In the game's third stage Flying Battleship Balrog, in the upper-leftmost corner of the first room inside the ship are two stacks of artillery shells. Destroying the shells will reveal a panda that dances briefly before disappearing. According to Strider's designer and director Kouichi Yotsui, this easter egg was snuck in without his knowledge as a joke, and the person who did this later became the wife of Mega Man character designer and later series producer Keiji Inafune.