{"id":9133,"date":"2017-12-29T19:15:00","date_gmt":"2017-12-29T19:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamasutra.com\/view\/news\/312336"},"modified":"2017-12-29T19:15:00","modified_gmt":"2017-12-29T19:15:00","slug":"gamasutras-best-of-2017-brandon-sheffields-all-time-top-10-games-hidden-in-other-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2017\/12\/29\/gamasutras-best-of-2017-brandon-sheffields-all-time-top-10-games-hidden-in-other-games\/","title":{"rendered":"Gamasutra’s Best of 2017: Brandon Sheffield’s all-time top 10 games hidden in other games"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brandon Sheffield (@necrosofty<\/a>) is a senior contributing editor at Gamasutra.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hidden games are among my favorite things.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m talking about games tucked away within published games. Specifically I\u2019m interested in games that have little to nothing to do with the games they\u2019re hidden in, and as a result cause the player to speculate. How did these games get in here? Was this a prototype nobody could sell? A canceled title? Did the team simply love this idea so much they decided to just put it somewhere?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a danged mystery every time, but the recent discovery of the game Dark Left, a shooter hidden inside a relatively obscure PC Engine (Japanese Turbografx) RPG, made me think about this concept all over again.<\/p>\n

So here we have my top 10 games hidden inside other games, as of 2017. Ranked according to my weird preferences, I pretend to nothing more.<\/p>\n

[Editor’s Note: Please forgive the quality of some of these screenshots! As it turns out, great images of hidden games are, in fact, hard to find.]<\/em><\/p>\n

10) Dark Left<\/em> (Tenshi no Uta II<\/em>)
Platform: PC Engine
Developer: Riot\/Nihon Telenet<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tenshi no Uta II<\/em> is a mostly-traditional RPG for the PC Engine (Japanese Turbografx) that was released in March 1993. But it was only recently that the English-speaking internet discovered that the game had a hidden secret \u2013 a vertically-scrolling (music-less) shooter called Dark Left<\/em>. Why did they decide to do this? Was it a prototype for something that never got picked up? Was it a side project? Regardless, it\u2019s always intriguing to me when a game contains an entire additional game, completely hidden.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

And the method for its discovery is not so simple either. The PC Engine had system cards \u2013 they were more or less RAM upgrades. In order to find this game, you must insert a system card that\u2019s lower than what\u2019s required to run the RPG, then input up, up, down, down, then buttons I+II simultaneously.<\/p>\n

9) Frog Fractions 2<\/em> (Glittermitten Grove<\/em>)
Platform: PC
Developer: Jim Crawford<\/strong><\/p>\n

Frog Fractions 2<\/em> is a slightly different story from the rest of these, because it\u2019s deliberately hidden in an unrelated game. Glittermitten Grove<\/em> was created by Craig Timpany, while Frog Fractions 2<\/em> was created by Jim Crawford as a completely stand-alone game. (Full disclosure: I worked with Jim on a game in the past.)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

You have to actually play Glittermitten Grove<\/em> in order to access Frog Fractions 2<\/em>, after which you can import save data from Mass Effect 2 if you so choose. Jim Crawford is in the business of hiding games, and made an entire ARG to hint at the release of the game, so it\u2019s no surprise this makes the list.<\/p>\n

8) Guardian Wing<\/em> (Kita e: White Illumination<\/em>)
Platform: Dreamcast<\/strong>
Developer: Hudson? Sega?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kita E<\/em> (To the North<\/em>) is a dating sim\/visual novel published by Hudson and developed by\u2026 I\u2019m not sure. It\u2019s one of those games that has a fair number of company names on it without a lot of indication of what they did, aside form Red Entertainment, who took care of the character design\u2026 which is the main thing that has kept me from playing the game for very long.<\/p>\n

Anyway! Like many dating sims, there are a few minigames in here, one of which is a vertically-scrolling shooter called Guardian Wing<\/em>. You have to play through the game\u2019s main scenario to unlock it, but as an early Dreamcast game, a system known for its shooters, finding something so mysterious is always a treat. Now if only the main game were better\u2026<\/p>\n

Also there are no screenshots of Guardian wing on the internet, so you\u2019ll have to make do with this ancient YouTube video<\/a>.<\/p>\n

7) Phalanx<\/em> (Zero Divide<\/em>)
Platform: PlayStation, Saturn
Developer: Zoom<\/strong><\/p>\n

Phalanx<\/em> is probably most famous for its much-discussed North American SNES box cover, depicting a bearded elder playing a banjo. Nothing like the side-scrolling shooting action found inside. But did you know that was not the last Phalanx<\/em> game? No, there were (at least) two more, both hidden inside different versions of their fighting series Zero Divide<\/em> (which has excellent music<\/a>, by the way).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The first, \u201cTiny Phalanx<\/em>,\u201d is hidden in the PlayStation Zero Divide<\/em>, and is unlocked by holding Select and Start on a P2 controller as the game loads. The second, Mini Phalanx<\/em>, is hidden in the final Zero Divide<\/em> game, which was released for the Saturn. Unlocking this one requires that you unlock another minigame first, then play the game for three more hours. Unfortunately Mini-Phalanx has no sound, and little background art to speak of.<\/p>\n

6) Guy Savage (Metal Gear Solid 3)<\/em>
Platform: PlayStation 2
Developer: Konami\/Kojima Productions<\/strong><\/p>\n

Guy Savage<\/em> is an odd, out-of-place hack and slash minigame present in Metal Gear Solid 3<\/em>, and it\u2019s an extra weird one for me, because I found it organically. I had missed my flight from Krakow back home to California, and went back to my friend\u2019s place to wait for the next flight. He had been playing through MGS3<\/em> on the hardest difficulty, but I\u2019d never played it at all. He was about to go to bed when I arrived, and said \u201cyou can play whatever you want, just don\u2019t save over my progress.\u201d He was in the prison just then, and saved. I decided to play some Drakengard<\/em> instead.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I went back to MGS3<\/em>, just to check out what it was like. When I loaded the game up, I was quickly playing \u201cGuy Savage<\/em>\u201d instead. I was real confused, but it turns out we\u2019d accidentally just met the exact requirements<\/a> to unlock it. Guy Savage<\/em> is directed by MGS3<\/em> writer Shuyo Murata, and MGS3<\/em> director Hideo Kojima stated on twitter that it was basically a canceled game. It\u2019s only available in the original release as well, so you\u2019ve got to work to find this one!<\/p>\n

5) Cycho Rider (Anearth Taikenban)<\/em>
Playform: PC Engine
Developer: Media Works \/ Hudson Soft<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cycho Rider<\/em> is yet another complete shooting game hidden inside a PC Engine RPG, in this case Seiya Monogatari – Anearth Fantasy Stories<\/em>. But what makes this one different is its lunatic obscurity. Cycho Rider<\/em> isn\u2019t included in the final game, no! It only comes with the taikenban version \u2013 a demo of the game that\u2019s packed in with an Anearth<\/em> guidebook. Even then, you\u2019ve got to hit a code (though it\u2019s just down down) to access the game.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Cycho Rider<\/em> and Force Gear<\/em> (which we\u2019ll get to) even prompted a secondary grey market for these hidden shooters, with unscrupulous sorts selling $40 pirate copies of game that\u2019s hidden inside a demo CD of an already obscure game that came with a specific guidebook. Phew.<\/p>\n

4) Motto Moero Taisen Puzzle Dama (<\/em>also\u00a0Twinbee<\/em> and Yie-Ar Kung Fu) (New Love Plus)<\/em>
Platform: 3DS
Developer: Konami<\/strong><\/p>\n

Konami\u2019s venerable dating sim\/visual novel series Tokimeki\u00a0Memorial<\/em> has long been host to a variety of minigames. The series is currently dormant, but Love Plus<\/em> has more or less taken up the mantle. New Love Plus for the 3DS is no exception to this, and has plenty of minigames packed away inside it. Given that this is Konami, they\u2019ve got plenty of older content they can stick in there,\u00a0 from Yie-Ar Kung Fu<\/em> to Twinbee<\/em>, but more interesting is the puzzle game, Motto Moero Taisen Puzzle Dama<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Once unlocked, you can play a full vs puzzle game, with a long and strange history. The Puzzle Dama<\/em> games were sort of a repository for existing character sets. There were two official Tokimeki Memorial<\/em> editions, a Twinbee<\/em> one, and tons of others across the years. Takara even ripped the system and format off for their own Puzzle Arena Toshinden<\/em>.<\/p>\n

[embedded content]<\/p>\n

Hiding a Puzzle Dama<\/em> game in Love Plus<\/em> (one which allows you to play with other non-Love Plus<\/em> Konami characters to boot) shows that no matter what anyone thinks of Konami as a company, the developers there still love their games and their history.<\/p>\n

3) Everything in System Shock<\/em>
Platform: PC
Developer: Looking Glass Technologies<\/strong><\/p>\n

System Shock<\/em> was a well-regarded first-person shooter, which in 1994 ought to have been enough. But Looking Glass included an in-game device called the MFD Game Player, also known as the GamePig. You could find cartridges for this in-game console around the world, and unlock 6 games, including an Ultima-like RPG, golf, and more pedestrian games like tic tac toe. Many of these games, like Swine Hunter<\/em> (Spy Hunter<\/em>), were riffs on existing popular games of the era.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I love the idea of in-game game consoles, an idea which has showed up in various ambitious games across the ages, from Shenmue<\/em> to Minerva\u2019s Den<\/em>. Of course, in System Shock<\/em>, the world keeps going on around you as you play, so if you don\u2019t post up in a safe spot, you can get killed while trying to play Minesweeper<\/em> \u2013 or Swinesweeper<\/em>, as it\u2019s called here. Check out all the minigames \u200bhere<\/a>, if you like.<\/p>\n

2) Death Tank Zwei (Duke Nukem 3D)<\/em>
Platform: Saturn
Developer: Ezra Dreisbach \/ Lobotomy Software<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lobotomy Software was one of the few Western companies that really pushed the Saturn hardware to its limits. After the success of their original Doom<\/em>-like Powerslave<\/em>, they were given a number of big ticket licenses to work on, including Quake<\/em> and Duke Nukem 3D<\/em>. It\u2019s in the latter that they included one of the greatest sequels to a hidden game.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Death Tank<\/em>, an artillery \/ terrain deformation game like Scorched Earth<\/em> and others, was originally hidden in Powerslave<\/em> for the Saturn. But in Duke Nukem 3D<\/em>, they upped the ante, making a proper sequel to Death Tank<\/em> (called Death Tank Zwei<\/em>), which had actual networking. The game could be played multiplayer across the Saturn\u2019s Netlink service, with up to 7 online players, way back in 1997. The game gained legendary enough status that it got a proper XBLA sequel in 2009 (with Death Tank Zwei<\/em> hidden in it yet again).<\/p>\n

1) Everything in Tokimeki<\/em> (Tokimeki Memorial<\/em> series)
Platform: Various
Developer: Konami<\/strong><\/p>\n

I hinted at it before, but wow, it sure seems like if you\u2019ve got a minigame or an unfinished project or a hankering to work on something other than a visual novel, and you\u2019re assigned to the Tokimeki Memorial<\/em> team, you\u2019re in luck. This series is just packed with hidden games.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In the PC Engine version, you can play Force Gear<\/em>, a mech shooter, and a special Twinbee<\/em> variant. In Tokimeki Memorial 2 Substories 2: Leaping School Festival<\/em>, you can play Go Driller<\/em>. In the Saturn version of the original, there\u2019s another shooter called Psyth<\/em>. Even the spinoffs have hidden games – in Tokimeki Memorial: Irodori no Love Song<\/em>, you can play the vertical scrollers Conquer<\/em>, and Star Crasher<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t even begin to document all of them, so read this article on Hardcore Gaming 101<\/a> if you want to see more. But suffice it to say, the Tokimeki Memorial<\/em> series and its spinoffs (including spiritual successor Love Plus<\/em>) is the ultimate hidden game series. Decades later, and we\u2019re still looking.<\/p>\n

Want to read more about the best of 2017? Don’t miss\u00a0our picks for the Top 10 Game Developers of 2017<\/a>, the\u00a0Top 5 Trends of 2017<\/a> and\u00a0Top 5 Events<\/a>\u00a0that shaped the year.<\/em><\/p>\n

Gamasutra contributors also each wrote up a personal list of their top games,\u00a0and you can read them here: Kris Graft<\/a>, Katherine Cross<\/a>,\u00a0Alex Wawro<\/a>, Alissa McAloon<\/a>, Chris Kerr<\/a>, Phill Cameron<\/a>,\u00a0Bryant Francis<\/a>, and (another from)\u00a0Brandon Sheffield<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brandon Sheffield (@necrosofty) is a senior contributing editor at Gamasutra. Hidden games are among my favorite things. I\u2019m talking about games tucked away within published games. Specifically I\u2019m interested in games that have little to nothing to do with the games they\u2019re hidden in, and as a result cause the player to speculate. How did […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9134,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}