Ze_ro Posted March 8, 2003 Share Posted March 8, 2003 I've been playing Capcom vs. SNK for what seems like ages now, and I'm still nowhere even close to unlocking even half of the secret stuff in the game. I read a FAQ on the secrets that claimed that (given certain conditions) it would take about 120 hours of gameplay to unlock everything! That's a heck of a lot of time, especially for a fighting game! Just look at it like this... To unlock Akuma as a playable character, you have to first beat the game with all of the characters, then buy his "shadow"... then you have to get to the final boss with over 81 GPS (a grading of how well you've played), at which point Akuma will challenge you... beat him, then you can buy the ability to play as him. It doesn't end there though! Before the game will let you buy him, you actually have to unlock the ability to buy him! And to do that, you have to unlock both Morrigan and Nakoruru... and to unlock them, you have to jump through even more hoops. Not to mention that buying all this stuff in the game is surprisingly expensive! Boy, it's as if they want you to download a VMU file or something... however, I'm still putting in the effort to get it all myself, since for some reason, I feel like it'll be worth it (not likely). Marvel vs Capcom 2 at least didn't take as long. Vanishing Point locks all but 2 cars and a handful of tracks off the bat... heck, you don't even get some of the 2 players modes until you unlock them... personally I think that's stupid, but at least it gives the game a long replay value. Anyone know of any other games that just have ridiculous amounts of unlocking? --Zero Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisbid Posted March 8, 2003 Share Posted March 8, 2003 if this is the dreamcast version, then head to booyaka.com and download game saves to your VMU. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theaveng Posted March 8, 2003 Share Posted March 8, 2003 I've been playing Capcom vs. SNK for what seems like ages now, and I'm still nowhere even close to unlocking even half of the secret stuff in the game. I read a FAQ on the secrets that claimed that (given certain conditions) it would take about 120 hours of gameplay to unlock everything! That's a heck of a lot of time, especially for a fighting game! 120 hours of fighting??? And you complain that RPGs are boring?!?!? Man, if someone forced me to play 120 hours of the same, boring man vs. man combat I'd probably tear my head off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starscream Posted March 8, 2003 Share Posted March 8, 2003 I pretty much hate unlocking stuff anymore. It used to be fun but now, it's ridiculous. Nothing worse than buying a cool game just to sit down and play and realize that you can't do shit until you unlock this or that. Seems as though making a challenging game has taken a backseat to making a boring game that you need to do unlocking to enjoy......... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paralistalon Posted March 8, 2003 Share Posted March 8, 2003 LOL the only point to Animal Crossing is to unlock everything! But the stupid game stole 2 months of my life! Unlocking all the trophies in Super Smash Bros. Melee. was fun. More often than not, I appreciate having things to unlock- especially if the method for unlocking a feature requires insane skill. Then the unlocked feature stands as a badge of personal accomplishment. Unlocking something is usually a better reward for completing a task than a generic ending. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raindog Posted March 8, 2003 Share Posted March 8, 2003 Unlocking is just an unimaginative alternative to hidden games, probably thought up by marketing people who realized players were playing games just to find the hidden stuff so why not just put it up front and require them to play a certain amount to "unlock" them? Ironically, the stuff you unlock is frequently gimmicky, play for 2 minutes stuff and you have to play for hours to unlock it all. I got Monkey Ball Jr. for the GBA because Monkey Bowling and Monkey Golf looked kinda fun. I have gotten far enough in the game to unlock the bowling and it was indeed worth a couple minutes of play, but games just don't hold my attention for long. It should have been "start with the minigames and when you get good at them, you'll unlock up to 100 levels that you'll actually have to be good to beat!" Sad thing is, with things like Pokemon having gotten as popular as they did and a whole generation of kids growing up with the concept, it's probably here to stay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhindle The Red Posted March 8, 2003 Share Posted March 8, 2003 INSERT "MASTER OF UNLOCKING" JOKE HERE. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TBB Posted March 8, 2003 Share Posted March 8, 2003 For me it all depends on the game. Or what is required to unlock it. In Super Monkey Ball I hated it, I unlocked one game, then did not want to continue. In Marvel vs. Capcom 2 I was ok, I didn't mind playing through the game/practice a million times, I really enjoyed every time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ze_ro Posted March 8, 2003 Author Share Posted March 8, 2003 Yeah, MVC2 was actually pretty good about it... mostly because things weren't overly expensive, and although there was lots of locked characters, there was also a lot of characters that weren't locked. Vanishing Point on the other hand really bugged me since 90% of the game was locked from the start... that's just not right. Unlockable stuff used to be just extras that were more novelty than required features. Along the same line, has anyone played Donkey Kong 64 much? Each level had a ton of things in it, and to really beat the level, you had to get everything with every character. Sounds fine, right? Well, they got lazy and instead of just putting stuff where only certain characters could get, they just gave everything a different color, and made it so that each character could only collect things of a certain color. It got annoying since you'd be running around with Donkey Kong, and all you'd see were blue bananas that you couldn't pick up until you changed into Lanky Kong... it got frustrating after a while (Especially when you'd change into Lanky, and then find a huge cache of yellow bananas or a yellow coin or something that you had to be Donkey Kong to pick up). The game was really fun, but that frustration really got to me. I think the worst is when stuff is time-locked, so you're forced to play the game for a certain amount of time before stuff is even available. Especially when it's some ridiculous amount of time, like 15 hours of gameplay when you can beat the game in 30 minutes. Stuff that requires online play to unlock will probably get annoying in a few years when online play for those games is no longer possible... I wonder if it'll even be possible to unlock everything in Bomberman Online without cheating... --Zero Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theaveng Posted March 8, 2003 Share Posted March 8, 2003 I miss the good old days when the only thing you had to "unlock" was wiping out the previous player's high score. Seriously, if I wanted to play a bowling game, why waste hours unlocking it on Monkey Ball Jr when I can just pop in an old Atari cart? I hate unlocking as much as I hate solving puzzles... I don't waste time doing it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paralistalon Posted March 8, 2003 Share Posted March 8, 2003 You have to realize that in pretty much every game you have to unlock the next stage by beating the first one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raindog Posted March 8, 2003 Share Posted March 8, 2003 That's not even completely true anymore. Going back to my MBJr example, you start out with the first 10 levels available to you. I've never gotten around to beating the 10th level so I don't know whether it only locks the 11th or the 11th through 20th (which is more in line with what GBA games seem to do.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisbid Posted March 8, 2003 Share Posted March 8, 2003 i think the worst was the sonic mega collection, had they made it where you unlock a game by beating a game, it wouldve been much better. But i spent two hours starting and stopping every game 50 times to unlock everything Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ze_ro Posted March 8, 2003 Author Share Posted March 8, 2003 You have to realize that in pretty much every game you have to unlock the next stage by beating the first one. It's not quite the same though... I mean, in SMB, you obviously have a progression of levels... but if you play a game like Tony Hawk, all but one level is initially locked, when the game is inherently non-linear. This always bugged me since I don't generally like playing the actual GAME in Tony Hawk... I prefer to just go into free-skate and screw around. However, unless I play the game enough, I'd only get one level to free-skate in i think the worst was the sonic mega collection, had they made it where you unlock a game by beating a game Ugh, that's brutal... I remember one of the Resident Evil games (part 3? I forget) had some secret where you had to beat the game within a certain time limit to actually get it... naturally, since I suck at the game, I'll never be seeing that one. Super Mario Land for the Gameboy had a trick where if you beat the game twice in a row (or maybe it was three times?), then you earned a level select. But, since this was a Gameboy game with no battery backup, that meant playing through the entire game twice without turning it off! Surprisingly, I actually found this one myself, since I was about 8 when I got this game (with a Gameboy) for Christmas. Ah the joys of being easily amused Another gimmick I thought was annoying was in Street Fighter Alpha 3... when you got to the end, you fought M.Bison (as always)... except he had extra moves that you (as M. Bison) couldn't do... especially his super move, which was simply devastating. You could play as "Super Bison"... but you had to beat the game on level 8 first (the highest difficulty level). I think I've barely been able to beat the game on level 5... Oh well, at least it's not a BIG secret like a whole new character or something. --Zero Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ze_ro Posted March 8, 2003 Author Share Posted March 8, 2003 if this is the dreamcast version, then head to booyaka.com and download game saves to your VMU. I tried at one point, but I kept getting the japanese game saves or something, and it never worked properly. I seriously think the small amount of "vs points" you get from the game has to be a programming glitch or something. I mean, if you want to buy EX Blanka (amung the cheapest buys), he costs 3000 vs points. Since you get between 300 and 500 vs points for beating the game (I seem to get between 300-350 most of the time ), then you might have to beat the game 10 times just for EX Blanka, who actually isn't really that different than normal Blanka. It's very frustrating. Saving up 7000 for Evil Ryu or Orochi Iori isn't much better... but at least Evil Ryu gets some different moves. My brother tells me that it's the exact opposite in the PSX version, to the point where you can unlock everything in pretty much one sitting... (Which pretty much makes the locking pointless. How do you add replay value when you can unlock everything that fast?) --Zero Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StanJr Posted March 8, 2003 Share Posted March 8, 2003 That is why I LOVE MarioGolf64. You can unlock 90% of the stuff in a couple of days and then play play play! (I still need to get Metal Mario, though). It seems to me that a LOT of modern games have NO replay value whatsoever, and therefore programmers have to put things in there for you to work toward otherwise the game is a rental and not a purchase. Unlocking stuff can be fun, but its also overdone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theaveng Posted March 9, 2003 Share Posted March 9, 2003 This always bugged me since I don't generally like playing the actual GAME in Tony Hawk... I prefer to just go into free-skate and screw around. However, unless I play the game enough, I'd only get one level to free-skate in I agree with you. Gran Turismo 3 - Arcade Mode had 6 different levels of tracks. The 1st level is unlocked and you have to beat all the tracks in that level to unlock the next level. Like you I would have preferred to have instant access to ALL the tracks. After all, I play GT3 just for the fun of some adrenaline=filled racing. I don't feel like wasting days unlocking the tracks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaineMaxwell Posted March 9, 2003 Share Posted March 9, 2003 Mortal Kombat: DA is the same way pretty much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atarinvader Posted March 9, 2003 Share Posted March 9, 2003 Unlocking is the staple of modern arcade ports and CVS is hardcore for the hardcore. If it wasn't for the extra characters then what else would there be? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kisrael Posted March 9, 2003 Share Posted March 9, 2003 Yeah, unlocking can be very frustrating. My personal least favorite type is when you have to unlock multiplayer mode by playing a one player game. Monkey Ball was a pretty bad offender at this. Plus, the level of difficulty was very spiky...you'd be doing fine for a while, and then bam, there's some level you just can't beat...for both 1 and 2 I ended up just playing the easly level over and over. Browsing Google Grops (author:kirk author:is unlock) to find some more examples...for Monkey Ball, I ended up getting so good at beginner I could stick the damn thing in a tiny Picture-in-Picture window and watch a movie...Excitebike 64 was super annoying, because of the high level of challenge locking basic things, like soccer and the original. Super Smash Brothers was so-so in terms of unlocking...I only really care about getting all the characters and then all the boards, but I needed my cousin to finish those off. But I enjoyed collecting the trophies, and played more than I would have otherwise. But it suffered because many things had to be unlocked in 1P mode. Some games are good that you *can* slog your way through, or you can use a code: F-Zero X and Loony Tunes Racing. With Mario Parties, they let you be clever; I hate the boardgame but love the minigames, and they set it up so if you set 4 computer players, no further input is required and the computer will play the full game, and thus you can hit every minigame, thus making it available in freeplay mode. They must have purposefully left in the functionality where normal status messages (the ones where *anyone* can press the button) get clicked automagically. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gabriel Posted March 9, 2003 Share Posted March 9, 2003 I didn't like Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance very much. I felt that it ripped away the fun parts of MK and left the player with a pale and unfun imitation of a Tekken game. The unlocking procedure of the game nearly insured that I couldn't find much of any value in it. Too much was hidden behind the lock, and the rewards for beating the game were too small to make progress tangible. Add to this that there is no way to know what you're unlocking barring a strategy guide and I feel you have a recipe for frustration. Marvel Vs Capcom 2 for the PS2 is another one where the effort just doesn't seem worth it. Far, far too many characters are hidden behind the lock. Even their alternate colors are locked away. And a similarly slow and painful point system to Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance exists. The game honestly isn't fun enough to spend the number of hours it would take to unlock even a portion of what is hidden. At least MvC2 lets you see what you're about to unlock. Better unlocking procedures can be found in the Namco fighters. Beating the game once with a character almost always produces the result of a new character selectable. While Soul Calibur had a point system, it offerred more progress per play than the MK:DA and MvC2 implementations. Of course, the Namco games do have the problem that half the game is locked away, but they also reward the player quicker and more effectively. Overall, I like unlockable stuff. The catch is that the unlockable stuff has to fairly easily accessible and the basic materials of the game have to make the game appealing enough to make me WANT to play. If I spend an entire day playing a game, I better see some major results. MK:DA and MvC2 don't deliver that, so MK:DA doesn't join my game collection and MvC2 sits on my shelf mostly unplayed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gabriel Posted March 9, 2003 Share Posted March 9, 2003 Some games are good that you *can* slog your way through, or you can use a code: F-Zero X and Loony Tunes Racing. This is what saved Dynasty Warriors 3 for me. There was an easy to enter code that saved along with the game to provide a wide range of characters as graphical candy to make the game more entertaining. My favorite is the singer chick with the pink stockings and the club/pom-pom things. Of course, she is unplayable at the start, but a basic code entry unlocks her to play. Of course, even though I liked DW3, I traded it away. I immediately regretted it. Luckily, the person I traded it to purchased Dynasty Warriors 3: Extreme Legends for me for my birthday. Since it has pom-pom girl and other characters avaialble from the start without a code, then I'm happy as can be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSmirk Posted March 9, 2003 Share Posted March 9, 2003 The following post will be in "Kombat-ese" since thats part of the subject: Mortal Kombat: DA is the same way pretty much. Yup, I'm working my way thru that now, But.....they are actually good about it in the sense that you earn quite a bit during "training" where you go thru the "Konquest" mode, so as you learn the khars and their moves and kombos.etc. you actually can buy off a good part of the "Krypt" and man theres alot in there! Kapkom vs. SNK is rough, simply bekause you have to spend ALOT and its not that easy to earn the Vs. points in all kases.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ze_ro Posted March 11, 2003 Author Share Posted March 11, 2003 Some games are good that you *can* slog your way through, or you can use a code: F-Zero X and Loony Tunes Racing. Something screwed up for me such that I can't earn any more tokens in Looney Tunes Space Race. I'm not sure why this happened, but I just don't ever get tokens from playing anymore, and there's still some Acme Events that I haven't been able to buy! As a result, I still don't have Marvin as a playable character Maybe it's because I beat the hardest event before buying some of the others or something... I'm tempted to delete my save and restart, but some of those events were bloody hard. Marvel Vs Capcom 2 for the PS2 is another one where the effort just doesn't seem worth it. Far, far too many characters are hidden behind the lock. Even their alternate colors are locked away. Was it any different from the Dreamcast version? I thought the DC version was quite fair. I accidentally deleted my save file about 3 days ago, and I've already unlocked all the characters except Cammy, Dan, and ServBot (and I'm seriously considering leaving some of them locked, since they're worthless). I'd say that's fairly decent. It helps too that you can "haggle" for the prices, and you don't have to jump through too many hoops to get what you want. --Zero Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
z28in82 Posted March 11, 2003 Share Posted March 11, 2003 The only semi-locked game I ever got into was Tokyo Xtreme Racer for PS2 I loved the game but I had the damn thing beat by day 160 but had to keep going out to race for 200+ days just so I could get one lone racer. Cause the final boss won't race you untill you have defeated all 399 other racers in the game. Talk about mind numbing. I beat the first 398 in about 3 weeks took me 2 1/2 weeks just to get to 399 and then 20 minutes to beat the final boss. it was kinda a let-down Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube
Chat on Discord
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.