10 Video Game Skills You Won’t Believe You Had To Unlock

Unlocking new skills is one of the most fun aspects of any video game. Discovering new abilities - and figuring out which you want next - it's the bread and butter of RPGs, and the cherry on top for many other genres.

But not every skill you have to unlock in a video game will be something new. In fact, many skills you need to unlock in games will be things that you could accomplish even as a baby. Mind-blowing abilities like... drinking water, and knowing that you have a torso.

Generally, this is done for one of two reasons. The first is to give the player a greater sense of accomplishment when they begin to unlock more complicated techniques, as they've literally started with the absolute fundamentals. The other is... well, it's just to mess with you, frankly, and sometimes it's funny enough that you aren't even mad when you realise that's the entire point.

When you play a ninja who can't run, a warrior who can't shoot, or a man who doesn't know how to get naked, you might briefly be disappointed. But, on a basic level, this reminds us that even the coolest hero can need a hand along the way - sometimes even with simple things like putting a shirt on.

When you play No More Heroes you play as Travis Touchdown, the childish but well-meaning protagonist of the franchise. Travis is an accomplish swordsman, and as the games progress, an increasingly accomplished assassin, capable of some seriously mind-blowing moves.

In the first game, though, he can't run. At all. Until you help him learn how to.

Or, rather, until you unlock the ability by buying it off your Russian special-moves-trainer Lovikov. In order to do so, you'll have to collect at least seven Lovikov Balls, at which point the man will deem you worth training. That might feel kind of patronising, but hey, as an assassin who currently can't run proving yourself is probably a good idea.

You can easily miss all this for way longer than you'd want to, though, leaving the unfortunate Travis gently strolling his way to various murders. Slow and steady maybe isn't a viable assassination tactic, all things considered - but at least one person has probably run through all or most of the game by walking the whole time.