Video Game Secrets That Went Undiscovered For Years
Some video game secrets are much more well-hidden than others.
What are video games but a miserable pile of secrets? It’s always expected for developers to throw some extra unlockables in their games, whether they are extra lives, unlimited ammo, stage select, extra characters, or whatever. A lot of times these come out within a couple of months or even days. Magazine sections were dedicated to these babies and there was a whole genre of unofficial guides for this type of thing back in the day.
Still, some developers have hidden their secrets so well that it takes forever for people to discover them. That’s what this list is about. The one ground rule here is that I’m going to try and discuss secrets that are genuinely entertaining to the player. None of this stuff where you can find a hidden picture of a developer’s nephew’s birthday party. Believe me, there are so many of those out there.
Metroid (1987): Unbeatable Samus
Admittedly, I can’t quite pinpoint when this password was discovered, but I have to imagine it didn’t take hold until the internet’s heart was truly beating, so give this one at least ten years. Known as “Narpas Sword,” the code has you enter “NARPAS SWORD0” followed by all zeroes in the password screen. Presumably, it really means “Not A Real Password.” Whatever it is, the password unlocks practically everything for you. Samus’ health can’t go below 30, she has unlimited missiles, and all her weapons and abilities are unlocked.
Even then, there’s more. By finishing the game in this mode, you can start over, this time in the Zero Suit (much like the more well-known Justin Bailey code) with Kraid and Ridley already dead. That means you can rush down to Mother Brain and speedrun the hell out of the game. It’s worth noting that this code would later be referenced in World of Warcraft, as there is a weapon called Narpas Sword.
Mortal Kombat Arcade Games (1992-1995): Hidden EJB Menu
Named after series co-creator Ed Boon, the 2D arcade Mortal Kombat games (Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat II, Mortal Kombat 3, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3) all had a hidden menu that allowed several unique options. Their existences were discovered back in 2015 via datamining, but the means to access them didn’t pop up until 2016. Without going into specifics, reaching the menus involves tapping the cabinet’s two Block buttons back and forth in a certain order and fast.
For the most part, you can only use it for random stuff like altering the high scores, but it does allow you to watch everyone’s endings whenever. The Mortal Kombat 3 games have more juice, as you can unlock all the secret characters, play Galaga, and even watch a Supreme Demonstration of all the game’s Fatalities.
Super Punch-Out!! (1994): Free Match and Two-Player Mode
As iconic as the Punch-Out!! games are, making them two-player is a bit tricky. Sure, the Wii game had a split-screen where both players could be Little Mac, but in a series based around the larger-than-life personalities of the stereotypical cartoon boxers, it’s always been a shame that you can never get behind the wheel of someone interesting like Bald Bull or Mad Clown. 28 years later, Unlisted Cheats discovered that you actually can.
The first part of this involves a newly-discovered code to stage select an opponent via a secret menu. To do that, hold Y and R on the second player controller and press start on the first player controller. When it goes to the character info screen, the second controller should press B and Y while the first controller presses Start or A. Boom, now you can fulfill the lifelong dream of being Super Macho Man and brutalizing Inexplicably Blond Little Mac.
SNES Street Fighter Alpha 2 (1996): Play as Shin Akuma
When Akuma was introduced as the nigh-unbeatable hidden boss in Super Street Fighter II Turbo, he was unlockable but was too overpowered for the average player. When Akuma was put in the Street Fighter Alpha games, they calmed down a bit and made him more balanced. In order to have their cake and eat it too, the super hard hidden boss version of the character was renamed Shin Akuma and treated like Akuma going at his full potential.
25 years after the shockingly great SNES port of Street Fighter Alpha 2, Gizaha fiddled around with the game’s programming and discovered a way to play as Shin Akuma. You have to play through arcade mode, get a high score, and put “KAJ” as your initials. On the title screen, hold down L, X, Y, and start on the second controller while the first controller selects versus mode. After that, by selecting Akuma with the start button, you will get to use Shin Akuma. And then you will steamroll everyone with the unbridled power of the Satsui no Hado.
Rogue Squadron (1998): Naboo Fighter
At first glance, this one might not sound all that interesting, as it was only released six months after the game’s release (spitting in the face of this article’s very title), but it was a very critical six months. This was a huge deal at the time. Rogue Squadron was released for Nintendo 64 at the end of 1998, just around when the epic teaser trailer was released for Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. Rogue Squadron itself was more of a side story to the original trilogy, taking place between New Hope and Empire Strikes Back. It had dozens of special codes, but there was one that was far more special and understandably kept as a secret.
Hidden away deep in the game’s data and known by a select few was a code to play as a Naboo Starfighter. Upon the game’s release, nobody would have understood what the hell this was at the time. Only after the movie’s May release did LucasArts let everyone know what to do. Not only did you need to input two separate passwords (“HALIFAX?” followed by “!YNGWIE!”), but the game would play the noise that suggested an incorrect password.
Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness (1999): Unlock Everything
It used to be that if you were playing a Konami game, you would probably find some kind of secret by entering the well-known Konami Code. Eventually, Konami knew what was expected of them, so they would be silly about it, like in Gradius 3 where inputting the code causes your ship to explode. Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness, the improved follow-up to Castlevania 64, did feature a unique take on the code. As JupiterClimb discovered 25 years after its release, not only do you have to use the Nintendo 64’s yellow buttons for the directional inputs, but everything must be pressed twice. In other words, instead of “up, up, down, down,” it’s, “up, up, up, up, down, down, down, down.” Then it’s the Z trigger instead of Start.
Doing this will unlock all the characters, as well as their alternate skins. You also get access to the game’s hard mode. Around the time of this code’s discovery, others were found, mostly centered around maxing out certain items.
Final Fantasy IX (2000): Nero Family Side Quest
What would an RPG be without a fun little side quest or obscure interaction? While there is plenty to do in Final Fantasy IX, there was one certain quest that nobody seemed to know about until thirteen years later. Or at least, it was something nobody noticed, as it was briefly mentioned in the Final Fantasy IX Ultimania book, but Gamefaqs user The_Kusabi_ was the first to really bring it up. It takes place late in the game, all the way into the fourth disc. When you try to enter the Tantalus hideout, Zenero and Benero mention that Marcus and Cinna aren’t there and run off to find them. If you leave and either watch a cutscene or take part in a boss battle, you can come back and another family member will run out of the entrance, wondering where the others are.
Rinse and repeat, and more family members will run out in a panic over the ever-growing list of names that aren’t around. Once a smaller family member runs out, an Exasperated Zidane remarks about the size of the family, before being allowed up the stairs. There, you can find a treasure chest with a Protect Ring in it.
Wave Race: Blue Storm (2001): Condescending Announcer
Extreme sports games just wouldn’t be the same without the excited, in-your-face announcers cheering you on, and this Wave Race sequel shows just that. Nine years after its release, a special code was discovered (mentioned in the NeoGAF forum by RaoulDuke) where you must go into the audio options, press and hold Z until the waveform screen turns into a fog pattern. Then you press up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, A, Z, X. Once this is confirmed via a sound effect, you choose Ryota Hayami as your character and you’re good to go.
You end up with a bored and annoyed announcer who throws insults your way and just does not seem to care about any of your success. It’s great fun. Also, the turbo sound effects are replaced with a little girl making cat noises. Sure, why not.
Super Smash Bros. Melee (2001): Play as Master Hand
Discovered about seven years after the game’s release, Super Smash Bros. Melee did have a hidden ability to play as the series’ enigmatic boss character. There are different methods for making this work, though they both revolve around plugging a controller into the third port, not selecting a character, and leaving the select cursor over the name entry screen. Whichever way, you can play as Master Hand, but it’s only a minor novelty.
Master Hand cannot be used in Classic Mode. Simply controlling the character can crash the game in certain situations, apparently to the point of potentially screwing up your save data. Not to mention Master Hand is given the usual percentage-based health system of a playable character instead of the HP countdown like in the boss fights. That means Master Hand is just about unbeatable due to the game’s mechanics.
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Double Agent (2006): Alien Seals Mission
Only in the Xbox version of the game, this Sam Fisher adventure takes a turn for the strange and adorable. Revealed four years after the game’s release (Julien Daunais, a friend of one of the designers who put in the mission, uploaded a video onto Vimeo, then deleted it), there’s a co-op mission based around rescuing talking seals from space who have gotten stuck on Earth. It begins with finding a special coin and shooting a specific vending machine, which releases Muffin, a seal wearing a party hat. He’s hungry, so you have to find him the right piece of food to feed him to keep the ball rolling.
From there, you are directed to go find the other seals. After rescuing and feeding Pepperoni, Cookie, Vanilla, and Buddy, the seals are able to leave to their home planet while bidding you a fond farewell. The fact that they all move around with zero animation makes it even more jarring and goofy.
Gears of War 3 (2011): Locust Shooting Gallery
Here’s a bizarre, little minigame tucked away in Gears of War 3 that didn’t get discovered for five years, thanks to FellBlueDodger of of Team Tac-Com. In Act 2, Chapter 2, there are three small, incredibly hard-to-see coins hidden on certain trees. In specific order, you have to shoot each one before all the enemies are killed. Once you do all that, you are able to find a weird cave with a giant, demonic ribcage arched over it.
From here, you get a brief shooting gallery segment where five Locusts leap out of the ground and into oblivion. You only get one shot at each one and you don’t know for sure where they’re going to leap out, so aim accordingly. Once you’re done, you are rewarded with a gun based on what kind of score you got.
Halo 5: Guardians (2015): Halo Kart
This hidden game ended up being undiscovered for so long that one of the developers chose to casually announce its existence via a Twitter thread six years after the fact. Even then, the explanation was so vague that he had to give more hints in hopes that the fans could figure it out. What you need to do is have four players play the campaign mission Evacuation. Upon the level starting, everyone must run over to a specific gate and wait there for a certain amount of time (117 seconds, to be precise). If done correctly, all four players will suddenly be riding Mongoose ATVs and it’s time to race!
As the four players ride on, all the enemies despawn. After several minutes of this novelty, whoever makes it to the goal first is rewarded with some randomized, though powerful, weaponry. More games need secret racing minigames.
NieR: Automata (2017): Chapter Select
NieR: Automata is a game that is teeming with replay value. With all the different paths, meta story twists, and characters, there ends up being 26 different endings to unlock (though only a few that really matter). It’s a lot. As fun as the game is, maybe you’re just done and don’t feel like putting the work in to complete it. Luckily, outside of just going to YouTube, you can take care of this with a secret found nearly four years after its release, all thanks to Lance McDonald.
Very, very early in the game, after your first boss fight, once 9S tells you he’s going to scout the area, you should find six barrels nearby. Stand between them, pause the game, hold R2, and press up, down, up, right, left, square, circle, triangle, X. If you’re using PS4, that is. Doing this will get you the chapter select and debug menu, which you would normally have to get via beating the game three times.
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Gavin Jasper is a buffalo wing enthusiast who loves the hell out of comic books and professional wrestling. In the end, that makes him an expert…