History Main / BonusFeatureFailure

%%** ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaSymphonyOfTheNight'': Richter mode, Maria mode in the PSP version (she's actually easier to play as than Alucard in the Saturn one)

* In ''VideoGame/BloodyRoar 4'', there is Career Mode, in which you have to battle multitudes of rounds among the same characters over and over while gradually progressing through a very tedious and confusing map. As a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwSTY2ZGcQk certain]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8DggHZhlWc game reviewer]] points out, among the other flaws this game has that seems all the more clear [[SarcasmMode it's aimed to revive the series]], the map can be fully completed and yet still leaves you with well over 800 more fights you must do in order to unlock the Very Definitely Final Hidden Character (everyone else is mercifully much easier and sooner to unlock and you will get everyone else long before you complete the map). So you have to fight repeat battles to make up the difference, and, guess what? [[spoiler:The final unlockable character turns out to be [[SNKBoss Ryoho]]. No, not Ryoho & Mana, the Ice Climbers to the Bloody Roar series you get right from the get-go, but Ryoho-the-[[GameBreaker incredibly-cheap-guard-cutting-]][[GaiasVengeance Gaia-pisser-offer-]][[TheDragon dragon]]. Not only is he an incredibly cheap character to fight against as a boss, but also just as cheap as he is under your command and otherwise not terribly different from Ryoho as a human from the Ryoho you get with Mana. And there are a few other characters that are already unlocked for you early on that are also just as cheap and overpowered. Of course, this is assuming anyone bothered to go ahead and fight those repeated battles just to get that far to see Dragon!Ryoho.]]

* In ''VideoGame/Doom3: BFG Edition'', it has the [[VideoGame/{{Doom}} first]] [[VideoGame/DoomIIHellOnEarth two]] classic ''Doom'' games (based on their Xbox 360 ports) bundled together. While a nostalgic novelty for its time, and on PC it gave players a legitimate way to access the previously Xbox LIVE Arcade exclusive ''No Rest for the Living'' expansion for ''Doom II''. After the turn of 2020, the ''BFG Edition''[='=]s version of these games on PC would be eclipsed by their newer and enhanced Unity ports after they became available on Steam, GOG.com, and Epic Games Store, which offers improved visuals and sounds, many quality-of-life improvements (e.g. the option for 16:9 presentation, support for higher frame-rates), has fewer censorship changes in order to make the game available in Germany[[labelnote:*]](the medikits uses a green cross instead of red and secret ''VideoGame/Wolfenstein3D'' levels in ''Doom II'' resemble is Super Nintendo version)[[/labelnote]], and the ability to download curated mods (including ''No Rest for the Living'', ''VideoGame/FinalDoom'', and ''VideoGame/{{Sigil}}'' among many others) plus sideload other vanilla-compatible [=WADs=] over the ''BFG Edition'', making their inclusions on PC redundant and quite inferior by comparison nowadays. This is not an issue for 8th generation console and PC re-releases of ''BFG Edition'' by Panic Button, which stripped them out entirely in favor of the Unity ports.

** ''[[VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3 Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3]]'' has a special World e that lets you play brand new levels not present in the original ''Super Mario Bros. 3''. To access these levels, you need to scan them in with the appropriate Nintendo e-Reader cards, which required two Game Boy Advances, a Link Cable, an e-Reader, and a copy of the game in addition to the cards themselves, which is a lot of trouble and money to go through in it of itself. However, there is one big problem: the cards were released in packs as part of a set, with there being four series in all, but [[BadExportForYou only two series made it to America]] while [[NoExportForYou Europe didn't get any]] [[DummiedOut (with World e being out-right blocked off in that version)]] due to the failure of the e-Reader outside of Japan, locking most players out of half or all of the bonus content. The cards themselves also became [[CrackIsCheaper prohibitively expensive on the used market.]] Thankfully, the Platform/WiiU Virtual Console re-release includes all of the levels by default in all regions, marking the first time half of the World e levels left Japan, and fan patches have since emerged for the original ROM that have patched in all of the World e levels.

* In ''VideoGame/BloodyRoar 4'', there is Career Mode, in which you have to battle multitudes of rounds among the same characters over and over while gradually progressing through a very tedious and confusing map. As a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwSTY2ZGcQk certain]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8DggHZhlWc game reviewer]] points out, among the other flaws this game has that seems all the more clear [[SarcasmMode it's aimed to revive the series]], the map can be fully completed and yet still leaves you with well over 800 more fights you must do in order to unlock the Very Definitely Final Hidden Character (everyone else is mercifully much easier and sooner to unlock and you will get everyone else long before you complete the map). So you have to fight repeat battles to make up the difference, and, guess what? [[spoiler:The final unlockable character turns out to be [[SNKBoss Ryoho]]. No, not Ryoho & Mana, the Ice Climbers to the Bloody Roar series you get right from the get-go, but Ryoho-the-[[GameBreaker incredibly-cheap-guard-cutting-]][[GaiasVengeance Gaia-pisser-offer-]][[TheDragon dragon]]. Not only is he an incredibly cheap character to fight against as a boss, but also just as cheap as he is under your command and otherwise not terribly different from Ryoho as a human from the Ryoho you get with Mana. Not to mention there are already a few other characters that are already unlocked for you early on that are also just as cheap and overpowered. Of course, this is assuming anyone bothered to go ahead and fight those repeated battles just to get that far to see Dragon!Ryoho.]]

** ''[[VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3 Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3]]'' has a special World e that lets you play brand new levels not present in the original ''Super Mario Bros. 3''. To access these levels, you need to scan them in with the appropriate Nintendo e-Reader cards, which required two Game Boy Advances, a Link Cable, an e-Reader, and a copy of the game in addition to the cards themselves, which is a lot of trouble and money to go through in it of itself. However, there is one big problem: the cards were released in packs as part of a set, with there being four series in all, but [[BadExportForYou only two series made it to America]] while [[NoExportForYou Europe didn't get any]] [[DummiedOut (with World e being out-right blocked off in that version)]] due to the failure of the e-Reader outside of Japan, locking most players out of half or all of the bonus content. Not to mention that the cards themselves have become [[CrackIsCheaper prohibitively expensive on the used market.]] Thankfully, the Platform/WiiU Virtual Console re-release includes all of the levels by default in all regions, marking the first time half of the World e levels left Japan, and fan patches have since emerged for the original ROM that have patched in all of the World e levels.

*** The Stone of Agony, which is obtained by collecting 20 gold Skulltula tokens. It causes the rumble pak to vibrate if you're near a hidden hole that can be revealed with a bomb. Naturally, the feature is completely useless if you don't own a rumble pak. The UsefulNotes/VirtualConsole version also doesn't make the item work since the emulator doesn't support the rumble feature at all. The UsefulNotes/Nintendo3DS [[VideoGameRemake remake]] redesigned the item (now called the Shard of Agony) so that it makes a sound and flashes its icon on screen when you're near a secret.

* ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion'': What do you unlock for beating the game? A hidden mansion! What happens in said mansion? Well, the ghosts and Poltergust are stronger... and that's it. [[RegionalBonus Averted in the European versions of the game]] and the UsefulNotes/Nintendo3DS remake in all regions, which feature more changes. It's impossible to get the best rank without playing the Hidden Mansion, for one thing, because the normal mansion doesn't have enough money. It also mirrors the entire game, ramps up the difficulty (ghosts deal more damage and there are fewer hearts), changes some of the puzzles a little, switches the money and gem locations all over the house, and retools some of the boss encounters, varying from mild variations in their attack pattern to an entirely different Boolossus fight, which has the whole floor covered in ice so that Luigi has to ride the Poltergust to "snowboard" across the arena.

* ''VideoGame/KnightRider'': The [[UsefulNotes/NintendoEntertainmentSystem NES]] version allows you to start with maxed out shields/gas/acceleration in Mission mode if you complete the Driving mode twice and play the Mission campaign. However, due to a GameBreakingBug, the game will crash at the upgrade screen before the UsefulNotes/{{Miami}} mission.

** ''[[VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3 Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3]]'' has a special World e that lets you play brand new levels not present in the original ''Super Mario Bros. 3''. To access these levels, you need to scan them in with the appropriate Nintendo e-Reader cards, which required two Game Boy Advances, a Link Cable, an e-Reader, and a copy of the game in addition to the cards themselves, which is a lot of trouble and money to go through in it of itself. However, there is one big problem: the cards were released in packs as part of a set, with there being four series in all, but [[BadExportForYou only two series made it to America]] while [[NoExportForYou Europe didn't get any]] [[DummiedOut (with World e being out-right blocked off in that version)]] due to the failure of the e-Reader outside of Japan, locking most players out of half or all of the bonus content. Not to mention that the cards themselves have become [[CrackIsCheaper prohibitively expensive on the used market.]] Thankfully, the UsefulNotes/WiiU Virtual Console re-release includes all of the levels by default in all regions, marking the first time half of the World e levels left Japan, and fan patches have since emerged for the original ROM that have patched in all of the World e levels.

* ''VideoGame/PokemonBlack2AndWhite2'' is infamous for this trope, particularly after the UsefulNotes/NintendoDS' Wi-Fi service was shut down in 2014. While the games boast a ''very'' impressive repertoire of bonus features, many of them rely heavily on said WFC or inter-game communication, making them much more difficult to access and much less functional years after the games came out. A particularly notorious example is how the games' difficulty modes are tied to the Key System; Challenge Mode, a much-coveted and -desired feature in a Pokémon game, is finally available, but can only be accessed in ''Black 2'' after beating the main storyline (i.e. long after it's actually needed), and can only be ''applied'' to either of the two games by communicating with another game that has Challenge Mode unlocked.

** The UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 and {{UsefulNotes/Wii}} versions introduce the PRL-412, a futuristic anti-Plagas weapon that is only obtained after beating Professional (hard) Mode, which means there isn't much of any reason to use it, since the player's probably finished everything by then anyway. It's not even particularly great, being a slow charging laser that serves mostly as an unlimited supply of flash grenades unless you spend the time charging it to full power, in which case it kills Plagas villagers instantly, but not much else. Even worse, a weak flash can kill the final boss immediately. The HD re-releases tweak it to have a much faster charge and a screen-clearing effect that kills or destroys everything in front of you, which [[GameBreaker dashes the challenge factor into a million pieces]].

* The UsefulNotes/NintendoGameCube can output supported games in 480p. The caveat? Due to the way the signal is processed, you need a proprietary component cable to actually get 480p video. Said cables were produced in ''very'' small quantities, were bought by a ''very'' small number of [=GameCube=] owners, and were ''very'' quickly discontinued. For a while, the cables were ''very'' expensive (topping off at $300 on eBay), though cheaper third-party cables have eventually entered the market. However, even if you do have the component cables, it occupies a special "Digital A/V Out" port on the console, which was removed in a 2004 console revision due to the low sales of the component cable. You're better off getting the first model of the UsefulNotes/{{Wii}}, which can not only play [=GameCube=] games in 480p but is overall cheaper, with the component cables not being as rare and expensive.
* UsefulNotes/PlayStation2: ''Any'' games that required the [=i.LINK=] port for LAN play is this, as the port was removed on later revisions of the [=PS2=]. So if you had a game that required [=i.LINK=] for LAN play and not the Network Adapter and planned on linking more consoles together for multiplayer, you were out of luck.

* In the ''VideoGame/{{Neptunia}}'' series, following the release of ''VideoGame/MegadimensionNeptuniaVII'', its newest protagonist Uzume was added as DLC to the UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} versions of the earlier-released ''[=Re;Birth=]'' trilogy. In ''[=Re;Birth1=]'', she serves as a CrutchCharacter at best, able to join early and build up EXE meter quickly but with skills that are quickly outclassed[[note]]Uzume's most powerful skill is a single-target with 180 Power, while Neptune's is an [=AoE=] with 492 Power[[/note]]. But in ''[=Re;Birth3=]'', she's also stuck with her default weapon, quickly making it near-impossible for her to deal any damage at all.

One notable moment is that both Éowyn ''and'' Merry have to be protected during the "Pelennor Fields" level, even when the player has selected Merry as their character.

* ''VideoGame/PokemonBlack2AndWhite2'' is infamous for this trope, particularly after the UsefulNotes/NintendoDS' Wi-Fi service was shut down in 2014. While the games boast a ''very'' impressive repertoire of bonus features, many of them rely heavily on said WFC or inter-game communication, making them much more difficult to access and much less functional years after the games came out. A particularly notorious example is how the games' difficulty modes are tied to the Key System; Challenge Mode, a much-coveted and -desired feature in a Pokémon game, is finally available, but can only be accessed in ''Black 2'' after beating the main storyline (i.e. long after it's actually needed), and can only be ''applied'' to either of the two games by communicating with another game that has Challenge Mode unlocked.

* The UsefulNotes/NintendoGameCube can output supported games in 480p. The caveat? Due to the way the signal is processed, you need a proprietary component cable to actually get 480p video. Said cables were produced in ''very'' small quantities, were bought by a ''very'' small number of [=GameCube=] owners, and were ''very'' quickly discontinued. For a while, the cables were ''very'' expensive (topping off at $300 on eBay), though cheaper third-party cables have eventually entered the market. However, even if you do have the component cables, it occupies a special "Digital A/V Out" port on the console, which was removed in a 2004 console revision due to the low sales of the component cable. You're almost better off getting a UsefulNotes/{{Wii}}, which can not only play [=GameCube=] games in 480p (or at least the earlier models can), but is overall cheaper, with the component cables not being as rare and expensive.

* ''VideoGame/PaperMarioStickerStar'': Placing a copie of ''every'' sticker in the game (including Things) in the museum unlocks a SoundTest... that only contains 29 out of the game's 78 songs, none of which are the game's awesome battle themes, and an enemy model viewer that costs 1 coin per use.

* The final unlockable course of ''[[VideoGame/FZero F-Zero GX]]'' is Mute City: Sonic Oval, a beginner-level course that consists of a NASCAR-style oval. It's not even used in the AX Cup; you can only play it in Time Attack, Practice, and multiplayer. It's also on the wrong place in the AX Cup course listing; in ''F-Zero AX'', it's the ''first'' course in the list rather than the last.

* What do you unlock in ''VideoGame/TheQuietMan'' for beating the game? ''Sound''. Your reward for getting through this [[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible dialogue-less, incomprehensible, nonsensical]] beat-em-up, is to play the exact same game again with the mute button off. And, while it does at least explain what is going on, the story and its characters aren't very interesting and it still doesn't explain [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment what the hell that spectral bird monster was]]. There's a reason this game appeared on most "[[https://screwattack.fandom.com/wiki/Top_10_Worst_Games_of_2018 Worst]] [[https://www.thegamer.com/video-games-2018-officially-ranked-least/ Games]] [[https://www.metacritic.com/pictures/worst-videogames-of-2018 of]] [[https://screenrant.com/best-worst-2018-video-games-metacritic/ 2018]]" lists.

*** The Ice Arrows serve no purpose except to freeze enemies (an action you can do with other items that don't require depleting your magic meter); even if they had an use, it's obtained very late because it requires items housed in end-game dungeons. The game even lampshades this via a Gossip Stone located in Desert Colossus. In ''Majora's Mask'', the Ice Arrows are legitimately useful, but only because they were upgraded to a progression-critical item, so they're no longer a bonus feature to begin with.

* ''VideoGame/SoulCalibur'':
** ''II'' had secret characters Berserker, Assassin, and Lizardman, unlockable only through special means in the Weapon Master Mode. The kicker is that they can't be used in most game modes (including Weapon Master itself), and their moveset lists are inaccessible from the start menu like every other character. Additionally, they only have one weapon each, but they all have six costumes when two or three is the standard. This is especially aggravating because to unlock Lizardman, you needed to beat every stage in Weapon Master Mode, including the ridiculously hard bonus stages, and the fact that he was a full-fledged character in the first ''Soul Calibur'' (alongside Hwang and Rock, whose movesets were adapted into Assassin's and Berserker's). This is slightly made up for due to the fact that Lizardman and Rock become full-fledged characters again in ''Soul Calibur III'' and ''IV'' (and ''V'' in Lizardman's case).
** Li Long from ''Soul Blade'' reappears in ''Soul Calibur III''... as a bonus character using a moveset usually reserved for created characters. He's expanded in ''Soul Calibur III Arcade Edition'', but fans still felt cheated. In a similar manner, Hwang and Amy also appear as bonus characters who use generic movesets. Whilst Li Long and Hwang went from being unique characters to being generic, Amy went from being generic to being a unique character of her own in ''Soul Calibur IV'', meaning that this trope was reversed.
** ''VideoGame/SoulEdge''[=/=]''VideoGame/SoulBlade'' has a ridiculous one: Go to all the trouble of beating Edge Master Mode (the game's notoriously hard Story Mode) with every character and you are rewarded with a bonus character called Sophitia!!, who is Sophitia without armor.
* ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}}'':

** [[VideoGame/Shinobi2002 PlayStation 2]] version, Joe Musashi can be unlocked as a playable character, his bonus being that he has unlimited shurikens and no life draining tate bar. The pro to this is that you don't have to worry about getting huge combos to keep your life and damage enemies, and you can just continually chuck shurikens at some hard to kill enemies. The downside is that there are some bosses that pretty much require you to get huge combos in order to defeat them in a timely fashion; however, you can also chuck shurikens at them continually. A perfect beginner character... only you don't get him until you've gotten 40 Oboro coins, which is only possible if you had already beaten the game once on Normal and again on Hard.
** He's improved upon in ''[[VideoGame/NightshadeKunoichi Nightshade]]''. His unlimited shurikens now have the ability to perform Tate combos and can break armor, which gives him a distinct advantage over Hotsuma (one of the two other hidden characters), who needs to get up close to do it with his superior slashing power.

* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'':

* In ''[[VideoGame/WarioWare WarioWare: Twisted!]]'', unlocking every microgame and clearing each of them will unlock the final souvenir; what is it, you may ask? ''[=WarioWare=]: Twisted''. Selecting it restarts the game with a modified intro. Doing all that work for a glorified restart button.

* UsefulNotes/PlayStation2:
** ''Any'' games that required the [=i.LINK=] port for LAN play is this, as the port was removed on later revisions of the [=PS2=]. So if you had a game that required [=i.LINK=] for LAN play and not the Network Adapter and planned on linking more consoles together for multiplayer, you were out of luck.

* Finding all wrecks in an area in ''VideoGame/TestDrive Unlimited 2'' grants you a free car if you have the garage space for it. The first wreck you assemble is a Volkswagen Beetle. A C4-class car (Which means you can actually enter it into some competitions, unlike the B2-class V8 Buggy you find next) with a top speed that can only exceed [=85mph=] with massive tuning or the much simpler method of ''driving it off a cliff''. At least the V8 Buggy you get from the next ten wrecks is useful for exploring. Another 10 gets you The Citroen 2CV (also C4 class), even worse than Beetle. It tops out at about 70 mph, even after tuning. Then again, what do you expect from a car with only 18 horsepower?

* ''VideoGame/KnightRider'': The [[UsefulNotes/NintendoEntertainmentSystem NES]] version allows you to start with maxed out shields/gas/acceleration in Mission mode if you complete the Driving mode twice and play the Mission campaign. However, due to a GameBreakingBug, the game will crash at the upgrade screen before the UsefulNotes/{{Miami}} mission.

* ''VideoGame/CrashTeamRacing'': Completing the first four gem cups unlocks the first four bosses, so fans were incredibly incensed and let down when they beat the final cup, which was incidentally much harder to even gain access to in the first place, and were handed [[JokeCharacter Fake Crash]] instead of [[FinalBoss Nitros Oxide]]. Justified however, as the developers later explained they originally ''did'' intend to have Oxide unlocked in the purple gem cup but were forced to [[DummiedOut dummy him out]] when they were unable to adapt his unique kart and larger size for play without glitches or messing up the game: Oxide is almost fully functional if accessed via a cheat device, and you'll even hear unique lines from him when you control him, but he'll crash the game if used in multiplayer due to [[GameBreakingBug overflowing the game's memory]] and his huge hovering kart makes it difficult to see the track. The [[VideoGame/CrashTeamRacingNitroFueled remake]] rectifies this by scaling his kart down to roughly the same as everyone else's as well as [[PromotedToPlayable promoting him to playable]].

* ''VideoGame/TombRaider2013'': the Tomb of the Lost Adventurer DLC is short and lackluster, but above all it is fatally bugged and if you burn the trees in the wrong order you can't complete the quest. You either revert to a previous save (before ENTERING the tomb) or restart the playthrough altogether, if you want to complete this minor challenge. For those who want to know the correct solution, this is the answer given by the developers themselves: [[spoiler:"We do apologize for the inconvenience everyone has encountered. We were able to reproduce the glitch and have found the following workaround. You will need to restart the Challenge Tomb from the beginning and start burning the post from the far right first and work your way backwards. After burning the far right post and the post after the plane should drop all the way. Then proceed to throw the lantern in the plane to clear the boxes. Then proceed to climb the plane has normally intended."]]

* ''VideoGame/TombRaider2013'': the Tomb of the Lost Adventurer DLC is short and lackluster, but above all it is fatally bugged and if you burn the trees in the wrong order you can't complete the quest. You either revert to a previous save (before ENTERING the tomb) or restart the playthrough altogether, if you want to complete this minor challenge. For those who want to know the correct solution, this is the answer given by the developers themselves: [[Spoiler:"We do apologize for the inconvenience everyone has encountered. We were able to reproduce the glitch and have found the following workaround. You will need to restart the Challenge Tomb from the beginning and start burning the post from the far right first and work your way backwards. After burning the far right post and the post after the plane should drop all the way. Then proceed to throw the lantern in the plane to clear the boxes. Then proceed to climb the plane has normally intended."]]

* ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry3DantesAwakening'' has a two player mode that is utterly worthless. When Dante is using Doppelganger style, or fighting alongside Vergil during Mission 19, a second player can press start on a second controller to play as Shadow Dante or Vergil. However, they are then subjected to extreme CameraScrew, because the camera only focuses on Dante, leaving P2 attacking only empty air off screen.

* By getting all S-Ranks in the Cyber Space Challenges in ''VideoGame/SonicFrontiers'', you unlock... Power Boost for the Cyber Space stages. While the extra speed boost can be useful in some cases (like getting the S-Rank for stage 1-2), it's more of a novelty, since you've already proven you can easily clear these stages without it. It can't be used in Arcade Mode either, which is the one mode where it would most likely see the most use rather than in the main story.

* ''WallaceAndGromitInProjectZoo'': Most of the unlockable rewards are video previews and short clips from various shorts from previous Wallace and Gromit entries. While it may've had value at the time, you could easily cut your losses and simply buy the Complete Collection and Curse of the Were Rabbit on DVD if you want to watch the shorts and the bonus ones respectively instead of going through tough bonus levels to unlock short clips.

*** The Tunic of the Wild set, aka ''[=BotW=]''[='=]s rendition of Link's classic green clothes. It's obtained by beating all 120 shrines in the game, at which point Link is completely overpowered. And even if he wasn't, this Tunic is ''not'' the best armor set of the game, stats-wise. That's still the [[DiskOneNuke Champion's Tunic]], and there are other two armor sets that have the exact same defense stats as the Tunic of the Wild that are infinitely easier to find, namely the Hylian Armor and the Ancient Armor. You'll also probably have those armor sets fully upgraded at this point, and to get the Tunic of the Wild up to par with them you'll have to upgrade it as well, which requires tedious grinding to find dragon parts. The fact that a lot of people find the clothes design [[WTHCostumingDepartment bafflingly underwhelming]] doesn't help either.