6 video game Easter eggs that took years to find (2025)

Most modern video games are fully discovered within a few days of launching. Having access to the internet and a much larger player base makes finding Easter eggs and secret levels much simpler. But that isn't always the case, and sometimes games have Easter eggs hiding in them for years without anyone noticing them. Here are some classic examples of this phenomenon.

6 Duck Hunt

The hunter becomes the hunted

Duck Hunt is a title that shouldn't need any introduction at this point. Even if you didn't grow up playing it, most gamers have definitely heard about it or seen videos/images of it. It was first released by Nintendo in 1984 for the Famicom, and later the NES. The game used a light gun that, when pointed at a CRT TV, could shoot ducks as they flew away. What many people didn't know was that you could control the ducks in the game using a second controller.

While this Easter egg was in the game's manual, there were very few children at the time that would have taken the time to read the instruction manual. In order to make it work, you would have to connect the light gun to the player 1 slot and then connect a regular controller into the player 2 slot while player 1 held down the trigger of the light gun. Doing so would allow player 2 to control the ducks' movements using the arrow keys, while player 1 shot the ducks with the light gun.

5 Resident Evil 2

Rebecca's basketball photo

Resident Evil 2 is chock-full of Easter eggs and secrets, but none are as notorious or as tedious to find in this horror game as the hidden photo of Rebecca Chambers. This Easter egg is so obscure that many wonder how it was found in the first place. You can find the Easter egg in the police station when playing as Leon S. Kennedy as you search for evidence around the police precinct.

To get the film negatives you will have to search the police chief's desk in his office, not once, but 50 times before you have the film pop up. After you have the negatives titled ‘Film D,' you will need to take them to the dark room where you can develop the film. Doing so will give you a photograph of a young S.T.A.R.S recruit, Rebecca Chambers, in a basketball outfit, the heroine of Resident Evil 0.

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  Resident Evil 2

  A remake of one of the greatest survival horror games that is itself one of the greatest survival horror games.

  See at Amazon

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  Resident Evil 2

  The genre-defining masterpiece Resident Evil 2 returns, completely rebuilt from the ground up for a deeper narrative experience.

  See at GOG

4 Gears of War 3

Locust duck hunt

If you're a fan of the Gears of War franchise, then you may have already seen this one yourself. Gears of War 3 launched on the Xbox 360 on the 20th of September 2011, but this Easter egg wasn't found until 5 years later by a dedicated GOW YouTube channel. In the second act of the campaign, you will play through the House of Sand mission. Hidden around the mission are 3 golden coins.

If you shoot these coins in a specific order, you'll unlock the Easter egg, which will teleport you to a shooting gallery. Once in the shooting gallery, you will have to use a rocket turret and shoot locusts in the air after they pop out of the ground, like in Duck Hunt. Earning a high score in the mini-game will unlock weapons like the boomshot or mulcher for the player to use as they continue through the level.

Gears of War 3

In Gears of War 3, players fight as Marcus Fenix, the grizzled war hero and leader of Delta Squad. Eighteen months after the fall of the last human city, the war against the Locust rages on. Meanwhile, deep beneath the surface, a fearsome new threat is infecting the planet from within.

See at Official SiteSee at Xbox Games Store

3 Halo 3

Happy Birthday Lauren

Halo 3 is a first-person shooter that was released on the 25th of September 2007 for the Xbox 360. The game had a ton of Easter eggs scattered throughout its levels, but one really simple one was hidden in the game's menu for anyone to find. Unfortunately, no one did at the time. The Easter egg didn't unlock a new level weapon or skin, instead it was a simple message to the wife of developer Adrian Perez.

Although this Easter egg was intended to be discovered in 3 months, it actually took 7 years before it would be found by the greater community. After numerous attempts by Bungie to hint at the Easter egg's existence, the secret was finally found. If you set the date on the Xbox 360 to December 25th, started Halo 3, and pressed both thumbsticks while loading into a campaign mission, you will see a halo appear with the words "Happy Birthday Lauren."

Halo 3

Halo 3 follows Master Chief and a mysterious ally called the Arbiter as they attempt to stop a Covenant leader from activating a dangerous artifact.

$10 at SteamSee at Xbox Games Store$10 at Xbox Games Store

2 Wave Race: Blue Storm

Unlocking a new commentator

Wave Race: Blue Storm was a launch game for the GameCube that was released in 2001. The game revolves around you racing other contenders on a jetski while avoiding obstacles and making your way through different circuits. The water and wave physics were revolutionary for its time and the game is still loved by many to this day. After a staggering 9 years, a dedicated fan discovered an Easter egg in the game's sound menu.

Although there was a separate code menu for entering codes in the game, this secret used an adaptation of the infamous Konami code. To activate it, you need to change the audio waveform to look like rising fog at the bottom of the menu, then enter the code (up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, A, X, Z). After doing so, you will hear a sound. Then you will need to start a race and pick the first character on the screen. You will then have a new commentator in the game that shouts sarcastic comments at you as you race around the track.

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Wave Race: Blue Storm

Prepare for the wettest, wildest racing ever as Wave Race splashes onto the Nintendo GameCube! Race against seven other riders through four circuits to become the ultimate Wave Race champion

$123 at Amazon

1 Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!

Watch the crowd, not the fighter

It took nearly 30 years for gamers to discover this secret which was sitting in plain sight. The Punch Out! series is a cult classic for many Nintendo fans. Following the protagonist, Little Mac, you fight your way to become the World Video Boxing Association (W.V.B.A.) champion. The series quickly gained a mass following due to its challenging fights and became one of the best games on the NES. Mike Tyson’s Punch Out! was an adaption to the series that had the undisputed world heavyweight champion at the time, Mike Tyson, as the final boss.

The secret that fans discovered gives you instant knockouts for two fighters in the game, Piston Honda and Bald Bull, as long as you know what to look for. During the Bald Bull fight, as he attempts his first Bald Bull charge move you can see a man on the right side of the crowd taking a picture with his camera. If you throw a knockdown body blow as you see the flash, you will instantly knock out the Bald Bull. The fight with Piston Honda also had a helper in the crowd and if you pay attention to the left side of the crowd, you will notice a bearded man. During Piston Honda's second bonsai rush, the bearded man will duck and that's when you deliver the knockout punch.

Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!

If you're talking heavy-weights, you're talking Punch-Out!! The classic boxing game is one of the best selling sports titles of all time, with nearly three million copies sold. That's a knockout by any standard.

$46 at Amazon

Easter eggs are a gaming tradition

Nowadays, Easter eggs are usually fun references, mini-games, or secret areas for players to find. But in the past, they were typically akin to a developer's signature on their game. Due to the fact the publishers didn't feel the need to give credit to the creators of the game, developers would create secret places for them to add their signature flair. How many more may still be undiscovered?