The urge to complete games to their fullest extends well beyond the PlayStation ecosystem. Players can boost their Gamerscore by collecting achievements on the Xbox family of systems. Players on PC generally have a similar experience as with Xbox; on Steam, the number of games that you have managed to achieve 100% completion of will be displayed on your profile, along with any standout achievements you would like to showcase. Even the Epic Games Store has begun implementing achievement support for some games on their launcher.
A glaring omission exists among this list of major gaming companies: Nintendo. Often considered the option that appeals more to the casual market, many serious completionists might be tempted to look elsewhere. After all, unlike their PlayStation, Xbox, and PC counterparts, Nintendo has not established any kind of integrated achievement system within their consoles at all. That means there are no leaderboards to climb or shiny new platinum trophies to share with others.
Are there any Nintendo games for completionists? For trophy hunters, what Nintendo games are out there to scratch that completionist itch? And for those who play primarily on Nintendo consoles, what is all the fuss about? The below games are great options for gamers that love the thrill of the hunt and being rewarded for their success.
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7. Mario Odyssey
Mario games are well-known for their collectibles. In Mario 64, players needed to find enough power stars to challenge Bowser and beat the game. In Mario Odyssey, players must collect power moons to power their ship and travel to other stages. While relatively few are required to proceed in the story, the game boasts 880 unique power moons to be discovered. Players can also buy additional moons from stores in the game’s various kingdoms, up to a soft cap of 999.
At first glance this seems like a difficult task—how are we supposed to find that many collectibles? Mario Odyssey actually provides an easy-to-use checklist for players to view after completing the game, where you can see which moons you have yet to find. This is done by speaking with Toadette inside the castle in Mushroom Kingdom. Players can also get hints from the ever-helpful talking bird Talkatoo in exchange for coins.
Players that manage to track down all the moons can expect some cosmetic rewards, including a golden sail for their ship and a new portrait in the wedding hall of the Moon Kingdom.
6. Pokémon Series
This series’ catchphrase is “Gotta Catch ‘Em All!” for a reason. All mainline Pokémon games have a set number of Pocket Monsters to find and catch in their games, as recorded in the player’s Pokédex. When you complete the Pokédex and show a specific NPC in the games, you will usually receive a nice certificate and other rewards.
For example, in Pokémon Sword and Shield, the Galar Pokédex has 400 entries and rewards players with a certificate and the shiny charm upon its completion. Completing the DLC Pokédex entries nets additional rewards as well; for the Isle of Armor, players receive a certificate, a replica gold crown, and a mark charm; for the Crown Tundra, players receive a certificate, a replica state crown, 50 rare candies, and 3 golden bottle caps. These can be used to help train your Pokémon for post-game activities or online battles.
Side games in the Pokémon series tend to share completionist elements, too. In New Pokémon Snap, players are tasked with completing a variety of research missions in the different biomes they unlock. These usually involve taking pictures of resident Pokémon exhibiting unique behaviors or in different situations. For example, in the Belusylva Island region, there are 46 research tasks in total. Completing all the research tasks across all 6 of the different islands as well as the research camp could take anywhere from 50-100 hours depending on your efficiency.
5. Super Smash Bros Ultimate
This title added a unique mechanic to the Smash Bros series: spirits. These can be used to enhance your fighting character’s capabilities or provide certain benefits, like being immune to changes in gravity or starting the match with an item. These can add an extra level of customization to your matches, and in the game’s story mode also provide interesting little puzzles for you to solve in order to win efficiently. There are currently over 1,500 spirits in the game for players to collect.
Spirits can be obtained by playing classic mode, adventure mode, purchased from different shops, found on the spirit board, enhanced from previous spirits, summoned using other spirits, and more. There are a few spirits that are exclusive to DLC packs, too. While there is no specific reward for completing the list, it is extremely satisfying to see it completed in your compendium. One nice benefit is you can challenge any of the spirits you’ve discovered to another battle in this menu, so you can always go back and redo your favorites whenever you like.
4. Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury
You’re not here for me to tell you that a Mario game is a fun platformer. This game is worth mentioning separately, however, due to its abundance of collectables. In Super Mario 3D World, these collectables come in the form of green stars and stamps. Each level generally has 3 green stars hidden within them as well as 1 stamp. Some stamps can also be found in the overworld in special spaces, similar to Toad Houses in other titles.
There are also 5 character stamps that require a different approach to collect. These represent each of the playable characters: Mario, Luigi, Toad, Princess Peach, and Rosalina. In order to get one of these stamps, you have to beat every single level with that character. Since there are almost 100 levels in the game, this can be a tall order for one person.
Thankfully, progress towards these stamps are shared in multiplayer, so it is possible to cut down on the number of playthroughs required. At best, you can have 4 characters in a level at one time, so you will still need to do at least 2 full playthroughs of the game to collect all of the stamps. You can unlock additional worlds in the game by collecting everything, and you can get stars to adorn your save file and commemorate your completion.
It is also worth noting that the Nintendo Switch release of this game came with an additional expansion: Bowser’s Fury. This came with its own set of collectibles called the Cat Shines. There are 100 of these scattered throughout the world, usually as a reward for doing a quick quest. Finding all of these as well as defeating Bowser rewards you with more stars on your save file. Also, defeating the secret boss after getting all the Cat Shines will reward you with some snazzy cosmetics. Bowser Jr will take on a cat-like appearance, and Mario will be able to retain his Giga Cat form appearance permanently (albeit at his normal size).
3. Paper Mario: The Origami King
A divisive entry in the series, The Origami King was criticized for its odd puzzle mechanics upon release. Love or hate the combat, most people who played the game would say that the writing was fairly well-done and the new characters decent. One thing that the game introduced were hidden Toads for the player to find. They could be uncovered across the 5 different regions: 135 in the red streamer area, 149 in the blue streamer area, 93 in the yellow streamer area, 38 in the purple streamer area, and 1 in the green streamer area. That is 416 hidden Toads in total. The game acknowledges your success with a congratulatory message.
However, that is only the start. Completionists that want to see the game’s secret ending must take on additional tasks. Finding every hidden Toad is simply one task out of 15 that must be done. Of note, players must take part in at least 200 battles (hopefully you find enjoyment in the combat!), collect 300,000 coins, battle every enemy type at least once, and perform well in a variety of minigames.
2. Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition
The first game in the Xenoblade Chronicles series did not go easy on the side content. There are well over 400 side quests for the player to sink their teeth into. These generally come with decent rewards in the form of experience, money, items, and even affinity for various settlements. You can also increase your affinity with your party members by completing quests with them.
Simply playing through the story and ignoring the side content is likely to leave you short when it comes to seeing all the characters’ special heart-to-heart scenes. That said, completing all the side quests is no easy feat. Many of these are missable and can only be completed within a short time frame between important story beats.
Further, the game introduces a Collectopaedia: a record that keeps track of items you can acquire in the world. Completing rows or pages of this book will reward the player with a weapon, armor piece, or a gem. There are approximately 20 collections in the main game, as well as 2 additional in the Future Connected portion. These are generally region-based. There are only 8 different categories that these collectibles may fall into: Veg, Fruit, Flower, Animal, Bug, Nature, Parts, and Strange. Getting everything is sure to scratch that completionist itch!
1. Splatoon 3
Most trophy hunters shy away from live service games. Splatoon 3 is Nintendo’s attempt at a competitive third-person shooter with seasonal content. Every three months or so, the game adds brand new content in the form of new weapons, clothing, and sometimes even game modes. There are a few different elements that might appeal to a completionist—some of which can keep you invested for thousands of hours.
To begin with, players may want to have a complete wardrobe: 222 pieces of headgear, 344 shirts or jackets, and 228 pairs of shoes, as of this writing. These can be obtained from leveling up the seasonal catalogues, stores, ordered from other players, or even as a reward for participating in Salmon Run (the co-op game mode).
Each level in Splatoon 3’s story mode also provides options for which weapon the player would like to bring along. The game records which weapons were used in each level and also grades you on how thorough you are when exploring the hub worlds, rewarding you with wallpapers that can be downloaded from the Nintendo Switch smartphone application. The most skilled players can also take on the game’s secret level, which gives out fuzzy bear ears for your inkling or octoling to wear as a reward.
That said, the largest time sink comes from the badges players can obtain. Each player can show off 3 badges on their gamertag, which are a lot like PlayStation trophies. These are displayed at the beginning of each match and to whomever you splat in a match, and often represent what kind of player you happen to be.
As of version 7.0.0, there are a whopping 593 badges that can be collected in the game. For example, there are badges for reaching high levels, defeating large numbers of Salmon bosses in Salmon Run, or collecting many Tableturf cards. The below badges are widely considered to be among the most time-consuming or difficult to obtain in the entire game.
- There is a rainbow badge for reaching level 999, which would likely take thousands of hours to reach. Levels cannot be obtained in Salmon Run either, so you would have to specifically play in turf war or ranked modes.
- Alternatively, there is a badge for obtaining 9,999,999 Grizzco Points in Salmon Run—which again, would take thousands of hours to obtain as well. These points can only be collected in this mode.
- Unsurprisingly, another badge exists for reaching the maximum rank of 999 in Tableturf battling. Again, you can only progress this badge in a specific mode.
All three of these insanely difficult badges are frankly at odds with each other, as you cannot advance one without neglecting the others. Many players may find themselves “specializing” in their favorite game modes as a result. While these are likely the most taxing of the bunch, there are many other badges that you can strive to add to your splat tag.
There will always be something for you to work towards if you become invested in Splatoon 3. While it may not be worth it to work towards the massively grindy ones, it is gratifying to show off rare badges that you’ve earned to other players.
Honorable Mentions
There a few more games that I’d like to recommend as Nintendo games for completionists that are not necessarily console-exclusive. These games can be great experiences on the Nintendo Switch but can also be enjoyed on PlayStation consoles.
Dragon Quest XI
The newest entry in the long-running JRPG franchise, Dragon Quest XI goes big when it comes to achievements. The game has an in-game system called Accolades, which are much more difficult and all-encompassing to complete than the trophies on PlayStation. There are 253 total Accolades for players to grapple with should they decide to 100% this game. Here’s the breakdown:
- 28 are story-related;
- 28 are battle-related;
- 33 require forging;
- 27 are from the casino;
- 25 are for items;
- 112 are for miscellaneous tasks, like activating skills, acquiring large amounts of gold, or horse-racing.
The horse-racing can be especially difficult and skill dependent, whereas the casino will require massive amounts of grinding. The Accolade “Slots Maniac” requires you to spin the slots 500 times, and the Accolade “Red-Hot Pokerer” requires you to play Poker 360 times. Don’t think you can necessarily use a turbo controller, either; as the Accolade “Luck of the Devil” requires you to actually be successful and obtain 1 million casino tokens. If you are a fan of the game, the Accolades are an extra task you can consider going for to keep the fun times going.
Persona 5 Royal
Unlike the original “vanilla” release of Persona 5, the Royal version added an interactive hideout area for party members to hang out in. One of the features in the Thieves Den is an Award area, which shows off various achievements that the player managed to complete. These objectives fall into four different categories: School Life, Confidant, Battle and Phantom.
Each award that you get gives you in-game currency called P medals, which you can spend on various cosmetics around the Thieves Den. Fully completing all of the Awards section yields even better rewards: an Invisible Veil and Letter of Royalty. The former allows you to move around the Metaverse without being spotted by enemies, while the latter gives you the ability to summon any Persona in your compendium for free.
These tasks are not to be taken lightly, however. PlayStation players that have obtained the platinum trophy for this game are likely to be far behind in finishing the in-game Awards section. For starters, you’d have to at least do two playthroughs, since you must see all romantic and platonic routes for your confidants. You also have to defeat the Reaper five times, get 100,000 points in the fishing minigame, and clear all Mementos requests.
Conclusion
Although Nintendo hasn’t established a global achievement system, there are still plenty of great games that have their own method of tracking additional objectives and rewarding players for seeing everything the game has to offer.
Have you played any of these games already? Are there any other Nintendo games for completionists that you would recommend for trophy hunters? Read more to find out what type of trophy hunter you are!
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