Video game Easter eggs are always a treat. Tucked away in some hard to reach corner of a title, these brief asides reward player exploration and make abundantly clear that there are real humans working behind the scenes to make the magic onscreen come alive. Sometimes these little nods aren’t as cheerful as one might expect, however. This list of the creepiest video game Easter eggs ever will look at the digital ghosts, dead bodies, and suicides that haunt us to this day. You’ll be glad you didn’t come across any of these throughout your playthroughs.
Creepiest Video Game Easter Eggs – The Elevator Girl (Pokemon X & Y)
Pokemon X and Y‘s elevator girl is shrouded in mystery, even to this day. This Easter egg can be found by journeying to the laboratory in Lumiose City and taking the lift up to the second floor. Once your character gets there, a girl with messy hair and a black dress appears out of nowhere behind you, rendering you motionless as the screen flickers in and out of view. She glides across the tiles before mentioning “No, you’re not the one,” then disappears quickly off-camera.
As if that isn’t enough, players can later go to the same town’s hotel and venture to the fourth floor. A girl dressed in the same fashion can be found in the corner of the room. When approached, she doesn’t bother to turn toward your direction. Rather, she tells the player to be quiet as she’s trying to “hear the elevator.”
The message that either girl is trying to convey escapes Pokemon fans everywhere, though the whole situation is probably an allusion to something the developers experienced when working on the titles. At least we hope that’s the case because this whole thing is just plain creepy.
Creepiest Video Game Easter Eggs – Elizabeth’s Dead Body (BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea)
BioShock Infinite‘s Burial at Sea DLC is not the most optimistic experience one could have while playing video games. Set deep below the ocean’s surface within the infamous city of Rapture, it sees players take on the role of Elizabeth during its latter half. For the sake of not spoiling what goes on, a shocking revelation takes places that instantly transports the girl up to sea level, where she’s inexplicably sitting in a boat steered by the Lutece siblings.
A casual glance into the waters lying to the right reveals an image of Elizabeth’s floating cadaver, morbidly looking up into space. This Easter egg perfectly encapsulates the mood of the DLC story without being overly dramatic.
Creepiest Video Game Easter Eggs – Hanging Luigi (Luigi’s Mansion)
Before getting reaped by Death itself, Luigi may have actually killed himself in his own game. It turns out that the fun little Nintendo GameCube title called Luigi’s Mansion alludes to its titular character hanging himself as he answers a phone call in the home’s attic.
As lightning flashes outside, Luigi’s shadow appears floating in midair, perhaps insinuating that at some point in time the famous brother put a noose around his neck and called it quits. While this is probably more of a myth than an Easter egg, it should be noted that Nintendo really puts the green guy in harm’s way a lot. Wherever you may be, Luigi, know that you are loved.
Creepiest Video Game Easter Eggs – Jeane’s Backstory (No More Heroes)
It’s no wonder why Jeane’s backstory in the original No More Heroes was sped up in comical fashion. It’s because when listened to normally, it reveals how tragic the girl’s life really was and her true motivation for murdering Travis Touchdown’s family. Jeane tells Travis that she was molested all her life by our spiky-haired hero’s father. She worked as his sex slave and did some prostitution on the side to help pay for martial arts lessons.
When she gained enough experience, she slaughtered Travis’ dad as revenge for the years of torture, then went ahead and killed Travis’ mother for not doing anything to prevent it all from happening. Suffice it to say, a lot of fans are probably happy that director Goichi Suda decided to go with the fast forward.
Creepiest Video Game Easter Eggs – Ghost of Mount Gordo (Grand Theft Auto 5)
The ghost of Mount Gordo in Grand Theft Auto 5 makes San Andreas the perfect destination for your next family getaway (not really though). It can be found every night along the cliffs near the El Gordo Lighthouse between the hours of 23:00 and 0:00. Though the apparition disappears if players get too close, it’ll leave behind a message written out in blood that reads “Jock.”
Visitors may be wondering what exactly this means. In the game, Jock Cranley is a politician running for governor who players can listen to on the radio or witness on street advertisements. His wife, Jolene, presumably fell off the cliffs of Mount Gordo while the couple was out for a stroll.
Many San Andreas residents think that Jock had purposefully pushed Jolene to her death, perhaps in an attempt to add an emotional slant to his campaign plans. The cops ruled his wife’s death an accident, though her ghost’s presence clearly suggests the opposite. Yeah, Liberty City might make for a better trip at this point.
Creepiest Video Game Easter Eggs – The Gyroids (Animal Crossing)
The ancient Japanese placed burial statues called Haniwa on or in a dead person’s grave in order to house their souls and keep them from getting lost in the afterlife. The reason this little factoid is included with this entry is because the most cute-but-evil Nintendo franchise in existence, Animal Crossing, includes them as save points in-game. Called Gyroids in this universe, those weird little statues were actually all filled with dead people this entire time and you didn’t even know.
Though this in itself is creepy, if players decide to visit another user’s GameCube version of the game and forget to save while there, they themselves become a living, breathing version of these Gyroids. Character faces are replaced with the gaping expressions of the statues featured above. It’s as if the player is transitioning to Animal Crossing‘s version of the afterlife. Though this was probably meant as a joke, we’re sure as hell not laughing.
The entries above are worth a casual stroll down memory lane if only to creep yourself out this Halloween. In some cases like Burial at Sea, the bigger picture starts to make that much more sense. In others like Luigi’s Mansion, you may never look at life the same ever again. We’re sorry for your loss, Mario. At least we’ve all still got Waluigi, right?
