As long as developers have made video games, they've hidden secret Easter eggs in them
for their own entertainment, or as a practical joke.
Most of the time, these Easter eggs are intended to be found, but sometimes features in a game
may be scrapped before the title hits the shelves, or unfinished content is left inside
for anyone smart enough to find it.
Here's a look at some video game secrets you were never supposed to discover.
The mysterious dam in Shadow of the Colossus
This PlayStation 2 adventure title is a cult classic.
But developers cut a few things from the final version of Shadow of the Colossus — but
still left them in the code.
One is a huge dam that some intrepid hackers found.
The structure is immense and looks pretty complete, but nobody knows what it was intended
for.
Maybe it was meant to house a colossus?
Or… possibly just its shadow?
It's a mystery.
All Bonds mode in Goldeneye
If the team at Rare Games hadn't run into some licensing difficulties, you might have
been able to play as other classic Bond actors besides Pierce Brosnan in the classic Nintendo
64 game GoldenEye.
That's right, the original version of Goldeneye came with models and textures for Sean Connery,
Roger Moore, and Timothy Dalton, which you could use in "All Bonds" mode to play the
bonus Egypt and Aztec levels, or in multiplayer.
When the developers learned the mode had to be scrapped, they held a three-hour deathmatch
to send it off in style.
Hey, if you've got a license to kill, you might as well use it.
"That gun… looks more fitting for a woman."
South Park pilot in Tiger Woods 99 PGA Tour
On the PlayStation 2 version of Tiger Woods 99 PGA Tour, a developer filled out the extra
space on the disc with a "dummy" file.
But instead of what should have been empty space, the file contained a five-minute video
of the South Park pilot episode, "Jesus vs. Santa."
While you couldn't view the episode in your PlayStation, sticking the disc in a PC and
using File Explorer to open the video would allow you to watch the entire pilot in it
all its vulgar glory.
Naturally, this caused an uproar among the parents who had purchased the child-friendly
title, so EA recalled the game, replacing it with a version that had the dummy file
removed.
The hidden mountain observatory in BioShock Infinite
Near the end of the BioShock Infinite, players are led to an area with a lot of lighthouses
in an endless ocean.
It's a trippy sight, but if you're on a PC and able to turn off the game's clipping — which
allows you to walk through objects — you can fly through the ocean and land in mountainous
terrain.
There are snowy cliffs and a bridge that leads to an observatory, in an area that looks straight
out of Skyrim.
When you explore the observatory, you'll find a purple door.
But if you open that door, you fall into an infinite abyss and get lost in the ether.
So… maybe don't open the door.
The unused worlds in Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep
Beloved for their amazing visuals, the Kingdom Hearts games allow players to explore their
favorite Disney and Square Enix worlds.
But a few of those worlds were cut from from Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep after basic
versions had already been created, such as the unfinished Jungle Book world.
While there aren't many backgrounds, there are lots of cool structures and terrains,
including King Louie's temple, complete with his throne.
Cool.
Adult minigame in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
While the Grand Theft Auto franchise is designed for older teens and adults, some players got
more than they bargained for when some gamers discovered a built-in sex minigame that was
buried in its code and cut from the finished version of GTA: San Andreas.
Called the "Hot Coffee" mod, players could follow up a successful date with their girlfriend
by playing a mini-game where you have to you have to control your character's rhythm and
even change sexual positions to fill up the "excitement" bar, like some kind of bizarre
X-rated version of Guitar Hero.
"Inappropriate!"
Naturally, parents and ratings boards freaked out when they learned of the minigame, which
caused the ESRB to re-rate San Andreas "Adults Only."
The developers recalled the game and issued a new version which removed all the content
from the minigame, and also created a patch to disable it in PC versions.
That wasn't enough to completely save them from the fallout, however, and Take Two ended
up paying out over a million dollars in class-action lawsuits and other civil suits related to
the mod.
Today, original copies of the game are collector's items, and a new sealed copy of the original
"Hot Coffee" capable San Andreas can sell for $75 or more.
Dismemberment mode in Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy
Considering how deadly lightsabers are, you'd think more people would actually get killed
by them in Star Wars games.
But usually, you just can't do that.
Unless, of course, you know the cheat code for the original version of Jedi Knight: Jedi
Academy that unlocks Dismemberment Mode.
Unsurprisingly, Dismemberment Mode allows players to hack their opponents up with a
lightsaber.
Just be careful: once the mode is turned on, the player can also be dismembered.
Of course, there are benefits to going out like that.
"If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine."
Minus World in Super Mario Bros.
As you probably know, each level in Super Mario Bros. is numbered according to the world
you're in: 1-1, 2-1, etc.
But did you know there's actually a "Minus World?"
That's right, if you know the right trick you can reach a world that's simply numbered
minus one, which is how it got its nickname among players.
Just what you'll get in Minus World depends on your platform.
On the NES, you'll get sent to a world that that looks identical to underwater world 7-2,
but the level can't be finished, as the final pipe will simply send you back to the start
of the level.
In the Japanese Famicom version, though, finishing Minus World brings you to Minus-Two World,
and then Minus-Three World, before restarting the entire game in hard mode.
MissingNo. in Pokemon Red and Blue
MissingNo is the "hidden" Pokemon that players can find in Pokemon Red and Blue.
You can obtain it through a number of glitches in the game — one being the infamous "old
man" glitch.
First, talk to the old man north of Viridian City and get him to show you how to catch
a Pokemon.
After the demonstration, fly to Cinnabar Island and use surf to travel up and down the eastern
coast.
You'll encounter a number of Pokemon, with a chance to find MissingNo.
Because it's a glitched Pokemon, your game experience could get wonky.
But weird pixels and strange item duplications are a small price to pay for catching the
infamous glitch-Pokemon MissingNo.
Unfinished world in Final Fantasy XV: Episode Duscae
Before Final Fantasy XV officially hit the shelves at the end of November 2016, Square
Enix made a large playable demo titled Episode Duscae available via an exclusive download
code in 2015.
It included a glowing blue barrier which kept you from leaving the demo area.
Unless, of course, you figured out the in-game exploit: if you got hit by a car near the
barrier, it would bounce you right through to the other side, where a giant world of
dinosaurs and Titans awaits.
Unfortunately, if you did anything that would auto-save your game, it would corrupt the
file, but hey, that's the risk you take when you're a maverick — or when you're trying
to do your best Terminator impression.
"Please remain calm."
Nightmare sequence in Freddi Fish
In this "Junior Adventure" for ages 3-8, you play as Freddi, a plucky little yellow fish,
who is accompanied by his best buddy, Luther, on a mission to track down the thieves who
stole the kelp seeds.
Sounds charming — right up until you enter a cheat code that triggers a nightmare world
where Freddi offers Luther up as a sacrifice to Eddie the Eel, who gleefully eats Luther
alive.
Turns out it's just Freddi's twisted daydream, but… that's not actually any better.
Lord of the Pies in Dragon Age: Inquisition
As awesome as Dragon Age: Inquisition is, it also contains more than a few bugs and
glitches, one of which causes you to occasionally fall through the floor of your castle stronghold.
But while BioWare didn't actually fix this problem, they did at least hide an Easter
egg down there in the form of "Lord of the Pies," a huge smiling pie wearing a tophat.
Because if you can't have quality control, at least you can have a terrifying pie.
Developer test level in Sonic Adventure 2
When Sonic Adventure 2: Battle first came out for GameCube, fans soon discovered that
you could access a secret developer test level by using the correct code on an Action Replay
device.
When the game was ported to PS3 and Xbox 360 in 2012, the developers never bothered to
remove the secret level — probably because it's actually pretty cool.
There's not a lot to it, but it's still a fun little area to visit and play around with
the physics of Sonic.
The secret brothel in Final Fantasy VII
The Honey Bee Inn in Final Fantasy VII is a building where lonely men seek companionship
from ladies in bee costumes.
While players can only access a few rooms, there are a few areas that were only accessible
in the original Japanese release.
Among the hidden areas are an employee room, waiting room, and lobby.
These rooms even feature characters that had completed dialogue, but are never seen in
the main game.
You know, maybe it's for the best that young gamers weren't allowed to explore a bee themed
brothel.
The Netherspace in World of Warcraft
For over a decade, intrepid World of Warcraft players have been finding ways to exploit
the sometimes buggy walls and ceilings of the Karazhan raid in order to slip outside
the castle.
Once you're out, there's lots of things to do, like explore a nearby Ogre village, or
view the smiley face left by developers.
The main draw, though, is the unfinished zone called Netherspace.
Not only can you explore some big floating rocks in the sky, you can also use a bug to
walk right up the wall and get to the last boss, skipping the entire massive Karazhan
raid.
For anyone who ever suffered through the Chess Match sequence, this is one glitch just begging
to be exploited.
The secret treasure trove in Fallout 4
In the PC version of Fallout 4, you can access a secret room that houses every item in the
game by entering a secret developer code.
Inside, there are footlockers, cooking stations, crafting stations, a terminal, and enough
rows of power armor suits to make Iron Man jealous.
We recommend loading up on everything you can while strapping on the X-01 power armor,
the best in the game.
You might look like a hoarder, but no one will say anything when you're rocking that
power armor.
Equipment room in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Just like they did in Fallout 4, the folks at Bethesda also hid a secret equipment room
in Skyrim, which you can access on PC by entering some cheat codes.
That will teleport you to a room where all your item-hoarding dreams can come true.
There's one catch, though: there are so many items in the room that simply loading the
loot list when you open a chest can crash some computers.
Now we know why HAL wouldn't open that door — he knew the other side was filled with
magic axes.
"Open the pod bay doors, HAL."
"I'm sorry, Dave.
I'm afraid I can't do that."
Thanks for watching!
Click the Looper icon to subscribe to our YouTube channel.
Plus check out all this cool stuff we know you'll love, too!