Poll: Unlocking characters in fighting games.

[orangeapples]

Why in the world do we still have to do that?

In every single fighting game I can think of we've had to play the game for weeks to unlock every character. I understand it is supposed to be "part of the experience," and that we should "earn" the hidden characters.

But I am sick and tired of playing through the "story" mode of these games. Is it really still necessary? When I loaded up Street Fighter 4 for the first time and realized that there were many unlockable character, I couldn't do it. I cannot stand to play another fighting game where I have to "unlock" all of the characters.

another is when my friend loaded up Guitar Hero: World Tour. He has the game on his PS2 and unlocked everything in it, but then he got it again for PS3 AND a PS3. We loaded up the game, and realized that we have to unlock all of the songs, again.

Why do they feel the need to do this to us? We just want to play the game out of the box, not be locked up for a month unlocking every single character before we can bring it out to show our friends. We just want to play the game...

 

[Brickcups]

Because developers mindsets are still stuck in the arcade era.

Pretty much this. And they want to see how much we'll put up with =P.
Also, they might fear that we'll tire of the game too quickly if we have all the characters.

 

[ButanicXpandA]

thank god tekken 6 isn't like that =P

 

[fletch_talon]

Because not everyone wants to just play multiplayer with their friends (or lack thereof... did I say that out loud...).
The single player portion of a fighting game needs a sense of progression, there'd be no point playing through story mode if it just involved fighting a bunch of opponents in a row. The easiest way to achieve this is unlockable characters.
The other way to do it is to incorporate an actual story of sorts and a platforming element like the Subspace Emissary portion of Smash Bros. However this takes more work and there's plenty of people who whinge about how stupid that is as well.

 

[Ocelot GT]

I don't care for it.

You pay 100 bucks for the game and if you suck... as many of us do. Then you sir, miss out on 60% of the game's content you paid for.

 

[Altorin]

I don't care for it.

You pay 100 bucks for the game and if you suck... as many of us do. Then you sir, miss out on 60% of the game's content you paid for.

If you buy a fighting game for $100, then there is one thing that you are not sir, and that sir, is smart.

Also, if you buy a fighting game, chances are you should get good enough at it in short order to unlock most of the characters. Or at least you SHOULD... If you're going to have to unlock characters in a fighting game, I wish they wouldn't go the Gouken method, or the Lizardman method from SC2, where you have to do some ridiculously stupid stuff just to get an attempt at fighting him to unlock him.

Gouken in SFIV, you have to beat the game with everyone, then while playing in story mode, beat it without dying (which can be a pain because even on Easy Seth can be a monster), and get 3 Ultra Combos and 2 Perfects.

Lizardman in SC2, you unlock near the end of the ridiculously long and painfully annoying "campaign" mode (I forget the actual name.. the one with the map and all the crazy fights with crazy requirements)

 

[Ocelot GT]

I don't care for it.

You pay 100 bucks for the game and if you suck... as many of us do. Then you sir, miss out on 60% of the game's content you paid for.

If you buy a fighting game for $100, then there is one thing that you are not sir, and that sir, is smart.

Also, if you buy a fighting game, chances are you should get good enough at it in short order to unlock most of the characters. Or at least you SHOULD... If you're going to have to unlock characters in a fighting game, I wish they wouldn't go the Gouken method, or the Lizardman method from SC2, where you have to do some ridiculously stupid stuff just to get an attempt at fighting him to unlock him.

Gouken in SFIV, you have to beat the game with everyone, then while playing in story mode, beat it without dying (which can be a pain because even on Easy Seth can be a monster), and get 3 Ultra Combos and 2 Perfects.

Lizardman in SC2, you unlock near the end of the ridiculously long and painfully annoying "campaign" mode (I forget the actual name.. the one with the map and all the crazy fights with crazy requirements)

Welcome to Australia, average retail price of a videogame not on sale 89.95 - 99.95 for PC 99.95 - 119.95 for Console

And if you're supposed to get the game and THEN get good at it, why is there no tutorial or a lackluster tutorial? Because if you look at fighting games they make NO attempt to draw a new crowd, they only cater for an already established audience.

But if ppl enjoy it, cool, good for them. But I for one, WANT to enjoy these games, but I find them so hard to get into. It's easier for me to get into sims... even boating sims!

 

[Altorin]

Welcome to Australia, average retail price of a videogame not on sale 89.95 - 99.95 for PC 99.95 - 119.95 for Console

And if you're supposed to get the game and THEN get good at it, why is there no tutorial or a lackluster tutorial? Because if you look at fighting games they make NO attempt to draw a new crowd, they only cater for an already established audience.

But if ppl enjoy it, cool, good for them. But I for one, WANT to enjoy these games, but I find them so hard to get into. It's easier for me to get into sims... even boating sims!

heh, I'm glad you didn't take my "you are not smart" comment as a legitimate flame, because it was just meant as a joke.

That being said, you're right. I completely agree.. you shouldn't have to jump through many hoops to play your characters in a fighting game, especially in technical games where getting good at one character doesn't mean you're good at other characters (I'm talking to you Soul Calibur 4)..

That being said, I don't have a problem with games having easy requirements to play interesting characters... SC4 did it well I think... you have a starting stable of characters, and most of them are just unlocked by playing an arcade run through or a ridiculously short story mode once through and buying them with money. The only tricky hoop to jump through is getting The Apprentice.. but that wasn't even too bad.

But there ARE some things I hate Fighting Games to do with character unlocking, and the two worst ones I could think of I mentioned in my post. Fucking Gouken. I unlocked him. I did it out of principle. I hated him, and hated unlocking him.