In general, one of the fascinating things about games is that they are the product of human imagination. They are a world birthed through ingenuity and presented to people to explore and turn upside down. Therefore, there have been so many amazing secrets hidden in video games, including fighting games, that are only unlocked in the most ridiculous ways. Video games have hooked players for decades with their hidden secrets from secret areas, bosses, levels to secret characters.
Some were built on purpose; others were programming errors or just areas that didn’t make the cut and were left in. The other fantastic thing about video game secrets is that they aren’t genre-specific. This means that regardless of the type of video game, there are ways to create secrets. In this article, we’ll be focusing on fighting games and listing down some of the most incredible (and stressful) secret characters to unlock.
Mewtwo
Mewtwo is a legendary Pokemon that was first introduced in Pokemon Red and Green. As a legendary character, it was only a matter of time before he appeared in the chaos that is Super Smash Bros. The character was initially supposed to appear on the Nintendo 64’s version of Smash, but he didn’t make the cut. However, he was added to Super Smash Bros Melee on the Gamecube as an unlockable character. Not particularly great at anything, as a character Mewtwo isn’t the best out there. But as a legendary Pokemon, appearing in a Smash Game was the best thing ever.
Mewtwo could be unlocked after playing 20 hours of VS. matches, or, conversely, the player could also play 700 VS. matches— whichever came first.
Donkey Kong
The Punch-Out series is one of those OG fighting games that still holds a place in people’s hearts. So, when the game was revived for the Wii with updated graphics, there was a considerable amount of excitement. But that was not all, as developers had to top having Mike Tyson as an opponent. So, who did they go with? Donkey Kong, of course.
To face the heroic ape, you would have to first conquer the Title Defense mode (which you can learn to unlock here). If you can defeat DK in ‘Last Stand’ mode, then you unlock him in exhibition mode. This is by no means easy as he is a character that can KO you in one move. Good luck!
Akuma
Akuma is one of the antagonists of the Street Fighter series. A brother to Ken and Ryu’s master, Akuma is also a shoto character but is on the side of evil. Unlocking his boss fight in Street Fighter required you to win against all the characters without using up a continue or get to the final battle within 25 minutes. Akuma shows up before you face Bison.
As for picking him as a character— phew, here goes: you’ll first have to highlight Ryu for three seconds, then do the same for T. Hawk, then Guile, then Cammy. All for three seconds each. And then finally back to Ryu, where you wait a further three seconds, and hit the Start Button and all three Punch buttons at once. Okay, got that?
Fair warning, playable Akuma is nowhere near as badass as the CPU-controlled version, so keep that in mind. Akuma is one of the most iconic fighting games characters out there so unlocking him is still worth the hassle.
SSGSS Goku
Learning how to unlock characters in DBFZ is fairly straightforward but does require a bit of grinding. While DBFZ has a number of unlockable characters, our focus here will be on SSGSS Goku. To unlock the very angry Goku, you’ll need to earn 500,000 Zeni, which is the in-game currency. You’ll also need to get a Rank A rating in the Arcade mode Hyperbolic Time Chamber Course with Hard mode. No problem, eh?
Reptile
And of course, last, on the list but by no means the least, we have Reptile from Mortal Kombat. Considered by many as the OG hidden character, Reptile doesn’t do much new in terms of design (he’s practically a palette swap for Scorpion). But he was quite a hassle to fight against. Reptile loves being secret (there was even talk of a secret fight with him in MK11), and this was evident from the very beginning.
To get a chance to fight against Reptile, the player had to achieve a Double Flawless victory without blocking in single-player mode while finishing the match off with a Fatality on the Pit stage. During the fight, there must also be a silhouette flying past the moon, which is an occurrence that only happens every sixth game. After all that stress, you’ll finally get to challenge Reptile, which, upon completion and success, netted you a cool 10,000,000 points.
So, did you ever unlock any of these secret characters in fighting games? If not, don’t worry. While arcades might no longer be popular, there are various emulators on which you can play these games again. And unlock the characters using the hints found in this article.
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