Greetings, readers. Let me take you on a journey back to the wonderful and Twitter-free days of our childhoods. It’s Saturday morning. You are curled up in front of the living room television, snow is falling outside, you have a mug of hot chocolate burning a hole in the carpet beside you, and you’ve just loaded your favorite game into your family’s console.
Do you remember the sheer joy that enveloped your soul when you accidentally stumbled upon a secret level, hidden within the game by the developers? And you could not wait to go to school on Monday to share your discovery with all of your friends.
My personal favorite secret is the hidden endings (or true endings) that you can only see by completing a very specific set of steps (such as collecting every collectible available or beating the game within a certain time limit). Video games used to be absolutely chock full of mysterious secrets and hard to access areas. They still are, but the readily available online guides have made finding these rooms much easier. These old-school classics simply have some of the best secret levels and hidden areas.
Whether it be through ridiculously convoluted sequences of tasks or by simply stumbling into the right couple of pixels in the right order, this list will cover the best examples of the craft of secret goodies. I will also be exploring a wide variety of genres too. Everything from a good old hack and slash classic to a whimsical comic duo space adventure. It will include some absolute unforgettable classic hidden levels such as…
25 The Cow Level (Diablo 2)
The cow level is perhaps the single most famous secret level to ever be created. Having risen from a meme in the days of the first Diablo game, to becoming fully realized in the sequel. To access the cow level you just need Wirt’s Leg and a scroll of town portal (which is available in every shop and dropped from wandering monsters). You also need to have defeated Diablo. From there just combine those items in the Horadric Cube while standing in the settlement from the very beginning of the game
24 “Chicken” (Star Wars Rogue Squadron)
“Chicken” is the name for the passcode locked within a mission in the original Star Wars: Rogue Squadron. Accessing the level is rather simple, as the name of the level is the password. In this mission, you will take control of an imperial AT-ST, or “Chickenwalker” as it’s known by the rebels. It is unique in that this is the only mission you don’t assume control over a flying vehicle. The single objective is simple: destroy everything. You are placed in an imperial base and given leave to go wild with your peculiar machine.
23 Launch Facility (Duke Nukem 3D)
The launch facility level of Duke Nukem 3D is both hidden and not hidden. How is that? Well in 3D, it was accessed from the final level (the abyss) of the first episode (L.A. Meltdown), but in the Nintendo 64 version of the game, it follows the Toxic Dump level.
In the original 3D version, the entrance to the level was well-hidden just across from the normal entrance to Toxic Dump.
In the Launch facility, Duke will accidentally ruin a rockets take off and have it catastrophically fall apart in front of him.
22 Mt. Silver (Pokémon Gold/Silver/Crystal)
In the second generation of Pokémon games, Gamefreak managed to hide an entire extra games worth of content from us. Not to mention that there is the entire post game, super high level, labyrinthine area known as Mt Silver. There are strong Pokémon in abundance on its dark paths and a secret opponent awaits you at the top. The Protagonist of the first generation with a high-level team of Charizard, Blastoise, Venusaur, Pikachu, Snorlax, and Alakazam awaits. To access this, you need all 16 badges from both Kanto and Johto and to ensure that you leave through the left of the victory road gatehouse.
21 Chapter 24x (Fire Emblem: Thracia 776)
Fire Emblem is known for being an unforgivingly difficult series and the Japan-exclusive, SNES release Thracia 776 is doubly so. This is a game where your healing staves can easily miss and your characters get tired if they are deployed too many times in a row. Hidden near the end of the game is the notorious chapter 24x: Altar of Loptous. To access this monstrously difficult chapter you need to acquire the Kia Staff in chapter 24 and also have the only possible wielder of the staff, Sara, still alive. It sounds simple, but it really isn’t. Trust me.
20 Fight The Original 6 Dragoon (The Legend Of Dragoon)
The Legend of Dragoon is a sadly overlooked exemplar of the PlayStation 1 era RPG, so I will use my platform to talk about it as much as I possibly can. In Vellweb, you will uncover a large amount of past history of the world including the identities and fates of the original 7 dragoons. One of whom is traveling with you at that very moment! Later, towards the end of the game, you can return to Vellweb to release the souls of the original dragoons (minus Rose) in some very difficult battles.
19 Twisted Rune Headquarters (Baldur’s Gate 2)
The Twisted Rune is a secret society of Undead spellcasters in Faerun, that are completely mysterious aside from the fact that they are hostile to us. We never really have the chance to learn about them because, if you accidentally stumble into their headquarters (which can be done by possessing a rogue stone and wandering around the bridge district of Amn) they just immediately attack you. Which instigates a ludicrously tough encounter. It’s truly unfortunate that we can’t learn more about this strange organization.
18 Hidden Closet (Resident Evil)
In the horror game pioneer that is Resident Evil, there is a secret room. This room is completely inaccessible to us before completing the game. However, finding a specific key and using it on a painting in the mansion (in the area where you find the map for the first floor) will grant you access.
I personally feel as though one should keep all of their maps in the same place, but that’s just me.
It is just a costume change room, where Jill or Chris, (depending on who you are playing as) will switch into their alternate outfit. It’s a silly little bonus but still fun.
17 Brookhaven Hospital Second Basement (Silent Hill 2)
In the much beloved psychological horror title (and quite possibly scariest game ever), Silent Hill 2, you will find yourself in a bizarre otherworld version of Silent Hill’s hospital, Brookhaven. Yes, the awful town of Silent Hill has a bizarro otherworld because it just wasn’t frightening enough. Anyways, the hospital’s basement has a secret sub-basement that can be found by investigating a peculiar stain on the basement floor. You will find a copper ring within this room. Save it, for it is needed to open a door later on.
16 The Moon (Kirby’s Dream Land)
In most Kirby games, you will find the moon hanging in the skybox. Looming over you invitingly. It turns out that the best course of action is to pull a puffy pink Icarus and fly way too close to the moon. Starting in Kirby’s first adventure and repeated throughout the series, the moon actually serves as a door to a secret level. You can usually find some health items and 1-ups, as well as some interesting power-ups in these moons.
15 Kasuto (Legend Of Zelda 2)
There are actually two Kasutos in Zelda II: Adventure of Link. There is the visible one, Old Kasuto, and then a cleverly hidden New Kasuto. You can find New Kasuto by using the Hammer on a patch of grass in the eastern woods of the Kasuto area.
It’s truly surprising that Hidden Kasuto was in the same area as regular Kasuto.
As a developer, Nintendo tends to be devious when it comes to placing secret areas, so it’s very nice that it’s really so close by.
14 Triangle (Tony Hawk’s Underground 2)
In Tony Hawk’s Underground 2, you can find yourself in an area based on the Bermuda triangle. It’s a Caribbean island strewn with shipwrecks just waiting for you to skate all over. To get here, all you need to do is complete classic mode on any difficulty. You can also find downed aircraft and strange buildings and even an Alien base which must be related to Tony Hawk’s theory on what’s going on in the Bermuda Triangle. Aliens.
13 Ghostly Room (Call Of Duty: Finest Hour)
In Call of Duty: Finest Hour there is a seemingly unopenable door in the Underground Passage level that you can actually open if you know how. This can be achieved by doing a specific set of actions that you would never ever do in a normal run through the area. First, find the door by going down a spiral staircase and into a larger tunnel. The door has a medkit next to it, so it’s easily identifiable. To open it, you must throw two grenades at it, attempt to open it, and then throw a third grenade to finish the job. This whole room is filled with oddities.
12 Map 410 (Medal Of Honor: Allied Assault)
Map 410 is a bit different from the rest of the entries in that it needs access to the developer’s console in order to input a selection of commands. You will find yourself surrounded by wide-open terrain, inescapable water, and a simply hopeless amount of angry enemy doggies. It does have some working objectives despite its clearly unfinished state. Maybe the developers just didn’t have enough time to fully flesh this one out or perhaps the budget inconveniently dried up before they could get it properly done.
11 Secret Garden (Shadow Of The Colossus)
Shadow of the Colossus is an absolutely beautiful masterpiece of scenery and simple storytelling. It also has a devilishly hard-to-find secret area which lies on top of the temple in which you start.
At its peak, there is a secret garden and some poison fruit.
To access this secret Eden, you must have enough stamina to make the entire arduous climb which requires you to have beaten the game not only once, but four times to have enough saved up to reach the roof. Those fruits reduce your maximum health and stamina bars to open up the screen.
10 Mayan SOS (Perfect Dark)
If you complete every mission in the game Perfect Dark on the Special Agent difficulty, you will unlock a strange special mission. In this mission, you will play as Elvis, an Alien (not the king of Rock n’ Roll, which is what I thought when doing this research and now am slightly disappointed) and you must escape from area 51. This is a particularly difficult mission as you start with low health and Elvis has a big head ripe for the pickings of the aggravated guards of Area 51.
9 The Crossing (Warcraft 3)
In the Blood Elf campaign featured in the third installment of the Warcraft series, you can find a secret level, known as the crossing, by finding a special iron gate surrounded by some sheep in the previous level. Of course, simply finding it won’t be enough. You also need to click on the top, bottom and then middle platforms located on the other side of the first gate in order to open another gate, as well as a question mark, which will then unlock The Crossing. It’s a simple defend objective but it is not made easy by the enemy A.I. and unit strengths.
8 Inverted Castle (Castlevania: Symphony Of The Night)
In a sneaky display of game development skills and wit, the makers of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night managed to hide the entire second half of the game from players. This second half of the game can be accessed by breaking an enemy free of a mind control spell (instead of simply defeating him like we do with all other bosses). It’s not something we would normally think to do and for a while, it was effective at keeping us out of the entire second half of their game.
7 Giant Ant Level (Red Alert)
Red Alert has a secret campaign where you have to lead the Allies against a horde of giant ants. All you need is the Counterstrike expansion and to hold shift and click on the speaker icon on the main menu. It takes place after the defeat of the Soviets and there are only 4 missions but the ants are quite powerful. The name of the campaign is a reference to a much older game called It Came From The Desert.
6 Gnasty’s Loot (Spyro The Dragon)
Did you ever complete Spyro the Dragon by collecting all the gems, freeing all the dragons, and collecting all the dragon eggs?
If you were not granted access to Gnasty Gnorc’s treasure world then you still have a lot of collecting to do within this brilliant collect ’em up game.
Here you can fly infinitely and even stumble across the rare thief enemy type, as well as a huge pile of gems that one would have no idea about otherwise. I personally love all these 101% completion bonus rewards.
