It seems like this problem might be a growing one with the popularity of Achievements on Xbox and Trophy Hunting on Playstation, but even when it comes to in-game rewards in older games, we sometimes do some ridiculous stuff to “finish” a game.
Perhaps it is presumptuous of me to use a royal “we,” as I certainly don’t know how your OCD, dear reader, stacks up against mine, but I do at least know that I’m not alone in the world of crazy %100ers. But let me give you an example of my own neurosis. This past week, in anticipation of the upcoming release of Super Smash Bros 4 (the 3DS version comes out in less than a month!), I went back to polish off and put away my copy of Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

For those who don’t know, there are 544 trophies and 700 individual stickers to collect in   my favorite Wii fighting game.  So doing everything means investing some time.  Most of the trophies require the completion of specific objectives.  I had finished most of these years ago when the game first came out, but I still had to collect a bunch of the single player trophies that require hitting enemies with a specific trophy stand item to unlock and two requirement based ones: defeat the boss battles arcade mode on the hardest difficulty, and collect %100 of the stickers.  Through more hours of effort than I will admit to here, I finished getting all the trophies save the Stickers trophy; and this is where its gets silly.

If you do a YouTube search for “Brawl Sticker Factory,” you’ll get a pretty good idea of what I found myself involved in.  Stickers appear randomly during regular matches in Super Smash Bros Brawl as well as when you defeat enemies in the single player.  But when you’re short a few (I need 24 more when I started), the easiest way to ensure you get the sticker you need is to collect a huge number.  After all, there is only a 1 in 700 chance of getting that last sticker (actually less because of pre-set rarity levels, but whatever).  So I created a custom stage with conveyor belts, played with custom rules with only sandbags as items (when all the other items are off, the sandbags real ease stickers when hit), parked my character in a corner and tapped the “A” button nonstop for 10 minutes while the conveyor belts funneled the sandbags to me.  In a 10 minute match, I collected about 150 stickers.  Then repeat.  It took me about 5 hours of this, usually done while listening to a podcast or watching Sunday Night Football to get every last sticker.  If that doesn’t sound fun, its because it isn’t, though it is probably a good way to get carpel tunnel syndrome.

By hour five, I certainly thought “what the Hell am I doing?”  But of course, I kept going until I got them all.  Now, I know I’m probably a little sick in the head, but I’m not the only one.  I recently saw the number of hours it takes to get the Platinum trophy in Killzone: Shadow Fall, and let me tell you that’s one I won’t be doing.  Let me just say this to video game designers out there: please make collecting stuff in your games fun, because I can’t help myself.  Oh, well.

-Doug

What have you done to get %100 completion in a video game?  Let us know by commenting or e-mailing us at thedailydpad@gmail.com!  And be sure to check us out on YouTube at Daily D Pad.  Thanks for reading!