I don’t even remember what game it was that first time… but once checking backwards paid off, I was cursed to turn around and check there until the end of days (along with most every other nook and offshoot).
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the chainsaw. you didn’t even have to turn around. just go back and watch the little grin on his face
Ah yes, the Castlevania curse….
which Castlevania???
ALL OF THEM. bites nails
then Sotn ramps it up to 11 by making it only work if you do it really fast and with exact timing
black tiger. you’re welcome
Was it Limbo? I am sure that running the wrong way got an achievement
As I recall, there was a collectable to the left that would give you an achievement when you got all of them.
I used to have something like it from playing Wolfenstein 3d. I had to press every single bit of wall, looking for secrets.
Luckily, i have been dissuaded from this by it not working for a single game i have played in the last 20 years.
Don’t play the Elden Rings then.
Legend of Grimrock (1 specifically cuz iirc 2 was a bit better) had secret walls, they just have a button on em but its not super obvious unless u actually LOOK at that wall so ya, gotta look directly at every single wall for a button. If i play it again ill consider trying to find and edit the image file for those walls a color in a nice big circle cuz for your 1st playthru its cool for a tiny bit but once you know, you know, and then its just artificial difficulty via a slow down of progression.… Read more »
Donkey Kong Country on SNES?
That was mine. And in fact, didn’t even discover it myself; I watched it on that VHS tape Nintendo mailed me and was like, “Woah, there’s stuff BEHIND you in this game?!”
Me too!.Thanks for reminding me how old I am ?
Experienced, sir. Experienced.
got mailed a vhs promo for banjo kazooie. my mom was super suspicious and wouldnt let me watch it until she did. maybe she shouldnt have and id never guess what my birthday present was lol
my dad did the same with perfect dark. i was on the student newspaper writing the games column so i managed to get myself on the nintendo news list/service/thingy and they mailed me the perfect dark press package. my dad was convinced it was porn. i’m like “alright let’s watch it together if it’s porn you can learn what kind of freaky stuff your daughter is into” (i was 16 and bulletproof at the time mind) so i yanked it out of his hands and stuffed it into the vcr immediately my dad stopped going through my mail with extreme… Read more »
Various rpgs as a kid have me always clicking on every bookshelf and trash can. Every. Single. One.
Oh God all those Pokémon rumours back in the day you found online and had to try ‘secret codes’ on those tile based games and clicking trashcans etc.
Many were false and promised Mew or Mewtwo as random battles etc.
The Celibi secret battle in the woods wasn’t fake though. ♥
fake no, limited to an event 99% of kids will never see yes
I’d like to point out that using OCD a shorthand for being thorough and organized is harmful to people who have OCD. I get it’s an easy joke to make, but I know people with OCD who don’t get taken nearly as seriously as they should be because this is such a common misconception.
Putting aside the pop culture nonsense about people suffering from OCD being overly organized (just like autists often being represented as very awkward genius scientists), wouldn’t the thing displayed in the comic count as an obsessive behavior ?
Every damn time, we start levels by going the wrong way, we check behind waterfalls, we stab random walls and smash every single pot or crate in sight, just for a very slim chance that they might contain a secret bonus. Overall a gamer’s life, it’s a lot of time wasted on nonsense that only work in some specific games.
It doesn’t fit the clinical definition of obsession or OCD no.
An obsession is a repetitive unwanted thought that causes significant distress.
I used the words “every damn time” and “lot of time wasted on nonsense”, how do you come up to the conclusion that this is not an unwanted behaviour ? Sure, some people will play like that just because they want to be thorough, but they can easily stop doing it when they realize it’s not that kind of game where it has a beneficial effect. And some others would like to stop, but they can’t because they are compelled to it. For example, when playing a “Metroidvania” game, enemies generally respawn as soon as you leave the screen, and… Read more »
Also, why would there necessarily be a distinction between those who suffer OCD and gamers? There is very, very likely to be a union of sets of some size. So some of the gamers would have OCDs and some would probably show up in games. Look at it this way, the whole point of many games these days, and less formally in days past, was the observations (and now neuroscience) of how to elicit addictive or reward-driven behaviours to get the dopamine or cortisol flares that go with the game’s play. I’m not to the ‘D’ part of OCD as… Read more »
Neat assumption that Tim -doesn’t- necessarily have OCD, but then you wouldn’t be able to soapbox that way.
I wouldn’t say it is harmful, but it does lead to misconceptions and misunderstandings. OCD is a quite serious illness, that shouldn’t be taken lightly.
OCD is a range from the milder cases to the incredibly harmful. Tim is using it correctly.
No he’s not and neither are you. Source: 25+ years clinical experience working with OCD patients.
Yes he is, but you are not. your using the Professional fallacy that the patients you see (typically the far more affected) are the norm and not the outlier. If you use a hammer all day soon the world looks full of nails.Source: 40+ years dealing with OCD as a patient. life is full of ups and downs and one of the greatest gifts we can ever gain is the ability to laugh at ourselves.
Lawyered
That and the ability to forgive oneself, look to a new day with hope it will be better, and try to make the new day a better one (successfully on a good day, less on others). The D on various mental injuries is a decided-upon breakpoint (arbitrary maybe not), but the sufferers are on a spectrum and wherever you put the breakpoint, there’ll be somebody left out, others included. Sometimes the breakpoints are for limited amounts of service/help/professional attention. I know that’s true where I am. I could get 1 hr with a psychiatrist and 4 with a therapist. They… Read more »
If you had 25+ years of experience, you’d know you can’t diagnose one way or the other without a differential diagnosis. Looking at a very small slice of someone’s life and definitively saying they do or do not have a condition is, at best, inconsistent with how medical systems work.
And you can have most mental health issues that end with the D that are kind of the worst case of that particular mental health issue or you can have something slightly less severe, but still very impactful and significant that falls short of the D part. Doesn’t mean you don’t experience the condition to a fair degree. I’ve got PTS, just not the PTSD level. I’ve got friends with full blown PTSD from abuse. Mine was from horrific things happening to those around me from when I was a kid through adulthood (PTS in its Complex form – not… Read more »
Not allowing jokes about certain topics is more harmful, I think. ?♂️
just ask will smith lol
I’d say to soon, but there was no ‘too soon’ for that choice. If some rando averge person has slapped Chris, even if Chris pushed the limits, they’d have gone to jail. Smith got off because of his celebrity.
Why do you immediately assume that he doesn’t have OCD and is just using it incorrectly? That seems pretty harmful too. Next time you might try being less accusatory, less standoffish, say something like “If you do have OCD then disregard, but if you don’t, [explanation about it being harmful here]”
At the core, you’re right. But you said it all wrong.
Because this behavior isn’t what OCD is whether or not Tim has it.
The worst syndrome is the “I assume anyone with (Insert condition) will be terribly harmed, emotionally and spiritually by any reference to (insert condition) that isn’t fully supportive and compassionate. Further more, in order to show my bona fide credentials as a woke and ready member of society I am here to sit high on this horse and chastise anyone that dares offend, someone, somewhere…
Seriously, I am so over the faux-care and preening of the woke kids, it’s sad. It’s a joke, get over it, move on with your life.
If only you were using “woke” correctly and not in the way the edgelords have tried to discredit the concept through propaganda.
How edgy you are though.
I think it was quite correct but you are free to disagree.
Ah yes, I too yearn for the glory days where I could be both an asshole to everyone and still think of myself as a wonderful person.
as someone with OCD. thank you
This is normal. Psychologists come up with a term for specific people and then that term gets widely adopted as shorthand for other stuff until it becomes useless as a diagnosis and they have to come up with a new thing to call it.
Do you mean like simpeltons, I mean like mentally retarded, I mean like mentally handicapped, I mean like having an intellectual developmental disorder. the trend is to make it more clinical. the issue is as it is used more the general public finds a way to make it into an insult (don’t worry they are coming for you, Intelectual developmental disorder) in my own humble opinion as a person who has dealt with all of these things my entire life is the stupid people will still be stupid and no amount of changing the vocabulary is going to fix that.… Read more »
For myself, I don’t want to hurt people and when I recognize harm was done through negligence or ignorance (it wouldn’t be intention), I will try to make amends. But when it gets right down to it, your feelings are your own. The event is there, two different people can experience it and choose to feel about it different ways. Each of us owns our emotions and the actions or responses we choose to take. The speaker has one set of motivations and values and perceptions, the reader or hearer has their own set of those. The way we react… Read more »
This is completely true. OCD isn’t doing something once each time when the opportunity presents itself like this. OCD is generally tied to some kind of fear or need, and involves doing something multiple times in order to satisfy that fear or need. e.g. fear of break-in, checking all door/window locks three times before leaving the house, and possibly going back to check again after getting to the car. Checking before the start point of a level? Being thorough. Checking it, then going back and checking it again a few minutes into the level, and then again a few minutes… Read more »
The difference is that people who want to be thorough can simply stop when they realize that this kind of game won’t have secrets hidden like that, while the others suffering from compulsion can’t stop themselves despite thinking that it’s a huge waste of time and wanting to stop (you can read my other comment above for more details). Being OCD is not a on/off switch, it’s a progressive scale. Some people need to flip the light switch exactly 47 times when leaving a room, some others will just have the need to walk back to their car once to… Read more »
Or as it should be called CDO…. Alphabetized…as it should be…. Can we not get all offended and self righteous. Everyone was all up in arms over Will Smith slapping Chris over a joke. A very poor taste joke that he so richly deserved to have his ass slapped for…
He deserved to be slapped because he made a bald joke? Well, then I deserve a freaking no-holds-barred beat down because I make bald jokes all the bloody time.
I don’t understand. You’re saying we all get too offended by simple jokes, but you’re defending slapping Chris Rock for a simple joke….
Sorry, but I have to disagree for 2 reasons. First your getting offended for someone else. you lose all credibility as you cant fully understand their situation (that applys to all causes, you can support it but don’t speak for it if you are not affected by it.). Secondly, he never stated he was just overly thorough and organized but it was his OCD. while it is a joke its also a joke about himself. if that’s how OCD manifests within him who are we to downplay his situation.
This argument is *almost* as stupid as claiming PoC aren’t PoC enough because they don’t do stereotypical PoC things.. Or vote a certain way.
This is not OCD, it is a concditioned reflex. We are Pavlov’s dog but with fancy consoles and games. I punched every single block in Nes/Snes Mario games in the past, now I simply salivate when I hear the music 🙂
Ah yes, the waterfall curse I call it. Every waterfall, according to my monkey brain, MUST have a secret behind it. Apparently a lot of developers have the same curse because I’m right more often than not.
Satisfactory was terrible for this. Like 15/16 of the waterfalls have nothing.
yet one still did 🙂
I wouldn’t know, I just built up 20 stories and then skybridged to any new resources I needed. No need to experience more of that scary “outdoors” thing than necessary when you can just build a nice enclosed environment.
(Also if you haven’t discovered it yet, Zoop build mode will change your life)
I love zoop! I also love exploring the world though. They made some amazingly nice areas. Can’t wait to see the new Spire Coast even if it does fuck up the best oil area on the map. 🙂
There’s a twitter account that attempts to document cases: https://twitter.com/VGWaterfalls
Died down a little over the last few months.
There was a trick like this in Crash Bandicoot ( don’t remember if it was the 2 or 3 though ), you did have to check before the starting point to get all the crates of the level to get the diamond.
that was my first thought as well
Doom 2 had the chainsaw behind you at the start.
I think that happened in some donkey Kong country games 🙂
Rayman legends is a good example of this. Always. check. every. single. thing.
Metroid, probably. Otherwise Donkey Kong Country did this in the SNES era. I don’t think 2D Mario has ever been guilty of it, but I’ll freely admit I could be overlooking something in that massive catalogue.
DKC was my initial assumption.
Mario 3, I think it was, did have some BS secret like this. You had to crouch and press jump at a specific spot and you’d drop “behind the scene”, letting you access an area that’d be otherwise be unaccessible beyond the end level screen.
That’s not counting the secret warp areas the original Mario Bros had in certain underground maps.
That was midway through 1-3. You had to crouch for ~6 seconds on a specific white block (no jump required). Running to the end of the level then got you a warp whistle.
It was ALL white blocks that crouching on would allow you to go behind the main scene, several levels had secret mushroom house looking areas that could be accessed that way and racing right, as well as some by also using the raccoon suit or p-wings to fly up and right at same time like in the first fortress at the lava pit though no white block needed in that instance.
The 2D Mario version has got to be getting on top of the underground level to find a warp area/secret exit. The Wii-U Mario even had one level early on where could get even higher. Could skip a lot of worlds with that one.
Came here to say Metroid. That’s the one that first did it to me lol
Serious Sam: the second encounter had a level with a hidden area right at the start where you had to run backwards as soon as you loaded in to get into it. You had to actually move backwards, not turn and run or the door would close before you could get through it
Are you sure it was Second Encounter ?
I remember that exact secret in the First Encounter, but I haven’t had the chance to play Second Encounter as much as the first one, so maybe they had the same mechanic in both games.
You might be right. It was the first one of the Serious Sam games, which for some reason i always thought was subtitles “The Second Encounter”
The Jungle Book for Sega Master System had this in a couple of levels.
Donkey Kong and his secrets… On gameboy you had a percentage of completion, had to find them all. Hopefully you knew if a level still had a secret or not.
Pretty sure Limbo hid one of the collectables to the left of your initial starting place.
I remember Doom or Doom 2 had the… chainsaw? behind the starting point.
Doom 2
Yep, Sonic did it for me
So many trash cans searched in the Pokémon games. I got so sick of the game saying “There’s nothing in there.” But I had to check all of them in case someone threw out the leftovers or some potions or something!
Or when they put up a sign specifically saying “check the ground for dropped items!” and then there’s a bunch of dead ends with no hidden items to find. I’ve been replaying Gold and it just did this to me… I was not pleased.
That one always annoyed me, like, “do you mean there’s unmarked items, or is this just an in-universe note to the character and all there is here are the visible pokeball containers?”
Poor MasterofBalance digging through trash cans in search of leftovers. But yeah Pokemon and other such games totally make me think of big trash day irl given how often we go through the trash in such games.
Crash bandicoot 3 did that for me
Glad to find a fellow Scandinavian who grew up on Crash 3 for the PS1. ?
Thank goodness we didn’t have gametime counters like on Steam back then.
Star Wars Starfighter for PS2.
more than one game one time tbh
More than one. Donkey Kong County has a cave with bananas, Street of Rage 2 has a truck with an invisible life, e.g.
2nd Level of Aladdin, I think – was there an extra life or something?
Not to mention Ready Player One introducing this for a whole new slew of players in recent years…
I just look at this as proof that the puzzle in Ready Player One would have been solved YEARS earlier. Of course gamers would try weird stuff like driving backwards off the start line.
Right? Particularly when its supposed to be an Easter Egg hunt? People would have tried drive EVERYWHERE, including up the back of the T-Rex and they would have tried feeding bananas to King Kong.
You are forgetting that the race itself was considered to be the Easter egg/hidden area. Honestly how many people look for hidden areas inside a hidden area, and how many games actually have such. I mean I know wolfenstein 3D on pc back in the day used to have chambers in chambers behind walls but can’t remember many other games that have so I thought this part of the movie made perfect sense.
Kirby and the Forgotten Land didn’t hide anything at the start of its levels. I know, because I checked every single one. ?
And now I won’t have to when I go back to 100% the game. Not all heroes wear capes!
To be fair, Kirby’s really good about telling you where the things you missed in the game are, so you don’t have to be as thorough the first time if you don’t mind going back later.
Aladdin on the Mega drive had an extra life on the 2nd level. Just had to run forward a bit and return to the starting point. Ah the good old days 🙂
For me it was Quest 64.
Metal Slug
Mario Sunshine I believe hid one of the shines behind the start. If you never turned around and dropped off the little ledge, you would never find it.
It was Crash Bandicoot 2 for me
This is the sort of thing that turned me into a maddening completionist, every wall, every rock, every box or chest, make sure there are no black spots on the map… turns a “12 hr game” into a months long saga.
It was the Force Unleashed for me.
For me, it was the original Shining Force. There was a character hidden in a random bush. Another, in a random note. And yet another, in an optional location you had to actually lose one of the earliest battles or you’ll miss it 99% of the time.
Never. Again.
(Which, of course, has added at least 60 hours to my NG time in Elden Ring. So far xD)
I remember the extra life in donkey kong country
Ah, yes… Doom II.
I doubt it is just one game, since that sort of stuff is pretty common. These days you learn pretty quickly if a game has secrets or if it doesn’t. If they do have secrets, then of course you got to search every where.
I know Limbo did that.
The most recent example I can think of is written about in Ready Player One.
Isn’t that the one where you just run a whole course backwards?
You could miss a very important recruit in Knights in Nightmare because there’s a piece of kit you never would have thought to look for in the tutorial stage explaining all this shit to you.
Maybe is one of the funny things “Guardians of the Galaxy” has, and is when you explore every inch of the game or going back to see if you left something, the rest of the members star talking between them if you have lost your mind, what the heck is he doing or my favourite “exploring he said”
“Hah, they thought they could dissuade me from exploring every nook and cranny of this dungeon by making it as straightforward and linear as possible, and having my teammates audibly call me insane for wasting time, that’s exactly what someone hiding something in the nooks and crannies would do!”
Megaman X2. Wire Sponge – the cyberheart is behind a wall where X teleports in. I trust nothing after that.
Assuming an NES I think Metroid.
Donkey Kong Country games on the SNES did this to great extent, I was trained quite well.
Megaman X series of games did it several times too
The original secret room to the left of the start area has to be Adventure by Atari from 1980.
I’m like that too. Pretty sure it’s common for people to think that way.
I swear some of these games know that and intentionally make the “main path” look like an offshoot to explore and lock you out from returning to check the missed path…
The various Donkey Kong Countries have had secrets hidden at the start of a couple of levels. The most famous one is the 1-up at the start of 1-1 in DKC.
The 1-up balloon was backwards and up in the tree house…directly back was the banana cave where if you are at start of game you enter it’s empty and Donkey Kong basically facepalms himself and if you have finished the game he does a celebration cause it’s full again