Why I Miss Cheat Codes And Unlockables

From God-mode in Doom to seemingly endless secrets in the Final Fantasy series, gaming used to be far richer in exciting and entertaining hidden extras.

Mark Butler explores his disappointment at the lack of widespread cheat codes and secrets today.

[e-p-ayeaH]

Unlockables still exist but same thing cant be said about cheat codes only mods can give the game some extra fun.

[shodan74]

Unlockables do still exist, but I think the nature of them has changed. They're very rarely 'secret' or difficult to obtain anymore, nor do they usually tend to be anything particularly fun or interesting. More often than not, they're purely cosmetic.

I think it's a sign of the times. Why include something really cool that only very dedicated gamers will be able to enjoy, when you don't have to?

[Outside_ofthe_Box]

Unlockables and cheat codes do exist, but they are called DLC with a price tag nowadays.

[shodan74]

@Outside_ofthe_Box

Exactly!

[NewMonday]

trainers!

the main reason I buy almost all 3rd party games on the PC is trainers.

I miss the post game cheat shop in Uncharted 2, that made me re-play the game over and over, it should be a feature in every game, I would pay an extra $10 for it.

[Lord_Sloth]

Saints Row still has 'em.

[RebelWAC]

I hate to say it but it feels like those days are over with microtrans getting popular by the minute. I think that's the reason why Indie games is getting more popular as well cause they still bring that "secret" aspect to the table whilst AAA titles seem to focus on high end graphics and Hollywood movie scripts more and more. Still, it's a good time to be a gamer IMO.

[DanJenkoFMV]

Agreed, cheat codes were a great option when you just wanted to have fun with certain games and not be challenged.

[WeAreLegion]

Some games still do it. I wish they were in every game though. They add so much to the experience, especially in open world games.

[Roccetarius]

Instead of meaningful unlockables, we just get meaningless collectibles instead. Oh, and the rest of it is DLC.

[KonsoruMasuta]

This is why I hope Rockstar never drop the cheat codes in GTA.

[SpiralTear]

Big Head Mode forever. It's purely aesthetic, but it was charming.

[rolfhorror]

aah the good old cheat/unlock things..
For me it all started with Commodore 64 and later Amiga 500, remember the whispers among classmates and others about cheatcodes and secrets to certain games.
The best thing was the games that was too hard we kept grinding on but never could finish, and then suddenly we discovered a cheat for these games, in a magazine or on certain "cheat-disks" that had lists of cheats. Then going on with the hard games and finally finished them. Felt so rewarding after all the struggling. Later I began hacking my own cheats with Action Replay MKIII for the Amiga 500, it was truly an amazing thing, since then I've never looked back.. A good game must have cheats/unlocks. Resident Evil series is very good and rewarding the player. My favorite games. :-)

[wheresmymonkey]

Buy a WiiU or a 3ds then, pretty much every Nintendo game I've play in the past year has had some kind of unlockable modes and extras in it.

[hiptanaka]

There still are unlockables and cheats in games these days. Problem is, you need to pay for them.

[Dan50]

As soon as achievements came out cheats died from 99% of games. :(

[GamingSinceThe80s]

Huh?,All of today's cheat codes are exactly the same as my credit card number.Maybe just the publishers helping us out?Less numbers we have to keep track of this way.

[rivencleft]

I miss the Game Genie and Gameshark, used to have so much fun with those, especially using the Gameshark on N64.

[Fatty]

I remember using the Gameshark for the PS1. Some of those codes took forever to input properly. Still it was worth it for some of the craziness that ensued.

[rivencleft]

I definitely remember using it on the PS1, for games like Driver and stuff, they did take forever to input, but I had this scheme to always get the next N64 version when I was a kid, They had version numbers on the box i.e. 1.2 - 1.x, I would buy the 1.2 cartridge for N64 then like 6 months later I'd check my local store and see that 1.3 is out (had a little sticker on the back) which had all the latest and greatest codes for games already on it without having to input them all, I would buy the 1.3 then return the 1.2 in it's box the next day, I know, bad and wrong at the same time, but I was a poor creative kid haha.

[Fatty]

Haha, that's clever but yeah, kind of unethical. I'd go to some website (maybe GameFAQs or one of its predecessor sort of sites) and find new codes people had figured out and uploaded. Took forever to load and then print the codes and then input them... the nostalgic part of me misses it, but the lazy part is ok with it.

[Skate-AK]

Unlockables used to be awesome. Now they just slap a $2-3 fee on what used to be able to be unlocked.

[DefenderOfDoom2]

As a big fan of FPS campaigns i prefer a challenge without cheat codes! By the way most FPS campaigns from 7th gen have cheat codes already, hence hiding behind a rock for a few seconds and your health comes back!