although it's usually well-hidden, easter egg hunters know to look for it.
13:57However, it's in Pikmin 2 twice, so it took a long time for the second instance to be
14:03found.
14:04First, you have to enter one of the cave dungeons without a memory card in your GameCube.
14:09You then have to wait on the save screen for about three and a half minutes, and then
14:14the tune will play alongside the standard soundtrack.
14:17YouTube user Quote Balrog discovered the easter egg in 2019, 15 years after Pikmin
14:402 was released.
14:41Number 5.
14:43The HMCS Bitter – Blood Omen Legacy of Kain
14:47In 2010, 14 years after the release of the first Legacy of Kain entry, a team was working
14:54on recreating it in 3D.
14:56And they made a pretty surprising discovery in the game's files.
15:00A completely hidden ship area called the HMCS Bitter.
15:05When asked about it in 2017, director Dennis Dyack claimed it was still possible to reach
15:10this area in the base game through four invisible switches in different parts of the world.
15:17Those switches weren't found until 2020.
15:20Not only were they invisible, they were also unreachable and required using the Energy
15:25Bolt spell to activate.
15:27That is absurd, but if any player wishes to visit the HMCS Bitter, you can now find the
15:33method to do so.
15:34Number 4.
15:35The Final Rainbow Coin – Donkey Kong 64
15:45Donkey Kong 64 is infamous for its staggering amount of collectibles, with each of the five
15:51Kongs having several dedicated groups of items only they can collect.
15:56Among the many items you can find are Rainbow Coins, which are earned by performing a slam
16:01attack on specific mounds of dirt.
16:04Until 2017, a little over 17 years after release, everyone thought there was only one
16:10Rainbow Coin in each level.
16:12But then speedrunner Isotarge discovered that the fifth level, Fungi Forest, actually held
16:18a second one, hidden in a field of grass.
16:22Finding something so long after the game's release was impressive, but it also changed
16:26how speedrunners tackled their 100% runs.
16:34Number 3.
16:39Hidden Features – Silent Hill 2
16:49Silent Hill 2 really hones in on the survival aspect of its horror, with limited ways to
16:55save and no mini-map.
16:56Actually, there is a way to save when you want and see where you're going, it's
17:01just that no one knew about it for years.
17:04Found only in the PS2 version, you first have to unlock the famous joke ending featuring
17:09a Shiba Inu, which means beating the game a couple of times.
17:13On your next playthrough, you can turn on a mini-map and the ability to save anywhere,
17:18each through a different code.
17:20Players didn't know about this until 2018, 17 years after the game's release, when
17:26ex-users Punk7890 and BigManJapanSC posted their findings online.
17:40Number 2.
17:42Play as Shin Akuma – Street Fighter Alpha 2
17:49Unlocking new characters in fighting games is always exciting, but the method for playing
17:54as Shin Akuma in Street Fighter Alpha 2 is so obscure, it went undiscovered until 2021,
18:0125 years after the game's release.
18:04A modder named Gizaha was trying to reverse engineer the Super Nintendo version when they
18:09came across the method.
18:11After getting the top score in arcade mode, you must enter K-A-J as your initials.
18:17Back on the title screen, you must then hold L-X-Y and start on a second controller.
18:23While still holding those buttons down, the first controller must select the versus mode.
18:28Then you just have to hold start when selecting your character and you can play as the more
18:32powerful version of Akuma.
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18:57Number 1.
18:59Helping a player out.
19:01Mike Tyson's Punch Out.
19:08The NES's Punch Out is a fan favorite to old school players, pitting Little Mac against
19:14a series of boxers with patterns to learn and exploit.
19:17But in some cases, the game tries to give you some help.
19:21In 2009, 22 years post-launch, artist Makoto Wada revealed a camera flashes in the right
19:28of the audience just before Bald Bull charges you.
19:31And if you punch at that moment, Bald Bull goes down instantly.
19:35However, there's a different hint in Bull's second fight, as well as the second fight
19:40with Piston Honda, that no one noticed until Reddit user MidwesternHousewives in 2016,
19:4629 years after launch.
19:49A bearded man on the left will nod, signaling when to punch in order to knock either boxer
19:54out immediately.
20:04Do you know of any other interesting secrets it took years for players to find?
20:09Let us know about them in the comments below.
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