Top 10 Gaming Easter Eggs

What is a video game Easter egg?

The short answer is…something hidden within a game intentionally left by the developers.

It can be a message, inside joke, hint or just poking fun & they are rarely easy to find. There are many famous ones such as the incredibly well hidden Chris Houlihan Room in Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.

When it came to writing this list I wanted to only include Easter Eggs that I had personally experienced so my top 10 might be excluding many of the more famous & interesting ones.

A lot of these will include spoilers for many of the games.

Enjoy…

10 – Dead Space

Ah, Dead Space…a truly excellent horror game set in deep, dark recesses of space. Most of the game is hinged on your playable character, Isaac chasing after his girlfriend, Nicole. The big revelation is that Nicole has been dead long before Isaac even arrived on the ship. It’s a great twist that really packs a punch but there was a clue for eagle eyed players to this eventual revelation within the chapter names themselves. Take the first letter of each chapter…

N-I-C-O-L-E I-S D-E-A-D

9 – X-Men Origins: Wolverine

The game based off the film about everyone’s favourite moody mutant had a number of fun Easter eggs throughout. The hatch from Lost is hidden within the first level, the 2nd level has the Frostbourne sword from World of Warcraft & the 3rd level has the Portal cake hidden away.

8 – Bioshock 2

During one of your jaunts outside of Rapture as the Big Daddy character you can come across a relic from the first game…the tail end of the plane that Jack was in. If you remember this plane blew up at the beginning of the game & as Jack swam towards the lighthouse the tail section can be seen sinking.

7 – Fallout 3

In the Northwest area of the Capital Wasteland is the SatCom Array NN-03d. Now home to raiders there is plenty to find throughout including some mini-nukes but the best discovery lies behind a door northwest of the towers.

6 – Resident Evil 2

In the police station on the 2nd floor is the S.T.A.R.S office. It’s an area that you have to go to further the story but there isn’t a whole load to find inside. Check out Wesker’s desk…than do it again until you’ve searched it fifty times. Once done you’ll finally receive ‘Film D’. Take it to the development room downstairs to get your well earned photograph of new recruit Rebecca Chambers.

5 – Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

One of every Star Wars fans favourite Easter eggs can be found on the Imperial controlled level, Kashyyyk. Inside Ozzik Sturn’s trophy room you can find Jar Jar Binks frozen in carbonite. Lets’ leave him that way…

4 – Dead Rising

Dead Rising owes a lot to zombie movies & games that came before & Capcom loves referencing them (as well as their own games) throughout. The best though can be found simply around the mall…it’s so obvious you might not even notice it with all the zombie killing & psycho dodging.

3 – Duke Nukem 3D

During the level, Critical Mass there is a secret door in the 3rd room. Activate it by pressing on the walls & inside you’ll find Homer Simpsons desk from the cartoon series including his favourite sweet treat, doughnuts.

2 – Fallout: New Vegas

Remember the 4th Indiana Jones movie & that awful bit where Indiana survives a nuclear explosion by hiding in a fridge? Yeah, I know…Well head over Goodsprings & then head slightly southeast to find a fridge with a skeleton inside & a hat that looks awfully familiar to fans of the movie franchise.

1 – Just Cause 2

My favourite because of just how far they went with it…head northwest of Panau & fly over Hantu Island.

The first thing you’ll notice is that your plane will crash no matter what you’re flying. Landing on the island the first thing you might notice is the word SEARCH written in the sand with an arrow pointing into the jungle.

There is a lot of wreckage on the beach that looks like it might be from a plane crash & moving into the jungle sees the rain coming down fast. Still not sure where you are? Well maybe this interesting looking hatch & smoke monster/man will help.

Yes, they only went & included the freakin’ Lost island in the game! Now that is an Easter egg!