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Are We Obsessed with Trophies and Achievements?

Are We Obsessed with Trophies and Achievements?

I’m addicted to Pokken Tournament right now. It’s bad. At all times, no matter what I’m doing, I’m thinking about leveling up my Gengar or about how I can switch up my long-range offense during field phase. It’s a miracle you’re even reading this right now; if I get sacked as a contributor, you’ll know what happened. There’s so much to love in this game: a perfectly fitting visual style that brings out the personality of every Pokemon in a brilliant way, a catchy soundtrack that ranges from intense orchestral battle themes to toe-tapping, elevator j-pop, an incredibly deep system that is welcoming to newcomers but extremely difficult to master, and online play propped up by netcode that makes for a buttery smooth experience whether you’re playing your next-door neighbor or some guy in Japan.

Yes, all of that is fantastic, but it’s Pokken Tournament’ s system of constant progression and reward that has me hopelessly hooked. No matter what you do in this game (besides training, I suppose, which has its obvious benefits), you are rewarded in some way. Winning matches earns you heaps of gold pieces – tens of thousands are thrown your way with every victory. Hell, you earn gold when you lose. Your Pokemon’s progress bar is always flirting with its limit, and it seems like you’re always just about to level up.

The best part about it? The game has its own achievements system, and there’s an achievement for everything. There’s an achievement for winning your first battle, for winning 5 battles in a row, for winning with your synergy burst X number of times, for leveling up this Pokemon or that Pokemon, for playing online, for earning gold… for earning gold ! You’re rewarded for being rewarded! As you unlock achievements and win battles you’re fed a steady stream of new titles that will appear below your name online, and tons of new clothing and accessories to deck out your avatar. It’s fantastic, and it actually gives you something to show for your progress. I run into random players online and am blown away by their avatar’s getup or left wondering what on earth they had to do to unlock a particular title.

I used to feel a bit isolated when switching to my Wii U from the Xbox or PlayStation, because there was no account-bound achievement system that showed off my in-game accomplishments. On Xbox Live you have your gamerscore and others can view and compare achievements, and the same system works with Sony’s trophies. Call me a trophy whore, whatever, but it kind of bums me out that after a long and successful Mario Kart 8 session I have nothing to show for it. Pokken Tournament scratches that itch 100% with its in-game achievements, and now I’m thinking that their system actually works better.

Are We Obsessed with Trophies and Achievements?

The account-bound achievement system is nice, and it’s something Nintendo plans to implement (if we’re to believe a certain patent leak), but I rather prefer having in-game rewards for my actions. I have a Pavlovian reaction to the ding of a new trophy that makes me feel really good, and I want the Nintendo equivalent to that, but right now I’m preferring these extra rewards that I can actually use. It’d be nice to see more games do something like this. When you kick ass on a PlayStation game and get that platinum trophy, no one ever knows it unless they bother to load up your trophy list. In Pokken , you can tell as soon as you face off against your online opponent how lavishly they’ve been rewarded; it’s reflected in their fully customized avatar and prestigious title.

This is one reason I have really high hopes for Nintendo’s new rewards program: My Nintendo. If the NX brings a new, account-bound achievement system to the table that also gives platinum points that can be used to purchase in-game items, DLC, or play time in a separate free-to-play game, I’m totally in. Forget trophies, and screw your gamerscore. I want more, and I hope Nintendo has the good sense to give it to us.

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