History GuideDangIt / PlatformGames

** The most difficult part of the endgame to some might not be collecting stars or exploring the maze but rather how getting to Bowser in the Eternal Fort suddenly requires a side flip into a reverse wall jump to get enough height to move past a wall twice. It's an AdvancedMovementTechnique not explained within the game itself, and that's only required in two other optional spots.
** There's one 100 Coin Star in Tall, Tall Mountain that requires the player to know the ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'' glitch that lets them clone coins.

* In ''VideoGame/BattleBlockTheater'', if you get into the air through any means other than jumping, you can jump twice in midair. Touching water usually kills you instantly but if you touch it while on fire, it'll launch you instead. If you jump while pushing a block & let go in midair, the block will stay in midair. The game requires you to do all of these things but never tells you about any of 'em.

** Of course, performing all the tedious, time-consuming steps to acquire the hidden stars unlocks the bad ending. Since 'Braid' is an artsy game about the nature of obsession, this is strangely appropriate.
* In the introductory cutscene to ''VideoGame/CastleOfIllusion'', Mickey makes quick work of three guards by jumping on them. Then when you try it yourself, Mickey gets hurt because you need to press the jump button ''again'' to take out an enemy.

** The [[VideoGame/CrashBandicoot3Warped Third game]] had it worse for one of its truly secret levels, where you had to run into an enemy without [[SingleUseShield an Aku Aku mask]] to get transported to it. A less subtle, ''Crash 2''-esque secret entrance in the game is accessed by knocking down a peculiar road sign in a motorbike level.
** Averted for the most part in ''VideoGame/CrashBandicootNSaneTrilogy'' as hints are given about many secrets from the original series during the level load screen.

** Lampshaded in ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry3DixieKongsDoubleTrouble''. One NPC will periodically give you hints as to the location of the game's LostWorld. If you solve the riddle before he gives you ''any'' hints, however, he accuses you of using the player's guide (which is where he got his information in the first place).

** ...and it goes all the way back to the original ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry1''. To get 101% completion, you must first access a well-hidden bonus room in Kremkroc Industries, beat a BonusRound in the level "Oil Drum Alley" in a specific order (get three single bananas, which is considered the worst bonus combination in the game), which will then give you a barrel. You then have to break open the right wall to unlock ''a bonus room within a bonus room''. Your only hint is an arrow sign on said wall. You have to jump and hug the wall with the barrel -- if you are standing on the ground after the barrel is broken, ''the victory animation will play and you won't be able to go to the secret room''. If you jump into the wall though, you'll land on the entry and will be able to proceed as usual. The GBA version makes this a bit better, as breakable walls can now be distinguished from regular walls. Besides this, many bonus rounds in the first game are found by taking leaps of faith into bottomless pits, or carrying a barrel and running into every wall in each level in the hopes of finding secret openings.

** Finding the rainbow drops in ''VideoGame/KirbysDreamLand2'' might not be so bad, since you're just supposed to find one per level: just sifting through each stage will eventually lead a player to find them. Unless you're looking for the one in Cloudy Park, which requires using all three animal friends (and only Rick and Coo are found in the stage, meaning you need to bring Kine in from a different stage to even begin the search) and going back and forth between rooms constantly switching copy abilities.
** In ''VideoGame/KirbysDreamLand3'', you need to find a heart star in ''every'' stage of ''every'' level to reassemble the Love-Love Stick and access the true final boss and ending. While some are rather straightforward (such as finding a secret area, avoid stepping on certain flowers who will look sullen if you touch them, finish a stage with a certain animal friend or beat a mini-game at the end of the stage), some are way more cryptic (such as having Chuchu at the end of the stage and using her ''normal'' attack on a certain NPC) and a few even counterintuitive (in another stage you instead have to ''do'' step on flowers which are identical to the ones you have to instead avoid in another stage). The ones that are absolute ''hell'' to do without a guide and still tricky with one are Stages 2-5 and 3-6.

*** In 3-6, meanwhile, you need to scour a dungeon (which has [[PointOfNoReturn points of no return]]) for all the pieces of [[VideoGame/RoboticOperatingBuddy R.O.B.]]. To access the rooms where said pieces are located, you also need to use Kine and Coo, which maneuver awkwardly to say the least in the cramped spaces, including using a secondary ability of Kine with the Spark ability [[spoiler:(revealing invisible elements to identify the correct door to enter)]] which is never hinted at and not used in any other stage in the game.

** Some [=NPCs=] hold gems that can only be acquired by shaking them. From that, you would infer that the only possible way the gold gem can be hidden in "Clance War II" is that it's on somebody you need to pick up & shake, since there are no background objects whatsoever to interact with, but try finding which of the ''dozens upon dozens of guys'' is holding it without a game guide. Some of them get blown up, sometimes blowing ''themselves'' up, before you can get anywhere near them, making searching every single enemy in this level impossible.

* In ''[[VideoGame/PacMan Pac In Time]]'' on the Super Nintendo, there's a section in level 22 where you have to open a lid on a pipe in order to drain the water from an adjacent room to reach the exit. However, nothing you use seems to work on it. What you have to do is slowly approach the pipe, (It has to be slowly, otherwise you bounce over it.) which causes Pac Man to start pushing against it, then use the rope, which was only used up to this point to grapple from the ceiling, and pull the lid off. This is at least 2 hours into the game, and the rope was only used for grappling, so how was the average player supposed to know that it suddenly can be used to pull things now?! The only way you'd know this is if you had the manual, which tells you how to do this, but if you rented the game, you would have no idea that this was even possible!

** Most of the franchise has Skill Points, which are this. They're essentially certain actions you need to do like luring an enemy into a force-field or destroying all breakables on given location. In the [[VideoGame/RatchetAndClank2002 first game]], you don't even have access to the list of these Skill Points' ''names'' until [[NewGamePlus New Game+]], and even then you have only access to that and which planet Skill Point concerns.

*** Some Gold Bolts can be this. While the late-game Map-o-matic indicates secret areas, good luck if the Gold Bolt is in the main area but well hidden or if the path to it isn't immediately obvious. Next games point them even in those cases by green point once that item is obtained.
*** There is a room with five Gold Weapons (Bomb Glove, Blaster, Doom Glove, Suck Cannon and Mine Glove) accessible on first playthrough, but not many first-time players will discover this. [[spoiler:It's hidden at the top of control tower on Gemlik Base near the runway.]] A rather benign example as those Gold Weapons are pricey anyway and second weapon room becomes accessible on Novalis once the game is completed once.

** In ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankUpYourArsenal'', one of the Titanium Bolts on Metropolis is located on the Galactic Ranger mission subarea, on an unassuming Grav Boot track pointed away from the center of the map. There's a good chance you won't notice it, as you're never required to, or even ''able'' to, go over there on foot without glitches, meaning you'll likely only scoop it with a Hovership.
* VideoGame/Rayman2TheGreatEscape'' has 1000 Yellow Lums to find. Most of them are in hard-to-reach places, but you can almost always find them by playing the level or exploring a bit. In the original versions of the game (minus the inferior [=PlayStation=] version), however, you'd be forgiven for thinking there were only 999 Yellow Lums to find, as Razorbeard eats one of them in a story cutscene, reducing the displayed total from 1000 to 999. The only indication of the existence of the 1000th Yellow Lum is the fact that the completion percentage will remain at 99.9% without it. It can be found by helicoptering into a hidden niche in the wall in the Tomb of the Ancients level. There's no indication that it's in this level specifically, as the tracker says that this level has 50 Yellow Lums (instead of 51), just like almost all the other levels. In fact, even after collecting it, the Yellow Lum total displayed remains at 999. The remake of the game for [=PS2=] finally gave up on this little-known secret, and placed it in a chest that you can access at the end of the level (and which restores the displayed counter to 1000).

*** The thief in Town Square is quite hard to reach, as you can't just jump up to the platform it's on. It might look like your best chance is to let one of the bulls near the end hit you while in mid-air and hopefully land in the right place... or you can just walk to the top of the stairs leading to the end and fly around the corner to land in the platform. The ''Reignited'' remake gives you a hint in the form of an achievement, but unless you don't check you'll miss it.

** ...and it goes all the way back to the original ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry1''. To get 101% completion, you must first access a well-hidden bonus room in Kremkroc Industries, beat a BonusRound in the level "Oil Drum Alley" in a specific order (get three single bananas, which is considered the worst bonus combination in the game), which will then give you a barrel. You then have to break open the right wall to unlock ''a bonus room within a bonus room''. Your only hint is an arrow sign on said wall. Besides this, many bonus rounds in the first game are found by taking leaps of faith into bottomless pits, or carrying a barrel and running into every wall in each level in the hopes of finding secret openings.
** The GBA version makes it better AND worse at the same time. Breakable walls can now be distinguished from regular walls in this remake, so if you have an eye for detail you might catch the wall. However, when you get the barrel, you ''better'' jump and hug the wall with it -- if you are standing on the ground after the barrel is broken, ''the victory animation will play and you won't be able to go to the secret room''. If you jump into the wall though, you'll land on the entry and will be able to proceed as usual.

* VideoGame/Rayman2TheGreatEscape'' has 1000 Yellow Lums to find. Most of them are in hard-to-reach places, but you can almost always find them by playing the level or exploring a bit. In the original versions of the game (minus the inferior PlayStation version), however, you'd be forgiven for thinking there were only 999 Yellow Lums to find, as Razorbeard eats one of them in a story cutscene, reducing the displayed total from 1000 to 999. The only indication of the existence of the 1000th Yellow Lum is the fact that the completion percentage will remain at 99.9% without it. It can be found by helicoptering into a hidden niche in the wall in the Tomb of the Ancients level. There's no indication that it's in this level specifically, as the tracker says that this level has 50 Yellow Lums (instead of 51), just like almost all the other levels. In fact, even after collecting it, the Yellow Lum total displayed remains at 999. The remake of the game for [=PS2=] finally gave up on this little-known secret, and placed it in a chest that you can access at the end of the level (and which restores the displayed counter to 1000).