When he’s not out assassinating or wooing women, Assassin’s Creed II’s Ezio can be found hopping from rooftop to rooftop, collecting eagle feathers. There are 100 of them scattered throughout the game, and players who manage to track them all down earn a colossally disappointing reward. That got us thinking about some of the other collect-a-thons we’ve played over the years – games with great and not-so-great bonuses for tracking down an arbitrary number of doodads.Warning: Spoilers ahead. Proceed with caution.Assassin’s CreedThe original Assassin’s Creed managed to pack in one of the worst examples of collecting in recent memory with its flag hunt. Little effort went into explaining why Altaïr was even picking up these things in the first place. If you managed to scour the countryside and cities for each of the 420 hidden flags, your reward was an Achievement and, well, that’s it.Worth the hassle? Nope.Super Mario 64Stars served a dual purpose in Nintendo’s classic platformer. In addition to acting as gatekeepers for the various worlds, players who collected all 120 of them got a special bonus: One hundred extra lives and a quick meeting with Yoshi. Of course, by the time you’ve scored all the celestial prizes, you’re probably just about done with the game. It’s a nice gesture, though.Worth the hassle? Nope.Super Mario GalaxyIn the Wii game, Nintendo gave a belated gift to players who found Mario 64’s prize underwhelming. Once again, collecting 120 stars unlocks the bonus, though in this case it’s a bit more substantial. The reward? It’s Luigi! He’s playable, though his awful controls make him more of a novelty than anything else.Worth the hassle? Nope.Halo 3Halo 3’s hidden skulls are more than just mere tokens. Each one activates a game-modifying ability, changing up things like the amount of ammo that dropped weapons contain or how much health NPCs have. They’re tricky to find, but at least there aren’t 420 of them. Seriously.Worth the hassle? Yep.Grand Theft Auto IIIThere are 100 hidden packages scattered throughout Liberty City. What’s in them, anyway? Drugs? Money? Kittens? No matter the contents, players who keep an eye out for them unlock item drops near save points, ensuring easy access to weapons and armor. Find all of them and a rocket launcher is there for the taking, at no cost.Worth the hassle? Yep.Grand Theft Auto IVWhen Rockstar revisited Liberty City years later, mere packages would no longer suffice. Niko had to track down 200 flying rats (pigeons) in order to unlock an Annihilator attack helicopter. Tracking them down was only part of the deal, too. Each of the pests had to be put down with a bullet, running the risk of creating panic among the citizenry. Aren’t they used to that by now?Worth the hassle? Nope.BorderlandsGearbox’s FPS RPG hybrid is all about collecting guns, so it’s no surprise that it contains some formalized collecting, too. Several missions require players to scour Pandora’s landscape for gun parts. Cash them in and score a new weapon. For the most part, however, the weapons weren’t appreciably better than what players would find while searching. Not that we’re complaining about bonus loot, mind you.Worth the hassle? Nope.Sonic the Hedgehog 2Sonic’s been collecting things way before it was cool. Sure, Sega’s mascot grabbed Chaos Emeralds in his first game, but it wasn’t until the sequel that we knew exactly why. After pocketing seven of the gems from the bonus stages, Sonic transformed into Super Sonic—a hyper-powered version who moved faster, consuming rings in the process.Worth the hassle? Nope.Banjo-KazooieAll you did in Banjo-Kazooie was collect stuff.Worth the hassle? Yep.
Final Fantasy XThe Al Bhed are a mysterious group of people in Final Fantasy X’s world. They speak a strange dialect that’s impossible to understand without first acquiring translation primers. Once players have located all 26 of these things, they gain the ability to understand their dialogue and earn items that can be used to upgrade weapons.Worth the hassle? Yep.
Skies of ArcadiaFina’s flexible pet Cupil transforms into a variety of weapons in this swashbuckling RPG. Players who scrounge around the globe for 30 Cham seeds can help the critter achieve his full potential, doubling his attack power and allowing him to hit like a tank.Worth the hassle? Yep.
CrackdownOK, Assassin’s Creed has nothing on Crackdown. You’re complaining about 420 flags? How about 500 hidden orbs? In its defense, the game alerts players when they’re close to one of the agility-enhancing items with an audible pinging alert. If all of them are discovered, an Achievement unlocks and…that’s it.Worth the hassle? Nope.Are you a completionist? Do you like searching for hidden items, or do you think it’s a nuisance? Can you think of a game that made it worthwhile? We’d love to hear your thoughts.
LittleBigPlanet --> Collecting all the items in a level can be a hassle, especially if you're playing coop with only one player and the activity requires 3 or 4 players, but the rewards were quite rewarding (redundnat I know). There's nothing like the feeling of equiping your Sackboy with an item you slaved hours over hours working for, and recognition of that item in random online games is nice too.
Worth the hassle? I'd like to think so.
I don't know. I liked the Mario 64 one, but I agree entirely on the Assassin's creed. In addition to that though you should have mentioned the Templars who you had to seek out and kill. They were a pain, especially if you couldn't sneak up on them.
Collecting stuff only bothered me in Assassin's Creed. In ACII, I think of it as just another excuse to see the marvelously-done cityscapes and countrysides.
never did the GTA4 one or the sonic one when i played the game.
I've always found it exciting to find out what kind of collectible items are thrown into games just so I can either laugh about how inane they are or feed my obsessive-compulsive/completist tendencies. Achievements work the same way really; they just exacerbate the need to get it all.
i have to disagree with mario galaxy and sonic 2. i thought both luigi and super sonic were great to play with. what about Majora's Mask? if you collect all 23 masks, you get a bonus mask that turns you into the Fierce Diety and makes bosses little more than common enemies. thats a great unlockable, even if its only for bosses.
I'm okay with collecting as long as it rewards in the way thak makes you want to say "HEY I GOTTA TRY THAT OUT!" but not something ridiculous like just an achievement.
I got all those orbs in crackdown, but as for ACI and ACII, no way. Not worth it, crackdown was more fun to navigate around in.
i was gonna say Assassin's Creed if it wasn't there but you guys beat me to it. i didn't even bother collecting half the flags. i managed to find the flags in the Assassin's headquarters's town, though. it definitely wasn't worth the hassle.
I have to agree with Drew, finding orbs in Crackdown isn't too bad. It doesn't require you to unlock all of them, they simply help boost your level. Plus, finding the "secret" orbs are rewarding.
Prototype- that game haad hidden orbs all over the freaking place. Like 50 of them are in Times square alone. And they do NOTHING. Almost as bad as Assassin's Creed, except the parkour is more fun.
You forgot Pikmin! That game has you collect things till you are blue in the face... and then FIGHT to keep them.
FALLOUT 3 has a few collecting quests and the rewards were generally pretty decent. My favorite was The Pit- collecting metal bars gave you some of the best weapons and armor in the game (metal blaster/tribal power armor).
For the most part I enjoyed finding all the Super Mario 64 stars. Most of the time they required the player to do something somewhat new (with the exception of 8 red coins and 100 coins stars).
I liked the Riddler objectives in Arkham Asylum. It was just enough to keep you coming back without driving you crazy. Plus, the map really helps you out.
inFamous... collecting the blast shards gave you more power. I don't know as to what happens if you collect all of them however (outside of the obvious trophy) because I am 3 short... they get *** near impossible to find when you're down to like 10 or so :(
I was so disappointed after getting the 120 stars in Super Mario 64. You would think for something so hard to accomplish, they would make sure the player wouldn't have to suffer through typos...
Yoshi: "Mario! It that really you?"
I liked obtaining Luigi in Super Mario Galaxy, though!
Shadow of the Colossus. You could collect all of the white tailed lizard tails to get enough stamina to reach the Garden at the end of the game. And you could also walk along that really long long bridge. You didn't need to collect all the lizard tails however, you could have beaten all the time trials, and hard time trials. But once you get the stone that highlights whenever a lizard is near you its pretty easy to collect them all. Is it rewarding? Sure, you get to get to that secret area, but is there anything there? No. Is it worth it? I think so
I don't mind collect a thons that aren't too extensive and aren't mandatory. Halo skulls type stuff is great, but forced "find 100 of these missions" are horrible.
yea Luigi wasnt worth it for me
I REALLY hated having to get those stupid Light Seeds in the new Prince of Persia...