Video Game Easter Eggs

While this list would be better suited come April, a podcast brought the idea of video game Easter eggs up in my head to do this before it would escape my memory. Easter eggs are common in both video games and TV/film, and upon seeing them can either be groan inducing or something that causes you to point at the screen and applaud the inclusion of said Easter egg. Here is a list of Easter eggs that I, although not having experienced them all, was the most interested in hearing about:




Adventure - Warren Robinett

While it's nothing spectacular, it gets nods as the original video game Easter egg. Now whether or not this is true, this secret room that says "Created by: Warren Robinett" is credited as the first. In a game where you play as a dot escaping from a duck looking dragon (the original Pokemon?), I guess this could have been seen as a cool bonus. But at this point in gaming, its kind of...well...whatever?





Portal - The Cake May Not Have Been A Lie

We all know the meme. The cake is a lie. Thanks to the amazing experience of Portal, that has been hammered into the heads of gamers since it's release. However, after escaping from the test chambers, there's a screen with scrolling yellow text. Upon looking at it carefully and overlooking the computer gibberish, you can find a recipe for a Black Forest cake with ingredients hidden in it.

Super Mario Bros - Minus World

While I'm not sure if it should be considered an Easter egg instead of a glitch, it's something I would slap myself for not including as the mythical Minus World in the original Super Mario Bros. Many strive to see this level in which you swim, and swim, and swim but only few would actually see. At least, until later on when it became common knowledge of getting there in World 1-2 after jumping backwards while crouched and going down a pipe. Not the greatest Easter egg, because games where you swim are rarely fun.





Grand Theft Auto: No Easter Egg

The people at Rockstar do love their Easter eggs. So much so that they will actually include an Easter egg...as an Easter egg. This however is probably my favorite. The image says it all.





Halo: Combat Evolved - MEGG

Some people try to immortalize their love for one another by taking pictures, recording videos, writing poems, etc. In the case of Jamie Griesemer, a level designer for Halo: Combat Evolved, he decided to add the love of his life, Meg Pallor, into the game. In doing so, it caused frustration to Halo players as a damn near impossible Easter egg to reach. But in doing so, you get to see a bloody heart with a bullet-hole letter M in the middle of it. Unfortunately, after seeing this, you are treated to a gruesome death at the hands of some Invulnerable Marines. Was it worth it?





Super Mario RPG - Link, Samus, and F-Zero

Super Mario RPG broke away from the normal platforming that made the Mario games great and went a different route in an RPG game. It worked, and worked well. While the Final Fantasy influence from Culex will usually be mentioned first, Nintendo also wanted to include some of their own franchises to the mix with nice nods. Thus, you can find both Samus and Link taking naps in the game (Samus in Peach's castle and Link in Rose Town) and F-Zero model cars in Hinopio's shop. Some may say Smash Bros was the game to bring it all together, but...

Just Cause 2 - Lost

Remember Just Cause 2? That game you ran around and blew things up because the story was completely forgettable? Well, this is one of those reasons it's such a great game. While I could have posted the mechanical shark or the beached whale, instead the game gets it's due with the island from Lost. Approach it with a plane and watch it get shot down. Escape before it blows and witness the weather change and see strange stuff on the island. Besides a plane wreckage with an SOS type message, there is also a chance to run into a monster of sorts...





Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater - The End

Hideo Kojima thinks outside the box. That was evident enough in Metal Gear Solid especially during the Psycho Mantis fight. He does a similar thing here with the villain The End in Snake Eater but in a slightly different way. See, The End is a pain in the ass. For an old man, he is fast and sneaky and caused much more frustration with me than I thought possible. Had I known there were two other methods to beat him, I would have been fine. One included sniping him from afar when you see him at the warehouse, or the more Kojima way, save during the battle and turning the system off. When you come back a week later or move your date settings forward a week, The End will have died of old age during battle. I applaud you Kojima.





Batman: Arkham Asylum - Arkham City

Rocksteady sure knows how to hide them. Before Arkham City was ever announced, they had an Easter egg hidden in Arkham Asylum hinting at what a sequel would entail. While most collapsible walls were shown in detective vision, one room in particular didn't. This is a secret room in the Mansion that Batman has to use the explosive gel on three times before it will be discovered. On the wall is a poster showing a Arkham stamp over part of Gotham City. With Rocksteady saying the biggest secret in Arkham City hasn't been discovered yet, it makes me wonder what that could possibly be and when we will find it...





Saints Row 2 - I don't want to see those Easter eggs...

The craziness in Saints Row 3 isn't completely out of nowhere. If you want to put a little effort getting to a specific location, you can see a giant bunny rise out of the water. I'm not sure exactly what it's purpose is, but Saints Row 3 did follow up on it as they have the captured bunny on a boat in the game as well.




There are a ton of Easter eggs in games, some somewhat lame, others really cool and interesting. I've always had an interest in these as they are fun to find especially if they are more off-the-wall once you see them. I hope developers continue to add these to their game, because they are nice to find and talk about with other players not to mention extend the longevity of the game trying to discover them.

Rocksteady and Silver Age Batman

So news was released this week that the developer behind Batman Arkham Asylum and Arkham City are set to release a new Batman game in 2014. There is one catch though! It's going to be a more stylized version than the past two games were. This is due to it being a prequel to Batman: Arkham Asylum and set in the Silver Age backdrop.

Well what does that mean exactly? For those who aren't familiar with the term Silver Age, this was an era in comics where everything was more lighthearted and goofy. Before the Frank Millers of comics decided to brood everything up, comics were over-the-top and weird. To use the best example, the 60's Adam West Batman is a good idea of what the Silver Age represented. Shark repellent, quippy dialogue, running around with a large bomb, and being punny are all things that the Silver Age of comics boiled down to.

The question is, why would Rocksteady go this route? After two successful games with a grim and gritty realistic Batman, why go the route of the 60's and more recent Brave and the Bold cartoon? It would seem that would possibly turn off a lot of fans that don't want a more comedic take on Batman. But perhaps they have a plan on how to make it work, especially if it will be a sequel. Here's what I think could happen...

If the game is indeed a prequel, why would they offer such a drastic change of appearance to it? The city of Gotham feels to dark to ever have been a colorful and chipper city to begin with. But Rocksteady does have something they can fall back on to bring this different world into the game and have it still fit in. Enter Batmite.

Similar to Superman's magical 5th dimensional imp Mr. Mxylt...spt..lck...the big headed floating man in a derby......Batmite is a creature with magical powers that from time to time would come and cause mischief with Batman. Batmite is a character who grew to love Batman and idolize him. So every once in a while he would make an appearance and change a lot of weird things to see his hero in action. At one point he even changed the characters to reflect their name counterpart. So someone like Catwoman was actually a cat. Stuff like that. He even can make appearance in the DC offices and force them to write a book with him in it. His reality-warping seems to know no bounds.

So it would seem to introduce a character like Batmite could give the Arkham series a different look with the more simplistic artsy appearance of the Silver Age. But there's one other route they could go which seems to be the one more possible. A few years back, a writer found a way to incorporate all of Batman's history into the life of one man. As this writer (Grant Morrison for those of you wondering) has experienced trippy hallucinations due to drugs in the past, he wrote a story that found an explanation for the weirdness of the Silver Age and an incorporation of Batmite into it as well.

In the flashback, Batman was attempting to understand the psyche of his villains, most notably the Joker. To do so, he subjected himself to not only sense deprivation but also many drugs to figure out how the villains think. Thus, the psychedelic experiences that many Silver Age books inflicted to Batman. The man who overlooked these happenings also implanted a hypnotic trigger in Batman, that when triggered, caused Batman to pretty much lose it. He changed costumes and became more violent and had Batmite following him around.

If Rocksteady goes with an approach to the next game, I'm going to say this will be it. A villain is able to get into the head of Batman which changes the entire world and seems to set it in the Silver Age era. This would excuse the style change and maybe explain the Justice League involvement. And if one were to suspect the beginning of Arkham Asylum as a clue, then the Joker would be involved as well. Which would tie in what caused the Joker to be taken in at the beginning of Arkham Asylum in the first place.

In truth, it doesn't matter to me how they decide to do this game. Rocksteady made two amazing games with Batman, something that I don't think anyone expected them to do. This new route of Silver Age and inclusion of the Justice League sounds like them ramping up their game and testing the waters for some other possibilities. I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, and for those cautious about a drastic change, I think it's in capable and trusting hands.