10 Secret Video Game Endings Nobody Saw

For some players, the crushing difficulty of a video game is a selling point in and of itself. These are the fans who relish the challenge of a punishing boss, a series of pixel-perfect leaps across platforms, the self-imposed devastating challenge of a no-deaths or even no-damage run.

Such players are usually committed to completing games 100%, whether there’s a valuable reward for doing so or not. Interesting unlocks are always welcome, even an achievement or trophy, but sometimes there’s nothing but pride on the line (which is more than enough a lot of the time).

As more and more titles emerge that seem dedicated to proving themselves ‘harder than Dark Souls,’ though, challenges appear that are beyond all but the very, very top players. Secret endings with fiendish unlocking requirements are nothing new, but some really are all but impossible.

Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time sports such an ending, so tough to achieve that almost nobody will see it outside of YouTube. It’s not just about difficulty, either - some endings are just so obscure and mysterious that they rarely (if ever) see the light of day either.

These are the endings fans truly have to dedicate themselves to in order to witness.

Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time went to great pains to evoke the spirit of the original trio of titles, and this extended to the amount of punishing collectibles involved. There are Crystals, Gems and Relics galore in the new game, and for the very best ending, the player will need to acquire absolutely all of them.

106% completion is the goal here, which means that every Platinum Time Trial Relic and Platinum Flashback Relic, every gem of every sort, all of those pesky crates and everything beyond must be acquired. Crash 4 added quirky new challenges (such as the aforementioned Flashback Relics), which means that even series veterans will probably give up long before unlocking the best ending.

Simply completing the game’s story is a tricky prospect, but this just beyond the pale. The ending awarded for 106% completion? A very, very brief scene (20 seconds or so) that will be spoiled in the next paragraph, for those who’d rather not know.

The bonus clip sees Cortex relaxing on a beach, before hearing a foreboding laugh and seeing Uka Uka emerge from the shadows. This hint at a potential sequel made all the suffering worth it.