The best Easter eggs from video games

The 1979 Atari 2600 game, Adventure, was the first to include a hidden joke hidden in a dark corner of the game's source code. If players directed a grey dot to a hidden room, they could see the message "Created by Warren Robinett," a self-referential protest from the game's programmer who was upset with Atari for not giving credit in the video game. Since then, it has been discovered that the Fairchild Channel F console, launched in 1976, had several such messages. The demo cartridge that originally came with the machine had one, as did the 1978 title Video Whizball, a derivative of Pong that would publish the name of the encoder on the screen (Bradley Reid-Selth) if you perform a complex sequence of movements at the end of the game.

Dark Souls is not only known for being one of the best and most difficult action role-playing games of the past decade, but also for inspiring a lot of Easter eggs in other games.  Specifically, we've seen Easter eggs inspired by Dark Souls in Battlefield 1 through Just Cause 3, and even Monster Hunter: World. Hidden in a crystal cavern in the northwest of the map, players will have to explore a bit to find their way through the maze, but in the end, they'll find the hidden Easter egg that illuminates a small area just at the end, a bonfire of souls. That of Dark Souls.

This game had a good range of Easter eggs but there was one that stood out from the rest, which brought a little laughter to all Ubisoft fans. On a mission where Marcus heads to the Ubisoft game headquarters, Marcus comes across a trailer for a Ubisoft game that had not yet been officially announced. Better two. The funny thing here is that everything in the mission seemed normal. Assassin's Creed Syndicate and Unity were filtered like that before they were announced. It was pretty fun to watch Ubisoft mock themselves for not being able to keep secrets.

In Assassin's Creed II we find an easter egg, which a little unusual. If you are brave and want to see something fun, we invite you to dive into the pool of Santa Maria Delle Visitazione. There you will be visited by a giant creature: a squid! It may take a minute or two to appear, so you'll have to be patient to discover the surprise.

In this game, you'll encounter the secret room's Easter egg with the plans of Arkham City. This Gothic masterpiece hides a clever suggestion about its own sequel. Players will have to enter the office of the asylum director, Quincy Sharp, and blow up a wall. What you'll discover is a hidden camera with a large plane on the wall that shows a planned expansion of the asylum to occupy an entire sector of the city: the stage, of course, for the following: Batman: Arkham City. The room was so well hidden that it wasn't discovered for two years until developer Rocksteady previewed it for the second title in the video game series.

In no other Mario game as the main character will you crouch on a white part of the background stage for six seconds in order to fall behind it. It's not in the instructions, it's not hinted at anywhere in the game. But "you can do it". Why is that? If you then walk behind the end of the level, you'll find the location of the first secret deformation whistle. A fantastic Easter egg.

A giant bunny in the sea? Players who are willing to go to the far corners of the world of a game like this will be rewarded with something spectacular. The second instalment of Saints Row presented those players who chose to travel to three different remote islands with a giant pink bunny coming out of the sea like a mythical beast. After panting before his adorable majesty, you can shoot him to send him back to the watery depths.

Detroit: Become Human is a rather unusual game, but outside of its most disturbing moments the most curious can be found in the main menu. Every time you start this title, you are greeted by an android named Chloe, who initially seems to be nothing more than a character who gives a touch of style to the introduction. However, as you play through the campaign and continue to return to the start menu to continue, Chloe becomes self-conscious. Where she used to repeat a canned dialogue, she actually talks to the player in very unpleasant scenes, asking them about their opinions about robotic life and even giving them a survey to fill out. Spooky, isn't it? On top of that, this curious Easter egg adapts perfectly to the themes of the game, making you wonder if what you had taken for granted and seen as nothing more than part of the stage is actually "alive". Once you finish the game, you even have a final option: either free Chloe from her confines (and therefore remove her from the menu screen forever), or tell her to stay and do her job. What will you do?

In Horizon Zero Dawn, there's a very clever Easter egg that refers to the upcoming PS4 exclusive Death Stranding game. There's a reason this Easter egg is in the game. Mainly because Kojima is using the same engine to build this Death Stranding and, of course, we love the cross-references in PS4 games. In the mission, you'll find three objects, a braided figure, a braided necklace and braided shackles. These three items are direct models of the trailer that Kojima launched some time ago and refer to the elements that Norman wears in the game's trailer. Although you don't need these elements in the game, it's a good way to see the game come to life in Horizon.

If we go back to an older game, Half-Life 2 is from 2004, we will run into a zombie who cries out for help. Specifically, you're likely to encounter the awful Crab Head Zombie at some point. However, you may not have noticed that his creepy screams are asking for your help. If you reverse the sound, you'll hear him say clearly: "Oh, God help me ... Help me”.

If you want to find a spooky Easter egg, then you'll have it with Robbie the Rabbit on Silent Hill 4. This cute fluffy bunny makes several disturbing entries throughout the Silent Hill series, but its most spooky spot is in The Room. When main character Henry Townshend peeks through the hole in the wall of his room to spy on his attractive neighbour Eileen Galvin, you can see Robbie, the bunny, collapsing into his bed. However, later in the game, Galvin is taken to the hospital and, if the player peeks into his room again, Robbie will be turned towards the camera, pointing his paw at you terrifyingly, like the terrifying monkey in Family Guy.

Did you miss the game? Great! What did you think of the second castle? Second castle? You probably didn't even know about this second castle, basically because it's part of a giant Easter egg, which represents half of the game. To get to this second enclave, all you had to do was put on the Holy Eyeglasses before entering the final fight with the boss, allowing you to see the real enemy floating above Richter's head. Sheesh. It's not obvious, but easter eggs never are.

What's COD Black Ops' Easter egg? You can play the old school Atari games in Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. To do this, go to the Nuketown Map and shoot as many mannequins in the head as you can in less than two minutes. Then enjoy invincibility while you have the chance to play some of your favourite retro games. There you go.

Far Cry 5 became an intricately detailed game so that players could do quests, jumps and, of course, Easter eggs. While there were quite a few easter eggs, today we're going to highlight one in particular that surprised the players, as it was related to the film "IT", based on Stephen King's eponymous book. How to find it? There are a lot of sewers scattered all over the world from Far Cry 5, but one of them is adorned with a single red balloon, an obvious reference to Stephen King's most iconic creation, Pennywise.

For Honor takes players to a classic of the knights of the round table, and naturally makes references to the best movie of all time, Monty Python and the knights of the square table. How to locate this Easter egg? In an early mission during the missions of history, you'll find a pile of logs blocking your way, but in the distance, you'll see a knight without arms or legs. For those who haven't seen the film won't attract attention, but for those who have seen it, they'll remember the iconic scene where a comic fight leaves a knight in a similar position.

This Easter egg has a lot to do with understanding a little more of the story of the characters in it. So, in the game No More Heroes, if you delay its monologue at the end, you can discover the horrific background story of the villain Jeane who led her astray.

The Hitman series is full of jokes and secrets, but this is one of the most visually rewarding. In the mission "Till death do us part", the main character, Agent 47, must take out the groom at a wedding, but when he goes to a building behind where the dance guests are and throws a small coin submerged in a puddle, a group of men in underwear run and start applauding him. You don't want to miss the show.

You can save Shadow! Here's a suggestion for all games: Any dialog box in a game with "leave now" or "wait" options means there's a reason to stay. But the fact is, with the countdown clock on the floating continent that is disintegrating rapidly running out of steam, everyone tends to put their feet in dust and leave without Shadow. If you wait five seconds, one of the game's brightest and subtlest Easter eggs opens, involving a girl named Relm. Save Shadow on the floating continent.

The secret level of the Diablo II cows is based on a joke in which it was said that players could enter a secret level by repeatedly clicking on cows grazing outside the city. This level was made known by a herd of cattle that walked with an axe and improved with each update to the game. Eventually, it became the most profitable level where players could find the best power-ups and item enhancements before the developers decided to mitigate their reward past the novelty.

While WarHorse studios were dedicated to presenting an authentic historical role-playing game with Kingdom Come: Deliverance, this did not prevent them from filling their realistic open world with references to other games, films and television programmes. From a Throne Game inspired sword called "Needle" to a tribute to Hot Fuzz's Nicholas Angel, Kingdom Come's Easter eggs could have filled this entire list, but here we'll highlight one. Although there were many options to choose from, there is one that allows us to discover a dismembered arm buried in a pile of rocks that looks a lot like our favorite Marvel mutant: Wolverine. The skeletal hand appears with three adamantium claws, which are clearly supposed to belong to X-Men Wolverine. Just what Logan was doing in the Kingdom Come world is an assumption, although he could have been there, considering the age he has in comics.

Nintendo President Satoru Iwata passed away in 2015 during the development of the game Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and it was a sad day for the entire video game industry. Nintendo paid its respects to the famous president by including a sincere Easter egg in this title. To locate it, during a search, you come across a character who has the same haircut and glasses as Iwata. He sends you to explore a mountain full of hidden clues that pay homage to Satoru Iwata. When you reach the top, you encounter a mystic being called the "Lord of the Mountain". Upon inspection, you discover that this creature is known as Satori. A nice tribute.

A secret level of ponies! Diablo III's secret level is based on a Diablo II joke, as players talk to the ghost of the Cow King before entering the land of Whimsyshire to kill purple unicorn giants. Once again it's what we get: purple unicorns. The curious thing is that this game is about killing the devil.