Cognition Dissemination: The New Konami Codes
Plenty of video games have their secrets — Easter Eggs, if you will. They come in the form of special codes and in-game discoveries that developers encourage players to find for themselves. None of them are easy to unearth, with some more difficult than others. I’ll be honest and say that I’m not very good at finding Easter Eggs in games; some I’ll either stumble upon haphazardly while not looking for anything, but I’ve used a guide to find plenty of others. That’s why I’m always fascinated when people find these secrets in other games, and would rather not see the publisher reveal them after no one’s found them when too much time has passed.
What I especially love is secrets discovered several years after games have released. Two such prominent examples emerged in the last week, both fortuitously featuring Konami games from the period when they actually released them.
New KONAMI CODE discovered after 25 years!!
In Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness, you can unlock all characters and costumes from the start: pic.twitter.com/ZkueeXCNeb
— JupiterClimb (@JupiterClimb) April 15, 2024
The oldest one was found in Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness, the second 3D Castlevania game released for Nintendo 64 in 1999 — a whole 25 years ago. The player base figured they discovered every secret in the game, until a new Konami Code was found inside it. This one heavily relies on using those small C buttons on the N64 controller’s face, that were hilariously small. It involves pressing the C-button Up four times, then C-button Down four times, the C-button left twice, the C-button right twice, the C-button left twice, the C-button right twice, and capping it off with presses of the L trigger, the R trigger, and that awkward Z back button on the main menu. A helpful chime will occur when the code input is correct.
The code will instantly unlock all the other characters, namely Reinhardt Schneider, Carrie Fernandez, and Henry Oldrey. It also unlocks all the alternate character costumes.
My first guess was that the two guys who discovered the secret, Moises and LiquidCat, entered every code combination they could think of, with Castlevania speedrunner JupiterClimb reporting their findings. But they used the alternative method of merely sifting through the game’s files. Even so, it’s still incredible that this code went undiscovered for so long.
MGS4のボス戦の特殊ムービーを調べる為にヴァンプ戦を何回かやり直していたんですが、ヴァンプ戦の時にサニーカメラを見ると人工透析を受けていた雷電がノーマッド機内から消えて、サニーが慌ててあちこち探す映像が流れていたんですね。 pic.twitter.com/2qC6fqy6Xq
— 兵隊 (@HEITAIs) April 16, 2024
The other example comes from Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, another old Konami game from nearly 16 years ago, though not quite on par with the title above. Sunny partakes in plenty of tasks while Old Snake is on the field, which the player can see should they bother to check in on her outside mandatory story-related scenes. This includes occasionally playing Penguin Adventure on her PSP, one of Konami’s older games and the first title Metal Gear series creator Hideo Kojima worked on as an assistant planner. (Penguin Adventure was not actually released for PSP, however.) But there’s another secret involving Sunny that wasn’t quite as highlighted.
Few players would think to check in on Sunny during a boss battle, with the player focusing on the actual fight. But the Metal Gear games that Kojima worked on, and several of his other titles, are stuffed with small and cute Easter Eggs rewarding to discover. Checking in on Sunny when the boss battle with Vamp starts will show her looking for Raiden, previously residing in Sunny’s vicinity before going missing. Sunny’s search for him is prolonged too, involving carefully looking around the lounge to see if he could be hiding, including in places clearly too small for him to fit. She also looks for him in the entertainment room, clearly getting more flustered along the way after realizing he’s no longer in the vicinity.
Also notice the gigantic old PlayStation 3 model on the table in the second room Sunny wanders into. It’s the backwards-compatible model at that.
It’s wild to see just how long this went unnoticed. This may not have been hidden in plan sight for as long as it was if it was easier to replay the game. MGS4 is sadly one of those games still stuck in PlayStation 3 Jail®, the only mainline game in the series unplayable on current platforms. (Peace Walker barely dodges this through the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection being playable through the Xbox 360 disc on Xbox Series X.) Now that Konami is porting Metal Gear games again through the Master Collections, perhaps — maybe — we’ll get an MGS4 port.
There are bound to be more secrets found in more games over time, and I can’t wait to see them. But just like speedruns, don’t expect me to be the one to discover them. I will never rule out the chance of me being the first to find a secret, but please don’t count on it.
About The Author
Geoff
News Editor | Geoff is some nerd who writes for a blog and thinks he's knowledgeable. He write a lot about video games, but is capable of writing about other subjects, too. Twitter
