- 15 hours ago
Some secrets are meant to be kept... until now! Join us as we dive deep into the most elusive Easter Eggs, hidden cheat codes, and long-lost features across video game history that went unnoticed by most players for years, sometimes decades.
Category
🎮️
GamingTranscript
00:06Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at easter eggs, cheats, and other secrets in video games that took most
00:12players years to find out about.
00:15FIGHT!
00:16BOOM BOOM BOOM!
00:23Number 30. Calendar Man's Clues. Batman Arkham City.
00:28On Christmas Day, the Red Man comes. A bloody X marks the spot.
00:36In Arkham City, chatting with the villain Calendar Man on 12 different holidays can get you an achievement or trophy.
00:42However, there's another seemingly ordinary date that reveals new dialogue and a nod towards the game's sequel that took three
00:49years for anyone to hear.
00:51If you set your console or PC's date to December 13, 2004, the date developer Rocksteady was founded, Calendar Man
00:59gives a cryptic clue about Arkham Knight.
01:02This may have taken longer to find if not for a mysterious YouTube channel, JG Jour, uploading a single video
01:09that only shows the beginning of the exchange.
01:12Since Calendar Man's real name is Julian Gregory Day, and Jour is the French word for Day, this was likely
01:19someone within Rocksteady itself.
01:21Well, well. And on today of all days, do you remember my early work?
01:30Number 29. The Secret Metroid. Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze.
01:41After breathing new life into Metroid with the Prime games, developer Retro Studios was brought on for Donkey Kong Country
01:47Returns on the Wii.
01:48For the game's sequel, Tropical Freeze, on the Wii U, the team hit a small tribute to its past work.
01:53On level 4-3, Amiss Abyss, players eventually come to a long underwater tunnel they must swim upwards through.
02:01Reaching the next area, you must then swim back down the path and through painful sea anemone blocking your way.
02:07Doing this causes a small Metroid to swim through the background.
02:11A player named Shane Marchis discovered the Easter Egg in 2018, four years after release, and posted his findings on
02:18Twitter.
02:19Number 28. Skipping to the End. Your Automata.
02:25Is that our target?
02:27Negative. This enemy is unrelated.
02:29Nearly four years after the release of Nier Automata, its final secret was revealed.
02:35Modder Lance McDonald was reverse engineering the game when he found a bit of code he didn't recognize.
02:41After defeating the prologue boss, McDonald stood in between a set of barrels within the room and entered a cheat
02:46code.
02:47Players wishing to replicate this will find that it takes them straight to the epilogue of the game's final,
02:52true ending, being the shoot-'em-up credits sequence.
02:56Not only that, but it unlocks the chapter select and debug menus, features that are normally unlocked only after beating
03:03the game three times.
03:05That can definitely save you time on a replay.
03:08Number 27. Seal Rescue Mission.
03:11Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Double Agent.
03:14This rescue mission is another secret that might have taken longer to find if not for developer interference.
03:20In the Xbox version of Splinter Cell Double Agent, there's a hidden co-op mission to rescue five baby alien
03:27seals.
03:27Cookie, Muffin, Vanilla, Pepperoni, and Buddy.
03:31Players can find it in the Ellsworth Penitentiary level.
03:34It requires several obscure steps to find each one, which is probably why no one ever stumbled on it.
03:41In fact, after four years of no one finding it, level designer Simon LaSalle, the one responsible for putting it
03:47there in the first place,
03:48uploaded a video of he and a friend completing the mission.
03:51Number 26. A Vulgar T-Shirt. Splatoon 2.
03:56Deciphering a fictional language is no small feat, but Splatoon fans are a passionate bunch.
04:03Following the release of the second game in 2017, players took up the task of compiling all the text across
04:09various signs and pieces of clothing to bring together the Inkling alphabet.
04:14They eventually got there, and so the next step was finding out what everything said.
04:19By far the most entertaining discovery to come from this endeavor was revealed around five years after launch.
04:26When translated, a t-shirt that Gelfonzo, the clothing merchant, wears on Tuesdays reads,
04:33F you, though not so family friendly.
04:35It's surprising to find this in a Nintendo game, but undeniably hilarious.
04:44Number 25. Locust Shooting Range. Gears of War 3.
04:49When we hijack the barge, let me drive. I think I've got a way to control it.
04:54Gears of War is a series that loves its easter eggs, but some of them can squeak by unnoticed.
05:00In Act 2, Chapter 2 of the third game, there are three golden coins hidden at the top of various
05:06trees.
05:07Shooting them in the proper order leads to you dropping into a shooting range, where you'll gain access to a
05:13minigame.
05:13Five enemies will pop out of the ground at different spots, and depending on how many of them you're able
05:19to hit, you'll get better rewards.
05:22This hidden minigame wasn't found until five years after the game's release, by the YouTube channel TACCOM.
05:29How they were able to spot coins in those trees is beyond us, but it's a neat secret regardless.
05:42Number 24. Homage to Sci-Fi Classics. Titanfall 2.
05:48Pilot, a fragment of Anderson's damaged log may be relevant here.
05:52One of the best missions in Titanfall 2 sees you shift through time.
05:58At a certain point in effect and cause, players will come across a flaming hallway and are meant to shift
06:04to the past, where it's safe.
06:07You can open a certain locked door after having shifted 88 times, a nod to the DeLorean in Back to
06:14the Future.
06:14Inside the room, you can find two bodies, one on the floor electrocuted and one propped up on tables in
06:21a split.
06:22This references another time travel movie, Time Cop, in which Jean-Claude Van Damme avoids being electrocuted like his opponent
06:29with a well-timed split.
06:31This took players six years to find, and only after developers at Respawn gave out some hints.
06:43Number 23. The Infection's Origins. The Last of Us.
06:47Hello?
06:48Sarah. Honey, I need to get your daddy on the phone.
06:51Uncle Tommy, what time is it?
06:52Things begin ramping up during the prologue of The Last of Us, when Sarah witnesses the onset of the outbreak
06:58on TV and sees an explosion outside the window.
07:02You're then meant to head downstairs to continue the story.
07:05Well, if you stop on the stairs, quit the game, reload the save, and head back to Joel's room,
07:10the TV will now display the picture of an ant infected with the Cordyceps fungus, the real-life inspiration for
07:18the game's version.
07:19This was found in 2021 by streamer and speedrunner Anthony Calabrese, seven years after the game's launch.
07:26Designer Kurt Marginow stated it must have been a bug left over from a shader test, but it definitely makes
07:34for a cool easter egg.
07:39Number 22. A Hidden Birthday Message. Halo 3.
07:44You've got enough to worry about without you two trying to kill each other.
07:47This easter egg makes us feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
07:52For a while after Halo 3's launch, developer Bungie hinted towards the existence of a final secret that players had
07:58yet to find.
07:59In 2014, seven years after the game's release, it was finally uncovered by YouTube user LordZed.
08:07On Christmas Day, or with your console's date simply set to December 25th, load into any campaign mission.
08:14While on the loading screen, pressing down on both thumbsticks causes the image of the Halo ring to change and
08:20display a message that reads,
08:22Happy Birthday Lauren.
08:23This was put in by programmer Adrian Perez, immortalizing his wife in one of the best games of all time.
08:30Lucky lady.
08:32We should go through the portal. Find out for sure.
08:35Number 21. Play as Master Hand. Super Smash Bros. Melee.
08:52In Melee, you can play as the big bad Master Hand. It just takes a bit of work.
08:57On the character select screen, as player 3, you must press B and A at the same time while choosing
09:03a name.
09:04Then let go of A and press it once more as another player backs out of the screen.
09:08If timed correctly, it takes you to the stage select screen without having picked a character.
09:13And player 3 will be loaded in as Master Hand.
09:16Known as the name entry glitch, it was first discovered by user Xchord92, who posted their findings on the German
09:23fansite Smashboards.
09:24And other players would later figure out that the glitch could be used in single player modes as well, like
09:30event matches.
09:31Although not a secret intended by the developers, the glitch wasn't found until 2008, seven years after the game's release.
09:39Number 20. The Spider Dream Mystery. Red Dead Redemption 2.
09:50The devs at Rockstar love to craft mysteries for their players. And sure enough, their fans love it just as
09:57much.
09:58At several points on the map in Red Dead Redemption 2, you can find a telegraph pole with a spider
10:02symbol carved into it.
10:04And at different times of day for each of them, a spider appears above it, spinning a web.
10:09But that's not all. Carvings of cardinal directions and objects leading to different areas with puzzles that somehow all piece
10:15together.
10:16The first clue was discovered by several forum posters in late 2025, seven years after release.
10:21And since then, the entire community has been banding together to solve the mystery.
10:26But as of April 2026, it has yet to be solved.
10:30Number 19. Bored Commentary. Wave Race Blue Storm.
10:40As with most sports games, the commentator in Wave Race Blue Storm is appropriately excited.
10:46But if you're hoping to switch things up, there's a hidden code that will give you the exact opposite experience.
10:53If you go into the audio settings and enter a specific string of buttons,
10:57your first race will be commentated by someone who sounds like he wishes he was doing anything else.
11:03Not only that, he'll also insult literally everything you do.
11:08If you were any good, you could get a turbo by hitting the gas when the light goes green.
11:13Three, two, one, go!
11:15This easter egg didn't begin making the rounds until 2010, nine years after the game's release.
11:22It was posted on NeoGAF by user Roald Duke, though how they could have possibly stumbled upon this is anyone's
11:29guess.
11:30Number 18. A Friendly Rover. Mass Effect 3.
11:41Here we have another easter egg brought to light by a dev who got tired of waiting for someone to
11:47find it.
11:47On Mars in Mass Effect 3, if you walk a specific path through the group of solar panels,
11:53you'll trigger an interaction where a rover drives up to you and gives you a friendly nod.
11:58No one realized this until 2021, nine years later after the remastered Legendary Edition had come out.
12:06It was ex-Bioware designer Richard Boisvert who put the easter egg in the game and revealed it to the
12:12world,
12:12even drawing players a map of the path to follow. Guess it was just too well hidden.
12:17I'm the same person I always was. Time won't change that.
12:21Number 17. A Company in Need. The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt.
12:25Someone call for me. I wonder why.
12:29Somehow, a game as picked over as The Witcher 3 still has secrets to give.
12:34In 2024, nine years after the game's release,
12:38YouTuber Exletalis was told by a viewer of hidden artwork they found by glitching under Novigrad.
12:44After some digging, they found the artwork.
12:47A drawing of a Temerian soldier doing his best Uncle Sam pose with the text CDPR needs you underneath.
12:54Why does this exist? Exletalis speculated it could have been an artist's joke,
12:59or an actual recruitment tool from CD Projekt Red for game testers who can find bugs.
13:05Regardless, it's always cool to hear about new secrets in a game we all think everything has been found in.
13:11Alright, I'll give you some coin, but you gotta tell me where the putrid grove is.
13:16Number 16. The Mystery Person. Resident Evil 4.
13:21Now that's what I call backup.
13:23One of the most famous easter eggs in Resident Evil 4 is still a mystery today.
13:28In Chapter 5-4, after Mike's helicopter explodes, you can spot a mysterious figure in a distant building.
13:36It's incredibly hard to see, and only by using a sniper rifle can you even make out the shape of
13:42someone.
13:43Using a no-clip mode to move the camera closer, we find a 2D image of an Asian man in
13:48a green jacket.
13:49YouTube user SR212787 first uploaded the footage of this discovery in early 2017, 12 years after the game's initial release.
14:00While the person is probably someone who worked for Capcom, no one knows for sure who this is, and that
14:07mystery has remained over the years.
14:10We have to get that parasite out of your body.
14:13Number 15. The Lost Nero Family. Final Fantasy IX.
14:17A side quest in Final Fantasy IX went undiscovered by most players for nearly 13 years.
14:23Towards the end of the game, you can find two siblings, Zenero and Benero, at the Tantalus hideout, wondering where
14:30their sibling is.
14:31Each time you defeat a boss or watch a cutscene, you can return to the hideout for a new scene
14:35with a different family member.
14:37Only after doing this process nine times will you complete the quest and earn a protect ring.
14:42GameFAQ's user TheKusabi found out about it in Ultimania, a Japanese-only book released in 2002.
14:49Because there's no indication to do this nine times, and because the quest wasn't in the original English language guide,
14:55most people had no idea about it.
15:06Number 14. A Secret Weakness. The Legend of Zelda The Wind Waker.
15:16The Legend of Zelda series is packed with secrets, many of which aren't found by fans until long after release.
15:24One of the coolest concerns Kaledimos, the second boss in The Wind Waker.
15:29Inside the forest haven, Link can find mystical spring water that gives life to the Great Deku Tree.
15:35Well, if you take a bottle with you into the boss fight of the Forbidden Woods dungeon and sprinkle the
15:41pure water onto the monster, it instantly dies.
15:49That's a great secret mechanic and small bit of world building.
15:53And it wasn't discovered until 2016, 14 years after its original Japanese release, when FishWaffle64 was streaming the HD version
16:04on Twitch.
16:05Number 13. Company History. Goldeneye 007.
16:16Before Rare made it big, developing classic Nintendo games in the 90s, it released multiple games in the early 80s
16:24on the ZX Spectrum, a series of 8-bit home computers.
16:28It seems the company once toyed with the idea of emulating its old titles, as it's possible to access them
16:34in Goldeneye 007 on the N64.
16:37It was merely a side project that was abandoned, with the code disabled but never taken out.
16:43It wasn't until 15 years later, in 2012, that a user known as Spoon Diddly uploaded their discovery on the
16:50RWP forums.
16:52Accessing the hidden emulator is very technically complex, but still possible in an original copy if you know how to
17:00do it.
17:05Number 12. Totaka's Song. Pikmin 2.
17:09Famed game composer Kazumi Totaka hides a simple 19-note song in each Nintendo game he works on.
17:17Although it's usually well hidden, Easter Egg hunters know to look for it.
17:31However, it's in Pikmin 2 twice, so it took a long time for the second instance to be found.
17:38First, you have to enter one of the cave dungeons without a memory card in your GameCube.
17:43You then have to wait on the save screen for about three and a half minutes, and then the tune
17:49will play alongside the standard soundtrack.
18:06YouTube user Quote Balrog discovered the Easter Egg in 2019, 15 years after Pikmin 2 was released.
18:15Number 11. The HMCS Bitter, Blood Omen Legacy of Kane
18:21In 2010, 14 years after the release of the first Legacy of Kane entry, a team was working on recreating
18:29it in 3D.
18:30And they made a pretty surprising discovery in the game's files.
18:34A completely hidden ship area called the HMCS Bitter.
18:39When asked about it in 2017, director Dennis Dyack claimed it was still possible to reach this area in the
18:46base game,
18:46through four invisible switches in different parts of the world.
18:50Those switches weren't found until 2020.
18:54Not only were they invisible, they were also unreachable, and required using the Energy Bolt spell to activate.
19:01That is absurd, but if any player wishes to visit the HMCS Bitter, you can now find the method to
19:07do so.
19:08Number 10. The Final Rainbow Coin, Donkey Kong 64
19:19Donkey Kong 64 is infamous for its staggering amount of collectibles, with each of the five Kongs having several dedicated
19:27groups of items only they can collect.
19:30Among the many items you can find are rainbow coins, which are earned by performing a slam attack on specific
19:37mounds of dirt.
19:38Until 2017, a little over 17 years after release, everyone thought there was only one rainbow coin in each level.
19:47But then, speedrunner Isotarge discovered that the fifth level, Fungi Forest, actually held a second one, hidden in a field
19:55of grass.
19:56Finding something so long after the game's release was impressive, but it also changed how speedrunners tackled their 100%
20:03runs.
20:12Number 9. Hidden Features, Silent Hill 2
20:17Ow! What's wrong?
20:19I just pricked myself.
20:21Are you okay?
20:22Yeah.
20:23Silent Hill 2 really hones in on the survival aspect of its horror, with limited ways to save and no
20:30mini-map.
20:31Actually, there is a way to save when you want and see where you're going, it's just that no one
20:37knew about it for years.
20:38Found only in the PS2 version, you first have to unlock the famous joke ending featuring a Shiba Inu, which
20:45means beating the game a couple of times.
20:48On your next playthrough, you can turn on a mini-map and the ability to save anywhere, each through a
20:53different code.
20:54Players didn't know about this until 2018, 17 years after the game's release, when ex-users Punk7890 and BigManJapanSC posted
21:06their findings online.
21:14Number 8. Cheat Codes, Gran Turismo 4
21:28Who doesn't love a good cheat code?
21:31Gran Turismo 4 on the PS2 has some pretty decent ones, it's just that no one knew they existed for
21:37nearly 20 years.
21:39In 2023, Twitter user Ninkai shared that they had found a group of hidden cheat codes, like one that lets
21:45you win gold in any event and one that instantly gives you 10 million credits.
21:49So, why did it take so long for someone to find these cheats in a game from 2005?
21:54Well, according to Ninkai, you can only access them after 365 in-game days have passed.
22:01Naturally, that's a lot of actual time to spend on a single game.
22:06Number 7. Debug Room, Shadowrun
22:18Based on the TTRPG of the same name, Shadowrun got a lot of praise when it launched on the Super
22:23Nintendo.
22:24Yet, even something as beloved as it can hold secrets fans never find.
22:28In honor of the game's 20th anniversary in 2013, the creators were interviewed by Retro Gamer magazine.
22:34They revealed that there was a hidden debug room you could access near a specific lamppost in an early part
22:40of the game, though they could not remember all of the details.
22:43Still, that was all players needed.
22:45Soon after, GameFAQ's user GanonTech found the lamppost and figured out how to access the room through a 10-step
22:52process.
22:53The room holds a lot of cool features, like a ton of money and doors that let you access later
22:57parts of the game.
22:59Number 6. In The Stars
23:01The Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask
23:10With a terrifying moon glaring down at you, it can be hard to notice anything else about the sky in
23:15Majora's Mask.
23:16But, it holds a small easter egg that's almost impossible to notice unless you're looking for it.
23:21In 2021, 21 years after the game's original release, a programmer by the name of Zell640 was digging into the
23:28code, and shared something interesting that they found.
23:31The placement of stars and even constellations in the night sky will change depending on what you name your save
23:37file.
23:38It's still unclear if this was meant to be part of some larger feature, which was perhaps scrapped due to
23:43the game's short development time.
23:45Number 5. Play as Shin Akuma Street Fighter Alpha 2
23:50Round 1
23:53Fight!
23:54Unlocking new characters in fighting games is always exciting.
23:58But, the method for playing as Shin Akuma in Street Fighter Alpha 2 is so obscure, it went undiscovered until
24:052021, 25 years after the game's release.
24:09A modder named Gizaha was trying to reverse engineer the Super Nintendo version when they came across the method.
24:16After getting the top score in arcade mode, you must enter KAJ as your initials.
24:22Back on the title screen, you must then hold L, X, Y, and Start on a second controller.
24:28While still holding those buttons down, the first controller must select the Versus mode.
24:33Then, you just have to hold Start when selecting your character, and you can play as the more powerful version
24:39of Akuma.
24:46Number 4. Changing the Code
24:49Castlevania Legacy of Darkness
24:51Most players are familiar with the Konami Code, a famous string of button inputs that has been featured in many
24:58of the studio's games.
24:59But, for Castlevania Legacy of Darkness on the N64, the code was altered, which is probably why no one knew
25:06it was there until 2024, 25 years after the game was released.
25:11Normally, you'd input up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, start, and get access to some nifty
25:17cheats or power-ups.
25:18But here, you have to use the C buttons instead of a joystick or D-pad for directions, and the
25:24final three buttons are changed.
25:26So, instead, it's C up four times, C down four times, C left twice, C right twice, C left twice,
25:33C right twice, L, R, and finally, Z twice.
25:36Yes, it's very long.
25:38This was uncovered by YouTuber Jupiter Climb, and gives you access to all characters from the beginning, as well as
25:43their alternate costumes and hard mode.
25:46Number 3. Programmer Initials
25:48Donkey Kong
25:57Back in the Atari days, programmers weren't allowed to have their names anywhere in a game they worked on.
26:03One man, Landon M. Dyer, took issue with this.
26:07Dyer was responsible for reprogramming the original Donkey Kong game for the Atari 400 and 800 systems, by himself, which
26:15was released in 1983.
26:16In 2009, 26 years later, he revealed there was an easter egg no one had found in his port, but
26:24couldn't remember how to activate it.
26:26Enter programmer Don Hodges, who used an emulator to figure it out.
26:30Players must first set a new high score of either 37,000, 73,000, or 77,000, with numbers in
26:38the other spots being unimportant.
26:39Once done, they must die to start over with their last life used up by falling.
26:45Then, you must set the difficulty to 4 by pressing the options button three times.
26:49If done correctly, you'll find LMD at the bottom of the start screen, the initials of one hard-working developer.
26:57Number 2. Hidden Two-Player Mode
26:59Super Punch-Out
27:00Like its predecessors, Super Punch-Out is solely a single-player game.
27:05Or, at least, that's what everyone thought until a secret two-player mode was discovered 28 years post-release, in
27:122022.
27:13Twitter account Unlisted Cheats posted they had found two new cheat codes.
27:17On the starting screen, by holding B and Y on a second controller, and then pressing A or Start on
27:23the first, you'll be taken to a Free Fight mode, where you can choose to fight any opponent in the
27:28game, even ones that are meant to be locked.
27:30But, if you do the same button inputs again on this screen, the second player will be allowed to choose
27:35the opponent, and face Player One instead of the CPU.
27:39Knockout!
27:43Too close.
27:44Number 1. Helping a Player Out
27:47Mike Tyson's Punch-Out
27:55The NES's Punch-Out is a fan-favorite to old-school players, pitting Little Mac against a series of boxers
28:01with patterns to learn and exploit.
28:04But, in some cases, the game tries to give you some help.
28:07In 2009, 22 years post-launch, artist Makoto Wada revealed a camera flashes in the right of the audience just
28:15before Bald Bull Charles.
28:17And if you punch at that moment, Bald Bull goes down instantly.
28:22However, there's a different hint in Bull's second fight, as well as the second fight with Piston Honda, that no
28:29one noticed until Reddit user Midwestern Housewives in 2016, 29 years after launch.
28:36A bearded man on the left will nod, signaling when to punch in order to knock either boxer out immediately.
28:50Do you know of any other video game secrets that weren't discovered until years later?
28:55Share them with us in the comments.
28:57Bye!
29:00Let's see you now!
Comments