Are Achievements\Trophies important to a game?

[krogothwolf]

Alright, so EvilEarl posted in the Kirby thread that if it had this feature he would pre-order it. I could make heads or tails out of this. If a game seems good enough or you want it enough that you would make this statement, then why not just pre-order it anyways?

I'm not big into the whole trophy/achievement aspect of the games lately, to me it seems like a cute little thing to have but not that big of deal since some are cool and some are down right insane. And instead of clogging up the Kirby thread with this, I figured a new one would be better.

So, is Trophies/Achievements important for you when it comes to purchasing or playing a game? Do you go out trying to achieve them all? If so why. I'm seriously confused why these are such a big deal when it comes to games and why people rate it so high. Or are you someone like me, not really caring about them and more concerned with the game itself?

[Seil]

I see it in a few ways:

1) E-Peen. Pretty self explanitory here.

2) Challenge. If you're like me, you've got a few games laying around that you love, but you never play anymore because you've beaten them. Achievements are one of the reasons I replay some of my old favorites. Also, they provide a goal to some who want to test themselves.

3) Achievement in general. Something people can be proud of. Something major? No. But still a small little thing that allows us to feel good about ourselves.

I like achievements for all of the above, though I do agree with Foamy (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1A-Ymf1VYY&feature=player_embedded) here that some of these are just way too hard or way too easy to get.

[phil_]

If I can see a list of achievements in the game, then I'll try to accomplish some of them and it extends my enjoyment. If, however, I'm just running along and suddenly "Achievement Unlocked: I'm on a boat, motherfucker!" pops up because I finished by getting on a boat, and the same thing happens every level, then I get annoyed. An example of the former is Wii Sports Resort's stickers that you earn by, say, never missing a shot in archery or finding all the ducks in the pond and returning them to their mother. The Prince of Persia game where the Prince has a claw and flies through space on a woman's back is an example of the latter. Yep, I sure did finish the opening cutscene, game. Thanks for the 10 gamer points. Oh, I used the counter move? Another 10 points. Hey, I beat the first boss! Pop! Gamer points. It felt like the game was making fun of me, like I should feel accomplished for going through the basic gameplay.

[Flarecobra]

I don't think they're really that important. They can be a fun little distraction if they're done right, sure, but it shouldn't be a requirement for games.

Hell, remember the days before such things were in place?

[Aldurin]

It's more like a casual hobby within video games, unless you misunderstand it and have no life, then it would be an obsession.

My earliest memory of this type of system was "Skill points" in Spyro 2 for PSX. Out of the way stuff that you can do for a feeling of accomplishment.

Which is why I have a beef about achievements/trophies you get for merely completing parts of the main storyline. It should be the stuff you wouldn't normally think of, or something really hard but avoidable.

I only work towards trophies/achievements whenever it's "along the way" or if the required effort doesn't exceed my attention span (I'm not even gonna try for all of the trophies on MAG because the community died down and I estimate hundreds of hours to get certain trophies on that).

[Donomni]

Trophievements actually provide me with something to do with a game when I'm not really creative(or persistent) enough to explore it fully.

When I was a kid, my choice of games was limited, so I ended up playing them all to death. Nowadays, though, I'm at a point in my life that I have way too many games, and not enough time or attention span to play them.

Trophievements(which is now the official term, by the by) help keep my attention for awhile, but I'll admit that some of them are pretty dumb. Oh, yay, an assload of trophies for playing through the story I've always done in games anyways!

And of course, the "Just play a few weeks straight and you'll get this one, honest!" ones that make me want to do unmentionable things to game developers.

[Jagos]

Massive annoyance factor 9 (http://nerfnow.com/comic/301)

(read the post, not the comic)

[Magus]

I think only the "secret" ones (Like the Dastardly Villain one for Red Dead Redemption) are the only really fun ones. Otherwise they seem kind of pointless. Like I've been playing GTA 4 and most of them are seemingly for just completing large percentages of the game that I'd do anyway (like stealing all the cars for Brucie or doing all the missions for Jacob).

[Yumil]

There are only 2 ways story achievements are any good:
1. You have a lot of friends that play the same game and like to talk about them. The story splits up and it's hard to tell what's spoilers, achievements like in ME and ME2 help easily tell what a player has or hasn't done.

2. Game splits and you can do 1 of a number of things per play through. Achievements for all of them helps give more incentive to replay the game and take a different route.

[Thadius]

I dare you to find a better achievement than picking up a vorpal halberd and chopping a demon in half.

Baldur's gate: Lets you do that.

Everthing else? Doesn't.

[Aldurin]

Just watched the Foamy rant on this subject. I can agree on the retardedly easy ones as it fits with the real life trend of "everyone gets a trophy".

Showed up at your soccer game and left early to see this week's episode of Star Trek? You get the same trophy as those that played hard and broke bones at that very game.

One of the world cup-stacking finalists? A trophy is awarded for a skill with less freakin' practical use in society than blowing your nose.

Did bad on a test? No problem, we grade it in purple ink instead of red ink to reduce stress, and then design a group test so your grades come from the efforts of others.

Lost your job and to lazy to get another? Apply for welfare and get paid with money taken from people who actually work.

There needs to be a removal of all trohpymachievements except for those along the lines of (complete optional More Difficult Dungeon of Doom).

[Krylo]

@Thad: Not being such a pussy, and just punching one to death?

Also: Achievements are kinda fun/interesting/neat, but I do get tired of the ones that are part of the story line. Like Phil said, it gets to be a bit much when I get one for watching the goddamn opening cinematic. "Congratulations on turning on the game!"

Woo.

However, they do add a good amount of replay value to games.

Take the annoyance of the Nerfnow dude: Chances are Mr. "I'm just rolling pistols for akimbo" would have just not been playing entirely if not for the achievements. If he wasn't bored with the bread and butter of the game (or getting bored of it) he probably wouldn't be trying to spice it up by taking on challenges. The achievements just provide friendly suggestions as to what challenges you should take on.

Of course in multiplayer games the line blurs a bit, as you're annoying other players in your quest to amuse yourself, which, I guess, just kind of makes you a jackass if you keep getting your team wiped in an attempt to earn an achievement.

Maybe multiplayer achievements shouldn't exist? In most PC games people will just load into a server designated for achievements, anyway, and cheese their way to it.

[Azisien]

It's not so much that they are important to the functionality of a game, but it's a modern fad to have them now, so in another way yes they are important.

There's one group of people that don't care, but two groups of people that a) gain some minor enjoyment from them for whatever reason and b) gain a huge amount of enjoyment from them for whatever reason. From the marketing side it's almost silly not to have them now. I am confident in the latter because I sell armfuls of games to people that go out of their way to buy games with "big" achievements in them.

[Ravashak]

Also: Achievements are kinda fun/interesting/neat, but I do get tired of the ones that are part of the story line. Like Phil said, it gets to be a bit much when I get one for watching the goddamn opening cinematic. "Congratulations on turning on the game!"

Assassin's Creed 2, "you've pressed 4 buttons when prompted, congratulations!"

Yeah, things get silly then. I tend to try and get most achievements in games I play, unless they require pvp (for essentially single player games, just don't like that in general), or are just incredible time sinks (example: FF13's "possessed all items", aka, go grind a lot)

[krogothwolf]

Well, the other thing I was thinking of is.

Red Dead Redemption. It has all those Challenges to do in the game, completing them unlocks something usually. But then, you get an a trophy for doing that, it seems a bit overkill.

"Congrats, you just unlocked this new outfit." Bing "Trophy Unlock, You got Item for doing stuff!"

It really bugs me. Plus the story ones make sense in an effort to keep track, but it would be better if they gave em like 1 point only. Honestly, 90% of mine are just from doing stuff I do anyways.

I never thought of multiplayer ones causing issue, but now I can see why. I usually just play multiplayer with friends so we don't really care about them. But yeah, trying to beat a game then getting whipped because some guy tried to get some trophy would drive me nuts.

[Seil]

Lost your job and to lazy to get another? Apply for welfare and get paid with money taken from people who actually work.

I dunno if we should argue this elsewhere or not, but I'll argue this one. Certainly there are people who abuse the system, yeah, but that can be true of anything. From government programs to video games to contests to whatever.

The idea behind the unemployment insurance is that when you're out of work - say someone doing seasonal work as their career, like a construction worker or a commercial fisherman, they receive a monetary supplement to last them through the Winter. I don't think that most of these people are laughing maniacally while they're actively trying to scam the system and stick it to he man, but that these people genuinely need a little bit of help because, say, they lost their job when the economy deflated, or they were fired because of factory automation, or a single parent leaving their job because they're looking after their children.

To re-iterate; yes, there are people who are probably getting EI because they're too lazy to find a job. But there are also people who are getting EI who need money in order to provide the basic necessities of life to themselves or to their families; and that's what it's there for.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

@ Seil; Thank you Seil, I was just about to post a response to that comment but you've pretty much saved me the trouble, seeing as I am currently on benefits because I was kicked from my job some time ago and have been unable to find new employment because, oh yeah, THE MOTHERFUCKING ECONOMY COLLAPSED AND THERE HAS BEEN NO GODDAMN WORK AVAILABLE!, and Evils comment naturally irked me somewhat.

So thank you for that.

OT; Now, let me state for the record, I am a confessed trophy whore. First thing I do before loading up a new game is to check the trophies and see what's available, and see how hard they might be to get. If they look reasonable I'll usually think to myself, "Hmm, I reckon I could get all those, this might add an extra incentive to go out of my way to complete them and see everything the game has available." If they look like unreasonable grind fests or stupid "kill 100 enemies in 5 seconds with a tennis raquet", type things then I think, "No, I probably won't be doing that."

I won't go out and buy games purely for trophies, that would be stupid, but if they look reasonable/mildly challenging then yes, it's an extra objective to complete alongside the main game, and can be fun in it's own right. I probably wouldn't have done half the side quests in Fallout 3 if it hadn't looked like I could get my first Platinum trophy by wandering the wasteland for 20+ hours doing and seeing everything, and subsequently stumbling upon every random piece of loot/random encounter/easter egg in the process and having a good time doing so.

Likewise when today, me and my friend decided to finally go and fight Crawmerax the Invincible (the giant, final uber big boss) on Borderlands and fought a massive war of attrition for a good 15 minutes involving multiple deaths and thousands of spent bullets before acheiving victory, the fact that we both got a shiny silver trophy in addition to a crap ton of loot was a nice touch.

So yeah, for the most part, Trophies = Good. Though Bad Trophies = Not so much. But even then, if you don't care about trophies, you don't care about trophies, so why care about trophies?? They're doing no harm really, just adding some extra challenges for people to complete if they want to.

[Aerozord]

This is why I dont really care one way or another about achievements. When I was playing prototype, before I even beat the game, I'd hi-jack a helicopter, then jump out of it and attempt to grab another one in mid-air. Was their an achievement for it? Nope. Did I need one? No. I am a completist and a fan of doing crazy random crap. I was doing the stuff you get achievements for a decade before they even existed.

Admittedly I like seeing who else had done this crap, but I typically dont try to get achievements unless my completist side kicks in. But even then I normally just get them for doing what I normally do.

And the only story achievements you should get (excluding things insane difficulty, multiple playthroughs, ect) are one for starting the game, a booby-prize ultimately for atleast trying the game, and one for beating it. More flexible for games with things like alternate paths, but I think most of them should be not difficult, or grindy, but out there. Stuff your average games just wouldn't do. Atleast amusing, like the achievement on Crack Down where you drive around with bodies pinned to your car, or the aformentioned RDR achievement with the train.

In multiplayer, they should never be counter productive to gameplay. Someone posted an article about the ones in TF2 explaining it but I dont feel like looking

[synkr0nized]

I bought video games before we had points or trophies or achievements recorded to accounts. I buy them now. Their addition, placement, absence, or methods don't weigh at all on my decision to purchase a game.

They have perhaps given me things to do with games I'd otherwise beat and leave, however. This refers to achievements that have you repeat parts of the game within challenge conditions (time, not falling below a set amount of health, difficulty changes, etc.) and does not count all of the points a person gets from turning the game on and not skipping a cutscene.

Then there are cases where it's not really motivating even if it is fun. I played through a couple 360 games on my friend's machine using a local account. When I got my own console and account and even purchased these games because I like playing them, I never went back through and did the extra achievements [hardest difficulty, finding collectibles, etc.]. I'd say if it was the achievements that were the draw, I'd have done it all again.

Some games make fun of the frilly achievements, and others pour points onto you like crazy. So I guess if you're like my one set of friends you'll join Gamefly or something and rent all the games that give you points for doing nothing so that you can get that aces gamer score and be a pro dude, man! Otherwise you'll just play the games you want to play at the pace you want.

[Thadius]

Okay for serious now. There is a certain point at which achievements become silly. Normally I'd say their existence is merely for bragging rights, as it were. Yeah, you beat that new level on that game. But did you do it under a minute? ANYONE can stand around and get all the pickups and win. But REAL MEN POWER through and take the hits and crawl into the goal area with one health left because they're MEN.

Heck the very notion of achievements is reminiscent of 'I double DOG dare ya' from A Christmas Story. You never HAVE to do the achievements, but the game will silently look down on you with that 21/50 in the bottom right corner.

In fact, I think there's a game about how silly achievements in general are over here... (http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/474371)

In short: Achievements in general are a challenge to the gamer as much as the programmer in my opinion. For while it is the domain of the gamer to do silly things for bragging rights, it is the job of the programmer to think up the silly things and make them possible in the first place. Personally, I prefer games that don't NEED achievements. Like Dwarffort! You don't NEED achievements to know that you've created a huge, thriving fort sprawling underground, all linked to that one precarious self-destruct switch.

[Red Fighter 1073]

Besides what's already been said a thousand times, I would just like to add that some achievements are good in that they encourage me to keep playing the game. Mass Effect 2 Insanity Playthrough? Freakin' irritatingly hard and I'll be honest that without that achievement for completing the game on Insanity, I probably wouldn't have even tried it (or I would've at least quit halfway through).

EDIT: I prefer when game developers get creative with their achievements though. I remember I think it was Dead or Alive 4 where if you lose 5 online matches in a row, then you get an achievement (but zero gamescore points) for sucking at the game. And I will clear the air right now that I never actually got that achievement because my xbox live connection wasn't working while I rented the game :)

Also, when game developers have achievements that encourage to do out of the ordinary things like in Red Dead Redemption where if you tie up a nun, leave her on the railroad tracks, and let a train run her over, you get an achievement. I haven't played the game for myself yet, I just thought that achievement was cool in a very disturbingly different way.

[Aldurin]

This is why I dont really care one way or another about achievements. When I was playing prototype, before I even beat the game, I'd hi-jack a helicopter, then jump out of it and attempt to grab another one in mid-air. Was their an achievement for it? Nope. Did I need one? No. I am a completist and a fan of doing crazy random crap. I was doing the stuff you get achievements for a decade before they even existed.

Admittedly I like seeing who else had done this crap, but I typically dont try to get achievements unless my completist side kicks in. But even then I normally just get them for doing what I normally do.

I'm kinda like that, I've spent a good few hours in inFamous playing "car golf". It's where you go to a street by the water, throw evil shock grenades under a car, and try to get it to explode its way into the water.

And the there's running down motorcyclists with a race car in Just Cause 2. They don't give an achievement for that but it's freakin' awesome, head-on or from behind.

[Amake]

A few months back I quit WoW, maybe for good this time. I got my first max leveled guy, was underwhelmed with the amount of solo play available and set out to collect some achievements. Then I started a few new characters as I often do and as I jumped into the river from the cliffs in western Durotar to collect my fifteenth or so "Going Down" achievement I had an epiphany: Achievements are fucking worthless! I'm paying good money and invaluable time to do things exactly the way fourteen million people have collectively figured out the best way to do, okay, but when I'm doing this to chase achievement points that has absolutely no purpose beyond giving you achievement points, it's time to stop.

I never did spend a week straight riding back and forth over the entire world to get that explorer title. And when I tried MGS4 the other week I got a look at the various badges one could achieve and got really excited about patting down a bunch of dudes for about five minutes and then went "What are those badges for?" and returned the game once I'd seen it through. On Very Easy.

So I think they're pretty debilitating to an involving or rewarding game experience, and downright dangerous to the obsessive completist personalities often attracted to games.

[Aerozord]

oh and I always approve when getting achievements actually have some in game benifit so its not all about your dick hat

[Aldurin]

So I think they're pretty debilitating to an involving or rewarding game experience, and downright dangerous to the obsessive completist personalities often attracted to games.

We take offense to that.

[Jagos]

@Thad: Not being such a pussy, and just punching one to death?

Also: Achievements are kinda fun/interesting/neat, but I do get tired of the ones that are part of the story line. Like Phil said, it gets to be a bit much when I get one for watching the goddamn opening cinematic. "Congratulations on turning on the game!"

Woo.

However, they do add a good amount of replay value to games.

Take the annoyance of the Nerfnow dude: Chances are Mr. "I'm just rolling pistols for akimbo" would have just not been playing entirely if not for the achievements. If he wasn't bored with the bread and butter of the game (or getting bored of it) he probably wouldn't be trying to spice it up by taking on challenges. The achievements just provide friendly suggestions as to what challenges you should take on.

Of course in multiplayer games the line blurs a bit, as you're annoying other players in your quest to amuse yourself, which, I guess, just kind of makes you a jackass if you keep getting your team wiped in an attempt to earn an achievement.

Maybe multiplayer achievements shouldn't exist? In most PC games people will just load into a server designated for achievements, anyway, and cheese their way to it.

I'm not sure if achievements work that way...

Usually a person goes to get the achievement in the MIDDLE of playing a game. They're not necessarily pro, they may be average or just got the game and they try to get the achievement much to everyone's chagrin.

At least, that's what I see with Valve games.

I'd understand if they waited until they were pro but honestly, who does that?

So I think they're pretty debilitating to an involving or rewarding game experience, and downright dangerous to the obsessive completist personalities often attracted to games.

Yes, very dangerous... (http://steamcommunity.com/id/jakdup1/stats/TF2?tab=achievements)

[Krylo]

I'm not sure if achievements work that way...

Usually a person goes to get the achievement in the MIDDLE of playing a game. They're not necessarily pro, they may be average or just got the game and they try to get the achievement much to everyone's chagrin.

At least, that's what I see with Valve games.

I'd understand if they waited until they were pro but honestly, who does that?

Works like what? Like going to a dedicated server?

'Cause yeah, it's Valve games this is most prevalent in, so I don't know what you've been doing (http://www.google.com/search?q=achievement+server&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a).

It doesn't have to be all super official, either. Just some people run a server and dedicate it to getting achievements, and then instead of trying to win, everyone helps each other get achievements (that would normally be nigh impossible), by doing things, like, say, standing still while the pyro hadokens them.

This serves the dual purpose of getting people their achievements and making sure that pyros aren't wasting perfectly good backburner moments on a less reliable hadoken kill, or whatever other stupid thing they have set as an achievement.

The downside is that it completely negates the purpose of the achievements in the first place.

If you're talking about going back to play later, or to prolong play... well then I don't even know where to begin arguing. It's something new to do, and, yeah, if someone gets akimbo during normal play, well great on them. However people who haven't gotten akimbo yet and are getting bored of the game are going to--if they have any interest in continuing to play--decide, well, hell, maybe limiting myself to pistols in an attempt to get this achievement would make the game fun for me again.

It's not a hard concept to understand, and people continuing to play a game they'd normally be done with just to get an achievement is the entire reason WoW has them, for instance.

[Jagos]

I was referring to this:

Take the annoyance of the Nerfnow dude: Chances are Mr. "I'm just rolling pistols for akimbo" would have just not been playing entirely if not for the achievements. If he wasn't bored with the bread and butter of the game (or getting bored of it) he probably wouldn't be trying to spice it up by taking on challenges. The achievements just provide friendly suggestions as to what challenges you should take on.

Where people get achievements right as they sign on the game, not necessarily after they've gotten good at it. I mean, I watch pyros use the backburner for Pyromancer. Or a sniper who went after a spy with just his kukre (forgetting about the sniper aiming at him on the other side of the map)

People really get retarded for their e-peen.

[Krylo]

Having gotten bored with the bread and butter isn't the same as getting good at it.

Some people get bored before they'd have naturally racked up umpteen million kills.

...You are not one of those people, however, I see.

[Jagos]

It was summer! I was bored! I have a gaming problem! *sniff*

[Aldurin]

It was summer! I was bored! I have a gaming problem! *sniff*

Gaming is NEVER a problem!!

[krogothwolf]

Gaming is NEVER a problem!!

That's not true, Gaming is a problem if you play to the point of exhaustion. Or the wife takes away your system because SHE IS EVIL!! EVIL INCARNATE!!! The gaming becomes a problem because you aren't gaming.

[Seil]

It's only a gaming problem if you're losing. (http://deco-01.slide.com/r/1/0/dl/cMnTrutgsD8duJaFgzZoHKKo_Utr0b4h/watermark)

[bluestarultor]

Honestly? My opinion is no, Achievements/Trophies aren't important to a game. At least not a good one. As a recent addition, I think that they can be a nice thing to have, but I also think they can be used as a crutch. It's a delicate balance.

Achievements used to say you went out of your way and did something crazy are great in my book. Stuff like in Red Dead Redemption where you get one for throwing a nun in front of a train says you are one twisted hombre.

On the other hand, one for completing a level with no special conditions or for a first kill is vestigial. They're not bad, but what's the point? You're rewarding the player for not getting bored with your game and putting it down. Doing something once that you'd have to do at least once anyway is not achieving anything.

Ones that reward you for grinding stuff you'd be doing in any amount anyway are what I'd call a bad achievement. By making people do that, all you're doing is lengthening gameplay through repetition. Even then, I'd say there was a sliding scale. If it's a number one could reasonably get through normal play, it's pointless. If they have to go above and beyond a bit, I say they can get a nifty reward for it, and I'd call it a good implementation of a shaky system. If they need to spend as many hours killing the same beast over and over as you have in the main quest, I'd call it a desperate cry for help.

[Aldurin]

Honestly? My opinion is no, Achievements/Trophies aren't important to a game. At least not a good one. As a recent addition, I think that they can be a nice thing to have, but I also think they can be used as a crutch. It's a delicate balance.

Achievements used to say you went out of your way and did something crazy are great in my book. Stuff like in Red Dead Redemption where you get one for throwing a nun in front of a train says you are one twisted hombre.

On the other hand, one for completing a level with no special conditions or for a first kill is vestigial. They're not bad, but what's the point? You're rewarding the player for not getting bored with your game and putting it down. Doing something once that you'd have to do at least once anyway is not achieving anything.

Ones that reward you for grinding stuff you'd be doing in any amount anyway are what I'd call a bad achievement. By making people do that, all you're doing is lengthening gameplay through repetition. Even then, I'd say there was a sliding scale. If it's a number one could reasonably get through normal play, it's pointless. If they have to go above and beyond a bit, I say they can get a nifty reward for it, and I'd call it a good implementation of a shaky system. If they need to spend as many hours killing the same beast over and over as you have in the main quest, I'd call it a desperate cry for help.

I still like to think of the ancestor of the achievement, the skill point (Spyro 2, Spyro 3, and the entire Insomniac-made Ratchet and Clank series). The spyro ones were like 16 different things ranging from destroy all of one kind of decoration in the environment to doing to beating a challenge a little bit better than required. Those were extra things that took extra effort but did not require monk-like dedication to accomplish.

[Marc v4.0]

I still like to think of the ancestor of the achievement, the skill point (Spyro 2, Spyro 3, and the entire Insomniac-made Ratchet and Clank series). The spyro ones were like 16 different things ranging from destroy all of one kind of decoration in the environment to doing to beating a challenge a little bit better than required. Those were extra things that took extra effort but did not require monk-like dedication to accomplish.

There were innumerable games before the Spyro series that used a non-reward reward system for collecting things and acomplishing goals. Some old NES games gave you badges or marks on your save file to note completion of the game or collection tasks.

If you really want to talk about the ancestor of non-reward rewards, then you should be considering the High Score lists in arcades. That is a real ancestor, Spyro and the games before it only built upon that further. Spyro certainly wasn't the first by a long shot.

[Jagos]

Just go here. (http://www.twingalaxies.com/)

I dare you to reach the high score in Donkey Kong.

[phil_]

I went to your high score place, Jagos. My high score in Mars Matrix is 1,185,919,080 (I had to write it down because the cabinet I play loses the scores when it's turned off). The highest score they have for default settings Mars Matrix is 969,640,680. I can't even beat the second boss on one quarter. What kind of noob-scoring website are you linking us to?

[krogothwolf]

I went to your high score place, Jagos. My high score in Mars Matrix is 1,185,919,080 (I had to write it down because the cabinet I play loses the scores when it's turned off). The highest score they have for default settings Mars Matrix is 969,640,680. I can't even beat the second boss on one quarter. What kind of noob-scoring website are you linking us to?

You don't know what Twin Galaxies is?

It's the organization that silly thing the Guinness book of world records recognizes as the official supplier of world records for video games.

[phil_]

So, if I get them to verify my score, I can be the Guinness world champ at Mars Matrix? I mean, I'm not even Japanese or particularly good at bullet hell games and I can beat the pants off of the top scores they have with a few months of playing once a week at work. That's just sad.

Seriously, I just had to get to the second boss on one quarter to get the score I showed. It's not that hard.

[krogothwolf]

I wasn't saying you were wrong, I was just telling you want it is. I always thought Mars Matrix had ridiculously high scoring system so I don't know why their score is weird. But yeah they are the ones with the official high score in Donkey Kong.

And you should totally become a world record holder man!

[Jagos]

So, if I get them to verify my score, I can be the Guinness world champ at Mars Matrix? I mean, I'm not even Japanese or particularly good at bullet hell games and I can beat the pants off of the top scores they have with a few months of playing once a week at work. That's just sad.

Seriously, I just had to get to the second boss on one quarter to get the score I showed. It's not that hard.

You have to video tape it and send it to them. Even DVDs will work.

BTW, King Kong, Fistful of quarters. You need to watch now.