In honor of this weekend's springtime holiday, game developers are sharing some of their favorite Easter eggs in games they've worked on. A Twitter thread asked devs to respond with "the best Easter eggs you ever hid in a game," and developers were happy to oblige.
The request from Vlambeer lead Jan Willem Nijman was followed by a treasure trove of Easter eggs in everything from big AAA releases to smaller indie games. The homages range from film references to hat-tips to other games to small in-jokes.
Both Uncharted 4 and Uncharted: The Lost Legacy have a camera-pan reminiscent of the Assassin's Creed franchise. All four Ninja Turtles weapons are tucked away in different spots in The Division. The original Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare has a background meant to evoke the island from Zelda: Wind Waker. The list goes on and on.
This comes just after a few other recently discovered Easter eggs, like the Last of Us 2 reference in Uncharted 4, or the "F--- the Oscars" reference in It Takes Two. You can see some of our favorites from developers below, and comb through the Twitter thread for even more.
Added Assassin's Creed synchronizations in both Uncharted games I worked on but hardly anyone found the one in Uncharted 4 because you need to not touch the controller for a few seconds... https://t.co/GYXVJehj90 pic.twitter.com/NP9jiVTFJ3
— Jonathan Cooper (@GameAnim) April 4, 2021
All four Ninja Turtle weapons in different spots in The Division. Somehow got away with modeling them myself too, despite being a level designer. pic.twitter.com/Vk2NZjX0O7
— Acke (@AckeHallgren) April 4, 2021
I hid the Firaxis logo on each of the leaders in Civ VI. pic.twitter.com/ytj7s2JF5O
— Matthew Kean (@digisculp) April 4, 2021
I think the best Easter eggs were in the first Garden Warfare though - One of the artists at the time, Gavin Yastremski, loved putting in all these references to Zelda. I love this Outset Island silhouette he did for some of our Vistas. pic.twitter.com/zBCRxu7wG4
— Derek Bentley (@DerekBentley3D) April 4, 2021
I don't know if I'll ever be able to top this one! I placed "Funiculi Funiculi" (better known as the Spider-Man 2 "Pizza Time" song) on random pizza shops throughout Manhattan in Spider-Man PS4! The real ones know...glad some people found it!https://t.co/RZ2k5AJsQ0
— Alex Previty (@alexprevity) April 4, 2021
I designed the animal toys in Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 to look like Katamari. pic.twitter.com/yvm2GJsMMT
— Hayden Scott-Baron ✨🇪🇺✨ (@docky) April 4, 2021