Game Unlockables

I was playing Street Fighter X Tekken today and got to thinking about game unlockables. I think every gamer naturally enjoys unlocking features and items in games, but I was wondering how you guys feel about those unlockables being key features in the game. For example, SFIV and many other fighting games made certain characters unavailable to the player until certain conditions were met. Although I am annoyed to not be able to play my favorite characters in a game right away, I still love taking on the task of unlocking them as well as the feeling I get once I succeed. Nowadays it seems unlockable features in games are more superfluous and don't always add much to the game in terms of value...they're mainly just window-dressing.

I was curious whether or not you guys agreed with me on this. Do you like it when a game locks features (characters, modes, weapons. etc.) and leaves it up to you to find and subsequently unlock them, or do you prefer a game that gives it to you all up front?

Follow up, do you care about unlockables like color schemes or avatars/icons, concept art, cheats. etc., or are those irrelevant to you?

Well when it comes to Street Fighter X Tekken, or any modern day fighting game for that matter, the developers have all the characters unlocked for tournament play purposes. It is easier to coordinate a tournament with consoles as you don't need to have a console with saved data for that game already. You can just pop in the game and be ready to go. However, I do miss the days where you unlocked characters, modes other game content that mattered. It showed that you put in the effort to achieve that content by means of whatever the game had you tasked to do in order to unlock it. I understand that it might be an annoyance to the majority now days, but in SFIV it was epic on how you unlocked Akuma and Gouken.

i'm like a horse. put a carrot in front of me, i will move. no carrot, i ain't doing it no sir.

it's probably stupid to think like that, but i'm also an achievement whore for some stupid reason.

Well in some fighting games you have to unlock most of the characters. Good example would be Tekken Tag. And there i loved the way it was set up. You just unlocked a new character every time you cleared Arcade mode. Not stupid shit like CLEAR ARCADE MODE ON INSANE WITHOUT BEING HIT ONCE. Thats just unrealistic and unfair to the player.

So basically i enjoy unlocks as long as they are fair.

@TinoXtreme said:

Well when it comes to Street Fighter X Tekken, or any modern day fighting game for that matter, the developers have all the characters unlocked for tournament play purposes. It is easier to coordinate a tournament with consoles as you don't need to have a console with saved data for that game already. You can just pop in the game and be ready to go. However, I do miss the days where you unlocked characters, modes other game content that mattered. It showed that you put in the effort to achieve that content by means of whatever the game had you tasked to do in order to unlock it. I understand that it might be an annoyance to the majority now days, but in SFIV it was epic on how you unlocked Akuma and Gouken.

Exactly! I think when a game like a fighter comes with everything unlocked, however practical it may be, I become bored with it much more quickly. I like to feel as if I'm progressing towards something more material.

I like unlockables as long as they are not too crazy. Unlocking Warthog and the Ray Gun in Twisted Metal are an example of unlockables that are too damn hard to unlock.

I hate unlockable characters because it means I can't use Taskmaster as soon as I install MvC on a new system.  Fucking nonsense.

I want to be able to unlock gamebreaking weapons/cheats/modes or whatever when I do something crazy in a game. A great example is the Mega Buster in Dead Rising. For sitting through the tedium of killing 50,000-somthing zombies, getting a weapon that makes the game super easy is a fun reward.

I miss the days of unlocking modes and features as opposed to achievements.

Look at Smash Brothers Brawl for example, that is a system I love.

I agree that many unlockables have become a little lackluster as of late. But there are some like Rayman: Origins that don't apply. Unlocking all the teensy variants and Livid Rayman and Globox by collecting all the electoons in a level is a good challenge. Also collecting all the skull teeth to unlock the Land of Livid Dead was definitely hard but worth it. Man, that game is awesome.