Hunt for ‘Easter eggs’ in your favourite video games
It’s Easter time, but not all eggs can be painted and placed in a basket. here we look at a handful of hidden goodies buried in your video games of today and yesterday.
“Easter eggs” — as it pertains to video games — are hidden treats you can find by taking the time to explore your virtual surroundings or in other cases you might need to press a combination of buttons on the game controller (or computer keyboard) to unlock the secret.
Easter eggs date as far back as 1980, when Atari programmer Warren Robinett included a creator’s credit in a hidden room in the game Adventure.
Planted as a joke by the developers, an Easter egg might be a funny poster, music video, bonus mission or nod to another game. Consider these eggs undocumented extras not listed on the back of the game box.
For example, in Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed II, you can stumble upon a giant squid and a humorous reference to Nintendo’s Mario character. In THQ’s WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010 you can unlock additional WWE talent, alternate attire, backstage brawl areas and championship belts. Fans of Microsoft Game Studios’ Halo 3 might have found the Final Unggoy (a.k.a. “Seinfeld” Grunt), an alien creature hidden under a rock who insults you (example: “Hey, Demon! The jerk store called, and they’re all out of you!”).
Not all games have eggs, of course, and in some cases the joke can backfire on the game makers. In Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, the Easter egg, called “Hot Coffee,” was a minigame that mimicked sexual intercourse between the main character as his girlfriend. As a result, many retailers pulled the game off store shelves until newer versions of the game were available — without the egg.
Easter eggs can also be found on DVD movies, in computer software and on some websites.
But it’s time to get our game on with 5 must-see video game Easter eggs you can try and “crack” on your own:
* In Blizzard’s Diablo II action role-playing game, you can find a portal that takes you to a “Secret Cow Level,” a world where bovines reign supreme — and you’ve got to fight your way out. To find this humorous egg, you’ll need the leg of Wirt artifact while defeating the malevolent Diablo.
* In Valve’s zombie shooter Left 4 Dead 2, you’ll find a diner with a jukebox that houses enjoyable ditties such as “re: Your Brains,” a song about friendship and, er, eating brains. Keep swapping records, though, and you’ll find a hidden track: “Still Alive” from Valve’s Portal game.
* THQ’s Saints Row 2 has a number of “super secret islands” you can visit, including ones protected by a giant purple Easter bunny, a baby Loch Ness Monster and others. Another egg in this game unlocks a picture of the developers in their virtual design studio.
* Bethesda Softworks’ Fallout 3 contains more than two dozen Easter eggs, but our favourite is escaping the crib at the start of the game and exploring the vault as a baby — all from a first-person perspective. Check out the various YouTube videos to see how much you can do as an infant.
* In Konami’s Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater, the egg is a zombie-bashing minigame that has nothing to do with the rest of the game. To access it, save your game in the cell right after the torture scene and then reload the game — Snake will wake up and think it’s all a dream until he discovers hoards of the undead.
Readers, have any of your own video game Easter eggs to share? Happy hunting!
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[...] the tag line: “[R]emember… it’s only as violent as you are…” - An “Easter Egg” called “hot coffee” (as a reward for reaching a particular level) leads to simulated sexual intercourse between the [...]