Right after hitting the halfway point, there’s a section of the level filled with glowing jellyfish in the background and a mechanism Donkey Kong has to trigger in order to clear a path forward through some electrical seaweed. After passing through this part and getting outside the following tunnel, you can then swim backwards to the mechanism again by taking damage and passing through the sea weed while invincible. Once you’re back on the other side, wait a few moments, and eventually you’ll see a metroid swimming from the bottom of the screen up toward the top. The video above shows the easter egg in the Switch port, but GameXplain and others have confirmed the secret also existed in the Wii U version all along.

Donkey Kong: Tropical Freeze Metroid Easter Egg

The metroid only appears briefly, but alongside Samus’ gunship, it’s good fodder for fun fan theories about links between Tropical Freeze’s world and the rest of the Metroid universe. The callback makes sense given that Retro Studios, the company behind Tropical Freeze, also made the Metroid Prime trilogy. Some fans even took the original discovery of the gunship easter egg as potential evidence that Retro was working on a new Metroid game. Four years later, we now know that Metroid Prime 4 is in development, although Retro isn’t working on it.

Advertisement
Advertisement

Tropical Freeze is chock full of other interesting secrets as well, including a fun easter egg in which Donkey Kong actually whips out a 3DS to play other Nintendo games, such as Donkey Kong Country Returns. Given that the game includes that level of fourth wall-breaking mindfuck, there’s no telling what other stuff might still be hiding in Tropical Freeze. Maybe in another four years, players will find Samus herself.