5 Fighting Game Secret Characters Who Were Impossible To Unlock Before the Internet

Fighting Game secret characters are somewhat of a tradition in the genre, with some boss fights and new playable fighters being locked behind certain in-game conditions. In the age of the internet, it’s easy to look up guides for how to reach specific encounters. However, back in the days of the arcade, only rumors and local theories on someone who “might” have seen a secret character could give you the right clues to hunt down a hidden part of a game.

Not many fighting games can hide their secret characters for very long in the modern day, no matter how complicated it is to reach those hidden combatants. For example, Mortal Kombat 1 made the pink ninja fighter Floyd incredibly hard to reach, requiring random objectives to be met before an encounter with the character. However, fans quickly were able to dissect every possible way to make reaching Floyd easier, marking a shift from how secret characters were typically an extremely rare sight in older titles.

5. Tengu (Dead or Alive 2: Hardcore)

Tengu is an unlockable character in Dead or Alive 2: Hardcore, whose name should already give you a hint at how difficult some aspects of the game could be. Released originally for the PS2 and Dreamcast consoles in 1999, this game was the second entry in Team Ninja’s 3D fighting game series, acting as their own spin on other games in the sub-genre like Tekken or Virtua Fighter. However, the multitude of strange modes in this game meant that secret characters like Tengu were hidden behind many layers of odd objectives.

To get Tengu as a playable fighter for all modes except Dead or Alive 2: Hardcore‘s Story, you first had to jump into the game’s Survival mode. This mode had you face off against an endless wave of opponents, with the goal being to fight as many enemies as possible to unlock rare rewards. Several cosmetics were tied to success in Survival mode, but items of all kinds would drop for defeating other characters using specific methods. One such item was a Star, the rarest object you could get after a victory.

Collecting 10 Stars would unlock Tengu, but the task is far easier said than done. Stars are only given when you continuously knock down opponents, using attacks to strike them over and over while they’re on the ground. However, doing this doesn’t guarantee a Star, so setting Survival mode to Easy gives you a chance of exploiting a weaker opponent for this item. Even if you don’t want to grind for arbitrary items, it takes 200 matches as any combination of characters to unlock Tengu too, meaning that the character is locked behind tedium players could not have predicted.

4. Mokap (Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance)

Mokap is somewhat of a joke character in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, acting as an homage to the motion capture actor who was the basis for Scorpion, Sub-Zero, and other characters in the first Mortal Kombat arcade title. Although not as difficult to discover as the secret boss Reptile in that game, Reptile was not someone players could control, while Mokap was a playable secret character worth taking the time to unlock.

With Deadly Alliance‘s 2002 release, it was unclear how to get Mokap without tons of experimentation. The trial and error came down to Konquest mode, the expansive story/RPG adventure filled with missions that depended on whatever character you were playing as. Although missions started fairly easy, their rising difficulty could make one character’s Konquest run easily take up to 2-5 hours based on how familiar you were with the game’s mechanics. To get Mokap, you needed to beat Konquest mode with every single fighter Deadly Alliance‘s roster had to offer.

Without Mokap and the game’s other secret character, Blaze, that’s 21 different runs of Konquest mode to complete. The average Deadly Alliance player likely did 1-3 attempts at Konquest, but no one could expect that total completion of the mode would be tied to gaining a new fighter. The patience it took to complete some trials could be extraordinary, especially when you factor in the bugs and glitches tied to some missions from certain characters. Mokap and Blaze were both nearly impossible to reach not from how hidden they were, but how many obstacles players had to put up with.

3. Mewtwo (Super Smash Bros. Melee)

Another near impossible secret character to unlock due to gameplay barriers is Mewtwo, one of multiple playable fighters in Super Smash Bros. Melee players could find. The 2001 release of this platform fighter for the Gamecube saw Mewtwo be added after the Pokemon could not be included in the original N64 Super Smash Bros., making the Psychic-type a fighter players were already investing in finding through some type of unlock system.

That being said, Mewtwo’s unlock requirements are not hard, but disheartening in an era without internet. Without prior knowledge, the only advice you’d get from others who’d unlocked Mewtwo was to “keep playing and you’ll get them [Mewtwo] eventually.” While a normal grind of Super Smash Bros. Melee would yield different characters, Mewtwo always felt like a rumored goal that would never come to fruition. Later, it would become common knowledge that this was because it takes players 700+ registered versus games before Mewtwo becomes available.

This translates to 25-30 hours of gameplay at least, with a dedication to fight matches that could take time to complete. Without a clear idea of reducing the stocks of opponents to make versus games go by faster, Mewtwo may not have been a character some players ever got to see until many months after picking up the game. Unless you were dedicated to the idea of getting Mewtwo through playing Super Smash Bros. Melee non-stop, the secret character is not one you would interact with easily.

2. Heihachi Mishima (Tekken)

The original Tekken is quite an experience, with experimental 3D fighting gameplay that feels quite outdated and clunky by today’s standards. Regardless of its status now, though, this game was revolutionary in arcades when it came out, and remained so when it transitioned to home consoles long before the internet was ever conceived. Heihachi Mishima was the final boss of Tekken, but players could unlock him for the PS1 port by meeting a certain set of conditions.

Although it didn’t take nearly as long as Mewtwo, the way to get Heihachi in the first Tekken is horribly frustrating. To get Heihachi, you simply need to beat a standard run of Arcade mode with a base character…in under 5 minutes and 30 seconds. This includes defeating a multitude of opponents without getting defeated or using continues, as a single round extends your time beyond the limit overall. Nearly flawless play is necessary to accomplishing this goal, as you have to play on Normal or higher difficulty too.

1. Morrigan & Nakoruru (Capcom vs SNK: Millenium Fight 2000 Pro)

Morrigan and Nakoruru are from Capcom and SNK games respectively, hailing from the Darkstalkers and Samurai Shodown IPs from both companies. As you would expect, this made each fighter prime candidates for Capcom vs SNK: Millennium Fight 2000 Pro, the highly anticipated crossover from two juggernauts of fighting games in the arcade days. Yet, these two characters were no where to be found, with only one other Samurai Shodown character and no Darkstalkers representation in a sea of a Street Fighter and The King of Fighters inspired roster.

These two characters were unlocked by completely investing into either side of the collaboration, either on the Capcom or SNK side. To get Morrigan, players had to defeat the game with each Capcom character, then unlock the EX versions of those fighters. After that, they could challenge Morrigan to defeat her, which would place her on the roster with everyone else. Similarly, Nakoruru required the same objective with every SNK character in the game, creating a series of tasks that players were unlikely to figure out on their own.

You needed to interact with a secret store in the game to even access the Capcom or SNK characters’ EX versions too, adding extra layers of navigation tied to the character unlocks. The vast character variety and the size of each half of the roster made this task one that hardly anyone completed, let alone attempted. Before the internet, a massive grind like the one in Capcom vs SNK: Millennium Fight 2000 Pro was out of the question, as secret characters in fighting games were just not special enough to warrant such a time commitment.

What secret characters did you hate unlocking the most in fighting games? Leave a comment below or join the conversation in the ComicBook Forum!

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