Hidden stuff in old video games
Something I really like in old video games is when they have odd hidden items, usually bonus points. The most obvious example is Super Mario Bros. with the invisible blocks, bricks that have items hidden in them, pipes you can go down, etc. For some reason this stuff only really appeared during the early NES era, and by the time the Genesis came out, it was already falling out of fashion.
Now let me be clear about what I'm speaking of. I'm not talking about hidden exits and items that you have to find, but rather stuff that's completely optional. Moreover I'm speaking of stuff that's arbitrarily hidden, which is to say that you get it for doing something that there's no apparent reason to be doing, like jumping or ducking in a certain spot. Hiding things this way that are mandatory is pretty assinine game design, in my opinion. The slow removal of scoring from video games kind of harmed this, I think.
One way of hiding items I don't endorse is walls that appear solid but that you can walk through. These are just boring to me. Capcom came to overuse these a lot around the SNES era in games like Mega Man X and Demon's Crest.
I should mention the obvious exception to my parameters: Metroid. (And only the original Metroid!) This entire game was about finding hidden stuff. You did need to poke around with your bombs a lot to advance in some places, often with no indication of where you were supposed to go, particularly in Norfair. It falls into my parameters in other ways, though, with missiles and odd areas hidden all over the place. There is something Zen-like about playing in Norfair while that mood music plays, bombing every nook and cranny, only to stumble upon some strange new area with new background art. Your reward for this work? A few missile packs. But that's okay: the reward is in the search.
Games that excel at this:
* Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros. 3 -- Hidden blocks, bricks that contain items, and pipes you can go down, for starters, as mentioned above. I think the idea of secrets being everywhere may well have come from Super Mario Bros., or at least it really got it going.
* Wonder Boy 2 -- I watched a playthrough of this game on YouTube and was pleased with what I saw. (This goes for the whole series, actually, sans the first game.) Jumping in certain spots makes money bags fall. That's pretty much it, I think.
* Castlevania and Castlevania Chronicles -- Walking, crouching, or standing still on certain blocks will cause bonus items, or even 1-ups, to rise from the ground. For some reason these two games are the only ones that did this. It's usually a 1000-point money bag, but in Castlevania, there are 2000-point treasure chests and crowns, which are much rarer. The second time through, there are many 4000-point Moai heads.
* The Goonies -- I speak of the original game here, which wasn't very available in America, only being playable on Play Choice 10 arcade machines. Once again, YouTube is my friend. Kicking certain spots in the air causes gems to appear, for points. Certain items that improve your character are hidden in the game, too, like a football helmet that protects you from falling stalagtites.
* Duck Tales -- Jumping in certain spots makes bonus gems and food and chests appear. Yay! The hidden areas are thoughtfully hidden. It does use the bad technique of walk-through walls, but it does it artfully, making the screen scroll when you're next to one, so that you have a clue that they're there. There are also giant treasures hidden, one in each level.
* Wizards and Warriors -- Jumping in the air will cause gems to appear, much like the multi-coin boxes in Super Mario Bros. Standing in certain spots will make a chalice or orb rise from the ground, worth 10,000 points! Moreover, there are hidden doors that you can jump into taking you to bonus levels, full of gems!
* Ironsword -- The sequel to Wizards and Warriors doesn't do this quite as well, though it does have the hidden rooms. Hitting certain spots will cause a stream of mana bubbles to appear, or they may cause coins to spread out from the point you touched. The hidden areas sometimes contain one of a set of items worth a ton of points. They are guarded by monsters that are extremely difficult to kill, unfortunately, due to the strange hitboxes of this game.
* Kid Niki (NES version) -- There are some great hidden areas in this game, which are very creative. For instance, you hit a rock that's sticking out of the water a few times and it turns into a fish head. Jumping into the fish's mouth allows you to walk through the fish and skip a difficult section of the level. Crouching at the beginning of another level puts you inside the lair of the boss, filled with its eggs. Opening the eggs (by beating on them, of course) either reveals bonus points or larvae.
* The Legend of Zelda -- Somehow I almost missed this one. There are bushes to burn and holes to bomb in walls all over the place. Even the blank spots on the dungeon maps are usually gem-filled treasure rooms. This game is much like Metroid in that it requires you to do a bit of this sort of exploring -- bombing holes in dungeon walls and having to jump through hoops to find the later dungeons -- but it's all part of the game.
Now let me be clear about what I'm speaking of. I'm not talking about hidden exits and items that you have to find, but rather stuff that's completely optional. Moreover I'm speaking of stuff that's arbitrarily hidden, which is to say that you get it for doing something that there's no apparent reason to be doing, like jumping or ducking in a certain spot. Hiding things this way that are mandatory is pretty assinine game design, in my opinion. The slow removal of scoring from video games kind of harmed this, I think.
One way of hiding items I don't endorse is walls that appear solid but that you can walk through. These are just boring to me. Capcom came to overuse these a lot around the SNES era in games like Mega Man X and Demon's Crest.
I should mention the obvious exception to my parameters: Metroid. (And only the original Metroid!) This entire game was about finding hidden stuff. You did need to poke around with your bombs a lot to advance in some places, often with no indication of where you were supposed to go, particularly in Norfair. It falls into my parameters in other ways, though, with missiles and odd areas hidden all over the place. There is something Zen-like about playing in Norfair while that mood music plays, bombing every nook and cranny, only to stumble upon some strange new area with new background art. Your reward for this work? A few missile packs. But that's okay: the reward is in the search.
Games that excel at this:
* Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros. 3 -- Hidden blocks, bricks that contain items, and pipes you can go down, for starters, as mentioned above. I think the idea of secrets being everywhere may well have come from Super Mario Bros., or at least it really got it going.
* Wonder Boy 2 -- I watched a playthrough of this game on YouTube and was pleased with what I saw. (This goes for the whole series, actually, sans the first game.) Jumping in certain spots makes money bags fall. That's pretty much it, I think.
* Castlevania and Castlevania Chronicles -- Walking, crouching, or standing still on certain blocks will cause bonus items, or even 1-ups, to rise from the ground. For some reason these two games are the only ones that did this. It's usually a 1000-point money bag, but in Castlevania, there are 2000-point treasure chests and crowns, which are much rarer. The second time through, there are many 4000-point Moai heads.
* The Goonies -- I speak of the original game here, which wasn't very available in America, only being playable on Play Choice 10 arcade machines. Once again, YouTube is my friend. Kicking certain spots in the air causes gems to appear, for points. Certain items that improve your character are hidden in the game, too, like a football helmet that protects you from falling stalagtites.
* Duck Tales -- Jumping in certain spots makes bonus gems and food and chests appear. Yay! The hidden areas are thoughtfully hidden. It does use the bad technique of walk-through walls, but it does it artfully, making the screen scroll when you're next to one, so that you have a clue that they're there. There are also giant treasures hidden, one in each level.
* Wizards and Warriors -- Jumping in the air will cause gems to appear, much like the multi-coin boxes in Super Mario Bros. Standing in certain spots will make a chalice or orb rise from the ground, worth 10,000 points! Moreover, there are hidden doors that you can jump into taking you to bonus levels, full of gems!
* Ironsword -- The sequel to Wizards and Warriors doesn't do this quite as well, though it does have the hidden rooms. Hitting certain spots will cause a stream of mana bubbles to appear, or they may cause coins to spread out from the point you touched. The hidden areas sometimes contain one of a set of items worth a ton of points. They are guarded by monsters that are extremely difficult to kill, unfortunately, due to the strange hitboxes of this game.
* Kid Niki (NES version) -- There are some great hidden areas in this game, which are very creative. For instance, you hit a rock that's sticking out of the water a few times and it turns into a fish head. Jumping into the fish's mouth allows you to walk through the fish and skip a difficult section of the level. Crouching at the beginning of another level puts you inside the lair of the boss, filled with its eggs. Opening the eggs (by beating on them, of course) either reveals bonus points or larvae.
* The Legend of Zelda -- Somehow I almost missed this one. There are bushes to burn and holes to bomb in walls all over the place. Even the blank spots on the dungeon maps are usually gem-filled treasure rooms. This game is much like Metroid in that it requires you to do a bit of this sort of exploring -- bombing holes in dungeon walls and having to jump through hoops to find the later dungeons -- but it's all part of the game.