Summary
Who doesn’t love a good prank every now and again? Game developers are certainly fond of them, so much so that they are not above pulling devious little tricks on those who play their titles and achieve great feats. A common recurring trope is the joke unlockable.
These may be items that are offered to players for their hard work with a specific level or completing a Herculean task, only that it turns out to be either completely useless or utterly rubbish. Then there are the kinds that are implemented to deliver some amusing social commentary. Whatever their intentions are, these unlockable bits are devious inclusions indeed.
Replaying the ultra-violent top-down shooterHotline Miamihas its perks, as beating levels with high scores will grant the player new masks to wear. They harbor very handy abilities, like immunity to a single bullet that would normally instantly kill them, or increased walking speed.
Dennaton Games thought it’d be funny to include a fish mask called Phil (a pun on the infamous indie developer ‘Phil Fish’) for those who beat the challenging final battle with a high score. Its sole ability is that it replaces the dialogue with badly-translated French. The Babelfish app was used to pull it off, hence the additional pun in the name. Well, that’s one way to localize a game for international audiences.
A grand total of 223 “micro-games” are available in the totally turbulent Game Boy Advance title,WarioWare: Twisted!The cartridge has a built-in motion sensor gyro, meaning spinning the console is the key to winning in most of these bite-sized challenges.
A high score can be achieved on each and every individual unlockable micro-game. Should a player set such a task on them all, they’ll receive the final souvenir: an in-game copy ofWarioWare: Twisted!When selected, it resets the game, albeit with new sound effects on the start-up logo. All that time spent grinding away, and what Wario offers may as well be a reset button for the game.
Completing aGrand Theft Autogame is one thing, but getting 100% completion has always been a grand journey to take part in. Ever since the series went fully-3D, Rockstar has pushed to implement more and more content, like buildings to finance, minigames to reach milestones in, and so on.
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Completing all tasksinGrand Theft Auto: Vice Cityis certainly no easy trek, and will take many hours to do - and that’s taking its difficulty spikes in mind. Even when Tommy Vercetti becomes a drug kingpin with the entire underworld in his hand, his grand reward for completing everything is ‘The Frankie’, a shirt that says: “I completed Vice City and all I got was this lousy T-Shirt”. Even worse, it raises the player’s wanted level to two stars.
Serious Sam: Siberian Mayhempulled a similar sort of stunt. For context, secretsin the seriesaren’t just limited to locations and items in obscure locations. Things like a giant house turning into a bipedal enemy or a trap that throws hefty enemies at the player in a tight space are all examples of the creative lengths Croteam goes to implement them.
Should a player find all the secrets in the game, the grand reward will be the ‘Secret Sammie’, an alternate model for the titular protagonist Sam Stone with a shirt that says “I found all the secrets and all I got was this lousy T-shirt!” Of course, it’s a nice reference to the aforementionedGrand Theft Auto: Vice City, and yet another cruel prize for overly eager players.
Prestiging inCall Of Duty’s online multiplayer grants players the chance to reset all their progress to start again from scratch, albeit with a special emblem to show other players. It’s been frequently selected by countless players across the series’ numerous entries for a chance to start anew and unlock every single weapon, attachment, and perk again.
InCall Of Duty: World At War, this can be done a maximum of ten times. Treyarch decided to prank those who got it with a tongue-in-cheek secret achievement worth zero Gamerscore, and is literally called “Go Get Some Sun”. The description of the achievement, when unlocked, even instructs the player to “go outside and get some fresh air”.
What did the oldSpider-Mangameshave that the new ones didn’t? Bruce Campbell, for one thing. Serving as the narrator, he guides the player through the movie tie-inSpider-Man 2from 2004 with brief explanations of the game’s mechanics, including the Hint Markers scattered around New York. There are over a hundred of them in the game, and, according to the actor, collecting them all will reveal “something different”.
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No one is sure if Campbell made up this part on the spot, or if it was included in the script. What is confirmed is that finding each and every last Hint Marker will replace the tips one would normally see written in them replaced with “something different” - literally. That’s what the markers will say instead.
An open-world title likeThe Legend of Zelda: Breath Of The Wildis bound to have extensive amounts of things to do in it, including immersive side-quests and other small distractions to tackle where possible.Collecting Korok Seedsfor Hesti in the Korok forest is a recommended task to pull off, as doing so will gradually increase Link’s inventory space.
Although, it’s best not to waste so much time finding all 900, as it’s not necessary in order to get maximum carry space. Besides, doing so will result in an elated Hesti giving Link a “gift of friendship” that “smells pretty bad”. Plus, he’ll also do a little dance at any time when spoken to. Nintendo thought that this not-so-grand reward would’ve been a funny joke, hence its inclusion.
Eternal Championsfor the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis was a bestseller for the console. An updated version that harnessed the power of the Sega Mega CD was released two years later in 1995, which featured a whole slew of brand-new characters andexponentially violent finishing movesthat putMortal Kombat’s own to shame.
One of the unlockable fighters inEternal Champions: Challengers From The Dark Sideis the Senator, a head and palette swap of Larcen Tyler. Intended to be a jab at political figures decrying video games for their violent content, the developers took many potshots by making this American political figure corrupt to the core. He literally abuses his political powers, like throwing a ban on violence to stop an opponent from being able to attack temporarily, to win matches.
