I had the random compulsion to do something a little bit different for this week’s article. My brain happens to be stuffed with a not-insubstantial amount of obscure and useless gaming trivia. However, I also happen to think that said trivia can be kinda neat and interesting!
So I’m just going to talk for a while about some of the coolest gaming trivia that I know of. Some of these things you might’ve heard, some might be brand-new to you! And I won’t at all be offended if you don’t retain even a fraction of it, as I certainly don’t expect everyone to hyper-fixate on trivia like I do!
Let’s get into things!
1) Permanent Giant Jigglypuff ~ Super Smash Bros Brawl
In Brawl, if you’re playing on the Bridge of Eldin stage, and you are Jigglypuff, and you then get your Final Smash? Get ready for some fun! If you jump into the bridge’s gap and use your Final Smash to grow gigantic at the exact second the bridge begins to repair itself, you’ll stay gigantic instead of returning to normal. And from that point on, until you lose that stock, you’ll just be a massive menace of cuddly proportions! It’s unwieldy as heck, but super cool!
2) Clipping Through Whomp ~ Super Mario 64
Because of some silly hitbox shenanigans, Mario clips through the environment when at the apex of his ground-pound (the point where he does that little flip and that little ‘wah‘ sound plays). But I use the word ‘environment‘ lightly. Turns out, when fighting the huge Whomp at the top of Whomp’s Fortress, you don’t even need to dodge his big smushing attack. Instead, simply do a ground-pound with perfect timing (it’s actually pretty lenient), and you’ll both pass entirely through the falling baddie and be in the perfect spot to complete the ground-pound and deal damage!
3) Sif Remembers You ~ Dark Souls
Many people are fond of the battle against the big doggo, Sif, near the mid-game of the original Dark Souls. So many people, in fact, that Sif ended up showing up in the DLC, which takes place in the past (so you get to meet a young, tiny Sif). Well, if you decide to play the game in a really strange way and you put off defeating Sif until after you’ve sidetracked and completed the DLC, Sif will now recognize you as the friend they made in the past. It won’t prevent you from having to battle them, but it’ll definitely tug at the heartstrings to see how much Sif doesn’t want to battle their old friend!
4) Making Fume Knight Angry ~ Dark Souls 2
It can be easy to play a game like Dark Souls 2 without ever knowing the full depths of the story, because so much of the lore is buried in item descriptions. Well, if you are someone who digs deep, you might pick up on the fact that DLC big boss Fume Knight has an intense rivalry with a boss from the base game, Velstadt. So what happens if you walk into Fume Knight’s boss arena wearing Velstadt’s armor. Fume Knight absolutely freaks out, skipping right to his frantic and deadly second phase and attacking you with reckless abandon! Truly a boneheaded decision to do this, but it’s fun to see firsthand!
5) Surprising the Shrine Handmaid ~ Dark Souls 3
This one is really similar to the trivia tidbit for the first Dark Souls, as it involves time-travel-shenanigans. In this game’s hub, there’s a merchant named Shrine Handmaid who sells some super useful stuff. Well, you meet a version of her in the past late in the game during a brief time travel moment. If you go the entire game without ever talking to the present-day Shrine Handmaid until after meeting her in the past, she’ll be startled to recognize you in the present-day. It’s such a cool moment because, seriously, who was the first person to ever discover such a trivial detail at the cost of losing your central merchant for the whole game?
6) Playing as Master Hand ~ Super Smash Bros Melee
This little secret here is one that took years to become popular knowledge, which leads me to wonder if some kid somewhere discovered this long ago and has just relished in the fun of it for years. Regardless, through a multitude of different possible methods, you can unlock the ability to play as the iconic gloved-being himself, Master Hand. Is he a fully functional character? Uh, no. Not at all. It’s kind of a mess, actually, but it’s so amazing anyway! And it’s a neat bit of foretelling for when we’d legitimately get to play as him in the story mode of Smash Ultimate!
7) Battle Droid Art Class ~ Star Wars Jedi Survivor
One of the strangest secret areas in any video game that I’ve ever played. By walking into a certain tunnel in a certain cave, and then maneuvering yourself through for what feels like way too long (probably meant to make you give up and assume there’s nothing at the end), you stumble into a secluded room filled with the evil battle droids…taking an art class? It’s completely and utterly absurd, and also hilarious. This just had to be the idea of one of the developers, and they just couldn’t resist tossing it in. And hey, I mean, I’m certainly thankful it exists!
8) Silly Blooper Cutscenes ~ Freedom Planet
Anyone remember back when Pixar movies used to have bloopers during the credits? Well, imagine that, but during that actual gameplay. Granted, you have to hold a specific button combination during particular moments in only a few cutscenes…but the result is equal parts and magical and hilarious. Mid-sentence, the dialogue about ‘saving the world‘ and ‘defeating the evil forces‘ is replaced by an actor tripping over their lines, shouting incoherently, or proudly announcing the establishment of a ‘timtams currency exchange program‘.
Here they are, if you’re interested: BLOOPERS
9) Skipping Queen Vanessa’s Manor ~ A Hat In Time
I mentioned this one before in my article about surprisingly scary moments in non-horror games. The Queen Vanessa’s Manor level in A Hat In Time is legitimately pretty terrifying for an otherwise bright-and-cheery game. Well, if you want to skip this house of horrors, all you have to do is go to the basement (which is how you enter the manor), crouch near some wine barrels, and walk through an out-of-sight crevice in the wall. Then, you get teleported immediately to the end, no questions asked! Except, ya know, how in the heck did anyone ever discover this?
10) Hades’ Final Message ~ Kid Icarus Uprising
Kid Icarus Uprising is a game that isn’t afraid to break the fourth wall and acknowledge that it is a video game. Alongside this, Hades is perhaps the most hysterical villain in all of gaming. So it’s little surprise that if you hang around on the ‘The End‘ screen after the credits for about five minutes, the disembodied voice of Hades appears for one last memorable scene. He laments having been defeated, pretends (with a decent amount of believability) to wipe your save data, and then proclaims how much fun you can have replaying your favorite levels over and over. Such a great final moment!
Here’s his speech, if you’re interested: MESSAGE
11) The True(?) Ending ~ Far Cry 4
This is one of my favorite little gaming secrets of all time. Right at the beginning of the game, if you simply remain in the dining room for around 10-15 real-world minutes, the crazy psycho villain walks back into the room and reveals…he’s actually a man of his word? He gives you what you want, your player character gets to live safe and sound, and the credits roll. As opposed to the normal game where you leave the room, chaos ensues, and then you’ve got a whole 50-hour adventure ahead of you! What an awesome decision to do something like this!
12) Way Too Many Crazy Secrets ~ Fire Emblem Fates
To end off, I’m just going to rattle off some of the absurd and awesome secrets and trivia from Fire Emblem Fates, the game that inspired me to write this entire article, because for some reason it’s just bursting at the seams with secrets.
There’s a plethora of items you can equip your characters with at your home base (My Castle). One of which makes it so that that character will show up in the Blacksmith during the next reset. Not only that, but they will offer a discount on forging weapons they specialize in (so, for example, having Hana the Swordmaster as a Blacksmith presents a discount on forging swords). You can similarly do this for the item that forces a character to become a shopkeeper. Reset your castle, and Hana will now be selling weapons with, you guessed it, a discount on swords. This works for any character and any weapon type (including healing staves if you give the item to someone like Sakura).
But did you know that you can also give the shopkeeper item to the characters you recruit through the Amiibo function? So if you use the Lucina Amiibo to recruit Lucina to your army, give her the shopkeeper item, then reset your castle, she’ll be in the store selling weapons, with swords at a discount. But you know what she’ll also be selling? A unique, not available anywhere else, slightly-weaker version of her own personal weapon that you can buy and give to your allies! And every single Amiibo can do this, offering these unique weapons that can’t be attained through any other means, and have a slew of interesting features and functions.
Speaking of those equipable items, though, there’s also one that is just a towel. Give the towel to someone, and they’ll show up in the hot springs the next time you visit. Good for messing around with fun character combos, right? Well, if you give the towel to your spouse or child, you’ll get to witness unique dialogue about spending time in the hot springs with family that is only available to view in this way! You can’t see these conversations and cute little moments any other way!
Switching gears, did you know about Bond Units? Because I sure didn’t, and about had a heart attack the first time I unlocked one! In Fates, you’re able to visit the castles of other players, usually those on your friend list. Visiting repeatedly, talking to them, and giving gifts will all slowly increase your bond. Reach the invisible threshold of Max Bond, and you’ll instantly unlock a Bond Unit, spontaneously creating a brand-new unit from the void who is a random mix of character-creator pieces, a random gender, and is a mix of you and that other player’s chosen class and skills (with a Personal Skill chosen at random from the vast pool of options). It’s shocking, it’s absurd, and I love it!
And that’s not even all I could talk about! But I’ve gotta stop at some time, don’t I? I can’t spend my whole life reciting gaming secrets and trivia…sadly!
But hey, that’s just my opinion!
The Contrarian Corner 