10 HUGE Video Game Secrets You’ll Hate Yourself For Missing

You know, I'm something of a playable character myself.

Spider-Man PS1 What If Mode
Activision

With the internet making it easier to share data than ever before, it doesn’t take long for the entirety of a video game’s secrets to be discovered after it’s released. After dedicated fans search through every pixel onscreen alongside every byte of data in the game’s files, they quickly post their findings on social media for everyone else to know about them.

However, there was a time before everyone had access to the internet when game secrets were only found in gaming magazines or spread as rumours throughout the playground. Unless players went hunting for hours themselves, there was a chance that they missed some amazing content from their favourite games.

While it’s always interesting to learn about new secrets from older games, some of the lesser-known video game secrets are so incredible that those who played them when they first came out will be left frustrated that they didn’t know about them sooner.

Whether these were hidden game modes that revolutionised how these games could be played or cheats that took decades to be discovered, knowing about these now will make players want to dust off their old consoles to give these games another try just to see these secrets for themselves.

10. You Can Play As The Duck - Duck Hunt (1985)

Spider-Man PS1 What If Mode
Nintendo

Originally released in Japan and in arcades before arriving on the NES in North America in 1985 (and a further two years before it released in Europe), Duck Hunt is a light gun game in which players shoot ducks from the sky using the NES Zapper peripheral.

For decades, many who played this game believed that this was all there was to it. However, there’s a massive game-changing secret that added a whole new twist to this arcade shooter.

By plugging a regular NES controller into the second port, another player could control the ducks. This subsequently gave this shooter an unexpectedly fantastic competitive edge in which each player would have to outsmart the other. If the shooter's victorious, they could pride themselves on their sharpshooting skills. However, if they were outwitted by their opponent, then the notoriously mocking laughter from the dog would only sting that much more.

After this secret had gone undiscovered by most players for years, it was actor Seth Rogan who brought this revelatory fact to light. Tweeting in September 2018, Rogan stumbled upon this huge secret when he accidentally sat on the controller.

Anyone who owns a copy of Duck Hunt needs to check this one out.

 
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Contributor

Glasgow-based cinephile who earned a Masters degree in film studies to spend their time writing about cinema, video games, and horror.