Video games with achievements and unlockables

[Keith]

In retrospect I've noticed I love games with achievements and unlockables, or those where you can go back and play the stage better.

EXAMPLES
King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow- has many different endings (most of them subtly different) depending on what you do throughout the game.
New Super Mario Bros. series- ability to replay stages to find the coins
Wario Land: Shake It!- ability to replay stages to find all the collectibles and complete the stage in the ideal time
Super Smash Bros. Brawl- hundreds upon hundreds of unlockables of varying difficulty
Sports games- many of them have achievements which unlock uniforms, including throwbacks (which I like). There have even been ones which unlock classic stadiums. I had a hockey game once where you could unlock no-helmet mode and the ability to remove the ads from the boards.
Forza Motorsport 4- unlock badge emblems and tags by completing challenges and other tasks (although in my game some of the achievements are glitched and should've been unlocked a long time ago)
NES Remix- earn coins to unlock challenges (although you can unlock the next challenge in the series even by getting a game over and quitting the challenge) and points to unlock stamps

 

[ExplosiveTMT]

Same. I like how in the ratchet & clank games completing achievements meant unlocking cheats!

 

[Rudy Schmidt]

I'm awful about these. I don't have nearly the attention span or staying power to complete games to that extent (with a couple exceptions). Furthermore, if I get it in my mind that I WANT to Platinum a game, I get majorly bummed out when I can't, and feel like I can't get into "the club" of "real fans".

Basically, I have to not even look at the trophy lists for the most part, and pretend they don't exist. :/

 

[King_Oni]

While I rarely complete any games in full, I do like achievements to some degree. I always try to get a good average in (at the moment it's 39% average on all games I played on Steam). I think that over 1/3 of achievements is a decent goal. But I guess I'm also satisfied when I just make it to the end and beat the game.

What bothers me about some games is that some achievements are so over the top is that they are almost impossible to get unless you have some really good dedication towards certain games. I don't know if achievements should force me to play a game more than I want to. If I played it through I at least beat it. If I would have to play it through another 6 times on harder difficulties or by spamming a single attack from start to finish I don't know if I'm having a lot of fun. It feels like they're forcing replay value rather by making it harder, instead of making the game play differently in gameplay. But then again, I'm not really playing the game for the challenge. If I want a challenge I'll go out and talk to people, lol.

Despite trying to have an average, I do check out if the achievements to obtain are somewhat appealing to me. I don't play online, so any achievements to be made online with friends already go past me. I don't have, nor want Xbox live gold, nor do I feel the urge to seek out people who have the same games on Steam so I can get some achievements with them. Perhaps I sometimes take the easy way when looking for achievements; if it can be done "easily" I might start up the game to spend a few minutes to get some achievements in. Though many times I end up getting achievements just for playing the game the way I want to. Which reminds me; I still need to find all kinetoscopes in Bioshock Inifinte. Though I'm interested in the world and worldbuilding in general, so for me it's the achievement that tells me "there's more to discover"

Unlockables in games; I guess it really depends on the game. I do like cosmetic changes in games. A new Batman suit or a new outfit in Mortal Kombat is nice, but it doesn't really change a lot for me personally. If I by any chance obtain them, I might give it a go just to play around with the look a bit, but if I don't have them I'm not going to spend lots of time to get that one superspecial outfit.

Reminds of Megaman X though where you could supposedly get the Hadoken from Street fighter. Though the proverbial loops you'd have to jump through to obtain this; no thanks.

 

[Structrix]

I am not a completionist by any measure but I do love to unlock an achievement!

 

[Keith]

I have Marvel: Ultimate Alliance and used a cheat to unlock all the characters and outfits because I absolutely hate the default looks for the characters. I prefer Wolverine to be in his radical-yellow outfit instead of his mechanic-style tanktop and blue jeans.

I also turned off the music to make it sound less like a Hollywood movie.