History GuideDangIt / Fighting

** Battling Reptile in [[VideoGame/MortalKombat1 the first game]] was intentionally vague as a way of building hype. Reptile would randomly appear before battles during normal gameplay and give cryptic hints such as "Look to la luna." or "Fatality is the key." Even if someone knew of everything that needed to be done, it was a double LuckBasedMission as not only is one of the requirements (a shadow in front of the moon on the pit) totally random, but Reptile was only added in a later revision of the game. If your arcade operator had an older version of the board, it may be literally impossible to find him!

* ''VideoGame/BattleArenaToshinden'' was a slight offender, but still had one big GuideDangIt moment: The game had two bosses: Gaia and Sho. Sho is never hinted at. Gaia could be reached on any difficulty with any number of continues, and beating him taught the player the chosen character's Desperation Move (an attack that could only be done when their health bar flashes red). Sho on the other hand could only be reached by beating the first 8 fighters on Normal or higher with no continues. Beating HIM taught you that character's secret move. Also never mentioned is the secret codes to PLAY as the bosses (which is a simple as highlighting one of the normal characters and selecting them while holding certain other buttons).

** The instruction manual for ''VideoGame/MortalKombatDeadlyAlliance'' even suggests looking them up online. Not as bad in ''VideoGame/MortalKombat9'', since each character has at least one finisher already unlocked in their movelist, and many others can be unlocked in the Krypt.

** Luigi had a very obscure and enigmatic unlock method. To unlock him, you had to cross the finish line in the first stage of Adventure Mode when there was a "2" in the ones-place of the timer (3:12.45 for instance) and then complete Adventure Mode. Good luck figuring that out without a guide. Fortunately, you can also do it by playing enough Versus matches, albeit several hundred of them.
** Mewtwo was for nearly all players the second-to-last character to be unlocked, just because of how time-consuming and out-of-the-way it was. To unlock Mewtwo, you need to have a combined total of 20 hours of player time in Versus mode. Each player adds to the count, so with 4 players, it takes 5 hours total. Even with 4 players, you would've had to play dozens of matches to unlock Mewtwo casually. Most people would unlock Mewtwo by leaving the game on all day with 2 players idle with the timer set to unlimited... Which meant you were especially screwed if you only had one controller.
** There's a bunch of [[http://www.ssbwiki.com/List_of_bonuses bonuses]] that you get for doing various things in single player and multiplayer, and doing all of them earns you the [[UsefulNotes/NintendoEntertainmentSystem Diskun]] Trophy. While a lot of them can be gotten without even aiming for them, there are some that require doing things you wouldn't ever think of or [[ViolationOfCommonSense that you know are dumb to do in the first place]], such as Cuddly Bear (grab enemies at least 3 times, but never pummel or throw them), Button Holder (hold A or B for the entire match), the Poser Power and Poser KO duo (respectively, damage and kill an enemy with a taunt, something that can only be done by Luigi), Continuation (clear a match in a single player mode after using a continue), Butterfingers (miss most of your grabs), Shield Stupidity (break your own shield), and Hammer Throw (drop a hammer after picking it up, which requires you to be hit while using it and then press Z to drop it with frame-perfect timing).
* The ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}}'' series is usually pretty good at averting this, but ''Tekken 2'' contains a notable exception. To unlock Roger/Alex, you have to beat Stage 3 of Arcade Mode with less than 5% health remaining (you can tell if this happens because the announcer says "Great!") Do that, and in Round 4 you'll face Roger. From there beat Arcade Mode as normal.

* ''VideoGame/BattleArenaToshinden'' was a slight offender, but still had one big GuideDangIt moment: The game had two bosses. The second boss is never hinted at. The first boss could be reached on any difficulty with any number of continues, and beating him taught the player the chosen character's Desperation Move (an attack that could only be done when their health bar flashes red). The second boss could only be reached by beating the first 8 fighters on Normal or higher with no continues. Beating HIM taught you that character's secret move. Also never mentioned is the secret codes to PLAY as the bosses (which is a simple as highlighting one of the normal characters and selecting them while holding certain other buttons).

** The [[VideoGame/MortalKombat2 second]] and [[VideoGame/MortalKombat3 third]] games included multiple secret fights each. Kombat Kodes in ''[=MK3=]'' were designed this way as well.