Feature: Twelve of the Best PlayStation Easter Eggs

Video game Easter Eggs may not be made of chocolate like their real world counterparts, but there are still plenty of tasty treats concealed within the world of PlayStation. In order to celebrate the impending spring weather (oh, please let it arrive), we’ve hopped through our archives like a new born bunny to bring you a compilation of some of the best secrets stashed inside Sony’s systems. Grab a bag of Mini Eggs and enjoy.

Batman: Arkham Asylum – Missing blueprints

While most video game secrets get uncovered in seconds, Batman: Arkham Asylum’s nod to the future actually remained a mystery right up until its successor was announced. If you whack some explosive gel on a nondescript wall within the warden’s office, you’ll unlock a room laden with secrets referring to Rocksteady’s well-received sequel. Sceptics suggest that the area may have been added in a post-release patch, but we reckon that they’re just bitter that they didn’t find it first.

Burnout Revenge – Bullet ride

Publishers often tend to reward customer loyalty with unlockable secrets detected through save data, but Burnout Revenge did things the opposite way around. Released in September 2005, the crash-happy arcade racer allowed you to pilot a slick sports car peppered with bullet holes – assuming you had a save file for 2006’s first-person shooter Black. Granted you could grab the vehicle by reaching Elite Rank 11, but constructing your own personal time machine with which to purchase the unreleased title proved the more manageable method.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 – Retro gamer

Nuketown 2025 may look like little more than the recreation of a classic map from the outside, but it’s actually something of a retro gaming compilation in disguise. Those of you with the skills to shoot all of the heads off the mannequins lingering inside the arena in Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 will be treated to a trip through time. Behead the plush figures swifter than Henry the Eight on a bigamy binge, and you’ll unlock access to Activision classics such as River Raid, Kaboom, Hero, and Pitfall on the television in the centre of the stage.

Dead Space 2 – Hand cannon

Nothing says competent space warrior quite like an oversized foam hand cannon. This unlockable super weapon from Dead Space 2 can be grabbed by completing the sequel’s eye-wateringly tough Hardcore mode. When equipped, it allows you to deal some serious damage by simply pointing at your foes and muttering the words ‘bang’ and ‘pew’. It’s not the most obvious answer to a nasty Necromorph infestation, but it certainly gets the job done.

Final Fantasy VII – Magic number

While it’s not always the most surefire strategy, there are advantages to losing health in Final Fantasy VII. Once your HP reaches the fortunate figure of 7,777, you’ll unlock a super-powerful state known as ‘All Lucky 7s’. This allows you to dish out damage to the tune of, well, 7,777 for as long as you remain undamaged. Unfortunately, the effects only last for a single round, as your health will be reset to a single digit after your current battle (prematurely) concludes. Bah humbug, and all that.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City – Actual egg

While most games opt for quirky little secrets, it’s perhaps not surprising that Grand Theft Auto: Vice City got literal with its approach to Easter Eggs. If you hop through the window adjacent to the helipad on the roof of the VCN building, you’ll find an actual chocolate egg iced with the message “Happy Easter”. Brilliantly, if you try the exact same trick in PlayStation Portable spin-off Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories – which is set two years before the main game – you’ll find a crane and a partially constructed egg, along with some doodles from the development team.

Metal Gear Solid – Mind reader

There are enough hidden secrets plotted throughout the course of the Metal Gear Solid series to fill a Bible-sized tome, but the encounter with Psycho Mantis midway through the first game will always be the best. Upon reaching the telepathic villain in a plush office, he’ll tell you that he can read your mind. He’ll then proceed to make personal comments about your gaming habits, all based on the data that’s stored on your PlayStation’s memory card. Forget about Joakim Mogren, this is Hideo Kojima at his most creative.

PlayStation Home – Hidden messages

While there wasn’t much to do when PlayStation Home first launched, the most fun you could have outside of doing the running man in front of unsuspecting avatars was taking advantage of a glitch that allowed you to explore the seaport of the Harbour Studio apartment. Sure, the environment was about as populated as Home Square itself (read: not very), but those of you with keen eyes may have happened upon a proximity mine from Warhawk and a small stone sign bearing the warning “You really shouldn’t be able to read this". Whoops.

Ratchet & Clank – Ladies’ man

If cranking up your age in Dead or Alive left you sniggering like a schoolboy in your earlier years, then we’ve no doubt that you got similar satisfaction out of an aerobics session in Ratchet & Clank. We’re not sure what developer Insomniac Games was thinking, but if you encourage the platformer’s lead Lombax to perform a few backflips in front of the female alien based in Blackwater, you’ll be “rewarded” with a creepy change to the character’s chest size.

Resident Evil 2 – Basket maul

Capcom’s corpse shuffling franchise Resident Evil is renowned for its secrets, but it took years for inquisitive snoops to uncover the surreptitious snap in the second instalment of the series. If you search turncoat Albert Wesker’s desk on the second floor of the Raccoon City Police Department, you’ll be told that it’s been trashed. But repeat the process no less than 50 times, and you’ll receive a roll of film, which, when developed, produces a picture of Rebecca Chambers in a basketball uniform. It's incredible that it was ever located at all.

Silent Hill 2 – Woof woof

Pyramid Head wasn’t an ethereal representation of Silent Hill 2 protagonist James Sunderland’s sexual repression – he was merely part of a sinister plot dreamed up by a shady Shiba Inu dog named Mira. To unlock the survival horror's secret canine conclusion, you need to acquire the ‘Dog Key’ found in the doghouse directly west of Jack’s Inn. The item will only be available after you’ve watched the three standard endings, or the Rebirth finale. The key will allow you to unlock the Observation Room in the Lake View Hotel, where you’ll be able to confront the spiteful puppy puppeteer.

Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception – Zombie apocalypse

British tabloids are known for their nonsense narratives, so when Nathan Drake stops by for a swift pint in a London pub at the start of Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, many assumed that the newspaper article about fungal infections lingering on the bar was merely a stab at the region’s media. It wasn’t until later that we learned that it was actually a tease for developer Naughty Dog’s next endeavour, The Last of Us, which confronts the idea of a post apocalyptic future packed with diseased humans.

Unsurprisingly, there are dozens more oval-shaped treats to discover on planet PlayStation, so feel free to share your favourites in the comments section below.