Have you ever been wandering through the world of agame, immersed in the story and the scenery, only to unwittingly fall into an area or level you previously never knew existed?
While these days, secret levels are usually found pretty quickly by gamers who expect the unexpected, back in the day, before the internet, we relied on gaming magazines and word of mouth to discover these hidden gems.
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To this day, developers continue to add incredible new additions to our favourite worlds, hidden behind waterfalls or using secret binary codes in the hopes of capturing that magic that we once felt.
Here are some of the greatest secret levels that blew me away.
10Celeste Classic
Celeste is one of thebest and most polished 2d platformersin recent memory, telling the story of Madeline in her quest to reach the top of Celeste Mountain. However, did you know, this popular release isn’t the first iteration of the game?
The original Celeste was released as a free game in 2016, on the Pico-8 virtual console. Now, why do I mention this?
Well, play through Celestial Resort until you reach a dark room with a bunch of hanging laundry. You may notice a little nook in the top corner. Jump up there and follow the path to find a little computer with theentire Celeste Classic available to play! A game within a game!
You are free to play through 30 whole levels, and upon reaching 3000 metres, you’ll receive an achievement for your troubles.
9Destiny Tower
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky
Ever wanted to ramp up the difficulty in the second iteration of the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series? Well, buckle up, becauseDestiny Tower is the most brutal dungeon in the whole game, and there’s a chance you may never even encounter it!
To find this hidden dungeon, you’ll need to order a bunch of drinks from Spinda’s Cafe after completing the main campaign. It’s currently unknown how many you need to order; it may even be random. But keep going, and eventually you’ll find a message that unlocks the dungeon.
Naturally, this dungeon has some super-tough rules:
This is a grueling challenge, one of trial and error, and, of course, patience. But eventually, if you make it through the 99 floors, you’ll find a statue of Arceus and the incredibly powerful Space Globe!
8Minecraft Cave
Borderlands 2
The Caustic Caverns are one of my favourite areas from Borderlands 2. The colours really pop and there’s so much to do there, from destroying massive Crystalisks to farming Vermivorous from the hundreds of Varkids that assail you.
Yet, nestled in the north-west corner of the map, you may just spot some oddly familiar-looking dirt-blocks. Melee through these, and traverse through the stone that follows to find an old minecart station, and a bunch of Creepers to boot!
Clear the waves of Minecraft mobs, and you may just receive some great skins for your characters or even a legendary Sniper that fires Minecraft arrows. Crazy, right? While this may all seem utterly… bizarre, in terms of Borderlands, this is pretty standard stuff.
7Retro Levels
DOOM (2016)
Doom 2016 did a great job at reviving the formula, with its brutal gunplay and fast-paced action, going on to spawn 2 more fantastic shooters, inDOOM EternalandDOOM: The Dark Ages.
Not only did this bring in new players to the series, but the Dev team went a step further to honour all those who came before by adding asecret retro level from the original Doom 1 and 2into each campaign mission.
Here, you’ll enter to find all the textures replaced by their original 16-bit versions, with the corresponding armour and ammo pickups to add to that retro vibe. While the enemies you encounter may have their modern look, you’ll still have a blast rushing through these classic zones, seeing what folks were used to back in1993.
Call Of Duty: Black Ops (Zombies)
Call of Duty: Black Ops
Ah, Call of Duty Zombies. The hours I’ve spent with high school friends, playing split screen and racking up high rounds, chugging juggernogs and dreading that Monday morning school ritual, are probably impossible to count.
And many of those hours were spent on this map. The moment when we found out that you could enter3ARC UNLOCKon the main menu computer terminal was an almost religious experience. It’s like we were hacking into Treyarch itself.
The Zombie Scientist, Winter’s Howl, camping the elevator and glitching onto the desk in the starting room; All of these bring back fond memories of a childhood well spent.
Did we understand the significance of the playable characters back then?Maybe not. But that’s because I slept through most of my Cold War history class. Either way, we had a blast, and that’s all that matters.
5Special Zone
Super Mario World
The Special Zone holds a special place in my heart, as perhaps being the very first super-secret area that I ever laid my eyes on. Young me didn’t have many Mario games to play, and so flying around with the cape power-up was one of the most fun things to do in Super Mario World.
Back then, the normal Star World was pretty secret feeling already, never minda whole 8 extra levels hidden past Star World 5.And these levels didn’t pull any punches, either. Despite their incredibly wacky names, likeGnarlyandTubular, these levels really tested your platforming abilities, and felt like an amazing end to an already terrific experience.
Telling a story like this on the school playground? Well, it was akin to legend. One of those stories that no one believed, like finding a different coloured Wurmple in Pokémon. We didn’t know what shinies were back then. That was the magic of word of mouth. A magic that Super Mario World game excels in.
4Demontower
Night in the Woods
Night In The Woods
When playing through Night in the Woods, a largely narratively driven, emotional experience, you might not expect it to be hiding agiant, completely different second game within, like some kind of mad Russian nesting doll.
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But once you get Mae’s laptop fixed, there it is, just chilling in the corner of the screen. But beware, once you get sucked in, you might never return.
In fact, Demontower itself could really be a standalone titlefor just how polished and challenging it is. You play as Palecat, a sword-swinging feline, charged with ascending the Demontower, a Zelda-like 9-level tower filled with enemies and bosses that will truly test your dungeon-crawling abilities.
This one pushed me to my limits, and when I finished it…Turns out there’s a secret ending that I had missed.One day, Demontower… one day.
Dark Souls
Fextralife Wiki
Dark Souls 1 is chock-full of mysteries and secret areas, just waiting to be uncovered. Yet the one area that seems like the developers actively didn’t want the players to find was themagnificent Ash Lake.
This place will make your jaw drop as soon as you descend through the trunk of the gargantuan tree and set foot upon its pale white sands. The deep, sombre choir bellows as you stare upon the vastness of an underground ocean with no end. Towering trees stretch up into the vast skyscape, and at the water’s edge,a ravenous Hydraawaits your challenge.
This area is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful areas in FromSoftware history, and to get there, you need to trek through Blighttown’s swamp, climb a tree, and break through2 incredibly obscure illusory walls.Not easy, right? And yet, perhaps that adds to the magic of it all. Obscured from the world, but not yet forgotten. A slumbering dragon, at the edge of the world, quiet, distant, peaceful.
2Laser Hell
Split Fiction
Of course, if Ash Lake didn’t quite get the blood pumping,I’ve got a new challenge for you. And that’s “you” plural by the way,because you’re gonna need a buddy for this one.
Before you reach the boss fight in Split Fiction’s Maximum Security chapter, you might remember sliding down a green ramp to reach the elevator. Instead of going straight in, take a look above the entrance, and you’ll see a code in binary… a bunch of 1s and 0s, basically. You have to input this code (1100101101) on the elevator buttons, left being 0 and right being 1.
This will lead you to a devilishly difficult obstacle course where you’ll be zapped over and over again by lasers which block your path. There are5 increasingly difficult levels herethat you must complete perfectly with your partner, lest you be dumped back at the start. You’ve both got to be perfect, as one little slip… well, I’m sure quite a few friendships have been ruined over this one.
The reward, though? A touching developer’s message from Josef Fares himself, which shows just how much time and love go into these secret levels.
1Path of Pain
Hollow Knight
It wouldn’t be an understatement to call Hollow Knight the best andmost beloved Metroidvaniaof all time. I mean, you just need to head over to r/Silksong to see the voracious Hollow Knight fans desperate for any sliver of news regarding a sequel.
But how did it get that title? Well, fantastic worldbuilding, enchanting music, gripping combat, and slick movement, for starters.But this is no easy game. You have crushing Pantheons, tricky quests, and of course, the legendaryPath of Path.
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From crystal caves to dream palaces, this metroidvania presents great challenges beyond its bosses.
Released in the Grimm Troupe DLC, the Path of Pain is an extremely difficult platforming challenge that you’re able to access in the White Palace area. Expect buzzsaws, thorns, and ridiculously tight gaps that’ll have you throwing down your controller in agony.
There’s very little actual floor here, with the majority of the path being suspended in the air, meaningyou’re going to need to have absolute control over the knight here to succeed. That means pogo jumps, folks, double jump resetting, and plenty of midair dashes through corridors of whirling death. And then, when you finally think it’s over… a mini-boss.
And yet, despite the fact that you don’t get anything for completing this, save for a cutscene, the accomplishment that you’ll feel is overwhelming. This is a challenge for the true fans – the platforming pros. Once you complete it, you too can enter that hallowed hall of fame.
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