History Main / UnlockableContent

[[caption-width-right:305:There's more where that came from...]]

** Of special note is VideoGame/FZero, which since ''X'' has a huge number of vehicles to unlock, also has an unlockable HarderThanHard mode, usually has at least one unlockable cup and, in Climax, had character profiles and a storyboard of sorts that can only be unlocked by completing a set of special-race challenges. To get everything, you had to play though Grand Prix Mode, unlock all the cars through that and ''then'' play some 40-odd special races with each character, of which there are over ''30''.

[[quoteright:305:[[VideoGame/{{SPISPOPD}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Unlockable_3688.png]]]]

[[quoteright:305:[[VideoGame/{{SPISPOPD}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Unlockable_6940.png]]]]

** Of special note is F-zero, which not only always(after the SNES game) has a huge number of vehicles to unlock, also has an extra-hard mode to be unlocked(dispite it already being Nintendo Hard) and usually has at least one hidden cup, and in Climax had character profiles and a storyboard of sorts that has it's own method of unlocking by a set of special-race challenges. To get everything you had to play though the GP mode and unlock all the cars through that and then play some 40-odd special races with each character, of which there are over 30.
** F-Zero GX has little interview questions and answers to unlock. For every character, for every difficulty, there are 4 questions to unlock. Four times four times fourty = too many for anyone to ever see through regular gameplay.

* [[StarOceanTheSecondStory Star Ocean: The Second Story]] allowed you to unlock higher difficulty settings if you collected enough voice clips. This was accomplished by playing through multiple times and recruiting different sets of the twelve available party members, then using them in battle and having them use spells/abilities/die/watch other party members die. The [[UpdatedRerelease PSP remake]] ''Second Evolution'' changed that to saving at the final save point in Phynal.

* An emerging trend is to have the HarderThanHard difficulty levels blocked until the player has beaten the game on an easier difficulty. An obvious attempt at creating ReplayValue ''[[{{Prototype}} PROTOTYPE]]'', ''MassEffect'', and ''{{WET}}'' all do this, just to name a few.

UnlockableContent is basically the game developers showing off, and giving the player a little something extra for fun. Or forcing you to EarnYourFun as the case may be if most of the good parts of the game are locked. Many hundreds of gamers may have played the game and not unlocked the content. Or they may have unlocked it and never used it. Sometimes a character is unlocked at the very end of the game, just to give the player some ReplayValue.

A SuperTrope to DoubleUnlock, SecretCharacter, SecretLevel, AndYourRewardIsClothes.

* Akuma, Sentinel, Hsien-Ko, and Taskmaster in MarvelVsCapcom3FateOfTwoWorlds are unlocked in that exact order by accumulating Player Points. Additionally, there's tons of artwork and cinematics to unlock through beating Galactus with different characters.

* ''TheBeatles'' ''RockBand'' features photographs and videos that can be unlocked during the campaign, which are accompanied by trivia and history about the band, song, etc.

* ''UnrealTournament'' typically has the character model for the current champion character off-limits until you beat the game.

* Accessing the [[SuperMarioBrosTheLostLevels Lost Levels]] in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros DX''.

UnlockableContent is not content that a player is required to unlock in order to complete the game. It's unrelated material. For instance, "unlocking Level 2 by completing Level 1", is just well... just playing the game (although this is, to an extent, [[CasualVideoGame on the way out]] -- qv AloneInTheDark 2008, NewSuperMarioBrosWii, GuitarHero, post-World Tour. After all, movies and music don't have to played in order).

* Getting to world 9 in ''NewSuperMarioBrosWii''.

* ''SuperMarioGalaxy'' unlocks Luigi as a playable character once you've gotten all the stars in the game.

* Getting all OneHundredAndEight characters in the ''{{Suikoden}}'' characters.

* Accessing the [[SuperMarioBrosTheLostLevels Lost Levels]] in ''Game/SuperMarioBros DX''.

* ''SuperMario64'' lets you fly to the top of the castle, meet Yoshi, and gain 100 lives after you collected all 120 stars.

* ''SuperSmashBros'' started out with a mandatory handful of extra characters and levels. As of ''Brawl'', there are so many things to unlock that the game even has an extra menue to keep track of things (and show you what else to do to get more stuff unlocked). Thankfully, all of the characters can be unlocked either by playing through the ''Subspace Emissary'' mode or playing enough basic matches.

* Virtually every racing game made since 1995 (and some before that) feature unlockable cars. Some games there are so many, there's no way you could possibly use them all in the campaign, so it reeks of showing off. [[TropesAreNotBad Though that's not necessarily a bad thing...]]

Subtropes of this are DoubleUnlock, SecretCharacter, SecretLevel. See also HundredPercentCompletion, GoldenEnding, MissingSecret.

Are you curious as to how you get the UnlockableContent out of TVTropes? [[UrbanLegendOfZelda You just have to read every single page of the Wiki]]. Then it's unlocked! [[SchmuckBait I swear!]]

<<|VideoGameTropes|>>

Are you curious as to how you get the UnlockableContent out of TVTropes? You just have to read every single page of the Wiki. Then it's unlocked! [[SchmuckBait I swear!]]

* The latter ''MortalKombat'' games had a "Krypt" feature where you'd spend koins to unlock, in addition to characters and other gameplay features, enough bonus content to fill ''two'' {{DVDs}}.

UnlockableContent is not content that a player is required to unlock in order to complete the game. It's unrelated material. For instance, "unlocking Level 2 by completing Level 1", is just well... just playing the game (although this is, to an extent, [[CasualVideoGame on the way out]] -- qv AloneInTheDark 2008, NewSuperMarioBrosWii, GuitarHero, post-World Tour).

UnlockableContent is basically the game developers showing off, and giving the player a little something extra for fun. Or forcing you to EarnYourFun as the case may be. Many hundreds of gamers may have played the game and not unlocked the content. Or they may have unlocked it and never used it. Sometimes a character is unlocked at the very end of the game, just to give the player some ReplayValue.

UnlockableContent is not content that a player is required to unlock in order to complete the game. It's unrelated material. For instance, "unlocking Level 2 by completing Level 1", is just well... just playing the game. (Although this is, to an extent, [[CasualVideoGame on the way out]]- qv AloneInTheDark 2008, NewSuperMarioBrosWii, GuitarHero, post-World Tour) UnlockableContent is basically the game developers showing off, and giving the player a little something extra for fun. Many hundreds of gamers may have played the game and not unlocked the content. Or they may have unlocked it and never used it. Sometimes a character is unlocked at the very end of the game, just to give the player some ReplayValue.