Easter is on its way soon, and it’s one of my favorite holidays. As a Christian, I think Jesus’ resurrection is reason enough to celebrate. But you know what? I like the secular parts of Easter and I think they’re a lot of fun, too! (Sorry folks, I’m aiming for this to be a fun blog, so I’m not looking to start any religion vs. secular Easter arguments). I love the candy and Easter egg decorating and such. And Easter shares a part in video game history, too! How so? Hop to it like the Easter Bunny and read on to find out:

First of all, out of all the holidays, I’d have to say that Easter has the best candy. Most people like those Cadbury eggs, but I find them too sweet for my tastes. I can only handle ONE and that’s it. I like Peeps but NOT for eating. I hate marshmallows. But what I do with Peeps is put two in the microwave and make them face each other with toothpicks in their sides. Then I turn on the microwave! Whoever spears the other one first without exploding, wins! My favorite Easter candy to EAT are Reeses’ Peanut Butter Eggs and a cheap candy called Bunny Munny. It’s coin shaped Nestle Crunch rip offs, but the Bunny Munny wrappers have monetary values on them with pictures of duckies and lammies. Little brother Jeff and I used to play poker and bet using Bunny Munny (don’t worry, we would share the winnings after the game was over). I’m not sure if they make Bunny Munny anymore. I haven’t seen it in stores in a few years.

Pretty much all the holidays are over-marketed now. But I like how Easter is marketed in the retail stores because they get REAL creative with it. Christmas is great but they aren’t very creative with things in retail. Everything is either a Santa or snowman or reindeer and such. But Easter gets crazy! A toy bowling set with carrots for pins? Bean bag plush toys shaped like Peeps? This year I picked up a Transformers Easter Egg Decorating Kit! Now, when I think of Easter, one of the LAST things I think of is Transformers! So that’s some pretty creative stuff right there!

One of my favorite Easter stories to tell happened when little brother Jeff was very young. He was just getting old enough to understand what was going on during holidays, so at Easter I showed him how to play an Easter egg hunt. He couldn’t talk much, but as he hunted for eggs the first time, I could almost see the gears turning in his head and I could tell what he was thinking: “Oh my gosh this is the best game EVER!!!” We hunted eggs all day. He liked it so much that for many months later, he would dig his Easter basket out of the closet, bring it to us and hold it up and say, “Hunt? Hunt?” Very cute.

Easter has a place in video game history as well. Back on the Atari 2600, there was a secret in the game Adventure where you could enter a room with the programmer’s initials on it. This was when giving credit to the game makers was frowned upon. Many people consider this to be the first ‘secret’ in a video game, and after that, one of the terms people use for these hidden video game secrets is “Easter Eggs” because they’re hard to find!

I think my favorite “Easter Egg” in a video game has to be the hidden museum rooms in Ratchet and Clank 2 and 3. Hidden in those games is a stage designed to look like Insomniac’s offices. In this level, you can walk around and look at things that didn’t make it in the final game, as well as insights to how they came up with these ideas. But you don’t just get to look at these things, you get to TRY out the guns, vehicles, and stages that were cut from the final game. It’s very hands-on, personal, and clever.

Another favorite video game “Easter Egg” of mine is in Pac-Man World for the PlayStation. Pac-Man World’s not the best Pac-game in the world, but it has a special place to me because, as a game reviewer, it’s one of the first games where I got to follow its development progress from beginning to end, and I got to know and be friends with a few of the developers in the process. I know the Pac-Man World team would go to Disneyland to unwind sometimes, and they even said the Disneyland attractions inspired the levels in the game. They were also inspired by Pixar’s work at the time, and back then was when Pixar had a tradition of making ‘outtakes’ and bloopers during the closing credits. Kind of like the outtakes in Jackie Chan movie credits, except Pixar had to MAKE the outtakes themselves. Well, Pac-Man World also had outtakes you could unlock, and they were based on the CG story sections in the game. I think Pac-Man World was probably the first game to have outtakes, and like Pixar, they had to make the bloopers themselves. It was pretty funny!

In the comments section, I want you all to tell me these things:
What’s your favorite Easter candy?
What’s your favorite “Easter Egg” in a video game?

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