Beat um’ ups, wrestling games and well…many other games all offered us a similar, but welcomed incentive…unlockable costumes. Yes, how many hours did you rack-up trying to unlock a certain colour or design for your much-loved characters?
It all started with both selectable and unlockable, costume colour variations
It all began with simple colour adjustments. Simply hitting a different button on a character select screen, would enable your favourite character to fight with either a new main colour, or colour pattern. As games progressed and detailed character models replaced 2D sprites, our favourite characters uniforms, ghee’s and battle suits, required more than just colour alterations…we wanted completely new outfits.
We can all remember those multiple play-throughs, unlocking Bruce Lee outfits and Bunny-Girl costumes
Great fighting games such as Dead or Alive 2, gave us good reason to play through the game again and again. While the legendary ‘Game of Death’ outfit (worn by Bruce Lee) played a major part in multiple play-throughs, the realistic…er….”Bounce” technology of the DOA babes, offered an even greater incentive to unlock costumes.
Sheva's Tribal and Clubbin' outfits
Resident Evil 5 offered players new costumes for both Sheva and Chris. Once the game had been completed (or when a number of collectables had been acquired) you could begin the game again, in classic, tribal or sexy clubbing outfits.
Bayonetta was stylish and sexy from start to finish, so if you never expected such daring unlockables...maybe you had your eyes shut, during your first play-through?
Bayonetta also offered new costumes an outfits on completion, playing to the stylish sex-appeal that game carried throughout. The gameplay and daring outfits, gave Bayonetta fans many reasons to enter the witch-weaving world, once again.
Gamer Note: Once all chapters have been completed on Normal, load your clear-save data and go and see Rodin. You will need to purchase the “Super Mirror” in order to unlock all costumes.
Unlockable or Purchasable?
Unlockable costumes were a traditional addition to most games. They were much-loved extras and were a reward for not only beating the game, but playing through multiple times. As character models became more realistic and costumes were more life-like, unlockable costumes went from being small rewards, to full fledged play-though incentives.
So…do you wish developers to continue this tradition, or do you welcome the new idea of paying for new costume DLC? Some may say that such additions should remain “unlockable”, while some prefer the more easier and faster “downloadable” approach.
Let us know your thoughts on such additions, for your favourite gaming characters?
