Xbox achievements have always been about more than finishing a game. Sometimes they reward skill. Sometimes they reward patience. Sometimes they reward doing something so strange that you wonder who approved it in the first place.

A new Windows Central feature looks back at seven unusual Xbox achievements, ranging from brutal difficulty tests to joke achievements that feel like they were designed to make you laugh, cringe, or both.

Some achievements are funny, others are exhausting

The list starts with Snake Beater from Metal Gear Solid HD Collection. It is one of those achievements that relies on an awkward joke and a very specific in game moment. Then there is So that’s what it tastes like from Who’s Your Daddy?!, which leans into the game’s already strange sense of humor.

The difficulty based picks are more serious. LASO Master from Halo: The Master Chief Collection asks you to finish Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, Halo 3, and Halo 4 on Legendary with all skulls enabled. That means tougher enemies, fewer resources, and punishing modifiers across four campaigns.

Gears of War also appears with Seriously…, which asks for 10,000 kills in ranked versus matches. Even if you try to boost it, the time commitment is massive. Rock Band 2’s The Bladder of Steel Award may be even worse for some people, since it requires completing the full Endless Setlist without pausing or failing. That can take around six hours.

High on Life’s Spent 15 Hours At The Alien Strip Club is another example of a game using achievements for comedy. The unlock description sounds like you wasted a whole weekend in an alien nightclub, but the achievement actually unlocks after defeating a boss.

The strangest one may be I Swear! I Did It By Mistake! from Lollipop Chainsaw. It is built around an intentionally awkward camera related condition, and it fits the game’s messy cult classic reputation.

The interesting part is that players still chase these achievements even when they are annoying, embarrassing, or wildly impractical. Part of that comes from completionism. Part of it comes from bragging rights. And sometimes, the achievement itself becomes a story you can tell later.

That is why Xbox achievements still matter to a lot of players. They turn small moments into records, and they give people a reason to revisit games in strange ways. Some of them test skill. Some test patience. Some test your tolerance for nonsense.

This list shows the full range. Xbox achievements can be impressive, exhausting, funny, and deeply questionable, often all in the same library.