Mysteries, Easter Eggs and hidden content are one of those things that turns a good game great – it gives us something else to add to the regular story and gameplay and it can be a real challenge – to the point where people just can’t figure it out.
It’s not uncommon for some mysteries to go unsolved for years – even now people are discovering and solving riddles from games that came out a decade or so ago. That makes it all the more vexing that there are still some left that might go unsolved forever. We’ve collected some of our favourite unsolved mysteries here.
1. Skyrim’s Bug jars
One of the big problems when it comes to solving mysteries is the uncertainty whether what you’re looking at is actually a mystery, or just a false trail or misunderstanding. It happens of course, and it can be incredibly frustrating. Well, the bug jars around Skyrim are definitely, probably, maybe a mystery.
Five of them can be found lying around the world, containing a butterfly, moth, dragonfly, bee and torchbug respectively. If nothing else, the jars with living insects make for pretty if creepy mantle decorations. There is no quest attached to them, nor are they ever mentioned anywhere…the reason we’re pretty sure there’s something there though is the odd symbols carved into the top of the jars. They’re probably connected and definitely unique, so we hope someone will figure it out soon.
2. Super Mario Sunshine’s deep-sea book
Super Mario games have plenty of mysteries hidden in them – even this one. During a certain mission in Noki Bay, the player can dive to the bottom of the water with Mario. Down there they can find a strange rock formation and a door.
That alone would be odd enough, but there is more. The door isn’t closed all the way, and if we peek through, we see…a book. Just sitting underwater, seemingly minding it’s own business without being affected by being underwater. We have no idea what it could be – although Mario’s equivalent of the Necronomicon was an idea that came up – so we hope someone else can figure it out.
3. GTA V’s Mount Chiliad
The amount of mysteries and secrets hidden in the GTA games probably took the devs longer to make than the storylines. For those of you who finished said storyline and then put the game down…go away, this article isn’t for you. For the rest of us, the ones who immediately proceeded to explore the hidden secrets of the world, it’s a huge annoyance that this issue hasn’t been resolved yet.
What are we talking about? The drawing on Mt. Chiliad. On top of the mountain, there;s a strange drawing in the style of a cave drawing. It shows passageways, boxes, UFOs and jetpacks – yet, nobody has been able to figure it out so far. There’s been plenty of theories of course, but nothing definite. We can only imagine Rockstar is having a good giggle over the players frustration at this point.
4. Donkey Kong 64’s pillar
Some mysteries in games feel more like the devs were trying to mess with us than that they were trying to add value to the games. With game dev being a tightly scheduled process, some things get abandoned, added, removed and changed at the last moment, so there IS an explanation for this one…we just don’t know (or believe) that it’s the right one.
In the Creepy Castle level of this game, the players can freely access a completely useless room with a completely useless pillar in the middle of it. Why is this worth calling it a mystery? Well the pillar is very ornate, and placed in the room so that it essentially screams ‘look at me, I’m important’. Players spent hours trying to figure out just what was going on with it…to no avail.
5. Super Smash Bros. Melee’s Daisy
Long after Mario found happiness…in another castle, Luigi did too! Hooray! Looking at Daisy in this game though, we have questions about both his taste and lifestyle. We’re not judging or anything, but it sure is creepy. What do we mean? Well, after you’ve unlocked Daisy’s trophy you can look at it in trophy viewer mode. At first glance, everything seems to be in order.
Unless of course, you slightly tilt her and zoom in. You can zoom past her hair a little, to reveal…an eye. In the back of her head. Now, if women actually had those, that would explain how our mothers knew certain things, but we’ve seen a couple up close with no eyes, so we’re pretty sure this is not standard equipment. Odds are it’s a bug, but what if it isn’t? The eye doesn’t match her other two, so what if she’s an alien sent to spy on the Mario brothers? We’ll probably never know…but Daisy’s watching.
6. Half-Life’s G-Man
Now to be honest there are two unsolved Half-Life mysteries. Who is G-Man and when are we getting Half-Life 3? Unfortunately the former is probably easier to answer than the latter. Damn you, Valve!
Now for G-Man – he’s an interdimensional bureaucrat (the worst kind!) with unknown allegiances that likes to mess with us, leading us from danger to safety to danger to the extinction of a species. And in the end… he offers us a job. That’s probably not the most outrageous thing that’s ever happened when it comes to job-hunting, but it’s probably up there. Despite him being a pivotal figure in the game…we know pretty much nothing about him, nor do we find out. Do you know this man?
7. Batman’s hidden room
In Arkham Asylum, there once was a mystery. It was never solved by fans, but eventually given away by Rocksteady themselves. Presumably out of frustration at players incompetence. It’s the only theory we have for it. Hidden in the Warden’s Office, the room was never discovered despite players coating half the Asylum in their explosive gel (pun absolutely unapologetically intended), punching pipes and fuse boxes…
We added it to the list since people knew there was a hidden room, just not where or how to get there. We love to imagine the conversations the guards watching the CCTV footage might have had – they really must have thought that Batsy deserves a stay in an Asylum!