Obligatory video game Easter eggs post: 2009 Edition

by Griffin McElroy { Apr 12th 2009 at 4:00PM }

Yeah, we know. Every Easter, we write up a historical account of well-hidden Easter eggs featured in video games over the years. You've heard them all by now, we're sure -- the guerrilla credits of Adventure, the "Secret Cow Level" in Diablo II, Yoshi's appearance in Super Mario 64, GTA IV's "Heart of the City," A Link to the Past's Chris Houlihan room, and Symphony of the Night's hidden audio track, to name a few. For more info about these tried and true surreptitious extras, we suggest checking out this GameSpot post.

However, this past year saw the arrival of a heretofore undiscovered Easter egg in a title you all know and love -- ladies and gentlemen, we present "The Goldeneye Breakdancing Glitch," viewable in the video after the jump. Apparently, tilting the Goldeneye cart in the middle of a game leads to hilarious impromptu b-boying from any and all on-screen characters. You simply must check it out -- and while you're down there, tell us your favorite video game Easter eggs in the comments!

Tags: easter, easter-egg, extras, holiday, secrets

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

Naota @ Apr 12th 2009 4:10PM

just about every single n64 game does this, get over it.

squeehunter @ Apr 13th 2009 5:50AM

What a dick...

sirshabz786 @ Apr 12th 2009 4:14PM

lol

mars @ Apr 12th 2009 4:17PM

I personally liked the halo 3 one where the soldier wouldn't let the other soldier into the door, citing their "meeting" where they decided the code word.

Spartan @ Apr 12th 2009 4:27PM

Yeah, the Halo one was good.

sonicspike41 @ Apr 12th 2009 4:32PM

Agreed. It only gets better with the higher difficulties too!

WiredKnight @ Apr 12th 2009 5:27PM

The trash-talking grunt at the end is even funnier.

@sonicspike

It just played a random scene every time you play the level, I don't think difficulty has anything to do with it.

Fraggy4 @ Apr 12th 2009 7:57PM

@WiredKnight
No, the difficulty makes a difference.

Ezio Auditore de Firenze (PSN slycooper_rocker) @ Apr 12th 2009 4:23PM

that's hilarious. but was it intentional? if it wasn't, then it's not an easter egg, right?

Dracard @ Apr 12th 2009 5:02PM

It's actually a glitch that occurs when cartridges are slightly pulled from the Nintendo 64. One of the best examples of this is when people started using it to exit the Kokiri Forest before they were supposed to or bypass any person who obstructed them in Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

Ezio Auditore de Firenze (PSN slycooper_rocker) @ Apr 12th 2009 5:06PM

wow i was so little when i had an n64, i didn't know glitches existed.

Ezio Auditore de Firenze (PSN slycooper_rocker) @ Apr 12th 2009 5:24PM

there were the skies characters in valkyria chronicles. that's my input for easter eggs.

Neuromancer @ Apr 12th 2009 5:53PM

Yeah its a glitch not an Easter egg, oh well.

Snowblind @ Apr 12th 2009 7:00PM

I had no idea the Skies of Arcadia characters appeared in there. That's reason enough for me to buy that game.

Kyle @ Apr 12th 2009 7:12PM

I don't care what it is, it's goddamned hilarious. I'm actually in tears over here.

Ezio Auditore de Firenze (PSN slycooper_rocker) @ Apr 12th 2009 7:44PM

@ snowblind

there were 3 in the game.

FluxWaveZ @ Apr 12th 2009 4:24PM

OMFG!!! I had discovered this with my friend, like, 7 years ago! We laughed so freakin' hard when we saw that while playing multiplayer but we had no idea what caused it and we had no idea it was breakdancing at the time...

smcn @ Apr 12th 2009 4:29PM

Not technically an easter egg I guess, but in Mass Effect I always got a kick out of the guy trying to return an item to the turian shopkeeper in the Citadel markets.

finnith (gamertag-epimeth1us) @ Apr 12th 2009 4:36PM

Did he ever win that argument?

smcn @ Apr 12th 2009 4:40PM

That's a good question. The last part I remember is him getting mad that he accepted a return from another turian, but I don't think I ever went back to the markets during the final (intact) citadel segment. Maybe we'll find out in Mass Effect 2!

ThornedVenom (of the Fidlious Clan of Wong) @ Apr 12th 2009 4:29PM

That made my Easter.

Spartan @ Apr 12th 2009 4:30PM

I lmao @ the helicopter scene.
It took me a minute to realise the song wasn't in english as well.
Good post.

Gona play left for dead in a few hours. Trying to complete any level on expert.
Need good communication.
Tag: "Istari Spartan"

Dracard @ Apr 12th 2009 4:46PM

Morrowind. Eltonbrand. So esoteric. So awesome.

From UESPWiki - "Eltonbrand is easily the most obscure item to get within the game. Without prior knowledge or a great deal of luck, it is unlikely that the player will find this artifact during normal gameplay. First you must obtain the Goldbrand sword, which is itself one of the most difficult to acquire items. Next you need to become a vampire and perform the Shashev's Key quest for Sirilonwe in the Vivec Mages Guild. It is at this point that it appears you can 'mess' this quest up if you do it improperly, and thus spoiling your chances of obtaining Eltonbrand. The best course of action is to obtain the quest from Sirilonwe, kill Shashev and take his key back to Vivec. If you kill Shashev before speaking to Sirilonwe, you are likely to ruin everything. Once you have Goldbrand and complete the quest, you will need to be carrying exactly 11171 gold for the magical transformation of Goldbrand into Eltonbrand (you do not lose the gold). Upon transformation the message "Go to Hell, Carolina" is displayed."

Sir Buzz Killington( The Artist formerly known as Jakka) @ Apr 12th 2009 5:21PM

More importantly, if this wasn't reverse-engineered through hacking into game files etc, the person who genuinely found it must've been the luckiest guy in the universe.

Zorink @ Apr 13th 2009 1:47AM

I didn't know about that, but when I got the fork of horripilation none of my friends believed that something so ridiculous could exist.

Josh @ Apr 12th 2009 4:48PM

Isn't it more of a glitch than anything else?

Moptimus Slime (Gobot in disguise) @ Apr 12th 2009 4:50PM

Hate to go off topic, but if your paper has an insert for Best Buy, turn to page 7 and look at the bottom left hand corner where they list the games available for pre-order. If you look closely at the Punch-Out!!! one, you can see a bald man with a mustache to the right of the game box. I think its obvious what this means.

http://media.giantbomb.com/uploads/0/26/9869-vodka_large.jpg

benjamines @ Apr 13th 2009 1:49AM

Bald Bull had a mustache too. And was also bald, obviously.

Good point, though.

Mister Bogus (Mr. ESC) @ Apr 12th 2009 5:15PM

0:29 Bond! Do a barrel roll !

C'mon they should've added Bajo Kazzoie to the list and where is Halo? Halo series have a good amount of easter eggs.

There was also a goatse easter egg (it was a reference) in one Rpg but I forgot the name of the game.

WiredKnight @ Apr 12th 2009 5:18PM

I remember SimCity 2000 having a ton of easter eggs. It was always fun trying to "shoot" down those helicopters.

WiredKnight @ Apr 12th 2009 5:22PM

Also, I loved the easter egg messages in GTA, the ones that say "You weren't supposed to be able to get here, you know." and "There are no easter eggs up here. Go away."

Those are always the most fun when you find them yourself.

Henjoness @ Apr 12th 2009 5:28PM

I love all the Portal references that have been made

DBuck_Eye @ Apr 12th 2009 5:27PM

Anyone else see the Majora's Mask one where the middle row of masks all resemble Star Fozxcharacters? I thought that one was pretty sweet.

DBuck_Eye @ Apr 12th 2009 5:31PM

Star Fox Characters*

Also, I'm pretty sure the one at the credits is considered sex, not break dancing.

smcn @ Apr 12th 2009 6:26PM

If they're supposed to be having sex, someone should probably let them know they're doing it wrong.

Mr Khan @ Apr 12th 2009 5:31PM

I've been running across little easter eggs throughout Sonic and the Black Knight. Really little, things that only those who are intimately familiar with the Sonic universe would notice. Mostly lines of dialogue that are direct quotes from previous games, but obscure quotes

JerJer @ Apr 12th 2009 5:35PM

sorry to spoil it bro...that's just called laziness :D

Mr Khan @ Apr 12th 2009 6:19PM

"Well, Believe what you want to believe."

-Rouge the Bat, circa Sonic Adventure 2

Littleonetwo @ Apr 13th 2009 6:58AM

yeah thats just bad writing, and that quote show nothing. i dont see how you could consider that a direct reference.

Anticrawl @ Apr 12th 2009 5:50PM

Has Joystiq ran an article about the scandal EA is in for sending out Brass Knuckle promos for the Godfather II game to people in the US/UK where it is illegal?

Ezio Auditore de Firenze (PSN slycooper_rocker) @ Apr 12th 2009 6:53PM

haha a bit late to the party, are we not?

Joshua @ Apr 13th 2009 5:39AM

I liked the ID software PDA at the end of Doom 3. You hit a switch that says "ID" on it part way though the last level(Excavation), and a PDA appears that is full of messages from the creators of Doom 3.

Of course, the Mario characters in Ocarina of Time were pretty cool too.

kal326 @ Apr 13th 2009 10:10AM

Speaking of Doom3 I don't know if its an easter egg or just part of the normal scripting, but if you stare at a mirror in one of the bathrooms early in the game after about 15-20 seconds some hell like sequence shows in the mirror behind you. Only got it to happen once.