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30 Days of Video Games - BONUS: Why Do You Play Games Pg. 142


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Day 21: Most Memorable Unlockable

 

Ah, unlockables, I freaking love unlockables. Crazy characters, a whole new world or level, music, super powers.

It's really hard to pick just one, so I'm gonna say the ones I have fondest memories:

 

Any secret skater in the Tony Hawk series. Chirst, if I make a list, it's gonna be huge, so I'm just going for my most favorites:

Spider-man, of course, he was the my first introduction to unlockable skaters, and he's freaking awesome. He even uses his web during specials. Officer Dick, Little Person (the little clown), Gene Simmons, Shrek, the Hand, Big Foot, etc, etc!

 

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Green Hill in Sonic Adventure 2: Without a doubt the best 10th anniversay gift Sonic Team could've delivered. It's such a pleasure play through Green Hill Zone, it gave me serious goosebumps the first time I've played it. The 2D camera at the beggining is probably my favorite touch, it just give the biggest nostalgia ever.

 

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The Lego City in LEGO Star Wars 2:

 

I was a huge fan of the Lego games few years ago, I had both Star Wars and Indiana Jones. Today, I can't give a crap about them... oh well. But the Lego City in Star Wars is amazing. I didn't knew what to expected, I killed myself trying to get every piece of shit in the game (pun entirely intended) and when I finally did it, the surprise. I found the Lego City better than the whole game. I had a LOT of Lego IRL, when I was little it was my favorite play thing, and I did built a lot of cities. So you can imagine how I felt.

 

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AGES in Sonic Transformed:

 

This character is one of the best pieces of fan-service I've ever seem. F-14 Tom Cat, the freaking Hornet and... a Dreamcast controller as a boat? You won the world, Sumo. And the best part, the classic "SEGAAA" scream during transformations.

 

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Day 21: Most Memorable Unlockable

 

A game I never owned, but the unlockables are good enough to mention here.

 

 

Almost all of the unlockables in NASCAR: Dirt to Daytona are fun to use, but there are three of them that always stick out to me. (I put them in spoiler tags in case you want to watch the video to see them. All three of them are in it.)

 

AI Vengeance: AI cars retaliate when hit.


Horn Mortar: Press Up to shoot an explosive mortar..
Super Draft: Faster draft speed.

 

The 4th one is called "Oh Dear", which replaces a car with a giant pit crew member. I never really was a big fan of it, but it's still pretty funny.

 

Out of these three, my favorite one has to be Horn Mortar, which is the main one shown in this video. It allows the human driver to shoot mortars out of the front of the car, devastating anyone in its path (and the user most of the time). It doesn't really help win races, but it's downright hilarious watching the rest of the cars wreck after it makes contact.

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Day 21: Most Memorable Unlockable

 

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Welp, its another Sonic one for me ladies and gentlemen. Can't really think of any other memorable unlockable that's not Sonic related. So here goes. Huehue.

 

Unlocking Sonic in Super Smash Bros Brawl is the most memorable for me due to the amount of hours and effort I put in just to unlock him. I remember that unlocking him was the first thing I attempted to do when I first bought the game. Once I did, I played the Subspace Emissary as Sonic right away and then proceeded to fight everyone else in the roster as him. It was a good day. It's always fun for me to play as Sonic and Lucario second.

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Day 21 - Most Memorable Unlockable

 

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Special World - Super Mario World

 

Super Mario World is a huge game filled to the brim with secrets. So, you've probably heard of Star Road. Secret level exits would allow you to take on one of the five levels in Star Road. But, what happens when you beat it?

 

You unlock the Special World, my friend. 8 of the hardest levels in any Mario game. These will test your wit and your skills as a player.

 

Are you up for the challenge?

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Day 21

Most Memorable Unlockable

 

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Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

The Second Quest

 

Wind Waker is a game I hold near and dear to my heart for several reasons.  It's aesthetics and overall presentation being on top.  But another reason I love it is because of how Link is portrayed.  He isn't the Chosen One, he's just an ordinary lazy kid who wants to save his ordinary sister from a giant bird... and just happens to get way in over his head by getting mixed up the affairs of the Gods.

 

He's just a kid, and I love him for that.

 

So what better way to celebrate that than to do the entire game in his pajamas?... Ok, so he's technically wearing something above it, you just can't see it.  The second quest gives a few more little changes, like being able to read the Hylian language, but bashing baddies' skulls in without looking much like a hero is just fun as all hell.  Also, the description given for them (that only honest people can actually see the new clothes Link is wearing over his normal attire) paints a lovely picture of Link being both lazy and mischievous.

 

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Looking at you buddy.

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Are you up for the challenge?

 

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...No.

 

 

Nah, but I love how tough those levels were. Still not as frustrating as 3D World's Champion's Road, of course...the extra dimension makes "hellish" platforming a lot worse, obviously.

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Day 21: Most Memorable Unlockable

 

Unlockables have always been a great element in any video game due to the fact that not only serves as an additional content that players would achieve to expand the experience of the game but also as a reward for his or her hard work in his or her progression to completion of the game. Unlockables ranges from new characters, new game modes, custom and/or alternate designs or any other extras; such unlockables can also be described as unique to certain games either in the way you unlock them, in the fashion they are depicted or in the way they are conceived to be used.

 

Going through at least one honourable mention, I could say the Super Smash Brothers series have always been particularly special to me when it comes to character unlockables; the fact you battle against mysterious challengers which in most cases you aren't certain about how you did make these challengers approach to you for a fight is always exciting and even nerve-breaking at times. Going from huge desire to beat the challenger so you can eventually play as him or her later to even feel certain degree of fear as you try not to be defeated by your opponent and therefore losing the chance to unlock him. The sense to finally being able to select the character after his or her defeat is always a well-deserved reward to me after the fight.

 

My choice for this question, however, has to be a very memorable unlockable from the Kirby series, which is...

 

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Meta Knightmare (Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land)

 

Playing Nightmare in Dream Land was certainly a delightful experience for a Kirby enthusiast back in 2002. Released as a remake of Kirby's Adventure, this game brought enhanced graphics and sound, tighter controls and a couple of new additions such as brand new minigames and, as seen above, Meta Knightmare.

 

Unlocked once the player reaches 100% completion of the game twice (both in Normal and Extra Mode), this mode is essentially a third playthrough of the game in Extra Mode... but as Sir Badass Meta Knight himself! Yep, the knight of the silver mask starring as a playable character in his own game mode for the very first time in the series. Wielding his sacred sword Galaxia, Meta Knight must clear his way through Dream Land in order to prove his worthiness. May seem as a simple task, yet not only you play with only a powered-up version of the Sword ability and nothing else but much like in the previous Extra Mode you only count with 3 hit points; to make matters worse, there's no auto-save whatsoever in this mode so you have to clear through the entire game in one go, all while you attempt to complete the game under the lowest time possible.

 

Playing through this sub-game back in 2002 was really memorable to me not only for being a sweet reward after reaching 100% completion in both Normal Mode and the harder Extra Mode as well, but most importantly for being a sweet treat for a die-hard fan of the series like myself. The fact you could play as one of the most badass and most mysterious characters in the series (and quite possibly in any video game!) was something I always looked forward to see in the Kirby series and, lo and behold, Nightmare in Dream Land made this possible.

 

Meta Knightmare's first introduction in this remake also led to a new revision of this sub-game in another remake within the series, being simply known as...

 

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Meta Knightmare Ultra (Kirby Super Star Ultra)

 

Now this time featured in Super Star Ultra, Meta Knightmare Ultra plays the same concept seen on its first incarnation: you rush through the game's first five sub-games (Spring Breeze, Dynablade, The Great Cave Offensive, Revenge of Meta Knight and Milky Way Wishes), each of them as Meta Knight himself. This time, however, Meta Knight counts with four special moves powered up by collecting points from defeating enemies: Meta Quick (temporary boost on his movement speed), Knight Call (summon a Blade Knight or a Sword Knight as a Helper), Heal and Mach Tornado (damage all on-screen foes). While aspects seen in the first version of Meta Knightmare are not present in Ultra such as the lack of auto-save or the drastic reduction of hit points, the speed-running element is still present as the game registers your clear time.

 

Aside from the core gameplay, Meta Knightmare Ultra greatly expands its plot in comparison to the original. Meta Knight wants to become the greatest warrior in the galaxy, so in order to do so he embarks on a journey through Dream Land and, later on in Milky Way Wishes, through the different planets scattered in space. Once he revives the destroyed comet Nova, he wishes to fight against the greatest warrior in the galaxy; Nova gladly summons the ancient warrior known as Galacta Knight, a warrior who was sealed away for fear of his overwhelming powers. An incredible battle between the two unfolds, with Meta Knight's chances to victory in the hands of the player. Once defeated, Meta Knight accomplishes his journey to become the greatest warrior in the galaxy.

 

While these sub-games may not be intended to feature any canonical plots of any sorts (question yourself why Meta Knight would destroy his own Halberd in his run through Revenge of Meta Knight), the real appeal of both Meta Knightmare sub-games is simply being able to play the titular knight, and as previously mentioned, it's an incredibly well-beloved character by many fans (including myself). Seriously, who wouldn't pass the opportunity to play one of the most badass characters ever?

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Day 21: Most Memorable Unlockable in video games?

Oh dear, I hope I'm not too late with this, was busy all day and just thought of getting online on here.

Anyway, here's a really obscure one for alot of you:

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Unlocking the final boss of Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising, Sturm.


For those of you who do not know, Sturm is the final CO boss faced in both Advance Wars games for the GBA, where he's a very intimidating opponent to face because his units boast high firepower and defense, and his units aren't impeded by any terrain fuel costs, making land-based battles against him pretty tough. Even worse is his special CO  power which drops a meteor on the most powerfu bunch of units grouped together for massive damage, and gains even more offense firepower boost.

In the 1st game Sturm was very much nerfed when you unlock him for vs. mode, but in the 2nd game, his CPU version remains untouched, and he breaks the game in vs. mode for very easy reasons. The methods of unlocking him aren't easy either, you gotta get a overall S-rank in the main normal campaign as well, and some of the missions in the game are pretty hard to get a S-rank on.
 

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My most memorable unlockable? Well, if it counts...

 

 

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Kanto - Pokemon Gold/Silver/Crystal

 

Imagine my surprise when I played Pokemon Gold for the first time and found out that, after you beat Johto's Elite Four, you had a whole 'nother region to explore. Seeing the world of Gen 1 again and how it changed since the last time you visited it.  I kind of wished that they didn't remove things like the Safari Zone and that some of the maps weren't so... dumbed down. But it's understandable, given the time the Gen 2 games were made. Plus, we had HeartGold and SoulSilver to 'fix' a few of those issues.

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Day 21: Most Memorable Unlockable

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Challenger Approaching (Super Smash Bros.)

 

Gonna go with what seems to be a pretty popular one. Unlocking characters in the Smash Bros. series is always a treat. The "mysterious" silhouette and the blaring sirens really give you that "shit's about to go down" feeling. Doesn't matter who it ends up being, you better be prepared for a fight because if you lose, you gotta wait until the next time they pop up as they'll still be locked. It was nice to get a little taste of the character before you actually used them, and they were usually pretty hard, so it was a nice challenge every time a new character showed up.

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Day 21: Most Memorable Unlockable

 

Hmmmm...

 

Well gee, that's quite the thrilling experience to be going through.

 

Generally being quite the surprise as well, not knowing what to really expect someti-

 

 

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GAH!

 

Ahem...

Well yeah, like that.

 

Challenger Approaching from Super Smash Bros. is definitely one heck of an unlockable. The sudden impact of a silhouette appearing out of nowhere with blazing sirens going off leaves very hefty, as well as memorable, impression. The best part is you had to earn that character, utilizing the most you could out of the skills you had learned so far, and so the fights are pretty intense for it. The great thing is that even if you fail to beat the character your first go, you still get a shot at going at it, with perhaps even much more experience than before. But that shock and thrill that you get the first times you encounter one of these is just splendid.

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Day 21: Most Memorable Unlockable

 

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Characters - Super Smash Bros

 

Unlocking things in the Super Smash Bros. series was such a thril. As a kid, having the CHALLENGER APPROACHING screen come up from out of nowhere was such an amazing thrill. I didn't know who half the characters on the rosters were and that only added to the mystery and excitement of unlocking a new character. Ill probably never have this feeling ever again because I obsessively watch everything regarding Smash Bros (and ill probably wont leave a thing unspoiled for smash 4. The AI nowadays is also pretty simple to exploit and beat, but Ill never forget that feeling of tension when you're almost about to lose a fight against the CPU newcomer.

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MOST MEMORABLE UNLOCKABLE DAY 21

Kingdom Hearts 2 - Secret Ending [Non-Tangible]

 

 

Wow, this game brings back so many great memories. So many people thought this was going to be Kingdom Hearts 3 and were wetting their pants for more information. A character from Kingdom Hearts 2, Roxas, looks identical to a character in the teaser - Ventus. This brought on TONS of discussion because Roxas is Sora's nobody so it made little sense on why he was alone and Sora wasn't in the battle. Was Sora late to the party? Where's Mickey? Where's Riku? Why are Terra's eyes yellow? Are they absorbed by darkness?

 

The many years of waiting for this game was unbelievable. Once more information was put out and more Kingdom Hearts games were announced, people were wetting their pants. Sure it was disappointing that Kingdom Hearts 3 wouldn't be coming out for many more years, this was the first console like experience in a VERY long time.

 

It was worth the wait. This was the game that actually forced me to buy a PSP and got me into trying out Dissidia. Now it's being remade on PS3 as part of an HD collection and I can't wait to play it again.

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Day 19: Favourite Antagonist
 
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My favourite villain, here she is. There’s no better in this biz.
 
Gruntilda is one of those characters I love for a lot of the same reasons as Eggman. As you wander through her lair you’re treated to some of the most hilarious taunts from her in the form of amusing rhymes, and it gave her more personality than a lot of gaming villains from the time. You also get to learn the most random (and disgusting) facts about her from her nicer sister who you bump into a few times along the way, and you’re tested on this knowledge in the form of a gameshow organised by Gruntilda herself as the end of the game just to see how much you’ve being paying attention.
 
She’s one of those characters who always makes me laugh and she just had so much personality despite being a blatant wicked witch stereotype.
 
Day 20: Favourite Side Character
 
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KotOR had a lot of interesting characters, but HK-47 was my favourite. Not only from the games, but perhaps from the whole Star Wars franchise.
 
You obtain him from a droid dealer in the first game and he’s sold as a protocol droid, but it turns out that he’s more of a sociopathic assassin droid that delights in killing things and that he might have eliminated a number of his previous masters. Although he was still of the more amusing characters in the game.
 
I loved how he would express whatever was on his mind and you always got some interesting stories out of him during the conversations. When he wasn’t offering the most violent solution to the problem that is.
 
Day 21: Most Memorable Unlockable

 

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I'm sure there's some cooler ones I'm forgetting about, but this was the first to come to mind.

 

I managed to avoid spoiling ages and part of me had been wondering if Segata Sanshiro had actually been included as a secret character after all when people kept mentioning there was this super secret racer. So initially I was a little disappointed when I realised it wasn't him, but then it turned out to be quite a cool unlockable anyway. Especially as a long time Sega fan.

 

Was a nice bit of fan service and I really loved the first time I got the boat transformation and heard the VMU beep. Was an awesome little nostalgic nod for anyone who owned a Dreamcast as those batteries never lasted for long.

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Invincibility and Limitless Dark Jak from Jak II. It feels so good to be given ultimate power after busting your ass for so long getting over 100+ precursor orbs but now the entire game is yours to take for a ride. Want to cause unlimited mayhem? Well then simply just got Dark Giant and stay that way forever, tearing up the city like no one's buisness. When you're a kid it just feels great being an unstoppable force of destruction, I kinda wish more games had that as end game unlockables.

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30 Days: "I don't Have an Imagination" Edition

 

Favorite Unlockable: Sonic The Hedgehog (Super Smash Bros.)

 

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Well ain't that just real fuckin' original. I mean, nobody's done Smash Bros. yet, right? Right?

 

 

Whatever. Anyway, this was pretty much half the reason I was hyped for Brawl. I still remember the day Sonic was announced like it was yesterday. He's really fun to play as, but the main reason him being an unlockable in Smash was so great was because of the significance. It's Sonic the Hedgehog! In Super Smash Bros! That was SO AWESOME.

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Day 30: Dragon Kazooie

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The ellusive ice key, teased in the ending of Banjo-Kazooie, unlocks a safe holding the game's only mega glowbo, the catalyst for the game's only permanent transformation: Dragon Kazooie. This alternate form gives her fire breath and infinite fire eggs. It was an awesome secret that really paid off on the ice key's build up (despite the stop and swop idea not going through.) Also it's just amazing to suddenly think "holy crap, I have a dragon in my backpack!"

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Day 21: Most Memorable (You spent how long for this piece of armor?!?!) Unlockable

 

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Halo 3: Recon Armor

 

Yeah, looking back this probably wasn't the best way to spend my time but damn was it one hell of a ride getting it. But first, a little back story. So in the early days of Halo 3 multiplayer a hidden secret became known to almost every player. Apparently Bungie (the original makers of Halo) and some other close members had the ability to use this armor (not to mention a cool fire effect with it). This led almost everyone in the community to wonder how the hell they could obtain it as well. Of course there were some laughably bad methods in unlocking it (seriously, go look at some of these guides on YouTube) that led to nothing more to a frozen system at the end of the day but that didn't stop my friends and I from obsessing over it. In my defense, it was a pretty bad ass looking piece of gear. Hell, Bungie even held an event for a day where they went online in matchmaking and just played people. Whoever could beat them would instantly be granted access to the armor. My friends and I probably tried for a good 12 hours to be placed in a match with them... Then, they released these:

 

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These are called the Vidmasters achievements. Basically they are 7 achievements that are needed in order for the armor to become wearable in the game. Of course some of them required little more than a guide (collecting all the skulls in a few maps) while others required a mixture of drive, good team mates, and a bit of luck. That last statement refers directly to Annual, De Ja Vu, and Endure which all see you completing some of the hardest missions on the highest difficulty (all mods on) across both Halo 3 and ODST. Needless to say, it wasn't the funnest of task. We probably encountered every set back in the book. Lag causing some of us to exit the game, losing all the progress up till that point. People dying at the very end meaning that we had to go back to the very beginning for that achievement... we were a bunch of obsessive little teens. XD Though, I will say it was a fantastic feeling that Saturday night when we all obtained the final achievement and were able to access the armor. To this day, I refuse to use any other helmet in any version of Halo that has Recon available. After all that effort, it just means to much too me now and is just a constant reminder at how obsessive I can get at times... heh.

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Day 21: Diddy Kong Racing:

The journey to unlocking......

Future Fun Land

NINTENDO64--Diddy%20Kong%20Racing_Sep26%

This place looks fun doesn't it?

 

This racing game had some really cool track designs and the whole game was just so fun to play alone or with friends because it was simple and fun and the music was great! I've spent hours and hours unlocking tracks in story mode and went to multiplayer to try them out and keep on playing and playing.

 

So how do you get future fun land? Beats me, its been so long since I've played it. Let me search it real quick......done.

 

So there are 4 worlds named Dino Domain, Snowflake Mountain, Sherbert Island and Dragon Forest and each world has 4 race tracks. In story mode, first you race normally in each course (You also had to collect balloons and the more balloons you collect the more race tracks you get to compete in so each world wasn't available from the start.). Race against the world boss and when you beat them they'll challenge you to the silver coin challenge meaning you have to race again in all 4 tracks of the world and collect I think 8 coins in each course and win 1st place.

 

Now each coin isn't meant to be collected in one lap, some are placed in each divided pathway or some that are on one side of the road and on the next and would really slow you done if you try to collect them all in one lap.BoulderCanyon.jpg

for this track, it would be better to collect either 7 and 8 or collect 1 then after one lap, go for the other coin that you didn't get.

This challenge was just so dang hard I would always loose but I never give up and eventually I made it.

 

So each boss you face, they challenge you to the silver coin challenge in their world. once you do all that you come back to them to race them again! And this time they have some new tricks or new tactics to place their attacks or new structure added to the race tracks. So doing all this in 4 worlds took forever 16 normal races, than 16 silver coin races, 4 normal boss race, 4 hard boss race. THEN you finally get to face WIZPIG, one of my greatest challenges that I've faced and conquered as a kid. Man this guy was so hard to beat! He was so darn fast! It took me forever to find the tactic to beating this guy, I jumped for joy when beating him. (Don't play this boss stage blind)

 

So after beating him you beat the game! I was like YES! FINALLY!

Watching the credits and the music was GRREAT! 

At the end of the credit you'll see the text "The End?" I was wondering why the question mark is showing there. Sequel? Cool. So I think the game is done and there is nothing to do but I find out that there are some trophies that we need to collect. in story mode each world had a trophy room and had a stand with no trophy, to start trophy mode (Pretty much a grand prix like in mario kart) you gotta bump into the stand and then you do 4 races of the world your in and make sure you end up with the most points just like in mario kart. So I did that and got gold in all worlds. NINTENDO64--Diddy%20Kong%20Racing_Sep23%

 

Shiny......

 

So while doing that I notice a sign at the beach that was beside this light house.hqdefault.jpg

 

From the start of story mode the sign and Light house was always there and the sign had 4 question marks. I never knew what it was for so I ignored it. So back to when I was collecting trophies I notice the signs changed and had faces of trophies that I collected. SO I went back to collect the rest. Good thing it was easy getting those trophies.

 

So coming back to the sign were it showed 4 faces.....now what? It could of meant something right? OH SO I DID ALL THAT FOR NOTHING??? ALL TO JUST KEEP COUNT AND WASTE MY- *Bumps into sign, Activates cutscene*

 

Oh wait whats going on here, what did I do?!!!

 

Yes, after you collect all the gold trophies and beat story mode, you get to go to future fun land! And that world  brings on a futuristic place in space! Space station, space city, on moons, the track designs is just to great and the music is even better! Here is one of them!

http://youtu.be/rGbTrOiJco8

 

I loved this world and I played it so much! And it finally got me to finally beat the game. WHOOHOO FINALLY!! Would I do it again? Hell yea, this game is just pure epicness and I really wish a sequel would come but something makes me think the sequel wouldn't have the same charm as the first one did. I'd say we get a remake and make this go online. and add some more stuff to it.

 

So yea. Wow this took longer than I thought. Oh well

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Most Memorable Unlockable

 

Oh man, there's so many to choose from. This time around though, I'll pick a very obscure choice from one of the first games I've ever played as a kid.

 

 

 

 

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Gatdamn this picture was hard to find.

 

The UFO from RC Revenge Pro.

 

It was so hard to choose from the UFO, the Concept 3000, unlocking the later courses, and unlocking Reverse mode but the UFO is the most memorable of the group. I love the design on this racer, very future-esque with a shiny silver coating. Sure, you can play as a Cop Car, a skull on wheels, or a Bobcat(?) but playing as a friggin' UFO was just so damn cool as a kid. Unlocking this guy was no easy task, as I had to beat the Time Trial records of every track in the game. I think that includes the Reverse mode, but I don't remember. On a technical design standpoint, this racer was probably the easiest to program since it doesn't change form whether you go on land or sea. Its also the only racer that hovers above the ground and water, which is unique. You'd think you can cheat and fly over all the obstacles but where's the challenge in that? Anyways, this spaceship is one of the most memorable gaming achievements I've had in my early gaming career and brings so much nostalgia to a game I've not played for over a decade.

 

 

 

The Runner Up is the Reverse Mode from this game again. When I first unlocked this mode, I thought it was so awesome playing every track backwards. In the game design, this might've been a lazy job in reusing every course thrice (including Mirror mode) as well as having Cups for each mode in each set of four tracks but they made the experience so fresh and so much fun. Some courses have different routes you'd only use in Reverse mode, like going around a ramp or finding a different way up the stairs. I can see that their was so much creativity in this mode and I wished it was in future racing games (especially Mario Kart, like playing Rainbow Road in Double Dash backwards). 

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TWENTY-ONE? MORE LIKE "TWO-IN-ONE"

~ You Must Be This Awesome to Race in these Stages ~

 

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Day 21/30: Most Memorable Unlockable

 

Unlockable Selected: The Extra Cups

Appearance: Mario Kart: Super Circuit (Game Boy Advance, 2001)

 

"Hey, you very good! See you next time!"

~Mario

 

Aw hell yeah, it's Mario Kart time!

 

Now, I had only just turned eight once this beauty of a game finally came to Europe (context: I lived in Austria for a few years before moving back to Canada), and, seeing as my gaming library wasn't all that huge since I only owned a GBA at the time, I spent most of my time replaying the same games over and over and over. I mean, of course they were fun, but fun does get a teeny bit boring after a while. To reinvigorate fun, I felt the need to challenge myself in 100%ing the games that I've owned. Get a higher score in X stage, farm a bunch of 1-Ups just to see what the count limit is, speedrun a level, find all the collectable stuff, experiment with everything, so on and so forth.

 

In Mario Kart: Super Circuit, I just started paying more attention to the ranks I got from clearing a given cup or placed more importance into picking up coins from the ground. Sure, I loved playing as Princess Peach throughout it all, just as I did in Super Mario Advance (GBA enhanced remake for the NES classic, Super Mario Bros. 2), but why haven't I played a bit more as the others? Why not Bowser or Luigi or Toad or Wario? Yoshi or Donkey Kong or Mario?

 

So, I started doing just that, along with trying to beat my Time Trial records, getting in touch with all the secrets in the tracks, and so on.

 

It was just business as usual in trying to better myself in this one game. I was satisfied with just that, and I didn't expect anything to come of it.

 

One day, however, I was playing as normal until I triggered something within the game. I had no idea how or why this came to be at the time, but I was absolutely stunned when I found out that I somehow unlocked five new cups. Read: the amount of content in this game just DOUBLED. 25 racetracks weren't enough? HERE'S 25 MORE AS THANKS FOR PLAYING THIS MUCH.

 

50. FUCKING. RACETRACKS. ON MY DINKY LITTLE GAME BOY ADVANCE. DUDE. YES. YES! HOLY SHIT, YES! THANK YOU! ;;A;; HAVING SO MUCH FUN TBH

 

What doubled the memorable awesome was the fact that, as soon as I started up the Extra Mushroom Cup Grand Prix, I started recognizing all these levels as I played along. These maps felt so familiar, and the music... Okay, it's on the tip of my tongue, but I knew that I definitely heard these songs somewhere before. The nostalgia I felt when I realized that these stages were all from Super Mario Kart on the SNES, a game that I've enjoyed playing so much at my grandparents' place a long time ago. Oh my god.

 

I was basically playing two entire and amazing games from one little cartridge.

 

So, with all that being said, it's safe to say that the element of surprise and the power of nostalgia made obtaining the Extra Cups from Super Circuit the most memorable unlockable in mind for me! (On that note, this is also the Mario Kart that began the trend of bringing back retro tracks from previous instalments!)

 

 

race me come MK8 losers

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Day 21: Against All Odds, Soma Picks Actually Picks Something That Isn't Zelda-related

 

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The Entire Indigo League, Pokémon Generation II

 

I admit, Pokémon's not usually my thing. That's not any fault of the games themselves, of course. I imagine how I treat Pokémon is how most people treat, say, Mario: solid gameplay, but too samey to really get into it. Pokémon being Pokémon, of course, means that even with that tepid fandom I still own a game in every friggin generation of the franchise, and still do aborted playthroughs of Pokémon Red on occasion. However, one other game of the franchise still pulls me back in without a word: Pokémon Crystal, a sequel of sequels. The thing was already incredible enough when it came out (double the amount of Pokémon? five billion types of Pokéballs?? RED GYRADOS???), but once people beat it, they discovered one of the greatest throwbacks in gaming. The postgame shipped you off to Kanto again, for one final run.

 

Now, from a design standpoint, this is just a really fun idea. "Cathartic" doesn't even begin to describe the feeling of tearing down the Indigo League again with a strong and mighty team, and from a world-building perspective it's just neat to see how the world has kept turning in the player's absence. The gym leaders have all grown or passed on their mantles, and rumor has it there's a new Pokémon Master atop Mt. Silver who might just ring familiar. Heck, I'd honestly just put this here for the Red battle. It's fun, challenging, nostalgic, and awesome. I really do wish Pokémon would do more ambitious things like this. I'd definitely have to start paying attention more.

 

Runners Up:

  • Challenger Approaching, from the Smash Bros. Series
  • Legendary Air Rides, from Kirby Air Ride
  • Super Luigi Galaxy, from Super Mario Galaxy
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Day 21 : Most Memorable Unlockable

(I really gotta stop doing these at 1-3am.)

 

Getting the Uberboards and Chrome outfits in SSX Tricky.

 

You know, there's no picture for this. Which is weird. So instead, here's a cool picture of Eddie.

 

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Yeaah, Eddieee.

 

SSX Tricky was filled with hidden costumes and boards for each character you unlocked. Some boards allowed you to do tricks you could never do before (because of the differences in long boards, shorties and regular lengths), and while costumes changed nothing all together, they shown your current ranking in status (starting from "Rookie"). 

 

You see, though, there were two pieces of equipment you could get dead last for each character.. the chrome outfit, and the Uberboard. They were ugly as sin (and as late 90s / early 2000s 'cool' as you could get), because all they were was solid chrome paint jobs over your board and your characters' entire bodies.

 

Why was this important though? Well.. remember the ranking thing? Yeah, that made it a big deal. SSX Tricky was one of the few games I had to not only competitively play against my friends in local play, but in kid-to-kid play.. as in, like, one kid having it and having bragging rights about getting so far and the other doing the same. Getting chrome outfits for each character was an achievement, because you had to do it for each different character.. thus meaning you mastered all of them. Their trickbooks, their racetrack times, trick session scores, everything.

 

And getting chrome for them all meant you were the king of the Tricky. So of course, because of that, I guess it means getting that was the biggest achievement for that point in time of my childhood.

 

Honestly, if I played Tricky again recently (with how it's aged with time), I may still struggle to get them. LOL

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Day 21: Most Memorable Unlockable

 

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Unlockable Cheats in Perfect Dark/GoldenEye

 

This isn't the full list but you get the idea. I loved the unlockable cheats in Perfect Dark and GoldenEye. My favorite one though was Infinite Ammo, No Reloads and Invincibility. With these two activated the game just felt ridiculous to play and it was awesome to get revenge on those nightmarish guards on the hardest difficulty. Plus, you could add in the additional cheat "Enemy Rockets" (all enemy weapons are replaced with Rocket Launchers) and you just added in a complete new layer to an already fleshed out Single Player. <3

 

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Oh yeah and DK Mode and Paintball Mode were a bunch of fun too. I still get a kick out of shooting the ground repeatably with infinite rockets and watching the frame rate hit the single digits too. tongue.png

 

Another favorite of mine is a Game Within a Game Unlockable. Unlocking the original Metroid on Metroid: Zero Mission was awesome. I wasn't expecting to enjoy the original so much (or even get to play it). Nowadays companies would rather you buy their older games on the Virtual Console/XBLA/PSN but back then but back then that was a good way of introducing old games because such a service didn't exist.

 

 

Day 30: Dragon Kazooie
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The ellusive ice key, teased in the ending of Banjo-Kazooie, unlocks a safe holding the game's only mega glowbo, the catalyst for the game's only permanent transformation: Dragon Kazooie. This alternate form gives her fire breath and infinite fire eggs. It was an awesome secret that really paid off on the ice key's build up (despite the stop and swop idea not going through.) Also it's just amazing to suddenly think "holy crap, I have a dragon in my backpack!"

 

Oh man I nearly forgot this, how could I forget this?! Dragon Kazooie was so awesome when I first got it as a kid. I kinda wish there was a way to make Kazooie bigger/dragon size and maybe ride/play as her for a level or boss fight or something like you could do with the T-Rex transformation, but either way that was probably one of my favorite transformations.

 

Previously on Day 20:

Next time on Day 22:

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Day 21: Most Memorable Unlockable

 

Since I am not very good at games, getting to the end is hard enough nevermind unlocking anything

I have heard of the OutRun unlockable in OutRun 2, Castlevania: Rondo of Blood/Symphony of the Night in Dracula X Chronicles that I'm still stuck for years

. and combined with a dodgy memory meaning that it is hard to think of an unlockable. So it is between the Insomniac Museum from Ratchet & Clank 2 [similar to what Zavok said actually], Prince of Persia from Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, The Lost Levels from Super Mario Bros. Deluxe, the Super Mario Kart courses in Super Circuit and Hi-fi mode on Gran Turismo.

 

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The Lost Levels from Super Mario Bros. Deluxe (I'm not sure if this is a Lost Levels stage...)

 

My other two options have been worded very well by others and couldn't word them any better but this was just as memorable due to that not only that I unlocked something but did it without any cheats or any guides so this was a shock to me. Super Mario Bros. Deluxe was my way of playing Super Mario Bros. due to not having a NES, a SNES at the time or a Famiclone and only started playing games in the late 90s so at least I got to experience what was a classic game. Even though with the screen size differences that I didn't notice at the time, I really enjoyed the game many times during my childhood and really liked the extra features that the game had such as the Challenge Mode, You vs. Boo but this one topped it off.

 

I was playing challenge mode and got to a certain amount of points, went to the Main Menu and saw Luigi's head thought that I unlocked to play as Luigi (that itself can be considered a great unlockable) but it said on screen: Super Mario Bros. for Super Players. I thought it might have been the game just with a harder difficulty with more enemies and less time but it was all new stages and thought wow... This is like two games in one. While I haven't completed the Super Players mode, it was a surprise and really was a challenge.

 

What also makes this memorable was that I was playing this game without any Internet connection or computers (got the Internet in 2004, used the Internet in late 2000 in school), any guides or magazines. When I went online and looked at The Mushroom Kingdom that was one of the earliest websites that I have went on, found out that there was a game called Super Mario Bros. 2 aka Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels (myself later played Super Mario Bros. 2 as Super Mario Advance one year later) and went into detail between the JP Lost Levels/ US Super Mario Bros. 2 differences since Super Mario Bros. 2 was originally released as Doki Doki Panic in Japan (later became Super Mario USA) and this game was the reason. So I had in a way a Japanese only game and made it out as a big thing even though it was just an extra game mode. Even though there were changes to the stages and actually missing some of the stages (Nintendo presumably rushed the game), it was my exposure to the Lost Levels.

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