10 Hidden Video Game Images You Weren't Supposed To See
Developers tried to tuck these sights away - but they didn't try hard enough.
Most video games are packed with secrets, and, for the most part, these are completely intentional.
It's becoming more and more popular for developers to load their games with fun and whimsical Easter eggs, which increase their replay value and give players a chance to brag about their discoveries online and to friends.
What's not so common is for an unused design asset, bizarre texture or cryptic code to work its way into the game's framework, either left there accidentally or snuck in by someone who probably didn't ever expect it to be found.
In this era of tech-savvy data miners, however, is there truly a stone that can be left unturned? Not in the following games, it seems.
While some of these can be passed off as a simple oversight on the part of the developers, others are coded very deliberately into the game, and require quite a bit of searching to stumble upon. So much searching, in fact, that it's almost as if you were never supposed to see them in the first place.
Can you spot which is which?
10. Da Vinci Code - Twisted Metal 2 (1996)
The trigger-happy demolition derby series, Twisted Metal, absolutely peaked with its second instalment in 1996, turning the destruction, level traversal and overall chaotic fun up to eleven.
And, as seems to be tradition in driving games at this point, the game is chockfull of easter eggs and secrets.
One secret in particular is as intriguing as it is baffling, and I defy you not to have a whack at it yourself for a good while before throwing in the towel.
While driving around, you may come across a low-res version of the Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinci. After admiring its pixelated beauty, you naturally do what you do to everything else in the game: shoot the bejesus out of it.
The painting will catch fire, and as it burns away, a hidden message comes into view behind it. A code of button prompts - Up, Down, L1, R1 - which could mean anything from a cheat code to an unlockable item or level.
In fact, it means none of those things. To this day, no-one has figured out if this code does anything at all.
Will you be the first to crack Twisted Metal 2's own Da Vinci Code?