Top 15 Most Awesome Rare Easter Eggs
Akin to the many hidden chocolate Eggs found Easter morning, Easter Eggs can also be found hidden in the digital world – albeit not as edible or chocolate covered. Rare has had quite a history with putting Easter Eggs in their games as secretive references or nods to titles and clever unlockable content that would otherwise carry on undetected. Ordinarily you’ll need a keen-eye and a little knowledge of Rares past work to unearth these gems, which are nearly as rare as the name suggests, but as a special Easter present we’ve compiled the Top 15 best, secretive and downright Most Awesome Rare Easter Eggs found in their 25 year history below. Check it out and be prepared to look at your favorite games a little differently the next time you play them…
#15. DOLPHIN KONG 64 – DONKEY KONG 64 (NINTENDO 64)
Venture into Donkey Kongs Treehouse at any time during your adventure in Donkey Kong 64 and you’ll find an assortment of objects that relate themselves to the Apes older titles. A red steel girder is a nod toward the classic Donkey Kong Arcade, as well as the barrel holding it up. Just to the right is a tire from the Donkey Kong Country series and left of that is an old Phonograph Cranky was seen turning in the first title. Above the girder is a mysterious portrait of a Dolphin which doesn’t seem to fit anywhere. Do a little research and you’ll find that the codename for the next console from Nintendo, the Gamecube, was referred to as Project Dolphin.
#14. TURN ANTS INTO PANTS – JET FORCE GEMINI (NINTENDO 64)
Jet Force Gemini sees you taking control of Juno, Vela and their wardog Lupus to wage a resistance against the evil insect leader Mizar and his expendable number of troops. Gunning down a wave of large Ant soldiers does more than progress the plot; you’ll be able to collect their heads as tokens to unlock bonuses. One of these unlockables is a feature dubbed “Ants as Pants”, which will turn all of the Ants found within the game to take on the likeness of Mr. Pants – Rare’s poorly drawn website mascot created in the late 90’s. Although he would get his very own game in 2004, his first appearance in the digital world saw you avoiding gunfire from an overweight man in his underpants, like God intended.
#13. SNIDES TEST MAP – DONKEY KONG 64 (NINTENDO 64)
Going back to Donkey Kong 64 for a moment, this Easter Egg is as mysterious as it is interesting. A large portion of Golden Bananas come from a sly character named Snide, a weasel who previously worked on King K. Rools Blast-O-Matic superweapon. Fighting for the good team, Snide urges you to collect all of the Blast-o-Matic blueprints which have been stolen and held captive by elite Kremlings called Krushas. Return every Blueprint to Snides’ HQ and you’ll be able to replay any Minigame. If you press A and B together while in this menu however, you’ll warp off to a secret Test Map which went to setting up the gameplay and physics of Donkey Kong 64. If you wish to leave you’ll need to reset the N64.
#12. FREEZEEZY PIQUED – BANJO TOOIE (NINTENDO 64)
Here’s one for Banjo-Tooie! Once you’ve progressed far enough in your adventure you’ll unlock the dreaded Grunty Industries; a spanning industrial plant that has several floors going from the ‘Basement’ to stopping just short of ‘This is clearly too many’. Luckily you won’t need to venture far to locate the Worker’s Quarters, which can be found just as you enter the Industries. Venturing inside reveals just as you’d expect; a quaint employee lounge complete with unsanitary toiletries and uncooth living conditions. Linger around long enough and you’ll spot a fridge in the corner with Perfect Dark, DK 64, Banjo-Tooie, Jet Force Gemini and Rare Logo magnets. Very clever, Rare.
#11. GENERATION GAP – DONKEY KONG COUNTRY 3:DIXIE KONG’S DOUBLE TROUBLE (SNES)
In Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong’s Double Trouble for the SNES you’ll manage to find Wrinkly Kong resuming her post from Donkey Kong Country 2; allowing you to save your game in exchange for a little visit. Each time you visit the Save Cave you’ll find Wrinkly doing a different task, including sleeping, dancing and playing video games. When Wrinkly is playing video games you’re in for a huge treat as Wrinkly has nabbed herself a Nintendo 64 which at the time had only come out a few months earlier! What’s more, you’ll be able to hear a certain reminiscent melody from Super Mario 64 as she plays…
#10. KAMEO: ELEMENTS OF POWER SOLOS – KAMEO: ELEMENTS OF POWER (XBOX 360)
Here’s quite the cameo in Kameo! Inside the Badlands you’ll find a number of abandoned huts that can be explored. Venture inside ‘Creeper’s Home’ and you’ll discover a small discarded Radio atop a dresser. Don’t let the aesthetics fool you; this radio is fully functional and it plays a rocking remix of the Banjo-Kazooie theme song! While alone this discovery is quite a fantastic treat, the theme heard on the radio was later realized as the opening theme to Banjo-Kazooie: Nut’s and Bolts in 2008. While gamers would have to wait to hear the theme in it’s proper context, Kameo gave them a glimpse into the next Banjo-Kazooie Xbox 360 title, three years in the making.
#9. TEST TUBE TEDIZ – CONKER: LIVE & RELOADED (XBOX)
While Conker’s Live and Reloaded may tout itself as a polished remake of it’s original N64 counterpart, Conker’s Bad Fur Day, the two share a stronger bond than first realized. Once you’ve bunkered down on Tediz Island during the ‘It’s War’ Chapter, you’ll have the opportunity to explore the Tediz facilities which contain a laboratory portion complete with large test tubes and electric chair. If you get close enough to these bubbling beakers you’ll manage to spot its specimen inside; one of the original Tediz from Conker’s Bad Fur Day, its polygonal model fully rendered from the ’64 era.
#8. HIGHLY CLASSIFIED CHEDDAR – PERFECT DARK (NINTENDO 64)
In a setting of conspiracy and espionage, Perfect Dark is the perfect candidate for unexplained mysteries and unusual oddities. Out of all possible questions extended in the Perfect Dark universe, ours is simply “Hey, who put this cheese everywhere?” Simply put there is a tiny piece of swiss cheese hidden somewhere in each level of the Single Player Campaign. Some cheese can be found high out of sight or in vents, others you may only see through walls with special weapons, and some have been dunked in the toilet, all devilishly hidden waiting to be found.
Initially meant to be collected, this feature was ultimately dropped, but they never cut the cheese so it still remains in game to tease us.
#7. LIVING THE DREAM – BANJO-TOOIE (NINTENDO 64)
Before it evolved into Banjo-Kazooie Rare was hard at work on an RPG in the same vein as The Legend of Zelda titled Project Dream. The game was to star a lone adventurer, a boy named Edison who must rescue his girlfriend Madeline from a group of brass but bumbling pirates lead by the nefarious Captain Blackeye. While Dream would turn out to be just that, the initial concept was turned into Banjo-Kazooie spawning a successful franchise all its own. In the sequel Banjo-Tooie, players would happen across Captain Blackeye in all his glory inside Jolly Roger’s Lagoon where he would tell players that had a dream once of being in a fine game before a bear stole his glory.
#6. CONKER INSTINCT – CONKER’S BAD FUR DAY (NINTENDO 64)
Leave a Rare game without pausing and you’ll find a variety of interesting animations. While Banjo and Kazooie will have a row after the Breegul raps on the honeybears noggin too many times, and the Kong family has a tendency to attract butterflies by far the most diverse and interesting idle animations occur in Conker’s Bad Fur Day. Left to his own devices the Red Squirrel will cycle through a number of actions to keep himself busy as he awaits the players return. On rare occurrence Conker will withdraw a Gameboy Color from his seemingly limitless pocket and start playing the Rare arcade classic Killer Instinct, with his own added commentary among Gameboy sound effects and musical score.
#5. RACING GREENWOOD VILLAGE – JET FORCE GEMINI (NINTENDO 64)
Beginning its notorious legacy in Diddy Kong Racing, Greenwood Village was one of the most memorable racecourses for its challenging difficulty. The notion that it is the most difficult on the N64 could be refuted however when one takes into account the Jeff & Barry Arcade Races in Jet Force Gemini. These overhead racers in similar form to RC Pro-Am were difficult to unlock in-game and extremely difficult to clear the best times on each machine which required no mistakes and expert control. If you do manage to beat the best times through divine intervention or otherwise you’ll unlock Greenwood Village as a Multiplayer Map, directly ported from Diddy Kong Racing.
#4. ONE BEARS TRASH… – BANJO-KAZOOIE: NUTS & BOLTS (XBOX 360)
While Banjo-Kazooie: Nut’s and Bolts starts you off in Spiral Mountain, you won’t be able to explore its surroundings until the final confrontation with Gruntilda at the end of the game. Once you’ve made your return it’s worth checking out the U-Dump Dumpster beside Banjo’s house, where you’ll find a near decades worth of garbage bags, empty pizza boxes and discarded planks of wood. You can make some easy work out of removing the trash once you take out your wrench, your efforts will be realized upon exposing the treasure trove below. Inside you’ll find a Bonus Book and Mr. Ribs from Grabbed by the Ghoulies, a Fudgehog from Viva Pinata, a few assorted items from Banjo-Kazooie and Tooie and lastly the Wotnot Book from Kameo, all to be thrown out.
#3. THE WHOLE OF GRABBED BY THE GHOULIES – GRABBED BY THE GHOULIES (XBOX)
Grabbed by the Ghoulies stars Cooper and his girlfriend Amber who soon find themselves trapped in Ghoulhaven Hall, which is bursting at the seams with Rare memorabilia. Inside every room you’ll likely find a nod to past titles and characters hanging as portraits on the wall, labels wrapped around tins atop shelves and even stitched into clothing. Touring the Games Room leads you through to Rare’s early releases on the ZX Spectrum when they were known as Ultimate: Play the Game, with extra teases toward Conker’s Bad Fur Day and Killer Instinct 3 on Xbox. There were so many easter eggs that we had to make a Spotters Guide to help players find over 80 unique Rare references.
#2. PLAY AS THE RARE STAFF IN GOLDENEYE – GOLEDNEYE: 007 (NINTENDO 64)
Why bother playing as Pierce Brosnan through Goldeneye Multiplayer when you can go head to head against your friends as an artist or musician who worked on the game? In order to unlock every member of Rare staff, you need to enter the difficult Push Button code as followed: L+R+C-Left, L+C-Up, L+R+Left, L+Right, R+Down, L+R+C-Left, L+C-Up, L+R+Right, L+R+C-Down, L+Down. In this example I’ve pitted Ken Lobb (Top screen) who you might remember talking about Nut’s and Bolts against Banjo-Kazooie musician, Grant Kirkhope (Bottom screen), who we interviewed a while back . The game ends when Ken Lobb picks up the Klobb and starts laughing maniacally.
#1. STOP ‘N’ SWOP – BANJO-KAZOOIE (NINTENDO 64)
Oh yes. Stop ‘N’ Swop, now we’re into meta-physical easter egg territory! For those uninformed, Banjo-Kazooie contained six mysterious Easter Eggs hidden around the game with the intent of ‘swapping’ them over to the sequel, Banjo-Tooie for unlockable goodies. Much like the Cheese in Perfect Dark however, the plan was ultimately scrapped and the tenacious link between Kazooie and Tooie was severed, though you can still find and collect the Eggs by typing in Cheat Codes left in the first game. While the features of Stop ‘N’ Swop have since died the hype surrounding its mysterious and illusive rewards have never faltered.
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