Easter egg

File:Easter Egg.png

Sakurai's cat can be seen in the ice stage of Pokémon Stadium 2.

An easter egg is a hidden surprise or trick that is like a cheat code, but without the code. They are small surprises programmers add to the game for players to uncover, much like candy eggs in a real-life Easter egg hunt. Many easter eggs are purely for entertainment. Some examples include hidden names or faces of programmers, references to other games, or messages for the player.

Easter eggs should not be confused with glitches, cheats, or techniques. Many do not alter gameplay at all.

Examples

• Barrel Cannon (trophy) - On one the bottom of the Barrel Cannon trophy is the message "2L84Me". When spoken, it sounds like "too late for me," referring to the usual KO after being shot from a barrel.
• Daisy's third eye - In earlier versions of Super Smash Bros. Melee, the Daisy trophy contains a mysterious 3rd eye hidden in her hair, on the back of her head. It was removed in later versions.
• Sleepy time - An easter egg exclusive to Event 39: Jigglypuff Live!, sleepy time will occur when the large screen in the background of Pokémon Stadium is centered on the player's Jigglypuff, and the player uses Jigglypuff's Sing attack. All three of the other Jigglypuffs will fall asleep, regardless of the distance from the player's Jigglypuff, for much longer than usual.
• Fox and Falco's Smash Taunt - By quickly tapping down just once on the directional pad while playing as either Fox or Falco on the Venom or Corneria stages, the player can use a special taunt. A similar effect happens when Fox, Falco, or Wolf performs the trick on the Lylat Cruise stage in SSBB.
• Samus's Extended Grapple - This will allow Samus to have an extended Grappling Beam. To activate it, rapidly press Z while pressing Down, Up, Down, Up constantly on the D Pad. The next time you press Z, the beam should be extra long. If not, then try again. Once the super beam is activated, you have to press Z again when the tip of the beam is on the opponent to actually grab them. Otherwise the beam would just pass right through them. If you hold L or R and press A, the grappling beam will actually home in on the closest target. Once you die, you have to do the code all over again to get the beam to extend again. This easter egg is not on the PAL version.
• In Melee, Metal Mario's trophy has a reflection of the Yoshi's Island stage on its surface.
• Also in Melee, Ganondorf's trophies (when viewed under certain lighting) have glowing eyes.
• Snake's Codec Messages - Using a method on Shadow Moses Island similar to the Star Fox secret taunt, Solid Snake can contact his support team via codec and get information regarding his opponents.
• In Trophy Hoard mode in Brawl, in the background with presents, there is a black DS Lite in a present box on the left.
• In the Ice stage of Pokémon Stadium 2, there is a poster of a white kitten inside of the shack in the middle. It is thought to be Masahiro Sakurai's cat.
• When you play the music Peach dances to when she uses her Final Smash in slow motion, it sounds like the music in the Coin Heaven of Super Mario Bros. 3.
• The Metroid trophy in Melee has a hidden image on its shell. It seems to be a Ceres Station lab (where the Infant Metroid was kept) from Super Metroid. This implies that the trophy is representing the Infant Metroid.
• The calendar- on the ice stage in Pokémon Stadium 2, there appears to be a calendar in the door, but it only appears when looking for the cat or using a hacked camera.
• Mushroom Kingdom Blast Zone Warning: In the Melee ans SSB stage "Mushroom: Kingdom", if one pauses and turns the camera all the way to the right or left, a black wall with a saying "DANGER" on it can be seen, which is appropriate as those areas are past the side blast lines.
• Onett "Runaway 5" Warning Sign: In the Melee and Brawl stage "Eagleland: Onett", if the player stands just to the right of the blue house and pauses, zoom out to see the "Onett Message Board" to the right. It reads "Caution, A black van driven by this guy (seen in the picture right of the message) has been spotted driving recklessly through town. Be careful!".
• R.O.B.'s Base: In R.O.B.'s Grey Palette Swap (which is designed to look like his American design), the words on his base change from "Family Computer Robot" to "R.O.B. - Robotic Operating Buddy", which is the name that was used for the robot outside of Japan.
• Cardboard Box Trophy: In the Cardboard Box trophy in Brawl, if you change the camera angle you can actually see Snake inside the box.

See Also

• Wikipedia's article about Easter eggs