God mode in Wii games?
May 17, 2008 7:36 PM   Subscribe

Why don't the 'current' gen game consoles have cheats/trainers?

I like the games my wii has. The problem is, that I don't have the time to get 'good enough' to continue to enjoy them. (and I'm not open to debate about spending the time...)

In contrast: I have a modded xbox. I have played a number of games...and after awhile, when I get bored, I get extra 'play' out of the games by playing in God mode. For example, first person shooters? They're great to explore, and therapeutic in god mode.

So, why can't I do the same in my Wii? (From what I understand the xbox 360 and the PS3 have the same limitations.) Why don't they all have god modes (or at least full exploration modes?) Wouldn't the game designers want maximum enjoyment out of their work?
posted by Towelie to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (15 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
I was always under the impression that developers often don't bother with cheats these days because they'd rather you purchase the game than rent it, cheat, and then breeze through it in a few days. That's just a guess, though. Could also be because you'll never get better at a game if you cheat your way through it.

Anyway, there's always cheat devices such as GameShark/Action Replay/Code Breaker (I don't know which are still around). I don't know exactly what "god mode" is, but I assume it means something along the lines of infinite health, which can be achieved using a cheating device.
posted by Dreamcast at 8:29 PM on May 17, 2008


I would say, besides rental busting, that people tend to reflect less positively on games they cheated through. Like dissecting your pet frog, it's interesting, but once you've done it, the frog isn't going to be much fun anymore.

Also, with XBox 360, if you want to have 'achievement points', which are considered by most developers to be a good thing, you can't really let people just cheat them.

As far as game cheat devices go, XBox 360 and PS3 are much more 'locked down' than previous consoles (specifically due to code signing), making devices which rely on running unauthorized (unsigned) executables or altering signed code a much more difficult proposition.

(As an aside, from my recollection, it seems like Game Cheats have always been much more of an American thing than a Japanese one. I could be wrong. )
posted by blenderfish at 8:43 PM on May 17, 2008


blunderfish:
(As an aside, from my recollection, it seems like Game Cheats have always been much more of an American thing than a Japanese one. I could be wrong. )
If you're talking game device cheats, then you'd be wrong. I've seen quite a few Japanese sites with tons of game decide cheat codes. You could be right about cheats that are executed by way of controller input commands or passwords as the only Japanese games I tend to play are RPGs. Controller cheats and passwords were in a lot of Japanese games for the NES, though.
posted by Dreamcast at 8:48 PM on May 17, 2008


It might have to do with games becoming increasingly online and multiplayer. God mode in multiplayer kind of ruins it for everyone else.

I looked around and couldn't find any Gameshark/Action replay type cheating devices for the Wii. Sorry.
posted by wigglin at 8:48 PM on May 17, 2008


I mean, "game device cheat codes", not "game decide cheat codes".
posted by Dreamcast at 8:49 PM on May 17, 2008


wigglin: According to Wikipedia, there's an Action Replay for it.
posted by Dreamcast at 8:50 PM on May 17, 2008


Dreamcast: yeah, konami code is a pretty good counterexample, and I'm sure there are a few (Metal Gear, also by konami), but I'm thinking about Mario, and Final Fantasy, Zelda, Resident Evil, and Sonic, Metroid*, Mega Man* etc... pretty much the prominent ones I played growing up. (* some games had save codes, which you could look up online, but I'm not counting that. ) (This is all super anecdotal, of course.)

Addressing the original question, another point is that games nowadays typically have an easy mode, which is usually pretty damn easy.
posted by blenderfish at 8:55 PM on May 17, 2008


I know Resident Evil 2: Dual Shock Edition had a cheat that gave you infinite ammunition. I think that's the only game in the series with a cheat code, but I figured I'd mention it.
posted by Dreamcast at 9:18 PM on May 17, 2008


Trainers do the same function as Game genie/action replay codes.

Creating a "God mode" can easily create bugs/glitches and break gameplay. It'd be a waste of development time to implement/test correctly.
posted by wongcorgi at 1:08 AM on May 18, 2008


wongcorgi: Aren't trainers only for PC games?

Dreamcast: I don't know where you found that on wikipedia, but if you search around on the internet to buy an Action Replay for the wii you won't find it(at least I couldn't).

The current generation of consoles is too locked down for these third party "hacking" devices to be developed. The reason for this is probably to prevent piracy, and it seems to be working. It is much harder to use copied games with current consoles than it was in the past.
posted by wigglin at 2:55 AM on May 18, 2008


Xbox 360 doesn't have cheats for most games because of the Achievements system. But, GTA4 has cheats, and so does the Orange Box HL2.

I've played a couple of games for Wii that have cheats; I just can't recall which ones they were right now. Part of the problem here is that cheats wouldn't make much sense in most of the casual Wii bullshit out there--how can you cheat at WarioWare?

Several of my PS3 games have cheats. But, not as many as my PS2.

I had a short discussion at the end of this post about cheats on consoles with regards to QA.
posted by Netzapper at 7:59 AM on May 18, 2008


Games are more complex than ever these days and I would suppose that adding 'God Mode' would require at least some additional testing to ensure it didn't cause an unrecoverable crash. With the tight deadlines developers are under they probably just don't have time for these kinds of perks.
posted by mattholomew at 10:32 AM on May 18, 2008


Video games nowadays are also much easier than in the heydays of Action Replay, Game Genie, etc. Every game has a save feature. Compare to the days where finishing a video game meant playing a game for 10+ hours without shutting off the console.

Also, I would imagine that game developers just don't want people playing their games on God Mode. If they spent millions of dollars playtesting, scripting, and in short providing a "experience" that, when finished, players would be satisfied with their achievement; it seems wrong to put in a cheat code which would allow the more incompetent and lazy player to breeze through the game and forget about it because it was too easy and unmemorable. I've regretted every time I've used cheat codes - except when playing in normal mode is so difficult that cheat modes make the game normal (I'm looking at you, Gradius 3!).
posted by meowzilla at 12:32 PM on May 18, 2008


Every game has a save feature. Compare to the days where finishing a video game meant playing a game for 10+ hours without shutting off the console.

Also a good point. I would say that, in the olden days, you had to become really really damn good at a game to ever beat it. Nowadays, you're basically guaranteed to eventually beat it (via saves or levelling or difficulty selection.) Games where great skill is required to beat them are considered 'hardcore' nowadays.
posted by blenderfish at 4:35 PM on May 18, 2008


Games are more complex than ever these days and I would suppose that adding 'God Mode' would require at least some additional testing to ensure it didn't cause an unrecoverable crash.

Typically, developers need 'god mode' or 'infinite ammo' or 'warp to level' throughout development (or for demos,) so those would probably be rock solid. In fact, I would guess that a lot of classic cheat codes are actually things the developers used, and left in. Presumably, these are leaked by developers to the press/their friends.

My favorite example is the original NES Metroid, which had a 'god mode' cheatcode (NARPASSWORD,) that nobody knew about until just a couple years ago, when someone reverse engineering the game found it. (note, this is different than JUSTIN BAILEY, which gave you cool stuff, but not god mode.)
posted by blenderfish at 4:47 PM on May 18, 2008 [1 favorite]


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