Majestic Twelve - Arkham Games Easter Eggs

We love the Batman Arkham games (Origins notwithstanding), and it was recently revealed that there was, in fact, an Easter Egg within Arkham City (a three year old game now) that still hasn’t been found. This was recently “leaked” by the developers which then prompted players to find it on their own and now we all know what it actually is. There might be more but before we go off trekking for more Easter Eggs in the Batman Arkham games, here’s our top twelve favorite Easter Egg moments in the series thus far (and, no, we unfortunately couldn’t include all of them). 

#12 – Suicide Squad (Arkham Origins) – At the end of the game, Arkham Origins, once you get past the credits, there’s a bonus stinger featuring Amanda Waller and Deathstroke the Terminator (Slade). She comes in with an offer. Slade can either rot in jail or he can come work for her. This is clearly a reference to DC’s Suicide Squade, which is a team of villains who work for the government doing various (less than legal) jobs. Many villains of been on this roster including (but certainly not limited to) Deadshot, Harley Quinn, and Killer Frost. While Slade has never been a member of the Suicide Squad, creative license does allow the developers to play around with this a bit. I mean, there are rumors of Joker and Luthor being in Suicide Squad for the upcoming movie, so who knows if a Suicide Squad game will happen down the road. (Probably not because no one liked Arkham Origins).

 #11 – Abramovici Twins (Arkham City) – These giant one-armed freaks are a couple of your biggest enemies throughout the game, both working for either Penguin or Joker during your battles. After you’ve beaten the main game, you will find these twins together and having worked out their differences. Perhaps they’ll put down their hammers and start working on building a future together rather than working for maniacs from Arkham. Seeing this event, however, is required for a Riddler Trophy so some don’t count it as a legit Easter Egg, but it’s reference, so I’ll keep it on the list.

#10 – Black Mask Escapades (Arkham City) – There are two Easter Eggs related to Black Mask during the events of Arkham City. In the beginning you can see him getting beaten as you enter Arkham City as Bruce Wayne. Later on in the game, as part of a Riddler Trophy, you can find an area where there’s a huge hole in one of Arkham City’s walls. Not to mention a fair bit of the game takes place in Sionis Industries, a factory owned by Black Mask’s family. The last reference is his original wooden mask, which can be found in the Gotham Museum. He’s also an enemy you’ll come across when you play as Robin in the DLC challenge maps.

#09 – Arkham World? (Arkham City) – This is a joke by the developer which has appeared twice. Once in game during a conversation between two thugs you may come across during the events of the game. They’ll talk about Arkham City and one will ask, “What’s next? Arkham County? Arkham Country? Arkham World?” This joke is then referenced again during the Spike Video Game Awards when Joker won for “Best character” of 2011. During the speech, he held up a folder marked as “Script for Arkham World.” This was obviously another joke by the developer, Rocksteady.

#08 – Interview Tapes (Both Games) – Interview tapes are one of the collectables scattered throughout the games (much like the audio logs you’ll see in games like Bioshock Infinite). The interviews are between Arkham Asylum patients and the doctors of the Asylum. There are plenty of reference and Easter Eggs scattered throughout them all such as a reference to Joker as Jack White. There’s another series that show the events of Harley Quinn slowly falling for Joker. My personal favorite references are the changing of doctors for Jonathan Crane (Scarecrow). One is named Dr. Murphy, a reference Killian Murphy, the actor playing Scarecrow in Batman Begins. His second doctor is Dr. Combs, a reference to Jeffery Combs who plays the same character in The New Batman Adventures. There are plenty more references in these tapes, but I don’t have time to list them all here. What are some of your favorites? Be sure to let us know in the comments below!

#07 – Alternate Endings (Both) – Both games have alternate endings to a degree. Arkham City’s alternate ending takes place as a “moral choice” for Catwoman to either save Batman or leave Arkham City with the loot she stole. But if you choose to leave Arkham City both Batman and Commissioner Gordon die, Joker goes on a rampage, and Wayne Manor is overrun (as reported by Oracle). Once you go through that, the game rewinds and forces players to make the correct choice to progress the game.

#07 – Alternate Endings Continued – In Arkham Asylum, the ending doesn’t change the actual plot of the game, but is just a fun little reference to the villains you fight and helped build anticipation for the upcoming games. This Easter Egg is based on your completion percent and the ending sequence shows one of three characters in the waters around Arkham emerging from the water and grabbing hold of a canister of the Titan drug. These characters can be Killer Croc, Bane, or Scarecrow. Interesting enough, only one of these characters has returned to the series as an enemy (thus far) and one hasn’t been in a sequel of Arkham Asylum yet (though Scarecrow will be returning in Arkham Knight in 2015).

#06 – Harley Quinn Pregnancy Tests (Arkham City) – Nearing the end of the events in Arkham City, at Joker’s hideout you’ll find a positive pregnancy test of Harley Quinn. Nearby is a crib with Scarface (the Ventriloquist’s puppet) sitting inside of it. But, as a bit of a foreshadowing for events to come, the box for the test does indicate it may reveal a “false positive”. And during the credits of a New Game Plus run, you can even hear Harley Quinn singing a distorted version of “Hush Little Baby”. All that said, during the Harley Quinn’s Revenge DLC, as Robin you revisit the same room to find more pregnancy tests, this time all of them are negative and now Scarface is dressed like a baby Joker.

#05 – Scarecrow References (Arkham City) – If these weren’t just references and Scarecrow had been in the game, I’d have ranked this higher. But the lack of the master of fear in this title was a great disappointment. That being said, the references were very nice to have, and we got several. The easiest one to note is the discarded Scarecrow mask used for one of the Riddler’s challenges on a bridge around the Amusment Mile. Not too far from that is a secret boat that has a hidden room below deck. There you can witness some of Scarecrow’s handywork on a former Arkham Inmate. On top of that, one of the Riddler’s gauntlets has some hidden Fear Gas canisters (if you look closely enough or throw a remote baterang to see beyond the wall). And LASTLY, during the events of Protocol Ten, you can find some of Scarecrow’s henchmen running around. This was considered a glitch at first, but as of the release of Arkham City Armored Edition for the WiiU, these character models are still there, indicating this was intentional.

#04 – Ra’s Al Ghul (Both) – Surprising fact, Ra’s Al Ghul makes an appearance in both Arkham Asylum and Arkham City. While he’s obviously a boss in the latter game, Arkham Asylum has him strictly as an Easter Egg. In the morgue, you can find a corpse labeled with his name on it. If you return to this room later in the game, the body will be gone completely, indicating he wasn’t dead after all (or he was taken away by the League of Shadows to be brought back). In Arkham City, after you beat him and Hugo Strange, he will impale himself after falling from Wonder Tower and be stuck on the gate for the rest of the game. But if you return later on after beaten the game, he will have disappeared once again.

 #03 – Clayface (Both) – Just like Ra’s, Clayface appears in both games with the first installment being only an Easter Egg and the latter being a boss. Despite that, both games have some clever Easter Eggs for the character. In Arkham Asylum, you’ll find a cell with no bars and a sign telling people the inmate within might be impersonating personnel of the asylum. Inside the cell, you’ll see what looks like security guard Aaron Cash pacing around asking to be released. After you save Quincy Sharp, the shapeshifter will appear as the Warden and state you rescued the wrong warden. If you turn around at this point, you’ll hear a morphing sound. Turn back to the cell and you’ll see Commissioner Gordon in the cell. Scan him to solve Riddler’s riddle and Clayface will congratulate you on solving the mystery, but asks you to keep it a secret. “I have a reputation to maintain,” he explains.

 #3 – Clayface Continued – Continuing into Arkham City, Clayface is your final boss and, throughout the course of the game, has been taking the form of Joker in Joker’s mad plan to eliminate Batman once and for all. Before the final battle, you get to fight against what appears to be a “healed” Joker. If you try to scan Joker during this fight, you’ll see he has no bones much like when you scanned Clayface last time. This is very much a hint towards the truth behind Joker that only savvy Batman fans will catch right away.

#2 – Calendar Man  (Arkham City) – While Calendar Man’s cell appears in Arkham Asylum, the character proper doesn’t appear until Arkham City underneath the court house. Here you can visit him during certain events in the year (holidays mostly) and get unique dialogues for each one. It wasn’t until recently in 2014 (three years after the game’s initial release) that an additional Easter Egg was found involving this character. By setting the date of your PC to the date when Rocksteady (the developer) first started out (12/13/04), you’ll get a very unique line of dialogue hinting at the end of Batman and talking about how Calendar Man first began (reference Rocksteady first starting on this particular date). Many are speculating if it has any connection to the upcoming Arkham Knight, but this is still unclear. Speaking of Easter Eggs teasing upcoming games…

 #1 – The Warden’s Hidden Room (Arkham Asylum) – Rocksteady was likely the one who secretly revealed the existence of the previously mentioned Easter Egg, and while it took them THREE YEARS of patience to finally pull that trigger, they wasted no time in revealing this Easter Egg. Up until they revealed it, no one knew of its existence. By blowing up a specific wall Arkham Mansion will reveal the Warden’s hidden office with blue prints and documents all talking about Arkham City, which is all a tease for the came that would be released in 2011 under the same name.

Those are our top twelve Easter Eggs in the Batman Arkham games. But we know there are plenty more. If there are some you think we missed that you wanted to see on the list or have other interesting Easter Eggs from games you like, let us know in the comments. As always, if you enjoyed this and want to see more content like it, please like, share and subscribe. See ya next time!