(This is how most gamers react when I start to talk about achievements.)It's time I finally talked about something remotely relevant to current gaming. I know, achievements/trophies are nothing new, but they're a large part of what is apparently now the current standard in gaming. As someone who's predominantly stuck in the past when it comes to video games, trophy/achievement hunting was a new experience, one that left me feeling dirty, like a cheater, and ultimately unrewarded. I decided one of the only ways I could get myself to truly hunt for trophies would be with games from a time-period I'm more comfortable with, so I trophy-hunted in Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection on PS3.
While I'm generally against resorting to walkthroughs or FAQ's right from the get-go, I figured the best way to get the full experience of trophy-whoring (or "trophy-hunting" if you prefer to use euphemisms) would be to load up a trophy guide and shoot down the list. Again, I already felt dirty by this point, but I was merely getting started. Let's talk about some "highlights." Ecco the Dolphin has one of the most pathetic trophies in the entire collection... "Talk to another dolphin." For those of you who don't know Ecco the Dolphin, this means in the first area of the game, you go up to a fellow dolphin (who's very close by) and press a button near him. DONE. Bronze trophy. "I got awarded for that?" I thought to myself. I wasn't anywhere close to done yet.
While that trophy was pathetic, I wouldn't call it game-breaking. I mean, you have to communicate with other dolphins in Ecco to play the game... you just also have to do a whole lot MORE than communicate with other dolphins to actually play through the game. There are plenty of trophies in the Genesis collection, however, that ARE game-breaking. In true trophy-hunting fashion, let's go down the list. Bonanza Brothers requires you to reach a certain amount of points in the first level. My goal? Complete the level as fast as possible collecting a big time bonus at the end. Pfft, what the hell was I thinking? I'm not PLAYING the game... I'm FARMING the game for TROPHIES! Silly me... beating the level quickly and efficiently simply wouldn't give me the points I needed. Clearly the pro way to play that would earn me a trophy would have me standing in the same place and repeatingly attacking someone I would simply avoid in normal gameplay. The point of Bonanza Brothers is to rob a place... that means get the stuff and get out of there. To get the trophy, I simply stood in one place and kept slamming a door on a guard over and over for points. Oh, and by the way, the trophy guide had NO strategy for that one. I guess among trophy-hunters, a strategy so convoluted and seemingly foolish is common knowledge. (Actually, the 360 achievement guide DOES mention my strategy. I guess I wouldn't be surprised if 360 owners have achievement hunting down better than PS3 owners.)
Next on the list we have Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, which is simply Puyo Puyo or Kirby's Avalanche. Uh-oh, this one's a gold trophy... Aww man... I have to complete the game? Trophy guide, say it ain't so! ... Oh, thank God... it ISN'T so. Look up the password for the last stage in the game, pop that in, beat the stage and congratulations! Gold trophy. (Admittedly, I didn't want to play that much M.B.M. but it felt cheap and dirty.)
Vectorman 2... let's see, what do I have to do to get this easy silver... REACH SCENE 11?!? But... but... that game's hard! *consults trophy guide* ... Ohh... Phew... *Puts in level cheat, skips to stage 11.* Silver trophy.
I think I've illustrated my point in how trophies/achievements can be game-breaking, but I've got one last issue to address before I stop bashing them. There's no standard in how difficult it should be to get an achievement/trophy, which leads to some hilariously stupid comparisons. For example, that bronze trophy I mentioned for Ecco? Apparently beating MvC2 with a team of Street Fighter characters and using no continues is considered to be the same level of difficulty as pressing a button once. Oh, and beating Mega Man 10 on hard difficulty is a bronze trophy as well. Not to mention, gold is clearly better than silver, right? Why then, is beating Mega Man 10 without ever getting hit a silver trophy, and collecting 100 rings with Tails in the first stage of Sonic 3 a gold trophy? Don't get me wrong, I realize some games have stupidly hard trophies and some have stupidly easy ones, but some players work so hard to up their "gamerscore" or their "trophy level" and for what? To prove their superiority over other gamers? Sorry, but I'm still going to consider the guy who can beat Mega Man 10 without getting hit a better player than the guy who sits through Terminator Salvation regardless of the fact that the trophies would argue otherwise.
I suppose I sound like a crotchety old man complaining about these newfangled video games, but I'm not here to say that achievements/trophies are all bad. Sometimes earning a trophy that actually takes work can feel satisfying. Trophies can also allow you to discover things about a game you might not have thought of or play the game in a new light (such as clearing an area of the game without using certain common items or only using a certain weapon). In these cases, I support achievements and think they are a welcome innovation in video games. However, it's all too often that you hear about people playing through terrible games just for easy trophies or breaking a game to crack it open and reveal the delicious easy-trophy center. I did my time, I got my "platinum" trophy, but it still doesn't compare to the rewarding feeling of simply beating a challenging game. I'm not entirely against trophies... but if there was a game called, "Trophy get!" and all you did was leave it on for a certain amount of hours on a blank screen and get trophies for it, it would probably sell... and that really scares me.
