Video Game Easter Eggs You May Have Missed

Back in 1979, Atari released Adventure for the Atari 2600. For fear of having their employees bought out by competitors, they don’t make a habit of including game designers in their games’ credits.  In response to this, Warren Robinett —the game’s programmer— hid a secret message that when found by a player, displays “Created by Warren Robinett,”, thus becoming one the earliest known easter eggs, and the first to which the term “easter egg” was applied. Fast forward to today, game designers are now properly credited and easter eggs have become fun little inside jokes, hidden messages, or secret features for players to discover. Since then, game designers are properly credited and we’ve all discovered our fair share of easter eggs in games.

As gamers, chances are you’re already familiar with easter eggs and the most famous of them like the megalodon in Battlefield 4 or the giant rat in Mirror’s Edge, so we list down 16 relatively unknown albeit fascinating easter eggs you may have yet to discover.

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16. X-Men Origins: Wolverine – Warcraft and Lost Reference

2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine wasn’t perfect but it was pretty damn good, and that’s saying something given the reputation of movie tie-ins. But what’s more surprising is the easter eggs you can find in the game. Early on in the game, if you look hard enough, you can spot the hatch from the Lost television series and Frostmourne, Arthas‘ chilling blade from the Warcraft universe. Both easter eggs are seemingly unrelated to Wolverine but they’re pretty cool easter eggs nonetheless.

15. Batman: Arkham Asylum – Arkham City Map

Batman: Arkham Asylum was an instant classic. No game has ever dignified Batman as well before, and developer Rocksteady knows it. Apparently, a blueprint for Arkham City —the next setting for the then upcoming sequel— could be found in a secret room in one of Batman: Arkham Asylum’s levels. Too bad no one actually found it naturally and Rocksteady had to reveal it to fans themselves. Since then, fans have learned to scan every nook and cranny of each Batman title. Unfortunately, it happened again in Batman: Arkham Knight, where an apparent easter egg of the then upcoming Batman: Arkham VR was never naturally discovered.

14. Alan Wake – Alan Payne

Sam Lake is the Finnish writer who worked on Alan Wake and Quantum Break. What you may not know is that he also worked on the Max Payne series, as well as providing his own likeness. That’s right, that constipated squinting face that Max Payne is most known for was based on Sam Lake’s own face. Perhaps he was being nostalgic from his days of working on Max Payne, but in one of the live-action scenes in the game, you can see him in an interview next to Alan Wake briefly contorting his facial expression similar to that of the iconic painkiller junkie.

13. Deus Ex: Human Revolution – Eternal Fantasy

Deus Ex: Human Revolution is the first game in the series to be published by Square Enix. Yep. You guessed it. This easter egg is a final fantasy reference. This cyberpunk neo-noir stealth/action shooter takes place in the year 2027, and if you look around inside Pritchard’s office early in the game, you’ll spot a convincing little poster of Final Fantasy XXVII. Yes, Final Fantasy 27 has been confirmed since 2011.