In honor of the Easter holiday I have been asked to do Easter eggs. I’m not talking about the unborn chicken fetuses whose shells are decorated and then hidden in some sort of bizarre homage to our lord and savior, Jesus H. Christ. I’m talking about Easter eggs in video games. So named because they tend to be hidden, or at least highly unobtrusive. They are often in-jokes amongst the games creators and fans. And sometimes Easter eggs expand upon the game and give the player some kind of deeper hidden insight into the game world.

It’s very difficult to define an Easter egg, because it is a concept more than it is a tangible entity – like love, happiness, or graduation. The most common apparition of an Easter egg takes is graphic, often off the games “beaten path” that serves as no other purpose than to amuse. A few examples of these are that the names on the street signs in the game Silent Hill come from authors whose works influenced the game; the Easter eggs in the game GTA: Vice City are more funny, a sign that says “Life’s a Beach” with the word beach crossed out with spray paint and the word “bitch” scrawled underneath it. Both of these examples show the primary characteristics of an Easter egg: unimportant to the game itself and easily missed unless you are paying close attention. Thus without further ado I present:

The Video Game Connosseur’s Top 5 (Cause I don’t have room for 10) Easter Eggs:

5) Moonshot In GTA3, GTA: Vice City, and GTA: San Andreas you can change the size of the moon by shooting it with the sniper rifle, causing it to get larger with each shot until it shrinks back to normal. Amusing for a few minutes and something you would probably find only on accident when trying to shoot down a helicopter at night.

4) Hidden Theater 1: What the hell is wrong with Cloud’s mind explained In Final Fantasy VII there is a hidden cinematic which shows part of the main characters past and helps to clear up the whole freaking plot! Unfortunately it is hidden so that it can only be accessed after a certain point in the game and unless you know where to go you will probably never see it. Which is too bad because it really clears everything up, also it is an example of an Easter egg that is part of the game and not just an extra for added amusement.

3) Aren’t you from that other game this designer made? Super Mario RPG for the SNES features not one but two cameos of Shigeru Miyamoto’s other famous creations: Link, from Legend of Zelda, and Samus, star of the Metroid series. Both can be found in sleeping in different inns after certain events in the game. When you talk to Link, a simplified version of the Zelda theme music is playing; Samus on the other hand, mumbles something about her arch-enemy, Mother Brain.

2) Hidden Theater 2: Deep Dive A Japanese version of the game Kingdom Hearts, the incredibly popular Disney/Final Fantasy crossover that no-one had ever considered or expected contained a hidden movie at the end, of what may come in the sequel – if there was a sequel (which there was and which I will be reviewing next time). This movie, called Deep Dive, became distributed all over the Internet and whole forums were created to discuss what it all means. Seeing as how the sequel has just recently come out it’s all kinda moot now but it was huge at the time.

1) Special World Super Mario World for the SNES contains what I consider the greatest Easter egg of all time: Special World. Not only does it contain the hardest Mario levels ever created, but it is completely hidden with only two very minor clues, the fact that every level marked by a red dot has a second exit and the opening level shown on the screen upon turning on the game is not featured anywhere in the regular game and can only be found in Special world. The real Easter egg about special world is that if you beat it the scenery on the world map in the game changes from spring to autumn and several enemies change, for instance the koopa troopers become little guys wearing Mario masks. Believe it or not I swear to the God whose holiday Easter is that I’m not lying. And I have yet to see any game recreate something such as this.

So there you have it, my top 5 Easter eggs. My assignment for all of you now is to go out there, and find the rest of them!