Video Games With Hidden Adult Messages

The practice of hiding messages in video games can be traced back to Atari's Adventure, released in 1979 on their 2600 console. Because Atari didn't credit their software engineers for their work, the guy who designed Adventure decided to include a hidden room in the game. There, the words "Created by Warren Robinett" appeared when a player entered. Robinett went behind his bosses backs to include the room because he felt crediting designers was important. But while Robinett's cause was a noble one, there have been plenty of developers who have hidden things in games in the years since that did so purely for their own amusement.

From phallic imagery so blatant you'll be amazed you missed it the first time, to outrageous innuendos that only the corrupted brain of an adult would recognize, here are some of the most shocking hidden adult messages you missed in these classic video games.

Recent Legend of Zelda entry Breath of the Wild was jam-packed full of tiny details that only true fans of the series would notice, like the return of the Spectacle Rock landscape that first appeared in the original Zelda game in 1986 and the subtle use of "Zelda's Lullaby" in the score. But you don't have to be a Zelda fanatic to decipher the meaning behind some of the adult messages the developers decided to insert into Breath of the Wild.

The Entertainment Software Rating Board gave the game (released on the Nintendo Switch and Wii U) an E10 rating, warning players about the fantasy violence and suggestive themes used throughout. Of particular concern to the ESRB were the "fairies with moderate cleavage and/or exaggerated-size breasts [and] dialogue such as 'If I have to have something pounce on me, why couldn't it be a lady?' and 'I get to see a young hunk draw a bow again?'" The archery puns don't end there, either.

Redditor Oliver Haslam discovered that if you head to the Curious Quiver arrow shop in Kakariko Village and read Rola's journal, you find out that the married shopkeeper has a bit of a thing for Link. "That new guy in town looks like he really knows how to tune a bow," it reads. "I hope he comes by and nocks an arrow for me. It's been WAAAY too long." 

Secret-hunting players of 1996's Super Mario RPG discovered that if you pressed the A button in the right spot while facing the fireplace in Princess Toadstool's room, you come across something called Toadstool's XXX. The Princess of the Mushroom Kingdom has always been known as Princess Peach in Japan, but the character was called Princess Toadstool internationally until 1996's Super Mario 64, when she became universally known as Peach. The north American version of Super Mario RPG (the last time the name Toadstool was used) changed the name of this XXX-rated item to Toadstool's ??? to make it less obvious that it was an object of an intimate nature, but the reaction when you found it was the same: you're told to forget you ever saw it and your silence is promptly bought with a mushroom.

When Kirby's Dream Land 2 hit shelves in 1995, many Game Boy users were in the market for something a little more challenging. According to the game's designer, Masahiro Sakurai, one of the only complaints he got regarding Kirby's Dream Land was that it was "too easy and too short" for the more advanced and older players out there, and he clearly kept this in mind when developing the second Dream Land installment. Not only was the game more challenging, but it had some hidden stuff especially for the grown-ups. During the secret 5-5 level, you drop down a board that, when viewed in its entirety, is quite clearly modelled on the body of a naked woman.

On the subject of Rare's games for the N64, in 2000 the developer released Banjo-Tooie, the sequel to its 1998 hit Banjo-Kazooie. The game is filled with huge environments and lush landscapes...like Terrydactyland, which contained a rather shocking rock formation that's really a hidden adult message. When you fly high enough in this dinosaur-themed level you get a bird's eye view of Mumbo's Skull, and the pathway leading to it looks suspiciously like... Well, you know what it looks like.

Even if you choose to ignore the less-than-subtle phallic imagery on display here, Banjo-Tooie has plenty of other ways to make you blush. From the suggestive "grab-a-sailor night" at Jolly's Tavern (one doubloon gets you "five tankards of Seaman's Brew") to Boggy's questionable movie collection (he describes his new Bear Babes DVD as "hot stuff"), the developers clearly had plenty of fun making this one. This was the last truly great game Rare made for a Nintendo system, as Microsoft acquired the company in 2002.

Ever since Pokemon Red and Pokemon Blue came out in 1996 and gave birth to the hit franchise, all 18 core Pokemon games have been littered with so many oddly sexual moments that looking for them has become something of a pastime for fans of the series. This bikini-clad trainer became a meme for refusing to reveal where she kept her Pokeballs, and there was something about this young couple's symbolic choice of Pokemon that had adult players laughing and/or blushing.

Recent Nintendo 3DS entries Pokemon Sun and Pokemon Moon really went to town when it came to hidden adult messages, pushing the envelope like never before. You might have seen screenshots of the "Press A to pound" girls doing the rounds online, but that's just the tip of the iceberg here. Fans were quick to point out more suggestive dialogue from the games, including lines like "The flavor from the Rare Bone seems to fill my whole mouth" challenging even the cleanest of minds to stay that way.