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There’s something special about finding a video game secret isn’t there? Once you realize what it is you’ve found, it suddenly becomes special; a hidden gem most players passed by, completely unaware that it even existed. It starts something special to share with friends and the world at large, but also becomes fuel for many a hoax. After all, if one secret exists in a game, why not two? If the developer put a secret in one game, why not in another? And on it goes from there…

I’ve  found a few good secrets in my games over the years, and I’ve been fooled by few hoaxes too. So in the spirit of April, here are the best secrets I managed to find on my own, plus the one hoax that had me absolutely convinced that it was real…well until reality set in that is. See if you can figure out which is the hoax!

Which is it?

1. In Super Mario World – completing SPECIAL world palette swaps most of the game and turns koopa troopas into…something else.

2. In Chrono Trigger – Magus can join your party.

3. In Dead Space 2 – There is a secret message hidden in the chapter titles.

4. In Ratchet and Clank: Going Commando – You can access the Insomniac Museum early by staying up until 3 a.m.

5. In Animal Crossing (GC) – You can obtain a “Dummy” item, which has no limit on its storage capacity.

6. In Super Mario RPG – There are 3 “invisible helpers” to find and talk to.

7. In The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening (GBC) – There is an extra dungeon found in the graveyard.

Did you guess right?

1. Completing SPECIAL world does indeed change everything! I first found this when I was in grade school, and I couldn’t believe it at first. Not only did the game reward my diligence with SPECIAL world, but it even went so far as to provide a brand new world to explore for defeating its most challenging levels. If there’s a better secret out there, I’d like to know what it is!

2. Magus can indeed join your party! All you have to do is opt to not fight him during his optional encounter. I happened to stumble into this when I was going through all the sidequests, and I’d turned down the fight just to see what would happen. I didn’t even realize he was a secret character until I read about it on the internet!

3. There is in fact no secret message in the chapter titles of Dead Space 2. Visceral only used that trick in Dead Space and Dead Space 3. In both cases they tease details for the endings, so I won’t reveal them here, but I do highly encourage you to go seek them out. Both reveals make for a lot of good fun and speculation! I was convinced that there was some sort of scrambled message there for awhile, but alas there was nothing to be found…

4. You can in fact enter the Insomniac Museum early using this method. Just go to Silver City, stand on top of the dry fountain and once you’ve proven your status as an insomniac, it’s off to the museum for you!

5. There is in fact a “Dummy” item in the original Animal Crossing. To obtain it you must win the “pick two cards” igloo game. Pick the right card and you might just get a “Dummy” item that can hold as many other items as you want!

6. This is true as well. These invisible helpers can be found behind buildings in the Mushroom Kingdom and Rose Town. Two offer hints about where to find other secrets and the third is just a poor toad who didn’t get unfrozen once Bowyer was defeated.

7. There is in fact a secret dungeon under the graveyard! Just find the section with 5 gravestones and push each in the correct direction (and in the correct order) and the “World of Color” will be yours to explore and defeat! Do so and you can gain either a blue or red tunic; the former doubles your defense, while the latter doubles your attack power! What order do you push the gravestones in? Why the answer can be found in the Koholint library! Just venture over and have a look.

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Did you guess right? What are your favorite secrets you’ve found during your time as a gamer?