When it comes to video games, I like to consider myself a completionist. I do what ever I can to finish a game with as close to 100% as possible. However, if that isn't possible, then I try to go out of my way to find hidden references to other games or other forms of pop-culture. The Legend of Zelda is likely full of these references if you just knew where to look, so let's get searching shall we?

Let's start with Zelda 2 on the NES first. I'm pretty sure all of you that played the game knew that most of the towns were the source for the names for five of the seven Sages in Ocarina of Time on the N64, but that's not what I'm here to find today. If you know of phrase "I am Error," then you probably know where I'm going with this, but let's keep going and see what happens. One would initially assume that this "Error" character was actually a programming glitch that caused an unavailable message to appear instead of what was supposed to be said, but here's what you probably didn't know. This was no glitch. In the game is another character named Bagu hidden in the woods north of the town of Saria who helps you to persuade the bridge keeper to lower the drawbridge across the river. Bagu is a literal translation of the Japanese pronunciation of the word "bug," specifically a programming bug. Much later in the game, someone informs you to talk to Error confirming that his message isn't a glitch. Error and Bagu are named as such to be nothing more than an inside joke and possibly to confuse the player to dismiss the event as nothing.

Now let's move onto Majora's Mask on the N64 and 3DS. When you get to the Zora Hall, explore the rooms of the band members. When you walk in on them practicing their instrument, you may notice that the songs they are playing are from different Zelda games. Tijo is playing the cave music from A Link to the Past on his drums, Japas is playing the dungeon music from Zelda 1 and Evan is playing the game over music again from Zelda 1. Also, when Link (as Mikau) and Japas are doing their jam session together, the song that you play is actually the introductory notes from the song Ballad of the Wind Fish from Link's Awakening. There are even more Easter eggs exclusive to the 3DS version of the game. In the room of the Goron Elder's Son you can find a large stone Wii Remote among the rest of his toys. In Kafei's hideout as you look through the peephole to the Curiosity Shop, to the far right is ROB from Nintendo fame. And in the Marine Research Lab if you snoop around the Professor's table, you can find a Nintendo Love Tester hidden around the beakers. There are much more secrets in Majora's Mask, but I'll save the rest for later.

And the last game in this hunt today will be The Wind Waker. If you were one of the few like me that took advantage of the Game Cube peripheral that allowed you to connect a Game Boy Advance to one of the console's controller ports, then you likely know of the Tingle Tuner, The Wind Waker's unusual attempt at a cooperative 2-player experience in the Zelda series. The Tingle Tuner is a rupee powered help system to help you in areas that would require magic and/or extra firepower, but did you know that was not the only function it had? Depending on where you activated it, it could be powered up or could be used to find hidden treasures that couldn't be found normally without it. If you turn the Tingle Tuner on at Link's home island, Tingle will be accompanied by Knuckle, one of his younger brothers. He will give you a series of tasks to complete while on the island and if you complete them without fail, then the Tingle Tuner will be upgraded with a device called the Hand-Me-Down Tuner which is a portable shop that lets you buy all-purpose bait, bombs and arrows on the fly. If you take the Tingle Tuner back to the Forsaken Fortress and fall into the giant stew pot, Tingle will reduce the price of Ting Potions by half claiming he found an old reserve, and if you take the Tuner to the top of the Windfall School, he'll reduce the price of the Shield, Balloon and "Kooloo-Limpah" by 10 rupees. Also, taking the Tingle Tuner into dungeons will also let you find secret treasure chests if you bomb the right locations. There are only five of these chests and they all contain one of the five collectible golden Tingle Statues. Each one you find nets you 50 rupees from Ankle (Tingle's other younger brother) and 100 rupees per statue once you find them all. All in all, not a bad secret.

Please come back next time when I cover more secrets and Easter eggs that I've found over the years. I don't think I can find them all by myself, but I can sure as hell try. But until then, I'll be seeing you.