'BioShock Infinite' Continues The Konami Code's Legacy

We've all been there, the older one of us at least. Struggling our way through the original "Contra," maybe "Gradius," only to suffer that final cheap shot, on our last life, out of continues, and sent back to that dismal beginning screen like a failure. We want to stay on the righteous path, but temptation is high to take the easy way out. So we pound out that infamous sequence of numbers to try again at the victory we feel we deserve.

Every gamer worth their salt knows it by now. Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A. And no, I didn't look that up (or maybe I did, you'll never know). Something of a legacy, the code's endured for the past 30 years, and lives on in games today. The latest to breathe new life into it is "BioShock Infinite."

However, inputting the code won't give you and Booker copious amounts of ammunition, nor will it make that friggin' Songbird any easier. Instead, it does quite the opposite. Inputting the infamous code unlocks the game's brutal 1999 mode, making the game even more difficult, with additions like not being able to reverse specializations. As a result, the wrong decision can make the game completely unbeatable.

The new mode is named for the year in which "System Shock 2" was released, a game which "BioShock" developer and Irrational Games founder Ken Levine worked on, alongside many of his employees. All players need to do to unlock the mode is input the simple sequence at the game's main menu, and it's yours to try. For PS3 gamers, B and A are replaced by Circle and X respectively, and the cancel and confirm actions for PC versions.

It's reccomended you play through "Infinite" a first time, just so you can remember the correct decisions to make to get through the game, lest you break your controller into a million tiny shards of plastic.