Unlockables: An Unnecessary Hurdle Between Frustration and Fun

I recently finished Kirby Super Star Ultra, however there may still be stones left to be uncovered. Anyone who's played a Kirby game from NES's Kirby's Adventure to Kirby's Epic Yarn will agree that unlockables are a core part of the experience. There are unlockables to uncover in most games but I feel Kirby games are prime examples.

I feel unlockables are almost completely unnecessary. When I purchase a game I want all that content to be available to me from the very beginning. I do not mean that games shouldn't have a build up and gradual progression system. I mean that there should be special options in every game to grant access to anything in the game right from the beginning that may or may not bear any weight against typical gameplay. I'll give you an example: most linear action games, once you complete a chapter, give you the option to start a new game from any chapter you've reached and/or completed. In this case I believe every chapter should be available right from the start without requiring a complete playthrough. You may be thinking, 'Well, wouldn't this ruin the story if you played it out of order?' Yes, but if you're worried about the story you wouldn't be skipping around now would you? Games like Half Life or Uncharted are tightly scripted but have the option to start up any chapter you've unlocked.

In the case of Kirby Super Star Ultra you're presented with a host of different mini campaigns and mini games. Upon completing them you unlock more campaigns to play that expand upon the earlier campaigns. Sure, variety is great and the game is particularly fantastic but I really would have appreciated having all of the campaigns available to play right from the beginning. In fact, I was disappointed and felt the game was a bit light on content until I realized one of my campaigns wasn't complete and by finishing it I eventually unlocked three more campaigns which more than made up for the disappointment I previously felt. The game went from 'disappointing' to 'outstanding' in my opinion solely based on what was unlocked. To me this is a serious issue with the premise of unlockables that needs fixing. After all, when you start up a DVD you can watch the special features without watching the movie first, right?

In some cases there are things that are appropriate to be locked out. In shooters you'll gradually find stronger weapons throughout the campaign which helps to offset the gradually rising difficulty of the enemies. In games like Legend of Zelda or God of War you accumulate items that enable you to reach new areas that were previously unavailable. These cases you shouldn't be able to break the game by simply granting yourself items earlier than you were meant to obtain it. However, there should be a special mode, separate from the main game, where you can. This is a mode that'd be applicable to all types of games. Let's call it a 'DevMode'. In this mode, available right from the first booting of the game, you'll have access to a host of codes and abilities with which to have fun and explore the world the developers painstakingly created. Cheat codes have largely become an endangered species and these are the types of codes you'd expect to find. Things such as teleportation, all weapons/items, God mode, spawning enemies, etc. Again, this would be a mode of play completely separate from the main campaign(s) simply for fun. Imagine if every game had essentially a Garry's Mod mode built in. How hard could it be to implement, really? I mean, there already are Dev Modes in every video game, it's just not built for use by the player using an appropriate controller. A few tweaks and it should be good to go.

If we can't get this going then can we at the very least have all areas, weapons, items, chapters, codes/mods, etc available right from the start? Guitar Hero figured out that party games are no fun when you have you to play several hours just to unlock all the songs, at the very least all the other party centric games could figure this out (I'm looking at you Super Smash Bros and Mario Kart).