Top 10 Lists: The Top 10 Best Uses Of The Konami Code

Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, RIght, B, A The famous "Konami Code" is a cheat code that has appeared in countless games made by Konami. It has become ingrained in pop culture showing up in music, tv shows, comics, and t-shirts. Some people have even gotten a tattoo of the code. As controllers changed, the button names may have changed (L becomes L1 or B A becomes X 0). When this code was first used, EVERYBODY that played video games knew what it meant. Here are some of the best uses of the Konami code over the past 20+ years.

Pause the game. Enter the code, and the game will tell you, "I AM NOT KONAMI." This is one of the first silly uses of the code that didn't affect game play.

Many people play GTA games just to cause trouble, but those pesky cops just won't leave you alone when your wanted level goes up. Inputting the Konami code will enable a cheat to turn off your Wanted Level allowing you to cause unlimited chaos.

Beat the game. Then enter the code at the title screen to see Douglas Cartland in his underwear during your next playthrough.

When you beat the game, enter the code when the clear code is on screen. You should be able to hear Snake say, "Stop foolin around kid."

Yeah, that's right, a website! Go to almost any page on the website and enter the code on your keyboard, and you will be redirected to the code page for the game that's #1 on this list.

Enter the code during the playback of any vid-comic and Captain Quark will appear in a tutu. Hysterical.

Here the code is a little screwy (no B or A button). Insert Up, Up, Up, Down, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, Left at the title screen and you should hear a dot gulp noise. Press start to play the original Pac-Man game.

Only a few Castlevania games take advantage of the Konami code, and this one is definitely the coolest. Enter the code when the Konami logo appears, and choose Boss Rush to play as the original Simon Belmont (from the first Castlevania). Basically this makes the game much harder due to Simon's limited movement and inventory (you can only use weapons found in the original Castlevania). Simon is also much stronger than the original character.

Here is the first documented case of the Konami code. Kazuhisa Hashimoto, developer of the home port of Gradius, found the game too hard to test, so he created this code to give himself a full array of power-ups. He left the code in the final game, and the rest was history.

Here it is, the reason we all know about the code. Contra was ultra popular upon it's release in 1988, but it was brutally difficult. You got 3 lives and 3 continues, and one hit killed you. Most people didn't make it through the 3rd level without help. If you entered the Konami code once the title screen finally loaded, you would (usually) get 30 lives - I say usually because it would sometimes take a few tries to get it right. With this code, almost anybody could beat the game, but if you can beat it without the code, you have something to brag about. The code has been used in almost every Contra game since this, but it will never be as widely known as in the original. This is the game that helped make the Konami code a pop culture phenomenon.

The Konami code has been used in 100s of games, way too many to list here. It helped make Contra into a AAA title. Without it, the game would've undoubtedly sat on many peoples shelves, and we probably wouldn't have had so many great sequels. As for the future, we can only wait to see what other ingenious uses game developers can come up with.

List by bonham2 (01/13/2009)