Video Game Easter Eggs

[Lee]

Video game Easter Eggs have been around as long as games have existed usually the programmer putting their name somewhere random in the game. I could list some of my favourite Easter Eggs of all time but I doubt you want to hear my musings over a giant sized crème egg with the goo inside.

Though there always seems to be one Easter Egg that's overlooked by the masses. Obviously the Nintendo hardcore know but how in depth did you realise it went?

C C D E D C G E c G G G A# G F G D G C​

For you musicians out there give it a play on the piano, guitar, accordion, ocarina or whatever instrument you have. Does it sound familiar?


Ah yes it was from the Mario Paint introduction, that's pretty cool. Hang on, I still recognise the tune and I didn't even have Mario Paint, that's a bit odd. What if I told you that that piece of music has been in no less than Sixteen video games with the earliest being in 1992 and the latest being in 2010. So what links them together? Well on top of being Nintendo published game they all had someone named Kazumi Totaka.

Totaka is the voice actor for Yoshi and Professor E. Gadd though his primary role has been that of a sound engineer and composer for quite a few Nintendo games. Now of the games he's acted in a role involving music the so called “Totaka's song” has appeared in most of them, now the Mario Paint video was up earlier but that wasn't the first appearance of the song.

X is a game that was only published in Japan and was released on the Gameboy in May of 1992. To find Totaka's song you need to find the wrong scientist in mission Four and wait for Forty seconds and then you get this (around the 1:30 mark):


Now 1992 was a popular year for Totaka's song appearing in four games: X, Paint, Super Mario Land 2 and a Japanese only game that I hadn't heard of before called Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru (translated to For the Frog the Bell tolls). It was 1993 when I first heard this piece of music come out of my Gameboy in the great game Links Awakening. Go to Richard’s frog-filled villa and wait for 2 minutes and 30 seconds then you should hear this (around the 17 second mark):


Further research shows that Richard is actually a cameo of For the Frog the Bell tolls so this is actually a double Easter Egg. The music cropped up again in the Virtual Boy Wario Land in 1995 but all of one person could last the time needed to find the piece, it appeared in 1997s Yoshi's Story as well as the 64DD game Mario Artist: Talent Studio, Luigi's Mansion as well as various Animal Crossing games.

In fact the character K.K. Slider is based on Totaka and this series has quite a few appearances of the song, here is it in the Wii game Animal Crossing: Wild World:


We also have the tune in Pikmin 2, Yoshi touch and go and the DSi game (and sequel to the first appearance of the song X) X-Scape.

You think that's all? Some of these took years to find out with more rumours swirling around of it being in this game and that game or maybe that one. This much is known, Totaka had sound based credits on the following and the song has not yet been uncovered: Animal Forest (Japanese N64 game), Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Wave Race 64, Wii Channels, Wii Sports and of course Wii Music!

A very intriguing addition to the Nintendo mythos for sure so the next time you're randomly on a screen for Three minutes and Twenty Nine seconds maybe you should hold out for One more second as you may just get to hear this wonderful tune.

So what are your favourite Easter Eggs in gaming? Why do you like them? Are there any you have found that just down right suck?

As ever this was originally posted at www.nintendolee.com

 

[Johnny Scumm]

GTA: San Andreas. There's a Bridge, where everyone thought there would've been some kind of Easter Egg hidden up there. They like to make you work for them in the Games, so why not put it up the top of a Bridge you can only get to by having a Jetpack or Parachute? However, when you get there, this is all that awaits you.

Genius? I think so.

 

[Dagger Dias]

Easter eggs in games are always fun. Those little extra add on's that are there waiting for those who are bored enough to find them. One of my favorites was from Super Mario RPG where you could find both Link from the Zelda series and Samus from the Metroid series. They were in different locations, but both are in beds randomly. I like both of those two because the randomness of these cameos is funny, and they are both from other Nintendo series. Here's Samus:

Another classic was the Chris Houlihan room from Zelda: Link to the Past. It's very difficult to find and many people don't even know about it.

 

[Hardcore Heathen]

Who can forget the Scarab Gun in Halo 2 lol. fable 3 had a East Hare egg which was pretty funny. Theresd also a tribute Room in Halo Reach.
I Read somewhere about the first known easter egg was in a game (forgot name) and you had to follow a unlit pixel through a maze and at the end found the writers name.
I would of liked the Question which Developer is best at easter eggs which is either Bungie or Rockstar. With the Myth of a Sasquatch in GTA San andreas which was released October 23 2004 and then Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare which had Sasquatches in and if you killed one you got an achievement called six years in the making. Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare DLC was Released October 23 2010 which imo is pretty clever