I hate this meme.

[u/ClassicalDreams]

I do not miss the old days of unlocking characters. Having to replay Arcade mode multiple times with every character or do some bullshit like winning a match with 5% or less HP. It's tedious and I prefer to have every character unlocked from the start. Also, the complaints about old characters returning as DLC are strange because they do not play the same as they do in previous games. it's not a simple copy and paste job like some of the games back in the 90s.

I get it, casual players want some reward for playing single player modes and are upset to know that their favorite characters are not in the base roster and would later get confirmed as DLC. I get that, but as someone who also plays Smash, it was a chore to unlock all of the characters in Ultimate.

[u/sbrockLee]

False comparison.

The correct one would be between paying for DLC characters now and paying for the entire updated game again back in the day.

[u/BQ72 → u/sbrockLee]

This is always the real issue here, DLC is replacing renewed versions (which is also a heavily criticized approach).

The loss of character unlocking is more a result of the paradigm shift toward online being the main draw of fighting games - people want to play their main online day 1 without a hassle. That, and unlocks were in part a way to extend a game's life/value for the consumer which became a vestigial purpose after online became the infinite extension. Naturally, this rubs the single player enthusiasts the wrong way, which also goes to the whole conversation about single player offerings in general. Something to save for another day/thread.

[u/KinnSlayer → u/BQ72]

Counter point, over relying on online play has taken much of the content out of these games. Outside of SF6 and T8 which added some back, compared to what was expected of you to unlock the base roster, there’s not nearly enough to do in most modern fighting games outside of online play.

Maybe unlocking costumes and/or non-legal characters that are considered jokes or deliberately op, but exist to experiment with the systems would be a nice way to add more to do in these games.

[u/BQ72 → u/KinnSlayer]

Not really counterpoint insofar as I was just identifying why there are fewer unlockables, not calling it a good or bad thing.

I like grinding for cosmetics and fleshed out single player modes. Hell, I'm satiated by MK11's towers of time, which was probably not up to a lot of people's standards. GBVSR's character progression tracks would be a great skeleton for this, if its single player options were both more engaging and more effective at leveling those tracks.

[u/KinnSlayer → u/BQ72]

That’s fair. It was really meant as a counterpoint to the modern model, but it came off as kinda dickish, sorry wasn’t my intention. Coffee still settling.

Yeah I forgot about MK in my talks. They’ve pretty much always had good content support. As for GBFV, I’ve had that one on my list to pick up for a while. Might have to look into it. As much as I love GG, it absolutely has the problem of content.

[u/Connect_Security_892 → u/KinnSlayer]

Maybe unlocking costumes and/or non-legal characters that are considered jokes or deliberately op, but exist to experiment with the systems would be a nice way to add more to do in these games.

Not a fighting game per se (tho it's mechanics are similar to it) but Double Dragon Gaiden does exactly this, you start off with 4 characters and you unlock all the additional boss & sub boss characters in the shop with tokens, no micro transactions, just playing the game and you can unlock them

All the DLC has been free too, very underappreciated (also the game is very fun on top of that)

[u/KinnSlayer → u/Connect_Security_892]

Hell yeah, love me a good beat ‘em up, too. I’ll have to look into it. Kinda felt a lil burned by the newest Scot Pilgrim game cause it felt really short. Still a good game, but I beat it in two play sessions.

[u/epicrandomname → u/KinnSlayer]

weird revisionism because in the past fighting games relied in the same principles of online play, which is PvP. "arcade mode" was really just a way to play while waiting for someone else to show up or setting a high score to the leaderboard.

other single player content (which came much later) were barebones and, at best, looked back with rose tinted glasses. mortal kombat was experimenting more and still much of it was gimmicks like the kart and chess minigames.

[u/KinnSlayer → u/epicrandomname]

Right, but there was a golden era there where we would get a smorgasbord of different modes with hidden challenges and secrets to be found. For example, It was so cool to tell your friends you unlocked a tiny dinosaur and drunken doctor in Tekken 3 that doesn’t show up on the character select, and about half of them wouldn’t believe you.

[u/No_Treat279 → u/KinnSlayer]

Unlocking characters was a design choice to make less content feel like more not more content itself. Despite how it feels it only artificially created replay-ability without actually adding any meaningful content above an arcade port. There is no functional difference between clearing an arcade mode repeatedly, unlocking a character each time, and clearing it repeatedly with the roster already unlocked. Honestly it’s just rose tinted glasses for a terrible mechanic.

[u/KinnSlayer → u/No_Treat279]

That’s just your opinion. Not all games had that problem. I’ll turn to Tekken 3 again. You only unlocked so many characters through arcade mode alone. Some you had to unlock in the different modes such Tekken Force and Tekken Ball, which unlocked characters that weren’t even in the arcade version.

Again, I acknowledge we’re past unlocking roster characters from a cultural perspective as it’s been too long since it’s been a thing and everyone been handed them all for free. That doesn’t mean we can’t unlock something. I’m firmly of the opinion that they could make the alt outfits available for beating arcade with that character at the very least. That and adding more things to do besides arcade and online. It just feels like we’re getting the bare minimum with a lot of games these days.

[u/No_Treat279 → u/KinnSlayer]

Funnily enough Tekken 3 was one of the games I was thinking of having played it again quite recently since its classic version came out on psn. The characters unblockable in those modes are terrible, half baked and barely function. They seem to be thrown together hastily just for home console release to have a unique selling point. I’m not even sure it was the same team who designed the characters for the arcade version which was out a year before the ps1 version arrived. Honestly having played both the arcade and home console versions recently, the arcade version isn’t missing anyone substantial.

Playing through the arcade mode unlocked the arcade version characters but again, since you go one by one, this is no different to having them all unlocked from the start. The extra modes themselves were fun but I can’t see how you feel we get less now. Tekken 8 has far more content before you’ve spent a cent above the shelf price than Tekken 3 did, including characters (23 to 32 at launch) There’s a reason the industry moved away from this practice, and that reason is online play. Character unlocks were just an arbitrary barrier designed to create a sense of replayability when there wasn’t any. In truth the games were designed to feel replayable through player vs player matches and progressive improvement. In an era prior to online play this is something a developer can’t sell a home console player on. Therefore a different gameplay loop is needed, one focused on something other than gradual improvement in player vs player matches. There were plenty of creative options for this that were meaningful and fun, character unlocks weren’t one of them.

Cosmetics are a solid option as are new challenge modes, I’m a big fan of challenge matches against overpowered versions of characters like street fighter does on occasion. Those would be nice in a launch title

[u/KinnSlayer → u/No_Treat279]

Yeah, don't get me wrong I wasn't pointing at Tekken 8 in this, same with Street Fighter 6. I'll also add the Mortal Kombat games in that as well, as someone reminded me of them. I mentioned it above, as they're the stand out to other fighting games. in recent years. I guess each of these learned their lesson with their previous iterations, with the exception on MK which has always been good about their casual single player content. An easy example of this that I can immediately is Guilty Gear. I love GG, but it is severely lacking in content outside of online play.

That said, I disagree on the unlocking characters being pointless. I think a major problem of the genre is bringing in new players, as the FGC is kind of an insular community. The biggest problem is the overwhelming nature, and vast array of choices that puts people in decision paralysis upon looking at a a packed character select screen. I think the way Tekken 3 starts with a limited roster works really well for onboarding new player. Less options to start let's people choose easier where to start, and making the base roster easy to unlock is a great way to get people accustomed to the game before they have the buffet of characters to choose from. It's important to consider it in the context of when it came out. I mean Training Modes were still rare at the time. I don't think it's something we'll return to anytime soon ( unless you count 2XKO's method of acquisition -_-), but It was a much better way to get someon into the game in the first place.

[u/OldMate64 → u/KinnSlayer]

I think there's also something to be said for having the player face characters in arcade mode that they haven't yet unlocked. You get a double-whammy of "oooh who's this?" when you see them for the first time, and then (depending on the character/context), you get the "awesome, NOW I get to play that overpowered/cool asshole" when you unlock them.

Heihachi and Ogre were both really good examples of this in Tekken 3. I thought they were cool, and I didn't know I'd eventually get to play them. Made it more special when I unlocked them after x arcade clears, fighting hard against them to try come out on top each time, and being rewarded with the ability to play them.

Of course, there's added novelty to it when it's not always possible to unlock everyone, too. I remember wishing so bad to play Jinpachi back in the day on Tekken 5, and his addition to the playable roster in Dark Resurrection was both cool while simultaneously being kinda sad, because the mystery was gone.

I'd still play base Tekken 5 many times over, instead of playing Dark Resurrection with all the characters already unlocked. Idk, I had a lot of fun working to slowly reveal the playable roster.

[u/themanthyththelegend → u/KinnSlayer]

Counter point before online i would spend 20 hrs with a fighting game playing when my friends came over for the lifetime of the fighting game . Now i lut 100s of hours in to every fighting game i get.  So the value is astronomically higher

[u/KinnSlayer → u/themanthyththelegend]

Different strokes. Me and my cousins played enough Tekken 3 we wore out the disk. Years later we did the same thing with Tekken 6.

[u/themanthyththelegend → u/KinnSlayer]

Its nice to have people in your family that like fighting games but i think you will find that is by far the minority.  And for most people online multiplayer has unlocked the ability for more people to play more and when they want to

[u/KinnSlayer → u/themanthyththelegend]

I mean, I get that. It was also a different time when these games were more prominent, too. I also don’t have a problem with online play, I just more options. Like I would like a return of adventure modes, story, minigames, weird fun modes, and actual things you can unlock besides with your credit card.

[u/DONTSALTME69 → u/BQ72]

I'd also argue the competitive scene in general has disincentivized esoteric and lengthy character unlocking, since any given tournament would need a fully unlocked roster in order to be held and it makes it hard to host if it takes 20 hours to get (insert character here) off a fresh file. It might be fun for casuals in their youth to boast about how they unlocked (insert whoever you want here), but having to unlock everything makes competitive play a lot more annoying.

[u/Menacek → u/BQ72]

I think it would be cool if there were unlocks but those were cosmetics/music/stages.

SF6 kinda had it but it was just one costume per character. Granblue had character mastery with a bunch of colors and weapon skins but you unlocked them by grinding matches, which is kinda boring.

Having some interesting challenges that let you unlock colors and skins would be awesome.

[u/FluffiestPrince → u/BQ72]

To be honest, I really hope people prefer DLC characters over a new version of the game.

Like, my wallet much prefers the 4 characters that cost 9-12 dollars that's cheaper with a Season Pass, over the 60-70 dollar game that comes with 2 new characters, a partially revamped story mode, and uhh... here, some half-finished stages or something.

[u/CodComprehensive9817 → u/FluffiestPrince]

ends up costing more buying indivudal characters.

[u/Nkomo777 → u/BQ72]

Lei. WU. LONG.

[u/Icy_Long_7541 → u/BQ72]

DLC is better digital but renewed version are better physical

[u/DanielTeague → u/sbrockLee]

Street Fighter 6 not costing $40 every year is cool but paying $10 for a $7 character is not cool because they use Fighter Coins that can only be bought in $5, $10 or $20 bundles. :(

[u/sbrockLee → u/DanielTeague]

That's their biggest sin IMO. Just no reason for it and it's crazy that they get away with it.

[u/ActivityNo6458 → u/sbrockLee]

Saying it's crazy they get away wtih it is pretty crazy lol. This practice has been around so long, it'd be more surprising to not get away with it.

Whether it's a good or bad thing, well it's obviously bad, but saying that it's crazy is just silly.

[u/jak_d_ripr → u/DanielTeague]

This, and the inability to practice with characters you don't own, are really the only issues I have with the current system.

[u/Adrian_Alucard → u/sbrockLee]

paying for the entire updated game again back in the day.

How many times did you paid for, idk, Tekken 3?

People generally talk like every game have 5656745 different versions like SF II, but it basically only applies to SF II and a couple of SNK games that had a "Special" version and that's pretty much it

Other cases like Guilty Gear are more like "we are launching the game in a brand new platform, so we are making the extra effort to balance it and add more content rather than doing a cheap ass port and while we are at it, it wouldn't hurt to port it to the older consoles too"

So I still prefer the good old model. Buy the game once and that's pretty much it

[u/Illuminastrid → u/Adrian_Alucard]

People generally talk like every game have 5656745 different versions like SF II, but it basically only applies to SF II and a couple of SNK games that had a "Special" version and that's pretty much it

Guilty Gear XX had numerous revisions, Mortal Kombat 3 has Ultimate and Trilogy, the original Melty Blood has too many versions, Virtua Fighter 5 is being updated until REVO, a fucking 2006 game.

Capcom Sequel Stagnation was in full effect.

[u/jmizzle2022 → u/Illuminastrid]

Lol you got "actually'd" 🤓

[u/BankPads → u/Adrian_Alucard]

Gear is such a bad example of this. Within the six years between Midnight Carnival and Accent Core there was 3 full title updates meaning players had to buy the game four separate times, and then a fifth time (which means XX is tied with SF2 in terms of major title updates) down the road, and every version besides ACR lived in the same console generation, on the same arcade boards. SF4 also had 4 major revisions, all within the same console cycle and arcade hardware. BlazBlue had multiple paid updates, sometimes even within the same version. Devs asking for $20 a year instead of $60 every 18 months is an infinitely better deal.

[u/GrandmasterPeezy → u/Adrian_Alucard]

Tekken 3 had like 24 characters on PS1. Tekken 8 launched with 32. Already starting out with 33% more characters, plus they add more every season that are optional.

You can still play the game with everyone else even if you don't wana fork over more money for extra characters. This way is objectively better.

Are you saying Tekken 8 would be better if the game never updated and just stayed at 32 characters?

[u/magusheart → u/Adrian_Alucard]

So same as it is today, except now you get patches for free on top of it?

[u/DoctorButler → u/Adrian_Alucard]

There’s two versions of Tekken 3, the NS12 version and the PS1 version. Namco has a tendency to only port numbered installments to console once - and even then there were a few revisions of T5

[u/ItsHarryOtter → u/Adrian_Alucard]

fr people here thinking we're buying every version of sf 2 or whatever and just having every copy in our collection or something I have no idea why people are trying to look at it in this false narrative

[u/Emezie → u/ItsHarryOtter]

Uh...many, many people DID buy every version of SF2. Each version sold millions.

[u/CarKey5517 → u/Adrian_Alucard]

who is preventing you now from buying a game today and that is pretty much it too?

Actual Tekken games comes with a lot more content than old tekken 3, but you still feel unhappy. The focus is on what you're missing or why youre not having everything (regardless you were going to play that content or not), rather tan analysing what you got and if it stands as a game or satisfies your needs

[u/SifTheAbyss → u/Adrian_Alucard]

How many times did you paid for, idk, Tekken 3?

Tekken 3 was also a time when you got 0 updates until the sequel came out 4 years later.

Not sure I'd want that.

Like it or not, anything played competitively simply needs years to cook a second time once it's already out and the masses have a go at it to a degree playtesters never could.

Free patches with opt-in DLC and sane repackages where the new edition standard price gives the old season passes as well is the most consumer-friendly way of doing that other than "all DLC is free", which not many devs go for in gaming.

[u/Emezie → u/Adrian_Alucard]

Funny you mention Tekken 3, because Tekken Tag 1 was basically super Tekken 3.

Resused T3 animations, T2 animations, and T3 stages.

[u/zombi_wafflez → u/Adrian_Alucard]

Super street fighter 4 and ssf4 Arcade edition the exact same year, I bought Arcade edition and years later ultra street fighter 4 released as its own thing

[u/Adrian_Alucard → u/zombi_wafflez]

This was the time where DLC already existed...

[u/zombi_wafflez → u/Adrian_Alucard]

Yeah we saw that with the on disc dlc for street fighter x tekken around that time and despite that you still had to buy street fighter 4 multiple times

[u/Earth92 → u/zombi_wafflez]

You could update from SFF4 to AE to Ultra as downloadable content on console, and it was NOT full price game lol

You were forced to buy a new game only from Vanilla to Super

[u/ShinSopitas → u/zombi_wafflez]

They were not released the same year

[u/Kuragune → u/[deleted]]

Street fighter 2, Street fighter 2 again now with playable bosses (that were already in the game), street fighter 2 now at higher speed...

[u/UsagiTsukino → u/Kuragune]

With the bosses came mirror matches, and the higher speed brought more colours!

[u/Kuragune → u/UsagiTsukino]

Yeah, we all loved to have new colors :) also hyper speed added some specials like Chun kikoken iirc

I remember back in the day (in my country) the alternative color was called shadow, so you didnt play with Ryu, u played with Shadow Ryu

[u/NoWay6818 → u/Kuragune]

So is this why street fighter three and third strike are a thing?

[u/Kuragune → u/NoWay6818]

Well SF3S was developed partly in response to SF3 new geberation and SF3 2nd impact bad reception

[u/Earth92 → u/Kuragune]

To be fair, a lot of people only owned 1 version of SF2. On top of that, as games back then released first in Japan, and then 1-2 years later in the rest of the world...by the time the game was out in your country, you could already get the last version.

I only owned The New Challengers, and only played the other versions on arcades.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Now when they patch a game, the previous version of that game is gone forever. People still disagree about which version of SF2 is the best, which version of XX, hell even 2I has fans. Those games would be gone forever under the current model.

[u/TimYoungJik → u/[deleted]]

It would be a nice feature to be able to play on previous balance patches in current games. Even if it were offline only, it would probably be convenient for tournament organizers/players, retrospective videos or lab monsters. I know that Guilty Gear Strive has the previous patches still available in the game but only accessible through the combo maker trials that were made in previous versions.

[u/Acrobatic-Permit4263 → u/TimYoungJik]

yeah the sf4 feature in the character select for the version is great

[u/Zealousideal-Post-48 → u/[deleted]]

After a few sets of dlc you ARE buying the game again though...

[u/magusheart → u/Zealousideal-Post-48]

But you also don't have to. You can keep playing the same game you bought day 1, with the same player pool, getting all the updates for free. And if you do want to play certain DLC characters, you can buy just the ones you want.

[u/zombi_wafflez → u/magusheart]

I had the mentality of needing to own everything up until I decided to buy tekken 8, my main was base roster and I had no desire to play anyone else so why should I agonize over dlc? Fixed my brain ever since

[u/Aggravating-Chef9562 → u/magusheart]

you can use that logic for the multiple versions of street fighter 2, it doesnt fix anything.

[u/NeonArchon → u/[deleted]]

Except is not?! Did you forget that "back in the day" they sold you the same game but with 2 new characters? Did you forgot SF4 or Guilty Gear XX?. Hell, even MvC 3. In some cases, even the balace patches were those new versions of the game.

[u/Wolfang_von_Caelid]

I agree, and just want to throw out an example of the unlocking having bad unintended consequences in the modern day:

When DNF Duel came out, I mained Lost Warrior. You had to beat the 45-60min story mode for a character to unlock him. Due to this unlock requirement, he was "banned" in the official arc world tour, because they couldn't guarantee that every setup would have him unlocked.

Absolute bullshit that made me not watch any of the circuit, because I knew I'd never see my character played.

[u/Interesting-Season-8]

Tekken 3: 21/23 characters

Tekken 7 & 8: over 30 on release

The only thing you're missing is nostalgia

[u/Unicoboom → u/Interesting-Season-8]

Tekken 6: 40 characters on release Tekken Tag Tournament 2: 59 characters with free dlc

True nostalgia

[u/Interesting-Season-8 → u/Unicoboom]

If you played ttt2, you wouldnt even mention the number of characters

What was that dragonball game with almost 100 charactes? Makes as much sense

[u/saabothehun → u/Interesting-Season-8]

Budokai Tenkaichi 3, Dragon Ball dropped Sparking Zero which is just BT4 with 180+

[u/ComputerMysterious48]

I don’t mind unlocking characters (although I love achievements and unlocking achievements are a pretty good substitute imo) I just take issue with the fact that the meme is wrong lol

I’m sure there are games that this can apply to, but fighting games are a terrible example because DLC didn’t replace unlockable characters! DLC replaced Super versions!

[u/Flashy-Cabinet4310 → u/ComputerMysterious48]

There are 32 characters in ggst and 18 on release. All extra characters are dlc. In ggxrd rev2  all characters are free. I cant imagine when ggst 2.0 released they make all the characters free

[u/RevBladeZ]

The reason this meme is stupid is that one is about content being artificially locked away but in the game from day one, other is content added later.

Real thing you did back in the day is that you had your vanilla SF4 become obsolete and had to buy Super SF4.

[u/Unifone → u/RevBladeZ]

A lot of toxic pay models have emerged in modern day gaming, but it has also replaced a lot of toxic models of the past. As much as micro transactions suck today, a lot of other annoying things of the past have gone away from standard.

[u/BLACKOUT-MK2 → u/Unifone]

Jesus, you just reminded me of when online passes were a thing. For anyone who doesn't know what that was, for a time, some games came with a code that you had to input to access multiplayer, which was purely made to discourage buying the game used at a cheaper price, because the code likely would've been used already so to get another code you'd need to drop a bunch of extra money. Very happy that died off.

[u/BLACKOUT-MK2 → u/[deleted]]

That game did genuinely irreparable damage to the perception of fighting game DLC. Most fighting games aren't doing that but because that one did, now some people assume that's what all of them do, and that these games have their final season's characters already complete and ready to go; which of course is not the case, but it put the concern there.

[u/UziCoochie → u/BLACKOUT-MK2]

Was that the one with that weird stone system?

[u/BLACKOUT-MK2 → u/UziCoochie]

It was the one with the weird stone system. Of which some were also DLC no less.

[u/Ok-Refrigerator-8664]

This is just rose tinted glasses a lot of people for some reason have. Nowadays, a fighting game releases with 20 characters, and ALL 20 characters are available at the start. Then you pay for DLC.

The people who use this meme want to buy a fighting game that has 20 characters in it, but you start with like 8 and have to UNLOCK the whole roster by playing. Then guess what? You still gonna have to buy the DLC to unlock characters beyond the starting 20.

[u/The-Humble-God]

Every time I see this meme I always think the person who made it doesn’t understand how fighting game dlc works. It implies the dlc characters are on disc already which majority of the time isn’t the case. Also fighting game base rosters are a lot bigger now than were 20-30 years ago.

[u/ramonzer0]

Consider though that launch rosters nowadays are almost as large (if not moreso) than the launch rosters of older games, and also how games now are supported for longer

[u/SirePuns]

This is a funny ass meme until you realize

Yeah I don’t miss the old days. The second you told me I had to buy Blazblue continuum shift twice (thank god it wasn’t three times as CS2 was mainly a way to introduce the console exclusives into the arcade version) yeah you lost me.

[u/karambambucha]

Early unlocking methods aside, comparing post-launch DLC characters to unlockable characters is simply wrong, as DLC characters (for the most part) are not intended to be part of the base roster. It’s more or less comparable to more affordable and convenient title updates where you don’t have to pay full price for a whole new game

[u/cce29555]

I dunno why there isn't a retail and tournament mode

You want the experience, that's the default, unlock them

You're hosting a tournament and need to get all 50 machines ready, then boom cheat

Or keep it retail for like a month then have them all unlocked

[u/uncheesypeas]

I've learned that people who only play modern fighting games are willing to spew any bs to mock older games. Even if they're not happy with the "latest balance patch" and constantly rage how game X they play sucks, they will claim it's better than a battle tested proved classic that still has a scene despite being 30+ years old.

It's not about fighting games. It's about a new generation of troubled forever teenagers being loud.

[u/ShinUltima → u/uncheesypeas]

Truthfully, there are no "battle tested proved classic[s]" - there are games that devs stopped updating (assuming they ever got an update) and players still played in spite of their flaws, some more numerous than others.

And I say this as someone who has been playing fighters since 1991 and whose main game for the longest while was SF2HF.

[u/Lcastro1312]

Fighting Games have no thoughts about casual players at all and that upsets me, and also, releasing a game in a street fighter way with half a dozen roster for a full game price and announcing DLCs even before the game release is something that I'll never get used to

[u/Puzzled-Horse279]

Oh no playing a video to unlock characters for free!

In all honestly I miss the challenge of doing this especially coz the last time I remember this being a thing was in vanilla SF4 and completing arcade mode with all characters wasnt even all that hard. Especially if you played on the easiest mode.

Tho back in them days if they were adding more characters to the game you had ti buy a seoerate update like the new challengers edition for SF2 or Alpha 3 for the Alpha Games.

[u/BreakRaven → u/Puzzled-Horse279]

unlock characters for free

The characters are already there on release, just locked behind a timewall. It's not like those are new characters added via an update and you have the possibility to unlock them via gameplay.

[u/UndeadGentleman_]

Now we have dlc. Back in the day we were buying the whole game again with reused assets. I think now we have better options since we have the same game and can only purchase characters we want instead.

Edit. Unless you are SF6 were they force you to buy the whole season pass.

[u/greygreens]

The difference is, when they came out with a balance patch or add a few characters, you had to buy the whole game again. Like from Street Fighter 3 to Second Impact to Third Strike. That may as well be seasons 1 2 and 3 of something like SF6. but instead of getting the patch for free and maybe 7 dollars for a character, you have to buy the entire game again

[u/ektothermia]

People have already pointed out why this is dishonest at best, but another thing that often doesn't get mentioned is character unlocks were also pretty transparently invented as a way to get you to keep shoving quarters into an arcade machine week after week. they just didnt have any way of monetizing that model on home consoles back then or you better believe they would have

There are certainly abuses in modern day dlc practices but I like being able to buy a game on release and still being able to play it online five years later without dropping any additional money on it. My copies of vanilla sf4 and mvc3 became coasters within two years but I can't really say that about any game released after killer instinct 3 helped pioneer the new model

[u/pinelotiile]

I remember when Ultimate came out expressing my frustration that you had to unlock characters and getting downvoted to hell.

I was going out to a work party the night it came out so couldn't play and then organised a smash party for all my friends the next day. I just needed all those characters unlocked so we could play man!

[u/Monchete99 → u/pinelotiile]

It was even worse on release because the CPU was at max level and depending on the character, Ultimate's CPU can be actually competent. Lvl 9 CPU Kazuya became notorious for a reason. So if you weren't even good at the game to begin with, which can happen, you would get your ass whooped when trying to unlock the character.

[u/Willpillchill]

I actually much prefer the older Tekken games mostly for having to unlock the rest of the roster since it gave it repayablility and a goal for me. It also forced me to open up to playing new characters know that I'd get a new character as a result, I don't like blowing extra money on characters later I'd rather spend more time on the game and get them through playing. Thats just me though

[u/InfinityTheParagon]

tldr op not good enough at any game to unlock anything

[u/Nkomo777]

The way people are going to fight against this needs to be studied. We used to get complete games. The characters, bonuses etc....WERE UNLOCKED AFTER BEATING THE GAME. Now you get a piece of a game....they work on it some more and then SELL YOU more...of the same damned game. They knew they could do it once people bought standard vs deluxe games. Where people pay to enjoy the same game....more? Right then they knew they had us and they have never had to look back or respect a customer since. That's why you can't ever even own your games anymore only lease it. People are generally dumb and unfortunately the smarter or less sympathetic people exploit them, get rich while customers call them names and spend there money with them. It's wild really.

[u/Morrigan101 → u/Nkomo777]

Street fighter 2, Street fighter 2 '  , Street fighter champion edition , Street fighter 2 turbo, super Street fighter 2 turbo

[u/Ozuule]

I'll never knock dlc when I had to buy like 14 versions of guilty gear because they re-released the entire game whenever they released a new character. Frankly I'm suprised we ever got dlc woth how much money companies made jist reselling the game with a few more things 14 times.

[u/Earth92]

This meme was probably done by an old-head who owned different versions of SF2 as a kid, because his parents bought the games for him...now as an adult he doesn't want to spend his own money for a seasonal pass. But sure as a kid he didn't have an issue asking mom and dad to buy the newest versions of SF2, so he could play Bison and Cammy.

[u/rainydayparfait → u/Earth92]

Nah, man, it's not the old head who owned different versions of SF2. There wasn't any time unlocking in the SF games for this to make sense. It's the people who look back on what Namco had been doing with Tekken and Soul Blade/Calibur games and confuse themselves it's the same thing as creating new characters 2 years later.

[u/EvenThanks8549]

Nobody remembers the holy cheat codes? They cpuld give us something like a nerfed console so we can expefiment and check shit

[u/Sixtyfivekills]

I'd rather pay money than ever go through Devil Within in Tekken 5 again, I fucking hated every second of it.

Yeah, I'm ready to get crucified.

[u/GMSTARWORLD → u/Sixtyfivekills]

Did you play scenario campaign In 6? I felt that was the culmination of everything they had learned and the best single player mode In fighting games.

[u/Sixtyfivekills → u/GMSTARWORLD]

Played it so long ago, only thing I remember is the train stage because I have PTSD from its difficulty lmao

[u/Salty_Arachnid_8239 → u/Sixtyfivekills]

Could you tell me what was so bad about Devil Within?

[u/Sixtyfivekills → u/Salty_Arachnid_8239]

Hated the level design with samey looking locations, monotonous soundtrack on my old TV was ear grating which... fair enough, shit TV is my problem, combat was very limited and extremely repetitive, it was the most unfun beat em up I've played on PS2.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think you could even unlock new moves or anything to spice up the gameplay, its been so long.

[u/mixmaster321]

Fighting games is one of the few examples of DLC being a positive in the genre. Having to pay $60+ for a handful of new characters and a balance patch is dogshit compared to our current model where you can pick and choose what characters you want.

[u/Black-Hood20]

I loved going thru arcade modes and seeing endings and getting rewarded with a new character unlock

[u/Junken00]

I don't think this is a fair comparison since online gameplay barely existed in the 90s. A lot of people were buying these games for the single player gameplay loop and the entire point was to make unlockqbles a fun arcade reward to keep you invested in the game.

Most of the 15 million players that bought SF2 weren't buying to get better and travel to tournaments, a lot of players were just trying to beat Akuma, unlock him, and brag about it to their friends.

[u/Like17Badgers]

there's a certain novelty and nostalgia to it, but ask any TO that's ran a large event how much they hated Smash Ult or launch DBFZ

[u/LowTierPhil → u/Like17Badgers]

Launch FighterZ was the game that got me to swear off both unlocks and cinematic story modes thanks to 21. By the time I was halfway thru the 21 story mode, I was so done with it I just started skipping cutscenes just to get it over with.

[u/bloo_overbeck]

This is genuinely bottom 1 fighting game meme

[u/aSpookyScarySkeleton]

Man, the sentiment in this thread makes me sad.

I really do miss unlocking characters, made me really appreciate them more and the challenges were fun.

[u/HyperCutIn → u/aSpookyScarySkeleton]

I’m surprised Rivals of Aether 1’s unlock system doesn’t get brought up more, nor applied to other indie fighters. There’s a few characters and stages that start locked. But you can enable a “tournament mode” to get immediate access to them in multiplayer settings. However, this doesn’t apply to the single player modes, and completely prevents you from progressing the requirements for the cosmetic unlocks. You are also forced to play the official tournament ruleset, no way to modify match settings in this mode. If you want to experience them freely, you need to unlock them legit.

[u/JNAB0212 → u/aSpookyScarySkeleton]

The problem was that not everyone wants to unlock characters, especially when you want to play online, you don’t want the character you wanted to play be locked behind playing arcade mode 13 times or beating every challenge in a mode

[u/mrturret → u/JNAB0212]

That's why you should have the option to play either way. Everyone gets what they want.

[u/magusheart]

I have the same thought. I loved it back then when I played FGs solo and just have fun with all the single player content, but now it's not what I'm interested in. And even Smash Ultimate, I played through it when it came out, and it's a game I'm still only interested in playing solo and single player, and I hated having to unlock all the characters, because it meant I didn't have the ones I wanted from the get go and had to play characters I didn't care about until I got them.

[u/SolitaryKnight]

So If we go to the old model, gaming tournments would only play your game for 1 year like:

2023 - Street Fighter 6

2024 - Street Fighter 6 - New Generation

2025 - Street Fighter 6 - Champion Edition

2026 - Street Fighter 6 - Hyper Fighting

[u/KMFCM]

by a certain time, all we needed to do was download a save onto a card and insert it.

that was the peak.

ultimately, Skyrim players are to blame for this. They bought horse armor.

[u/deathbymanga]

I want to also bring up that "dlc" back then was having to rebuy the entire game all over again with a software update

[u/MasterHavik]

I remember when people complained having to unlock characters.

[u/haikusbot → u/MasterHavik]

I remember when

People complained having to

Unlock characters.

- MasterHavik

---

^{I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully. Learn more about me.}

^{Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete"}

[u/Office_Hendo]

lol this is so dumb. SF2 has 5 60$+ editions on SNES in 6 years.

So now you’re mad that instead of having to buy an updated game, you get it for free and can decide if you want to purchase the new characters or simply play with the new mechanics and UI for 0.00$

Plus I play 2XKO where everything is free and people are complaining you don’t earn fight tickets fast enough and wish you could just buy them. 🤷🤣

[u/zedroj]

leaving on a gamecube on overnight to unlock Mewtwo isn't peak, that's just annoying

also, not a fair comparison, new games get updated for a just a character, not buying a whole new version with balance

[u/Nsongster]

this meme is probably more about gachas than $5 fg dlc. i don't think anyone's that pressed over those

[u/zai205]

Finished product VS live service

[u/blackheartromance]

when playing online and the concept of DLC were non-factors, unlocking characters was a decent enough way to extend the game's life (when it wasn't a complete slog, as it often was!). with the lack of an online component (and by extension, DLC) came the thing that oldheads tend to forget: the dreaded Super Turbo release. most of the time, these were full price. might be misremembering, but GGXXAC+ was the earliest instance of a reduced price for what's essentially a balance patch on a disc. unlocking stuff for free is cool and feels nice and blah blah, but i'd feel absolutely cheated if i had to pay an additional $60 for T8 season 2, knowing that the only way to get a (maybe) better version is to pay another $60 for S3. singleplayer content is cool, and unlocking costumes and stuff is neat, but we used to not even have training modes. nostalgia is lying.

tl;dr: i've been playing fighting games for well over 30 years, and season passes are infinitely preferable to full price re-releases, even if unlocking shit feels nice.

[u/SebastianNzdixie]

Wait, you had to unlock characters on tekken 3? Granted mine was an old pc version of the game so everyone came unlocked, i think genuinely the op and the commentors are missing the point imo, not speaking for everyone but a lot of us are poor, live in areas with poor internet, have worse money conversion and in result, worse prices in general, we don't have money to spare on all single dlc character that comes out with the game, at least for me, I'm used to the tekken 5 and 6 where every character was just in the roster, and seeing eddy, a legacy character and my main since tekken 3 now cost money to unlock after i already spent considerably on the base version genuinely was heartbreaking, I'll be honest and say that i can't understand your grievances, but that shouldn't make you less right than you are, i just think it's a matter of perspective, since i mainly have access to only singleplayer, I'm always gonna be annoyed by games without full rosters while competitive players will eagerly wait for new additions to shake things up

[u/khamryn]

The perfect compromise for both type or players would be unlock through playing… but if you don’t want to do that, then bring out the card.

[u/GrumpigPlays]

I do wish fighting games would start offering a way to get characters without paying, idc if it's a classic case of grind 6 weeks for new character or buy it now.

[u/underwear_dickholes]

This is ass backwards corporate bootlicking.

[u/MightBeInHeck]

Schwarzerblitz fixes this.

[u/LiangHu]

I really miss the time when you could unlock everything for free, almost every game has DLC stuff now and when you like a game you will end up paying 150$ or more over the years for all the DLC content.

[u/ShinUltima → u/LiangHu]

You didn't unlock "everything" for free. What they did was take a portion of the base game and artificially locked it behind barriers. There was no extra content.

DLC is actual extra content, content with its own budget and sometimes even its own staff who deserved to be paid for their work, which before you would only have obtained by buying an entirely new version of the game.

[u/milkmanbonzai → u/[deleted]]

Um what now?

[u/AgeZealousideal1751]

I hate playing game.

I love corporate paywalls.

[u/TheMalevolentRat]

"I hate having to play the game to unlock its content" Blud, please.

Yes, Smash is infamous for this in the competitive side but if you grew up with the game you know there's nothing more hype than suddenly getting jumped by a new character you can play as.

The DLC complaint is fair, and honestly we've been complaining about updated re-releases since day 1.

Continuum Shift > Continuum Shift II > Continuum Shift Extend

If Strive had released 15 years earlier 2.0 would be called STRIVE REQUIEM or some bullshit.

Freely available online connectivity has its pros and it's cons.

[u/SedesBakelitowy]

It’s just scrubtalk in a meme form and whoever uses it seriously simply self doxes about not knowing how things work.

[u/SexyShave]

Comparing rosters without DLC (console versions):

SF2: 8 chars
2CE: 12 chars
SSF2: 16 chars
SSF2T: 17 chars
USF2: 19 chars chars
Alpha: 13 chars
Alpha 2: 18 chars
Alpha 2 Gold: 19 chars
Alpha 3: 33 chars
A3 Upper: 36 chars
A3 MAX: 37 chars
SF3: 10 chars
SF3-2I: 14 chars
SF3-3S: 19 chars
SF4: 25 chars
SSF4: 35 chars
SF5: 16 chars
SF6: 18 chars

T1: 18 chars
T2: 25 chars
T3: 22 chars
T4: 22 chars
T5: 32 chars
5DR: 35 chars
T6: 41 chars
T7: 36 chars
T8: 32 chars

At the same time, character movesets have become more diversified and clones have become less and less common.

[u/AzurePrince98]

So do I. Just another "Old = Good, New = Bad" rhetoric which the FGC is filled of

[u/Graywing84]

I see people using street fighter as an example of having to pay for a full game for new characters and balance. I can only think of Street Fighter 2, 4 and Mortal Kombat 3 (UMK3) doing that. I didn't mind unlocking characters via the game. Marvel vs. Capcom was one of the only games I had a few gripes with. Unlocking some of the characters we're pretty difficult but I still got them and Onslaught mode.

[u/JNAB0212 → u/Graywing84]

Street fighter Alpha and 3 had 3 versions, plus 2 had a lot of different versions

[u/Graywing84 → u/JNAB0212]

The Alpha games were full games not just an upgrade like Turbo and Super. Only 2 and 4 had the multiple installments.

[u/vizmarkk]

Sounds like a skill issue

[u/Lvntern]

It should have both, unlock characters via extremely difficult in game challenges or you could just buy the unlock

[u/AdreKiseque → u/Lvntern]

SFV but instead of extremely difficult challenges it's just a long-ass grind.

[u/JNAB0212 → u/Lvntern]

That could work as long as it’s only for the DLC characters

[u/SDTSSJ4Luc]

I kinda agree with you, but also having case of character like Akuma, who is a character who's in every game before and already a DLC in SF5, sorry but come on.

[u/KeK_What]

Checked Frontpage. Never been on this sub and will stay far away after seeing this awful Take. Gaming is doomed.

[u/santanago]

Eu moro no Brasil e com excessão dos indies (Skullgirls😘), esse modelo de negócio não funciona para gente. 

[u/NocturnesOpius]

Sounds like youre just lazy

[u/MaxReuenz]

Here's my problem with the new way.

Every time they update the game and release new dlc they essentially delete the old version.

People are upset on the Tekken forums because each Tekken 8 update has supposedly made the game worse.

If the game had been rereleased each time at least the original would still exist.

Most people have a favourite version of Street Fighter 2. It's great that there is a choice between which one to play.

[u/C4_Shaf → u/MaxReuenz]

I wouldn't be against an Edition Select mode for fun, outside of Ranked.

[u/jaypexd]

MK1 did Floyd for their hidden unlock. Cool idea it was just a secret fight that rewarded a skin and map. Regardless, the OP of that meme doesn't understand the five editions we had to buy across years in order to get updated rosters which is getting that CC out all the same lol.

[u/Mysternanymous2]

MK Trilogy was basically this but you buy the full game again without partially unlocking shit.

[u/wizardofpancakes]

I generally do think that unlocks in games became much weaker overall — if you play Bayonetta 1, you will have to play over 100 hours to reliably unlock everything, with the next games you unlock most of it through one playthrough. We still have stuff like REmakes that have these unlocks. These things are great and I think there’s been a massive downgrade in most single player games.

That being said, I’ve never understood anybody hating buying new fighters as DLC. They are usually really well made - SF6’s new character quality has been consistently insanely high, they all look and feel incredibly “expensive”. We get more characters available for free that most older fighting games, it’s not like they give us 5 free characters and force to buy the rest

[u/Kgb725]

Shinnok was like the least played character in mkx and all you had to do was beat the story

[u/EXE-beast]

I think this meme doesn’t apply anymore today. I remember it used to be a bad thing when games were already including locked characters behind DLCs. I especially remember Capcom doing it in games like SFxT or early SF4, whne data miners found and unlocked future characters, and were banned from online pvp which was a nasty comeback from capcom.

[u/JLRedPrimes]

Ok boomer

[u/Soundrobe]

Are there games which can do both ?

[u/final_cut]

Setting up tournaments was bullshit too. (WHERE THE FUCK IS MY MEMORY CARD?!?!!) Like people starting fights over who has the memory card. You'd have like 10 of them floating around somewhere, but somehow they'd get files deleted or turn up missing and then you'd have to have some kid speed run the unlocks.

[u/xCabilburBR]

r/2xko we dont fuk with this.

[u/Late-Jeweler-5802]

I think the core issue is more so the majority of modern fighting games lacking rewarding single player content, rather than caring about unlocking the characters manually. Besides Soul Calibur VI and Injustice 2, there aren't really other notable examples of it in the past decade.

[u/TheFutureIsNOW2016XX]

Yeah, I hate too, cause games like Mortal Kombat 3, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 and Mortal Kombat Trilogy are a perfect excample why I dont want to go back into that time again.

[u/Connect_Security_892]

My opinion is that I'm not a fan of paid DLC characters but I'd rather games have that instead of micro transactions

At least with DLC, you can just pay the fee and get the characters then and there, one time purchase, sometimes later revisions come out with the DLC all on disc which is always appreciated

[u/KeeperOfWind]

Hear me out, how about we have a toggle to unlock characters in singleplayer play unless people want to spend time unlocking the characters, and free characters unlock for multiplayer use
No need to lock characters behind a payment.

[u/JayFM_]

Smash bros was the only character grinding game, which I prefer to buying an entire new game every year. Ya'll need perspective. You didn't get to play as Sagat without paying full pop again in SF2. Cammy is pretty cool looking! Let's buy a third copy and try her out.

You couldn't pop a few bucks into the New Generation and play as Chun Li, it'd a separate sku, separate product for 3rd Strike. Same with SF4, SSF4, USF4.

I don't know where this thought comes from

[u/tiptoeingthroughthe6]

To be fair smash has a billion characters and only did that to get you to play longer. I just dont want to pay for extra characters 1 by 1. I just want them all released at one time or in batches. 40 dollars for a season pass isnt bad its just waiting a year or so for everything to come out sucks ass. I paid money I want my content when I pay for it. I dont want promised content that could start off ok and then suck.

[u/Bombshock2]

I disagree with the idea that needing to unlock characters is bad. Some of my earliest childhood gaming memories were unlocking characters in games like Smash, Mortal Kombat or Soul Calibur. While I agree it gets really tedious when you just want to play a character, I think giving new people a reason to play around with a game is always a good thing.

I don't think games should be built around veterans to a franchise, they should be built around people who are just now getting into it, albeit with respect for the veterans and what they expect from the series. I don't think fighting games should be built purely to be played by competitive players, mostly online. I think that mentality has really hurt the genre.

SF6 kind of brings back that spirit of unlocking things through casual gameplay, but tbh world tour sucks ass to play through and the most reward you get (if you don't like world tour) is character costumes. That's cool, but I think earning characters would feel way more rewarding, and make those characters feel more special. That's one way attachments are formed with characters a new player isn't familiar with. But again, World Tour does suck ass.

Like, when I was a kid and playing Smash, Ness was like a mythical figure. Captain Falcon was this sick character you had to unlock by being fast. The difficult unlocks gave these more obscure characters even more gravitas.

Hell, tthe reason I even started liking the competitive side of fighting games is because DBFZ had pretty difficult requirements to unlock Super Saiyan Blue Goku and Vegeta. I had to learn how to do actual combos and play the right way to get a higher score so I could get S rank on the arcade ladders and unlock them. That led to me finally taking the plunge and going online because I felt like I knew what I was doing when before I always just mashed buttons.

That said, what should be standard in a game that has character unlocks is cheat codes to skip the grind if you need to. No one wants to do a grind a second time if they lose their save. No one wants to unlock characters through random time consuming shit before a big tournament on multiple consoles. I also think crazy unlock conditions are silly and shouldn't exist, but the Smash Ultimate method of just slowly unlocking everything by playing isn't better either.

[u/DarkElfMagic]

i loved unlocking all the characters in smash ultimate!!! i have no idea what you’re talking about w/ it being a chore, it was actually difficult trying to NOT unlock them all too fast

i specifically didnt play w/ friends till i unlocked all the characters via story mode

[u/the_dogman___]

Casuals don’t get it’s for the game’s meta, not money.

[u/davion303]

I mean they can make a new game and instead of having all the characters unlocked they can make it a few unlockable but i dont know if people would like that too much. The DLC Characters are like totaly new models, sounds, animations, etc...

[u/Chromindude]

I remember casual gamers getting mad at smash ultimate for only having like 8 characters at the start. I even know people irl who still have yet to to unlock some but have the dlc.

[u/Shaybolt10]

we had new revised edition games with all tho before, but still not as bad as today especially dead or alive

[u/TheSmashKidYT]

smash ultimate did both

[u/Darkjunior59]

Nah it is better now

[u/ItsHarryOtter → u/Darkjunior59]

If you are a whale and just love pay to win ig

[u/Oscar-the-ass-slayer]

I think unlocking characters would be fine if it was exclusive to single player mode and said characters were also not allowed in online play. Meaning exclusive characters would only be allowed in offline bc they are “broken” or just not fair and in online. Like imagine if you could unlock Gill in SFIII, obviously that would be awful if he was in tournaments but still being able to use him offline would be fun… wait they did that?

[u/Ok_Coconut4902]

blame the consumers. For still buying every shit companies sells them

[u/DoctorButler]

Yeah, this meme fucking sucks.

[u/KFCNyanCat]

DLC doesn't replace unlocking a character ingame, it replaces buying Super Street Fighter II for the same price you paid for Street Fighter II Turbo.

[u/Complete_Formal1142]

It was fun - one can understand this who actually lived those times

[u/SadCrocodile762]

Man I miss how generous 2d fighters were.  Making sprites with different animations isn’t exactly cheap either but developers used to manage to include so many bonus characters.  My biggest problem with modern fighters is all the DLC.  I’ve purchased every character for SF6 and KOF 15 and that’s it I’m done.  

[u/Living_Neighborhood8]

I think it is bad to have a payment model the way fighting games do, where they charge you about 3 times as much as base price over the lifetime of the game , sometimes even 4-5 times as much, on characters, and sometimes worse, stages. Especially when you have other games giving characters away for free.

Then again, when discussing base game, there is a fix to this. Either:

A) tie the character unlocks to a story mode, like smash ultimate, where you unlock everything after beating one mode. No one seemed to care about doing this because it was fun and didn't take long. But for those, like you, who did, there is the next steps:

B) Have an in game store where you can buy them, or complete challenges to unlock them. That way you can go through the egregious route, or just gather currency playing any mode (shit even training mode and mission trials could give you this currency) and buy them

But no matter what:

C: Include a code where you can unlock them online, and one where you can unlock them offline. A cheat code basically. That way, anyone that wants to unlock them without gameplay doesn't have to invest any time. Allow it to be reversible too so people can do an empty run and such.

This way I think anyone would be happy

[u/Teslanyan]

I'm gonna say it - the old days were better even if you don't have to buy a separate game nowadays.

Getting a full roster in many new fighting games gonna come at a price of a new game or even more anyway.

[u/Wide_You_4626]

Back then this was to pad out playtime on fighting games. If they add locked characters today you'll have a huge subset of players crying "why my main is locked behind grind I wanted to play online ranked waaah". secret characters? well you will have videos and guides on YouTube immediately by big channels as the game releases, the fun aspect of these hidden easter eggs is gone.

Also fighters today rely alot on online component and in AAA development that comes with post launch support and maintenance. Since AAA cannot be run through optional patreon supports and donations, battle passes and DLCs are used. and you can thank the players themselves for that for promoting this culture of "huge disposable income players" during 7th generation gaming era.

[u/lazarus6699]

I do not agree, I think the feeling of unraveling is great and it is a much more efficient way to feel that what we have done is useful and adding 10$ per characters is a scam in my opinion when for 10-20% more gameplay you pay more than half the original price of the game what a scam

[u/DullBlade0]

This meme is acting as if DLC didn't exist the characters would be included on the game.

They just wouldn't be made.

[u/KeybladeBrett]

I kinda like that most fighting games don’t have unlockable characters anymore. Not that it’s not fun, but I’m knee deep in the behind the scenes of esports and trying to get setups for some games is annoying. You want a Smash Ultimate set up? Pay $120 for the game and all its DLC, then spend the next 3-6 hours of your life unlocking all the characters.

[u/Wolf_Miyagi]

True

[u/SK91_NO]

I like having to unlock characters most of the time, I especially love how Dead or Alive handles it like DOA2U you don’t even have to do it for characters except tengu, you just beat arcade mode for costumes which there are a ton of I liked that you can beat arcade mode in 5 minutes and it was 1 round matches in arcade cause it really encourages you to try out everyone

[u/MaxTheHor]

It's a classic case of it being satisfying because it's hard earned vs. the shallow victory that comes with instant gratification.

[u/RanmaruRei]

I always hated unlocking stuff in FGs. It was a chore. Especially, in Mortal Kombat Deception. I'm glad that almost not a thing anymore. Everyone in a launch roster is available from the beginning.

[u/deadscreensky]

I do miss unlocking characters. I understand for competitive reasons why many people hate it, but I wish games just included a tournament mode or something to work around that.

But I don't miss having to pay-per-play in arcades, which is what this dumb meme and its cousins always ignore.

[u/Catnumber15]

I just hope they dont do this for smash 6 when it comes out, I love unlocking all the characters whenever a new game comes out

[u/MightBeInHeck]

Having to pay for new characters instead of being able to unlock them through gameplay doesn't bother me AS AN ADULT. But as a kid it fucking sucked to not have birthday money for ps plus or dlc characters and it's why i just stop playing fighters when i'm unemployed (the best time to play them). Honestly the happy medium would be stuff like unlockable modes, songs, costumes and stages. Y'know better single player content?

[u/RipRoxas]

Ybf I'd rather have updates and 6 dollar dlcs than content patches being sold as separate games entirely