... I know I've gotten a lot in the past week, but one of the local places around here got a bunch of Atari 5200 stuff in, and while I didn't get all of it (boxed, working 5200 trak-ball!), I did get a few games... one being one of the system's more prominent ones and a pretty nice find.
Atari 5200
--
Pitfall II: The Lost Caverns - $20, cart and manual. Activision's Pitfall II is kind of ahead of its time -- it's a somewhat open ended exploration-platformer with unlimited lives and checkpoints, like a modern game. Impressive stuff for 1983. This is the best version of the game, too, because the Atari 8-bit computer/5200 version has a large additional area added that adds a bunch of content to the game, and which doesn't exist in any other version. It's a 5200 must-have and I'm glad to have found it.
RealSports Soccer - $5, cart and manual. This soccer game looks fairly well-featured for the time. It's got decent visuals, an AI opponent, etc.
James Bond 007 - $15, cart and manual. This is a Parker Bros. game, and it's not too highly thought of I believe but hopefully it was worth getting anyway... we'll see. There is also a 2600 version, but I don't have it. It looks like a takeoff on Moon Patrol, which is promising, that's a good game.
Atari 2600
--
Revenge of the Beefsteak Tomatoes - $2, cart only. This was from a different place, and it's a nice find because this game is not common and it was in very nice condition. I hope the game is good too, but with the 2600 you never know.
Switch
--
Penny-Punching Princess - $19, new. A beat 'em up essentially.
Game Gear
--
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie - cart only, $6. It's a not-great fighting game pretty much.
Game Boy Color
--
WWF Betrayal - $6, cart only. This is actually a beat 'em up, not a wrestling game. That's why I got it.
Game Boy Advance
--
Mario Tennis: Power Tour - $9, cart only. Hopefully it's good?
Ultimate Brain Games Collection - $4, cart only. One of Telegames' two GBA compilation releases.
SNES
--
Super Mario RPG - $42, cart only. I know you can get this game for well under this price online, but you can also pay more, and usually when I've seen this game in person it's priced even more highly than this, so this time I decided to get it. It's got a sticker from an old, long-closed local rental place on it too... heh.
I paid closer to $80 when it was brand new right out of the store. That was during that couple of years when cart prices skyrocketed though.
Enjoy it, it's one of the best games on the SNES.
Yeah, I'm glad I had a PC and Game Boy back then, neither of those were nearly as expensive to buy games for...
So something interesting showed up in the mail recently. Earlier this year, I backed a kickstarter. After a few months of delay the game is out, and my boxed copy arrived. I haven't done much of that this year -- in fact, it's the only kickstarter I've backed this year -- but I decided to because it's the first homebrew release of an N64 game! It isn't a new development, though, but an old cancelled but just-about-finished game:
N64 (unlicensed release)
--
40 Winks - complete, $45 (kickstarter price). This came with the cart and manual in a N64-style box. It's a good box, with the colored sides as expected. Of course there isn't a real N64 logo or such because it's not licensed, but it's a good box. As for the game, 40 Winks is a collection-heavy 3d platformer. The game did release on Playstation back in '99 and got mediocre reviews, but despite getting better reviews the N64 version was cancelled because the publisher (GT Interactive) was heading towards bankruptcy and it hadn't sold well on PS1. A PAL rom of a mostly-finished build leaked ten years ago, but not a final NTSC version. Well, that's not true anymore because Piko Interactive got the rights to the game, just-about-done NTSC and PAL roms of the game, and released it on actual carts! I still haven't played the PS1 version, but based on this one, yeah, it's a decently good game. The graphics are nice, it has expansion pak support for higher res graphics (with the usual framerate hit, though), and the gameplay seems fun enough. It's not the best game, but isn't bad either and I'm glad to have it. It's awesome that the N64 version of 40 Winks is finally available, and it is better than everything I've seen of the PS1 version as you'd expect. Developer Eurocom did mostly good work on the N64.\
The purchase also came with a key for Piko's PC DD (Steam) release of 40 Winks, so I redeemed that and have that now as well. However, that isn't the N64 version, it's the Playstation version, running, somewhat shoddily, in an emulator. Piko's PC releases are all questionably-emulated roms so this is not a surprise, but it's too bad that it is only the PS1 version. The N64 release is definitely better. There is a N64-exclusive 2 player co-op splitscreen mode, too.
So, I had a buy 2 get 1 free (used games) coupon from Gamestop that was expiring this last weekend, so I decided to use it.
Switch
--
Mario Tennis Aces - $50, complete
Shining Resonance: Refrain - $42, complete (with steelbook case and plastic cover)
Disgaea 5 Complete - free in B2G1 (would have been $35), complete
Also they had a buy 3 $9.99 games for $15 deal, so I got some stuff with that as well. After the discount each of the three games below was $4.50.
Xbox One
--
Need for Speed - complete. This is the one with FMV cutscenes.
PS Vita
--
LittleBigPlanet PS Vita - cart in generic case
Wii
--
Toy Story 3 - complete. This is kind of the predecessor to Disney Infinity, I believe.
Yes, I got another thing.
Atari 2600
--
Swordquest: Earthworld - cart with manual and comic book, $15. Yeah it was a bit much perhaps, but if I'm going to get this game I definitely want the manual and comic considering its reputation for being even harder to figure out without them, so I got it.
Atari 5200
--
The main thing I got was for the 5200: I got that Atari 5200 trak-ball controller. It was complete in box, with the manual and foam blocks and everything. For that and the (not trakball-compatible) loose cart game Decathlon I paid $75, which is reasonable; Decathlon is a $20 game easily for the 5200, and the trak-ball's worth the rest, particularly in box and in great condition like this one is. Indeed, the peel-off plastic cover strip over the metal strip on the front of the trakball is still there! That's impressive, for such an old device.
I was really unsure if it would be worth getting because of the price and because I do not exactly like the other old trackballs I have, for the Atari 2600, Sega Master System, and Colecovision for example (except for as a controller extender with nice buttons, in the Coleco's case), but as soon as I plugged it in... this thing's kind of amazing! Of the console trackballs I have used, this one's definitely the best. The ball spins freely and well, unlike those others, and it's got a great feel to it that other old trackballs don't. It's fantastic and makes playing a few games, most notably Centipede and Missile Command, a whole lot better, and they already were pretty good on this system.
There is one downside, though: unfortunately unlike those other trackballs this one doesn't work in a joystick mode with all games, it only works with games specifically programmed to support it. So, there are only 11 5200 titles from its original library that work with the trak-ball, all of them first-party Atari titles -- none of the third parties figured out how to support it or something, I guess. Maybe Kaboom would work? I don't have that one for 5200. It all depends on how each games' analog sensitivity is set apparently, but in most it won't do anything much. So, it's just for 11 games, plus a few more homebrews and unreleased titles (such as Tempest, perhaps most notably). I have 10 of those eleven, only missing RealSports Football, and of those 11, about half aren't something you'd want to play with a trackball for long -- Pengo, Defender, Pole Position? No thanks, for various reasons. But for the supported games that are improved, it's so worth it! Centipede and Missile Command have some of their best home ports around with this trak-ball. Super Breakout's also good, though it's great on 2600 with a paddle controller as well. Space Invaders and Galaxian are surprisingly great with the trakball as well, I didn't think I'd like playing them that way but it's actually really fun. And RealSports Tennis might be a little better than it is with the controller. I haven't tried RealSports Soccer yet. Anyway, it has limited use but it's good at what it does. Centipede with this trakball is a lot better than Slither for Colecovision with that slow-rolling, quick-to-stop trackball... and it has more games too, from their original libraries at least -- only two Colecovision games support that trackball in its analog Roller mode! There may be some more with homebrews, I'm not sure, but that's not many.
So yes, for yet another thing, there's a winter sale on GOG currently. I got a couple of things.
PC DD - GOG sale
--
Full Throttle Remastered - free - this is free now, not sure how long it will remain available though.
Escape Goat 2 - $2. The first game was really fun so I've been wanting the sequel, but I got the first on GOG so I didn't want the second on Steam (so both would be together) and it's on sale on Steam way more often... but anyway, it was finally on sale on GOG for a good price, so i got it. Awesome.
Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition - $5. I've heard very mixed things about the BG Enhanced Edition games, but I'd like to try the first one at least.
Tower of Time - $7.50. This is a one-day sale game only on sale for a few more hours. The game looks pretty interesting.
War Wind - $1.50. A late '90s RTS I've always thought looked kind of interesting but never have played... it apparently has some issues, but it's definitely weird at least.
Everspace - with spending $15, this game is free so I have it as well now.
I got three not good games this time. Well, two of them are not good at least, anyway.
Xbox One
--
Shaq-Fu: A Legend Reborn - $6, new
PS2
--
Crazy Frog Arcade Racer - $5, complete - an apparently really terrible racing game based on this weird British frog thing... I just couldn't resist...
Inuyasha: The Secret of the Cursed Mask - $7, complete - an RPG set in the InuYasha (anime) series.
Switch
--
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - new, Christmas gift. Yeah, I asked for this game and got it a few days ago, which is very nice. I started playing today and it does seem good. It probably does play better than the Wii U/3DS one... though I should hook up GC controllers next time, the controls don't feel quite right on the Pro Controller I used today.
3DS DD (on sale)
--
Mom Hid My Game! - $3.50, on sale last week. This is a mobile port collection of a popular little adventure-ish puzzle game. It's amusing, but very easy, short, and simple -- each of the 50 levels has only one or two screens to it, so you have few options. Still, the animations and such are silly and some puzzles are clever.
Wii U DD (on sale) - these games also were on sale a few days ago. I'm not sure offhand if they still are.
--
Mr. Pumpkin Adventure - $1 - A simple adventure game from Circle.
Rock 'N Racing Off-Road DX - $3.50 - A bad super off-road style overhead racer. This game is bad, but just amusing enough that I don't regret finally getting it...
Octocopter: Super Squid Squad Escape - $2. This indie Kuru Kuru Kururin clone's really fun, just like the fantastic game it takes inspiration from. This game was a cool find and now also has a Switch port that's mostly the same game, but with a two player mode added. I might get that sometime too... I really liked KuruKuru Kururin.
Factotum - $6.69. This game is from the same publisher as Octocopter, and it's a Wii U-exclusive puzzle game where you play as a team of two robots you can switch between. Some controls are only on the Gamepad, and while it's not the best use of the gamepad it's nice to see a game that was trying to make use of it. The all-green graphics look nice enough too, and the puzzles seem decently good.
Aqua Moto Racing Utopia - $10. This game is probably overpriced for the janky mess that you get, but I really wanted to try at least one version of this Wave Race knockoff, and I got this one because it's one of the newer ones (this 2018 release actually came after the Switch version!) and I like the Wii U. Well, the game has issues and I wish it was cheaper, but there is some fun to be had.
Nintendo DS
--
Dr. Who: Evacuation Earth (E) - $7, complete. Yeah, I found this European-exclusive DS game locally for cheap, so I got it. It is a puzzle-adventure game, a good genre for the DS. I'm not a big Dr. Who fan, but still this is interesting to see. European DS cases are kind of weird, with how thick they are and that they use different (clear) plastic from the black US/JP cases...
I didn't get much in this year's Christmas Steam sale -- seriously, it's way fewer games than I got in the last two major Steam sales, Christmas 2017 and Summer 2018 -- but I did get a few yesterday, on the last day. Steam sales definitely aren't as good as they used to be...
PC DD - Steam sale
--
Final Dusk - $0.50
Fake Colours - $0.50
Bubsy: The Woolies Strike Back - $5. I know this game has a lot of bad press but I want to give it a try anyway. The developer has made some good games, so maybe I'll like it.
Expand - $1.50. I like the visual look of this game, hopefully the gameplay is as good.
Mages of Mystralia - $7. This overhead action-adventure game looks like it could be good.
Fitz the Fox - $2. Platformer with a B&W Game Boy aesthetic.
Zwei: The Arges Adventure - $12. This is the first Zwei games' first English-language release, which is pretty cool; it's a good action-RPG series from Falcom.
Nirvana Pilot Yume - $3.50. This game was inspired by the classic PC game Skyroads, which is why I got it; I really liked Skyroads in the '90s, so a new game with that same concept could be great if done well!
Pit People - $12.50. This is the latest game from the team behind Alien Hominid, Castle Crashers, and such. Unlike their previous games this one is a strategy game. It got somewhat mixed reviews but I've mostly liked the developer so I had to get this one eventually.
Lightfield - $11.75. This game is a unique futuristic racing game where you apparently parkour along the course in futuristic not-flying ships, or something. I like the genre and it has a great visual look so I decided to pick it up...
And similarly, on this final day of the Xbox sale I got a game.
Xbox One DD
--
Onrush - $12 (on sale). This isn't a racing game, it's kind of a car combat thing on tracks, I believe. Still though I've been wanting to get it, and finally decided to. The game is released on disc, but would cost at least twice what this download did...
Genesis
--
Shaq-Fu - complete, $4. I saw this recently and... I bought it. I've seen copies of Shaq-Fu every so often ever since I got a SNES in '05 and never bought this infamous disaster, but I bought it this time for some reason. Maybe that it's a complete copy helped? That's nice. That I bought the second game not long ago probably also helped convince me to buy this thing.
PC DD
--
Trails in the Sky: Second Chapter - $19.50, GOG sale. I bought the first game in this Falcom RPG series some time back on GOG, and while I never did play much of it it's kind of a two-part game with this being the second half, so I had to buy the second part sometime and I did that now. This game has been on sale regularly on Steam, but it's on sale less on GOG and since I got part one here I kind of had to get the second one on GOG. Anyway, hopefully I actually play this eventually, I have heard good things.
And lastly... um... I got another console. A console I just made a thread for.
http://portal.tovennet.net/mybb/showthread.php?tid=7159
Atari 2600 - these games were $2 each and are all cart only.
--
Super Cobra - I have this for 5200, but seeing how they manage it on 2600 could be interesting... or bad, depending.
Q*Bert
Video Chess
Genesis
--
Formula One - complete, $4. A F1 game from Domark, somewhat sort of Monaco GP-style.
NES
--
Joe & Mac: Caveman Ninja - $16, cart with manual and slipcover. I have the better SNES version of this game, but it's an interesting one to compare, and the two versions are definitely different. Reasonable price for the game too.
CD-I
--
Link: The Faces of Evil - $80, jewelcase only (disc, case, and manual; no slipcover). Yup, I got it.
The Crayon Factory - $2.50, jewelcase only (disc, case, and manual; no slipcover)
Voyeur - $7.50, jewelcase only (disc, case, and manual; no slipcover)
SNES
--
Q*Bert 3 - $10, cart only
This time I overpaid for one game, but got good deals on the rest of this stuff so it more than balances out.
Vita
--
Assassin's Creed Liberation - card only, $5
Atari 2600
--
Chuck Norris Superkicks and Artillery Duel (Xonox Double Ender cartridge) - $20, cart only. You can get this for like half this on ebay, oh well. It is somewhat uncommon at least, and a weird thing -- I mean, a cart with a cart on each end? Huh. It's an odd way to put two games on one cart...
Also for Atari 2600, I got the manuals for the Activision games River Raid, Seaquest, and Commando for a dollar each. They're very cool to have and sell for at least $5 each online. (Yeah, I don't have the 2600 version of Commando, but got this anyway.)
Also for $5 (a very good deal!) I got a Xbox 360 Wireless Speed Wheel controller, a very odd thing which is a wireless, motion-controlled 360 controller for racing games. It's probably Wiimote (with wheel addon) inspired, but released in 2011, pretty late in the generation, and has colored ring lights on it sort of like a PS3 Move controller. It's a weird but nice-looking controller and I am happy to have it. From what I read it works well, but isn't compatible with some games because it doesn't have LB or RB buttons, only ABXY, a dpad, LT, RT, Start, and Back (and the Xbox button), and the motion twisting, and some X360 racing games map buttons to the upper shoulder buttons without allowing you to remap that. They should have put shoulder buttons on instead of those light rings... or inside them or something, it could have worked. My favorite 360 racing game is Hydro Thunder Hurricane, which sadly isn't usable with this thing because it maps boost to RB and you can't remap. Still, it's a neat thing to have. (Oh, and because it's from Microsoft, it uses regular batteries for power, so no worrying about it not holding a charge anymore like it would if it was a Sony thing! That's great.)
Also I got a few digital games on 3DS. I have over a hundred digital 3DS games now...
3DS DD
--
2 Fast 4 Gnomz - $1, on sale
Geki Yaba Runner Deluxe - $1, on sale - sort of the above games' sequel
Strike Force Foxx - $3, on sale - inspired by Choplifter.
Bye-Bye BoxBoy - $5 - the final game in this quite good (but hard!) puzzle-platformer series from HAL. Not on sale, I just finally got around to getting it.
Colecovision
--
Sir Lancelot - $25, cart only. The guy at one of the local game stores found this game he thought he'd ebayed some time back, and I'm glad he did because it's a good and uncommon game that I'm glad to have.
Game Gear
--
Sonic Blast - cart and manual, $14.50. Sonic Blast may be the worst of the five GG Sonic platformers, and it is (and I don't like any of the GG Sonic games other than the pretty good first one), but it's not THAT much worse than the three before it, so I think it gets a bit of a bad rap... like, sure, it's slow and not good, but Sonics 2, Triple Trouble, and Chaos aren't much better. Plus now I have all five of them on GG.
Genesis
--
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie - $5.50, cart only. Like the first one on Genesis, this game is an isometric beat 'em up.
So after a while of thinking 'why haven't I bought this yet, seriously?', I finally got, from ebay:
Vita
--
Summon Night 6: Lost Borders - new, $25. This sixth and so far final Summon Night game is a turn-based strategy game, like all previous titles in the main series. I've liked this franchise ever since I played the first US-released one, the first GBA spinoff action-RPG (Summon Night: Swordcraft Story), and while I have heard that this is maybe the least good game in the main series, it's still a Summon Night game and it was a major reason I wanted to get a Vita (since the game is PS4 and Vita exclusive), so it's really great that I finally got it. It arrived recently but I've played several hours of the game already, and yeah, it's quite good! It probably is the least great Summon Night game, though it is a bit hard to compare because the first four games in the main series are in Japanese only and do not have English translations, but it's still good. That last sentence is one of the issues with this game, though -- see, it's a crossover fan-service game, which brings back all of the main characters from the previous five main series titles, plus a bunch of side characters from those five games, and pulls them into another world so they can all be in the same groups together. There is a new story and a few new lead characters, but this is mostly an excuse to see a lot of the main series' characters again... which most people playing the Western version of the game don't know, because only the fifth game got a US release. I do own the first four Summon Night games and have played some of each one, but you don't get nearly as much out of a game when you can't understand the language so I've mostly played the English-language games, namely the GBA/DS action-RPGs and the fifth one on PSP.
So, in the couple of hours of the game I've played so far, yeah, there have been a lot of things that would make more sense if I'd played the first four games a lot more and could actually understand them, but the good side is that it's a fun game regardless with good characters and gameplay. There are also some other things about it I don't like as much as previous games -- you can't choose a main character this time but instead have to play through full campaigns with each of the three in the game, for instance, so the series' usual gender choice doesn't really apply here (though there is still a female lead, eventually, for part of the game), and the story's constant switching between introducing this character or that from older games doesn't have the focus or weight of the story in 5, but I'm liking the game quite a bit anyway and will continue with it.
(Also I got that lot of CD-i stuff from ebay that I list in the CD-i thread.)
Game Gear
--
Super Space Invaders - $8, cart only. A nice find, this is one of the few US-released shmups for the system.
Wii
--
uDraw Studio: Instant Artist with uDraw Tablet - $4. The game is complete in its case, and the tablet is loose but intact. This isn't the game originally bundled with the uDraw, but it was cheap and this thing is weird (and somewhat important, with how the uDraw helped drive THQ out of business, when the PS360 one particularly failed to sell) so I got it.
uDraw Pictionary - $3, complete. This game is multiplayer-only, I'm pretty sure, but of the uDraw's small library most are random licensed stuff or art programs, so this game's one of the more interesting ones.
Xbox 360
--
Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2006) - disc only, $2. The complete version of this is a bit expensive for a 360 game, but $2 disc only? Sure! (I have this for the original Xbox, but the 360 version looks better as you'd expect.)
I got a couple of games today.
Switch
--
Nintendo Labo Variety Kit - $40, new. Labo is on sale for $40 for the next few days at Best Buy, so I went there and got this. I'd have gotten the third one, the Vehicle Kit, if they had it since I've heard that one has the best game, but sadly they only had the Variety and Robot kits, so I got this one. I might get the Robot sometime, but for less than $40 considering what I've heard about how short the actual game is.
3DS
--
The Legend of Legacy - $9, card only. Meanwhile, Gamestop has a sale this week to get two games $14.99 or less for $20. I got one $10 game and one $15, to save $5 on a game I have wanted to play.
Xbox One
--
Yoku's Island Express - $10, complete. This was the $15 one. Why get this interesting game for Xbox and not Switch? Well, it's cheaper (the Switch version was there, but wouldn't have been eligible for this deal) and I rarely use my Switch portably anyway, so this is just as good really.
First, this game released yesterday, and I bought it day one. I probably shouldn't because I still haven't played the last one all THAT far in, but I did, and don't regret it because it did come with a few neat launch bonuses and I love the series.
3DS
--
Etrian Odyssey Nexus - $38, new. This so-far-final Etrian Odyssey game brings back lots of classes and characters from all of the previous EO games, combined into one title. EO is a fantastic series and it's sad that Nintendo is abandoning the dual-screen design that is central to this series, but at least it's going out with what sounds like a great final game. Also the launch version comes with an added little artbook and a pin of one of the NPCs, so that's neat. It's no match for the big artbook that came with EO3 as its launch bonus, but it's nice.
Also...
CD-I
--
Accelerator - $40, complete (jewelcase), from ebay. This is a Europe-only CD-I racing game released in '97, near the end of the system's life. I got it because it's a futuristic racing game with overhead, RC Pro-Am-esque gameplay and I like that concept, and because the game is uncommon and this was a good price for it. I played it some and the game is okay but not great, but it's very cool to have. Also, it gets me a FOURTH type of CD-I game case... why are there so many different types of CD-I cases, Phillips? It's a little odd. I like this one though, it's a standard jewelcase but with custom CD-I moldings. That's better than the standard jewelcases of the later US releases I have.
Additionally, I got these a few weeks ago but hadn't listed them.
Wii U DD (eShop) - these games were all on sale for super cheap and I ended up getting all of this devs' Wii U titles. They're simple but decent enough that why not...
--
Super Destronaut - $1
Super Destronaut 2: Go Duck Yourself - $1
Toon Tanks - $1
Laser Blaster - $1
Christmas Adventure of Rocket Penguin - $1
Land It Rocket - $1.50
Funky Physics - $1
Also I got some digital Switch games last week as well, also mostly games that were on sale. (The prices are the sale prices unless nopted)
Switch - DD (eShop)
--
Mutant Mudds Collection - $3 - I have the two main games in this collection for other platforms, but not a puzzle game that is exclusive to the collection, so I got this.
SEGA AGES Phantasy Star - $6 - A port of the original Phantasy Star? Eh. A port of the game with an added, really nice automap on screen? That's awesome! And that is what this is. The game is still incredibly, tediously grindey, but the added map makes it much more playable.
Jumping Joe & Friends - $0.50
Robonauts - $0.50
VSR: Void Space Racing - $0.50
Arcade Archives: Sky Skipper - $8 (this one is the one that is full price). Sky Skipper is an early Nintendo arcade game, and it's an okay game.. and definitely better here than in that Atari 2600 version I have. This is the first ever US release of the arcade version of the game, too, so I had to have it.
3DS DD
--
36 Fragments of Midnight - $1.50 - The other Midnight games are touch puzzle games, but this one's a platformer. Huh. It's alright though.
I went to a flea market today and didn't see much videogame related apart from some highly overpriced games from the PS2 and newer, but found a couple of interesting older PC games...
PC
--
Distant Frontiers - $3, jewelcase copy. This is a very obscure (in the US at least) DOS PC RPG from the early '90s. It's a European game which was called Whale's Journey there, and apparently is part dungeon-crawler RPG and part trading game. Alright. It seems to be a bit better known there than here.
Pro Pinball: Timeshock - $5, jewelcase only copy. The Pro Pinball series was a well known one for its highly accurate depictions of pinball, and this is one of the three games in the series. I've only ever played the demos of these games, oddly enough, so this is very cool to have.
Also, Starlink stuff is on sale at Best Buy, so I got another ship and a weapon set. It's too bad that the game doesn't seem to have done great because it is good, but being toys-to-life I can understand that... the gameplay's good though and the plastic ships look very nice, and they are useful in the game, so I'm glad to have this.
It's the same problem I have with all the toys to life stuff. It's expensive DLC that takes up a lot of space. I just want to play the game, everything unlocked from the start. Just- just do that. They also jumped into it far too late.
I did get the Starfox one though...
Yeah, I still haven't played some of the stuff in the Splatoon games because you need the Amiibos to play it and I don't have those... if it was just regular DLC it'd be much easier to get. Toys-to-life is an exploitative field, which costs far more than a regular game without giving you far more content for your increased expenditure, but some of the stuff is kind of neat anyway.
Skylanders - The games are actually mostly good. I expected nothing from this series but the good gameplay is what convinced me to buy some figures for it. It reminds me a bit of a Gauntlet-ish game, but newer and for a younger audience. I guess the series is dead now, though unlike the next two below it hasn't been officially discontinued, but as far as gameplay goes I do think it's the best one. Maybe they'll bring it back sometime.
Disney Infinity - Not as good as Skylanders in gameplay, Disney Infinity's a decent series with alright exploration and action, but its more third person action/platformer design isn't as fun as Skylanders' beat 'em up action is. Also the toys are annoyingly restricted because of Disney; you can only use toys from a franchise in that franchise's campaign, which is pretty dumb.
Lego Dimensions - This game has the best toys, since Legos are great, but the worst gameplay. I've never been much of a fan of TT Games' Lego series, I find them pretty average, and this one is unfortunately no exception. How much are some neat Legos worth, when you don't get much in the way of great gameplay for the money? Well, something I guess since I have some stuff for the game, but not enough to make me want all of it, that's for sure.
Starlink - Starlink is s a completely different kind of game from the above three, but is definitely good and has fewer toys than the others, even just looking at their first games. Also, unlike previous Toys to Life games, Starlink actually lets you buy all of the toys as digital DLC, and the DLC versions are pretty cheap compared to buying the plastic toys! So yeah, if you do like Starlink and want to use more of the ships ingame -- and it's a good idea, since as in the other games they act like lives, and having varied weapons is also important -- buying them digitally is a good idea which saves space and money. I've gone with the physical ones since the toys look nice and are often on sale, but digital is a good option for this game.
Amiibo - The only thing here that is actually successful enough to continue getting releases, Amiibo is ironically the one I have the fewest of. Sure, they are nice Nintendo toys, but I'm not a toy collector so I wouldn't buy them just for that. And as videogame accessories, most Amiibos are minimally useful. I have a few of the Smash ones, and I've used them in the game ... uh, a couple of times each? Having those Splatoon ones for the modes and costumes they unlock would be great, and the same goes for the Metroid one that unlocks a mode in Metroid: Samus Returns, but most Amiibos just don't do enough to really make me want to buy them for the games... Smash ones definitely don't, at least, and they are the most common ones.
So yeah, I got some stuff today.
3DS
--
Layton's Mystery Journey: Katrielle and the Millionaires' Conspiracy - $22.50, card only. This latest Layton game is a lot like the past ones, only with a new protagonist, Katrielle (Layton). So I'm expecting a good puzzle game with a crazy story.
NES
--
Skull & Crossbones - $7, cart only - A platformer from Tengen.
Top Gun: The Second Mission - $4, cart only
Gamecube
--
Intellivision Lives!
Xbox
--
Dai Senryaku VII - $5, complete
PS2
--
Kessen - $4, complete
Wii
--
Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree - $3, complete - This is a nice price for this game.
uDraw: Dood's Big Adventure - $5, complete
SNES
--
Kawasaki Superbike Challenge - $15, cart only. Unlike the other SNES Kawasaki game, this one is behind-the-vehicle, and is a bit more uncommon than that one (and at least a little better).
Xbox One
--
Destiny 2 - $3, complete.
Wii U
--
Skylanders Imaginators - $3, complete - The last Skylanders game, so far.
Plus I also got a couple of the Sensei figures for Imaginators and one Creation Crystal. Those cost more than the game, but less than buying it new would have, by a lot...
Also I got a couple of Disney Infinity (3.0 mostly) figures, and the campaign pieces for the other two Star Wars campaigns (the classic series one and the Force Awakens one), and also the Marvel Battlegrounds one, and two figures (a couple more Star Wars ones and one Marvel). These were pretty cheap. It was nice to find though, I've been wanting to play the other two Star Wars campaigns in this game...
NES
--
Mega Man 3 - $20, cart only. I paid way too much for this versus ebay prices, but don't really regret it because it's a great game...
Genesis
--
Thunder Force III - $30, cart only. This one's only slightly over minimum ebay prices, and it's a great game that I have wanted for a long time now, so I'm kind of thrilled to finally have found it! Way back in the late '00s I found and got the SNES incarnation of this game, Thunder Spirits, and I got the second and fourth games for Genesis not long after getting the system, but for some reason this one eluded me. It's always gotten a lot of praise from Genesis fans, and I have played a bit of it before, but I don't remember ever seeing the cart until now. Well, I got it, and yeah, it's really good. The graphics aren't anywhere near Lightening Force's level, of course, but the gameplay is great. It is a bit better than the SNES version because it doesn't have the slowdown that version does, most importantly. The music in this version is better, too.
N64
--
South Park - $9, cart only. I got this because I do want to eventually have all of the non-sports N64 games. This one is the FPS one. I like Acclaim's other N64 FPSes, but have always heard that this one's not nearly as good. That is probably accurate, and I don't like the series its based on at all, but I have to try it one of these days.
3DS DD (eshop) - these I got last week, when most of them were on sale.
--
Picross e8 - $6. I finally finished every single puzzle in Picross e7, so on to the next one! Picross is such a great fun thing to play a few of here and there...
Jewel Quest 4 - $1.19 (on sale)
Jewel Quest 6 - $1.19 (on sale)
Luxor - $1.19 (on sale) I really like the PC Luxor games, and I was hoping it would work well on 3DS also. Well, it does! This is pretty good stuff. It's too bad more Luxor games don't have 3DS ports.
Wii U DD (eshop) - I got these last week as well.
--
Tachyon Project - $4, on sale. The Switch version of this game was also on sale for the same price, but I ended up deciding to get this one because apparently both versions are the same (the Switch port doesn't seem to fix anything) and I'd rather have it for Wii U if I have the choice -- more storage space, smaller library, etc.
99Moves - $1.24, on sale. This is a very simple little game, but it's good. I like this better than the one below. This is the last of the three '99' games.
99Seconds - $1.24, on sale. The second of three games in the '99' series of sorts, this basic thing's alright but gets old fast and has little progression.
At about the same time I put the $20 in the 3DS/Wii U eshop that I bought all that stuff with (pretty much using it up), I also put $20 in the Switch eshop... which is still almost all still there, because the only thing I've found interesting enough to buy is this cheap thing.
Switch DD - eshop
--
Space Ribbon - $1, on sale. It's another simple, low-budget futuristic racing game. This one has a heavy focus on drafting (speeding up by being behind other cars).
So, I just got another console. It didn't cost quite as much as the last few, though, and for this price I couldn't refuse.
For $60, I got an almost complete in box Sears Super Video Arcade, which is the Sears model of the Intellivision. It came with the box, manual, system (with its hardwired video and power cords), the two original controllers (they do plug in in this model, they aren't hardwired like the first regular Intellivision), and boxed copy of the pack-in game, the red-box Sears version of Las Vegas Poker & Blackjack, the original Intellivision packin title.
All that was missing was, well, the actual cart from Las Vegas Poker and Blackjack (the box, manual, and overlays are there), and also the RF switchbox, which I have one of so that's no problem. The game's no loss, it's pretty thoroughly uninteresting (though I'm sure I'll get a copy for a dollar at some point), and this is a great price for a boxed Super Video Arcade. You can get working Intellivision systems for cheap, it's a much cheaper system to get complete and working than say the Colecovision is, but the Sears variant is a bit less common and often a little more expensive than the Mattel models, and looking on Atari Age, quite a few people call it the best model because of the plug-in controllers and its model controller, which is kind of the best official Intellivision controller because it's the model 1 pad, but with a regular cord instead of a coiled phone style cable. The cord is still pretty short, but you can at least sit a couple of feet away from the system, or use a controller extender cable of course, the system uses regular 9-pin ports. It's also apparently better than the Intellivision II pad (which changed somehow, though I've never held one so I don't know how exactly). The system looks kind of nice in that late '70s/early '80s way, with some woodgrain, large buttons on top, and places to hide the cords. As with all Intellivisions games plug into the side but the system works great, clean carts boot up reliably and the picture is good.
This system is also interesting because I'm pretty sure it'd been at that store for years. I remember seeing this boxed Intellivision there years ago, but hadn't been there much in a while (they carry a lot fewer videogames than they did five or ten years ago...) until suddenly noticing it when I was there earlier this week. I looked up the Super Video Arcade again and then decided to pick it up, and then did so yesterday. It had a $75 pricetag on it, but the guy sold it to me for $60, which is nice. He was probably just happy to finally sell the thing... they used to have Intellivision games too, some years back, but don't have nay anymore. Oh well, I'll find some more elsewhere. I did get a few games at one (other) place a few days ago. A few other places should have more, and a bunch more overlays and such, when I have time to look around.
Intellivision - games are all cart only and cost $1 each.
--
Lock 'n Chase - A decent to good Pac-Man knockoff. I have the 2600 version, but this one is a bit better than that.
Snafu - It's like Surround, Snake, Tron Light Cycles, that kind of thing, but with four players, AI opponents, lots of modes, and more. This is good stuff. I'll need to either print or buy a manual for this though, to know what all the modes are.
Astrosmash - This is Mattel's game where you shoot asteroids going down the screen at you. It's a simple game which is fun for a bit, but goes on way way too long since you get extra lives constantly. I also have the similar 2600 version.
Space Armada - This one is a Space Invaders clone. It has better graphics than Space Invaders for 2600, but probably isn't as good in gameplay. There are only like 25 invaders on screen, it feels really low-rez... way fewer modes, too.
Auto Racing - This is a two player (or one player time trial) only racing game. The graphics and gameplay are nice, but there's nothing here without two people pretty much. Most Intellivision sports games apparently also are two player only... too bad.
Golf - This feels much more simmish than Golf on Atari. It's a golf game, so i find it boring, but it's something that it feels like golf and not mini-golf or something, like O2 and 2600 golf games do?
Space Battle - This is a somewhat interesting game where you send three fleets at attacking aliens on a map, then can zoom into a first-person space battle scene where you shoot enemy ships. It's okay.
My first impression is, well, the controllers work well -- all the buttons and discs work correctly -- but yes are kind of bad, as everyone says they are. The disc is uncomfortable to use for any amount of time and side fire buttons were a terrible idea that everybody copied from Mattel afterwards, for whatever reason -- see the 5200 and Colecovision controllers. The controller is less comfortable than the 5200 controller, I'd say. Versus the Colecovision, the disc feels worse than that stick, but at least the buttons all work on these, unlike my Coleco controllers... but the Coleco has that nice 'use the trackball with a gamepad in it' option that I use, so versus that this is worse. Of course the controller is usually the most criticized thing about this system, but while I kind of like the 5200 controllers (fire buttons aside), this one, on first impression, isn't great; the uncomfortable disc is a problem. It is interesting that it's a d-pad predecessor, and it's a 16-direction pad so it has more directions than a regular 8-way dpad, but it does not feel good to use.
Graphically, the Invellivision looks its age -- being from late 1979, it's newer than the 2600 and Odyssey 2 (from '77 and '78), but looks dated compared to the Colecovision and 5200, from 1982. Despite that though, somehow thanks to a guy who wanted to keep it alive and bought the system after Mattel gave up on it in late '83, the Intellivision survived the crash (it was the only console other than the 2600 to do so, in fact) and had game releases until 1989. Looking at the games from '85 to' 89 though, it's mostly a bunch more sports games... blah. A few good games released later on though. The handful of games I have all common ones from earlier in the system's life of course, but hopefully I'll find some interesting stuff. On that note though, sometimes I've seen criticism of the Intellivision library for being not great. I've played a few in emulation before, but it's been a while. Well, my first impression is that it's alright but nothing great; a few of these seven games are good but others are pretty forgettable.
Here's one nice thing about the Intellivision! Since the system was on the market for much longer than the other non-2600 systems before the NES, games for it are more common than they are for the Odyssey 2, Colecovision, or Atari 5200. So, I went to a couple of places downtown, and came back with 20 Intellivision games! I may have paid more than some of these would have cost on ebay, since the manuals and overlays were at least $1.50 each in most cases, but I thought they'd be worth having. I'm sure others were below ebay prices too, so that's fine. It includes 15 games from Mattel, the system's first party, and five from Imagic. I already have more Intellivision games than Colecovision, and there are a few more to get as well.
Intellivision
--
Atlantis - Cart Only $1.50 - From Imagic. Regarded as the best version of Atlantis, this adds a controllable UFO you can fly around in, instead of only firing cannons.
Pinball - Cart Only $5.00 - This very basic pinball game is oddly a little pricey even cart only.
Armor Battle - Cart Only $1.50 - A multiplayer only Combat knockoff. The Intellivision has a lot of multiplayer-only games, unfortunately...
Triple Action - Cart, Manual, and Overlays $6.50 - This one has more Combat, but also some single player stuff.
Vectron - Cart Only $1.50
Space Hawk - Cart Only $1.50
Bowling - Cart Only $2.50 (and I also have one overlay for this game which was in the system box)
Night Stalker - Cart, Manual, and (One) Overlay, $7.00
Skiing - Cart Only $1.50
Star Strike - Cart, Manual, and Overlays $6.50 - Death Star Trench Run, the game. It's apparently not as good as that sounds.
Space Spartans - Cart and Manual $1.50 (IntelliVoice req., I don't have it yet but with how cheap they are I'll definitely get one.)
Las Vegas Poker & Blackjack $1.50 (cart to make complete boxed Tele-Games copy of game)
Dragonfire - Cart Only $3.00 - This one is a straight port of Imagic's 2600 game, so maybe I shouldn't have got it, but... oh well, I did.
Demon Attack - cart and overlays only $6.00 - from Imagic. This game adds more, versus the 2600 original - a boss stage is added, and the graphics are enhanced.
Microsurgeon - Cart Only $4.00 - Another Imagic game. The later TI 99/4A version is better, but I'll need to get a working one of those before that matters much... but yeah, this game is interesting and a bit complex, so I'll definitely need to look up instructions and the overlay online.
Sharp Shot - Cart Only, $1.50. This is apparently a timing reaction based kids game collection thing with four minigames of sorts.
Mission X - Cart Only $1.50. A vertically scrolling flight combat game with a height component...
Motocross - Cart, Manual, and Overlays $6.50
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons - Complete $10.00. I was hoping to find this one, and did! This action-adventure game is an early attempt at a home version of D&D, and it's an interesting game.
Beauty & The Beast - Cart, Manual, and Overlays $5.00. Imagic's take on Donkey Kong. It's an Intellivision exclusive.
Switch DD
--
World of Final Fantasy Maxima - On Sale, $20.00
Oh, as my post yesterday in the games I played thread makes clear, I went out yesterday and got most of the rest of the interesting Intellivision games I've seen.
Intellivision (note: these games are cart only unless noted)
--
B-17 Bomber - $4 (another Intellivoice game)
Bomb Squad - $1 (and a third of the four Intellivoice games)
Major League Baseball - $1 (two player only game)
Sea Battle - $1 (two player only game)
Tennis - $1 (two player only game)
BurgerTime - $7, cart with manual and overlays
Loco-Motion - $5
Tron: Deadly Discs - $4
Frog Bog - $1
Xbox One
--
Dead or Alive 6 - new, $56. As something of a fan of the series I knew I'd have to get this game, so I did. It has some issues -- a lot of things about it are very similar to DoA5, there's no tag mode, the new costume unlock system is kind of awful, the DLC is already promising to be quite expensive... but I played the beta demo a few weeks ago and liked it, so it is a good game.
Switch
--
The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince - $35, complete. This game is about half as expensive digitally as it is for the physical package, but you get more here -- not only the game in a case, but also a soundtrack (lullaby) CD and a little fairy tale book. They are some neat extras, and the game is supposed to be good (only a couple of hours long, but good) so I got it. Hopefully it's worth it.
Xbox 360
--
South Park: The Stick of Truth - $2, disc only
PSP
--
Patapon - $2, disc only
And these digital titles are games I've gotten in the past week or two.
3DS DD
--
Defend Your Crypt - $2, on sale - a tower defense game, pretty much.
Noah's Cradle - $2.50 - flight combat game.
Bit Boy!! Arcade - $6, on sale - This sequel to the WiiWare game Bit Boy!! is entertaining, though the charmingly weird story stuff with the developer's voice are as much of a draw...
Toy Defense - $2, on sale - Another tower defense game.
Wii U DD
--
Sinister Assistant - $4 - This game is one of several from a developer who makes very NES-styled games that are exclusive to the Wii U. This is the guy's sixth, released in 2019 (yes really), and all are Wii U only so far. It's a simple overhead action game with NES-style graphics and no saving, but isn't too bad.
The Perplexing Orb - $1.50, on sale. This is one of those monkey-ball-ish games.
First, a few days ago I got a second Atari 5200 console. Why? Because for only $25, I got a model one Atari 5200, complete in its original box, with the power supply and RF switchbox (and also the system manual and ad booklet, and six pretty badly damaged boxes for some early 5200 games). It was cheap because it wasn't tested, they probably kind of wanted to get rid of the thing (it's a big box!), it did not come with any controllers, and the cover over the controller well thing in the back is damaged. That's fine with me. I have a 5200, but the one I have is a model 2, which has only two controller ports, while the first one has four ports. Atari didn't really do anything with ports 3 and 4 (Super Breakout aside, and that's nothing special), but there are a few homebrew things which do. I also wanted the first model because it has an auto switchbox, instead of the manual switch of the model 2. The 5200 had the first auto switchbox, and it has issues (which is surely why they dropped it later), but fortunately this one works great. It's nice to have the auto box because it makes using the system much easier, you don't need to switch cables or one of those manual switches in order to use the game. I'll probably use the 5200 more now.
Also I got a few 2600 games today.
Atari 2600
--
Star Voyager - $1.50, cart only - Imagic's take on Starmaster or Star Raiders style gameplay.
Trick Shot - $3, cart with manual - Pool game from Imagic.
Superman - $2, cart only.
So I got a whole bunch of stuff yesterday. Well, this is all the stuff I've gotten over the past week, but half of it is from yesterday, and the other half from a few days ago.
The first three of these were from a buy 4 $9.99 or less games for $20 deal at Gamestop that I believe is still ongoing.
Nintendo 3DS
--
Lord of Magna: Maiden Heaven - cart only, $4.50. This is an okay RPG-strategy title with a bad anime storyline and annoyingly dumb anime nonsense in it, but good graphics and decently good gameplay that have kept me going for at least a little longer.
PS3
--
Lost Dimension - $4.50, complete
Final Fantasy X / X-2 Remaster - $4.50 - Yes, this is about to come out on better platforms, but that will cost a whole lot more than this did...
Wii U
--
Wipeout 3 (ABC's) - $4.50, complete - I have the X360 Kinect version of this game, but not this controller version.
The next three are from a buy 2 XOne / PS4 games and get one free deal Gamestop was running for part of last week.
Xbox One
--
Super Lucky's Tale - $22.50, complete - I've heard this is an alright isometric-style 3d platformer.
Inside / Limbo Double Pack - $18, complete - I don't have Inside, so I mostly got this for that.
Need for Speed Rivals - free (would be $18), complete
Nintendo Switch
--
Mega Man 11 - $25, complete. I finally picked this one up, and yeah, it's good but very hard, just like the demo.
Colecovision
--
Artillery Duel - $30, cart only. This half-baked port of a two player only Atari 2600 game is oddly expensive. Going by gameplay I probably should have passed, but bought it because of its rarity... because it is admittedly expensive, and worth more than this on ebay.
Intellivision
--
Zaxxon - $5, cart only - This is one of Coleco's Intellivision games, so as expected, it's pretty bad like all of their games are. That's too bad, because Zaxxon is a fantastic game... this is a port of the 2600 version that's somehow worse than the 2600 version. Too bad, because this game is good on Colecovision and Atari 5200. I know those systems are more powerful than this one, but I'm sure you can do better than this.
Safecracker - $10, cart only - This one's a pretty cool find - it's one of Imagic's titles from '83, and it does some interesting things, it's part driving game and part puzzle game. Good stuff.
ABPA Backgammon - $5, cart only - This one's much less interesting, it's what it sounds like -- a backgammon game. I got it anyway.
Atari 2600
--
Star Strike - $2, cart only. This is the 2600 version of Mattel's Intellivision game of the same name. As with there, it's basically a Death Star Trench Run game, just with worse graphics here of course. I got this because it's interesting to compare the two versions.
Genesis
--
Hard Drivin' - $3, cart only - This game is a real classic! Sure the framerate is awful, but it was an important step for the industry and is good if you get used to it. Of course the arcade machine is way better, but this is good for the Genesis.
NES
--
Nintendo World Cup / Super Spike V'Ball - $6, cart only - Two Technos sports games on one cart. They're good. And no, I didn't previously own either one.
Playstation
--
Jupiter Strike - $15, complete (longbox game). This is a Taito arcade game port. It's a rail shooter, but not one of the better ones, that's for sure. I don't regret getting it though, longboxes are cool and hopefully it's at least okay...
XS Airboat Racing - $2, complete. This game is one of four PS1 kart racing games from Miracle Designs, a studio who had made Atari Karts (Jaguar) and Merlin Racers (Nuon). The four games are apparently kind of Merlin Racers (an apparently pretty Diddy Kong Racing-inspired title) broken up into four games, and I've been interested in them for a long time but somehow hadn't bought any. Well, I have one now. This one is the water-levels game, as the name suggests.
Nintendo DS
--
Monster Tale - $15, card only. This one's a good find! Monster Tale is a good (though mostly quite easy) Metroidvania game on the DS. It's got nice sprite art and solid gameplay. You play as a little girl who got pulled into a world filled with monsters. She gets a bracelet thing which can shoot and a monster pet, and off you go on your Metroidvania adventure.
NES
--
Iron Sword: Wizards & Warriors II - $5, cart only. I am definitely not a fan of this series, but it's not actually bad and I don't have this one, so I picked it up. This is the one with Fabio on the cover, as if that little knight looks like that...
Xbox 360
--
Fable Anniversary - $5, complete
Killer is Dead - $5, complete
Halo 3: ODST - $5, complete
Switch
--
Labo Kit 03 - Vehicle Kit - $40. This was on sale recently, so I got one. Unlike my still not opened Variety Kit, this one I definitely plan on building; this game looks fun, I'd like to try it. And yes, I am very interested in the apparently-good VR Kit, and will get one eventually.
Genesis
--
World Series Baseball '96 - complete, $4 - This one is Sega's baseball game from '95.
Tony La Russa Baseball - complete (with 25 of the team cards), $4. And this is EA's from 1992.
I have a strong preference for the gameplay style of the Hardball series, for early '90s baseball games, but I decided to get these two because I do like baseball, and even if these aren't really my kinds of games -- they both have the overhead views I've always found kind of hard to find fun to play due to limited visibility -- for both being complete, I thought this was worth it. (They also had a few more, including Triple Play Gold (EA's 1996 baseball game), but those didn't have the manuals, only game and box, so for now I passed.)
Dude your game collection is massive.
There are definitely people out there who own a lot more games than I do, but yeah, it is a pretty large collection now.
That said, I got some more today. Pretty cool stuff here... well, some of them.
Colecovision
--
Gateway to Apshai - $32, complete. This is a pretty cool action-adventure game, pretty much an early roguelike. It's the first game in what would be a popular series at the time, Apshai, though the other games are on computers, not a console like this one. The laser-style boxart is pretty cool too.
Space Fury - $11, cart only. This port of an early Sega arcade game doesn't look even close to as cool as the vector arcade game, but it is a solid Asteroids-style shooting game.
Lady Bug - $11, cart only. And this one's a Pac-Man clone. As with most of Coleco's games on their console, it's a licensed arcade game and is supposed to be okay to good.
Pepper II - $16, complete. This one is one of the Colecovision games I've wanted the most, so it was a great find. This maze-style game plays like Zoom! (Genesis), Amazing Penguin (GB), Crush Roller kind of... things like that. You cover all the lines on a level to move on, only this game is more complex than some -- there are multiple screens you can travel between. It's good.
Atari 2600
--
Airlock - cart and manual, $3
Super Baseball - $2, cart only.
SNES
--
Super Pinball: Beyond the Mask - $4, cart only
Game Boy
--
Crystal Quest - $6, cart only (half off). This was a pretty good find because this game is uncommon and costs a good bit more than this. I actually have the much newer digital X360 version of this early arena-ish shooter, but this GB version's fun too.
PS1
--
X-Bladez: Inline Skater - $3, complete. It may look like a Tony Hawk game, but it's more of a racing game really. A bad one by reviews, but I have a little interest in these weird skating/racing things... are any not terrible?
And also, for $25 I got... a Sega Menacer light gun for the Genesis. It works and came with all the parts -- the main section, stock, binoculars, and sensor. This thing is a blatant knockoff of the Super Scope, only with probably a slightly better design -- the 'scope' has two eyepieces instead of one, and the trigger is actually, well, where you expect a trigger to go. Also you can take it apart depending on what you want to use. Games-wise, though, there are only eight games that work with the thing, three carts (one Europe-only) and five [awful] Sega CD FMV light gun games from American Laser Games (Mad Dog McCree and three others) and Digital Pictures (Corpse Killer). I don't have the Menacer 6-in-1, the other US cart game (since I have it, Terminator 2: The Arcade Game, on SNES), or most of those CD games either, but I tried it with one and it does seem to function. The games' awful though so it's kind of hard to tell... I need to find a copy of that 6-in-1, or T2. Sega really mismanaged the Menacer! It's an okay light gun, but they released nothing at all for it other than the 6-in-1, and that was from Sega of America. There are no Japanese light gun games on the Genesis, for whatever reason. It's pretty strange, with how the Master System, Saturn, and Dreamcast all have first-party light gun games that are really good and helped define those consoles, but the Genesis doesn't at all. And then they finally released this thing as an answer to the SNES, but released no games for it other than the 6-in-1. Uh, and Sega of Europe did publish that one we didn't get here, but other than that, nothing. Strange.
... It might have been better to just licensed the Justifier or something and make games for that, but they wanted something that looked cool like the Super Scope, not so they did, games or no. And now I have the bulky thing. Oh well. (At least the price was reasonable, they often sell for more than this online these days.)
Genesis
--
T2: The Arcade Game - $12, complete. This is a cardboard box game and the box for this game isn't in great shape, but it was there and since I got the Menacer, I thought that I definitely should get this once I saw it. There are only two US-released cartridge games that support the Menacer, plus five bad Sega CD games and a cart game only released in Europe, so the thing has a very small game library. For some very strange reason Sega of Japan didn't make any light gun games that gen; the Master System, Saturn, and Dreamcast all have great light gun games from Sega's Japanese teams, but the Genesis sadly doesn't have any. So, all of the Menacer's small handful of games are Western. Because I didn't previously have the gun I hadn't bought this game before, but now that I have one obviously I needed to get it when I saw it today. I hope to find a copy of the Menacer 6-in-1 soon as well, though sadly I didn't see one today. This game works, though, and it's far better than the awful Sega CD stuff. T2 is an arcade classic, and while I find the game impossible -- in any version, I have never gotten past the 'defend the truck' stage, frustratingly -- it's a good game anyway and this is a good version of the game so it was wroth getting. The SNES version probably is better because it has mouse support so you don't need ot use a lightgun for accurate control, but it's a good fun game and the gun works well enough; it has tracking problems sometimes, but mostly is fine. Oh, the Genesis version of this game came in a cardboard box, and it's not in good shape. Oh well, but at least it was there.
Intellivision
--
Venture - complete in box, $6 - I already have this fun early arcade action-adventureish game on the Atari 2600 and Colecovision so there was no real reason to also get this one, but... I got it anyway. The port's good, unlike most of Coleco's Intellivision games; yes, this is from Coleco. It doesn't quite match the Colecovision version, but you wouldn't expect that. It is a fine version of this good game, and has all the stages, unlike the 2600. Yes, for once Coleco didn't just port the 2600 version to Intellivision! Nice.
Nintendo 3DS
--
Yo-Kai Watch - $9, card only. I've had some interest in this Pokemon-esque series for a while, but didn't want to pay the kind of money the games cost. Well, this was affordable enough that I thought I'd get it, and sure, this game is amusing. It's a simple little kids RPG game with little depth, but it's an amusing little thing that's mildly fun to play.
PC DD
--
Rad Rogers - $6.79, on sale on Steam. This is a classic PC shareware game inspired platformer. Fun stuff.
Curse of the Great Curry God - $12, on sale on Steam. This is a pretty average dungeon crawler. Probably wait for a cheaper sale than this.
PS Vita DD
--
Adventures of Mana - $6, on sale (last week, not sure about now). This is a polygonal 3d remake of Final Fantasy Adventure for the Game Boy. Unlike Sword of Mana on GBA, this game keeps the same level designs and gameplay as the original. This game was only released on iOS/Android and Vita, so it's a mobile game at heart, but still as a big fan of the original game I had to get this eventually.
Muramasa Rebirth DLC Addons collection - $4.50, on sale. Compared to the $15 it usually costs, this recent sale was a pretty good price for this DLC. And the file sizes are small, so I actually found the space to download them! Well, it's more Murasmasa, so it looks amazing but plays much less well. Oh well.
3DS DD
--
Lifespeed - $1.89, on sale. This is another simple 3d flight tube racing game, like the AiRace series. It's on sale now so I got it.
The Legend of Kusakari - $2.50. This was on sale... I think two weeks ago, and I got it then.
Lionel City Builder 3D: Rise of the Rails - $2.50. Same as above.
escapeVektor - $3.50. And here's a third one that was on sale a few weeks ago. This is the complete version of a game first released in partial form on WiiWare, and it's a fun simple arcade-style experience.
Steel Empire - $8. Yup, it's a fourth game that was on sale a week or two ago and I got then. This is the 3DS remake of the Sega Genesis (/GBA) shmup Steel Empire, and it's a good, stereoscopic 3d-enhanced port of the game. This isn't the best shmup ever, but it's good.
DSiWare DD (bought on the 3DS eShop) -- So, I id something I've never done before: actually bought some DSiWare games. I've always avoided them in the bpast because I didn't have a DSi so I wasn't buying them when they were new, and once I got a 3DS very few looked interesting enough to be worth buying... and since they're never on sale, like WiiWare games, there was little reason to buy them when 3DS games which were on sale are also available. I finally decided to get a few though and... well, they're not great. Oh well.
--
SteamWorld Tower Defense - $5. The first SteamWorld game, this TD game is pretty average, unlike its much more acclaimed sequels.
AiRace: Tunnel - $2. The first AiRace game, I believe. It's fun enough, but the analog controls and stereoscopic 3d of the 3DS games makes those better.
Aura-Aura Climber - $2. One of Nintendo's few first party DSiWare games, this is a simple little flinging-focused platformer. It seems average.
Jewel Adventures - $5. This one is a mediocre knockoff of games like Jewel Master, and isn't nearly as good as that series.
Wizard Defenders - $2. And this puzzle game... it has promise, but it has some pretty frustrating issues that keep me from liking it. A refined version of this could be good, like, say, Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes, but this thing's nowhere near that games' level.
First, I got a couple of Wii U digital games several days ago.
Wii U DD
--
PING 1.5+ - $1.50 (on sale)
PSIBO - $1.50 (on sale)
Severed - $7.50 (on sale)
Also, today and yesterday I got a bunch of stuff.
Genesis
--
IMG International Tour Tennis - $4, complete. Tennis games are often simple fun.
NBA Live '95 - $4, complete. I kind of wanted to have at least one of EA's Genesis basketball games, so why not.
NHLPA Hockey '93 - $4, complete. This one I got because I heard it has an EEPROM chip in the cart and not a battery. Well, that's true! Indeed, NHLPA '93 on the Genesis uses EEPROM and not a battery. Cool.
Game Boy
--
Sports Illustrated for Kids: The Ultimate Triple Dare - $5, cart only. This game is somewhat obscure and average, but it's interesting enough that I don't regret getting it. It's an extreme sports collection with several different biking, skating, and snowboarding game types in it.
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back - $7, cart only. It might be more than I should pay for this, but I think I've heard that this is actually less broken than the NES version of game and I like the Game Boy, so I decided to pick this up. The NES version's so busted-hard it's nearly impossible... and yeah, maybe this one is a little bit more fun? It's still super hard though.
Game Boy/GB Color Dual Mode
--
Shadowgate Classic - $5, cart only. I'm not sure why I bought this, but I did. This game is a lot more fun than a mouse than a gamepad... but it works, and the battery is still good, so sure. This is a game I've meant to put time into for a long time in some format or another, but never really have...
PS Vita
--
Utuwarerumo: Mask of Truth - Launch Edition - $20, complete. For the complete game this price is reasonable, and this game is supposed to be good. Just like the first game, which I have, this is part visual novel and part strategy game.
Operation Babel: New Tokyo Legacy - $9 (Buy 2 would-be-$15 games for $20 deal), complete. This is the sequel to Operation Abyss, and I'm expecting it to be similarly average. Dungeon crawlers can be fun, though.
PS3
--
The Guided Fate Paradox - $9 (Buy 2 would-be-$15 games for $20 deal), complete.
Wii
--
uDraw: Dood's Big Adventure - $2.70, complete.
Mario Strikers Charged - $9 (Buy 2 would-be-$15 games for $20 deal), complete. I actually have never owned any of the Mario Baseball or Soccer games, until this that is.
Flip's Twisted World - $2.70, complete.
Fortune Street - $9 (Buy 2 would-be-$15 games for $20 deal). A Monopoly-like Japanese boardgame, with Nintendo and Dragon Quest characters.
Game Boy Color
--
Tomb Raider: Curse of the Sword - $6, cart only - this is the second GBC Tomb Raider game. It's a lot like the more common first one, but has some improvements.
Game Gear
--
Wimbledon Tennis - $2, cart only
SNES
--
SimCity - $7, cart only. I don't know why I got this, it's a downgraded port of a PC game I've owned since the early '90s, but... I got it.
Colecovision
--
Time Pilot - $12, cart only. This port of Coleco's of a popular classic shooter from Konami isn't one I've ever spent a lot of time playing, but I probably should...
Nova Blast - $35, complete. This one is an Imagic game, and it's a Defender-inspired game with some very Imagic art design. I've heard it's sort of like Defender but easier, so we'll see; I love Defender, but "Defender but easier" games aren't always the best, I'm not a big fan of Chopper Command (2600) for example. This looks a lot better than that game, though, and it's very cool to find it complete like this -- the box art is great! Amusingly, the ad booklet in the box for other Imagic games doesn't even mention that they released games for the Colecovision, it's all 2600 and Intellivision games... heh.
NES
--
Pin-Bot - $5, cart only
Xbox
--
Silent Scope Complete - $5, complete. It's three Silent Scope games on one disc. These are fun arcade light gun games with a sniper rifle, but on consoles unless you buy the sniper rifle accessory (which I'm sure is expensive on ebay...) you're stuck with the controller. Oh well, this is nice to have either way.
Nintendo Switch DD (digital)
--
Gunlord X - $10. This game just released, so I bought it immediately because Gunlord is an amazing game and $10 is a fantastic price for this enhanced port of the game! Gunlord was a 2012 Dreamcast and Neo-Geo release, and it's a fantastic Turrican-inspired game. It's like Turrican but harder, pretty much. This Switch port makes a lot of nice changes, including, most importantly, adding a save system -- where before the game only saved your scores, now it'll save your progress, after you beat levels! That's a huge and extremely welcome change which makes this super-hard game much more playable. So yeah, buy this for sure.
Xbox 360 DD (on sale)
--
Radiant Silvergun - $7.50. There's a big digital sale of backwards compatible X360 games going on now (it ends on the 27th, so only a few more days!), and among them are some great games, such as this one. Yeah, I didn't own it before, but now I finally do... and the presentation and everything is fantastic and feels a lot like its sequel Ikaruga, but I still find the whole "seven weapons each on a separate button" thing is very confusing and gives this game a high learning curve that I've never gotten past. I hope this time I'll play it more and finally figure it out, now that I actually own it and all. This game isn't on sale often, so buy it if you don't have it!
Space Giraffe - $2.50. I have this fantastic Jeff Minter shooter on Steam, but for this low of a price, I think getting it on X360 as well is an easy choice; this is a very good game, with a lot of Tempest inspiration but some new elements, and having an easier way to play it on the TV is always nice.
First, before the X360 digital sale ended on the 27th, I bought a bunch more games from it.
X360 DD (games were on sale; most of these prices are 50% off of the games' regular prices, though a few are higher than that.)
--
Fable Heroes - $5
Final Fight: Double Impact - $2.50
JUJU - $5
A Kingdom for Keflings - $5
Lode Runner - 5 - This is an X360-exclusive 2.5d remake/sequel to the classic.
Puzzle Quest - $5, plus $5 (full price, not on sale) for the DLC - I bought this because only the X360, PS3, and iOS versions of this game have the expansion pack dlc, sadly, and not any versions on better platforms for this game, ie, touch or pointer screens -- PC, Wii, DS. Ugh! I've beaten this great game on PC, years ago, but not the addon of course since it doesn't exist for that better version of the game...
Mutant Storm Empire - $5 - the mutant Storm games are good twinstick shooters, nad I've never played this one.
Small Arms - $2.50
Virtua Fighter 2 - $2.50
Additionally, from ebay, I got some CD-i games. One is the other obvious one everyone has to have for the system the others a selection of early-ish stuff mostly that I got with it for cheap. These games are all from one seller and were shipped together, for a cheaper shipping cost. And the shipping was cheap. The prices below include each games' share of the shipping.
CD-i (from ebay)
--
CD Shoot - disc in plain jewelcase, $1.50
Tetris - disc in plain jewelcase, $1.50
Escape from CyberCity - disc in plain jewelcase, $1.50
Defender of the Crown - disc in plain jewelcase, $1.50
Hanna-Barbera Cartoon Carnival - $12.50 (complete)
Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon - $106 (complete)
... So yeah, I got the other Zelda sidescroller. Is it worth over a hundred dollars? Probably not, no; like the Link one, it's an okay but not great game, with some nice music and backgrounds but sometimes annoying gameplay. I don't regret getting it at all, though, and it's a pretty cool thing to have. And like the Link one it's how horrible like the internet may want you to think. These games are far from great, but they are playable and sometimes fun. Some elements of their design are good.
Lastly, I got this today:
Dreamcast
--
Record of Lodoss War - $17, disc only. This game is an action-RPG, somewhat Diablo-inspired. The team would go on to make the pretty good Shining Force Neo and Exa games, and this one's supposed to play similarly so I've had some interest in it for a long time, but wasn't sure if I wanted to get this loose copy... but did. It's good.
Also, for just $3, in the sleeve, I got this VHS gem:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKgTDtK43cY
I got all this stuff from a couple of places over the last few days.
Genesis
--
Dick Tracy - complete, $27. This is a reasonable price for this good, but not all that common, game. This is one of the first copies of the game I can remember seeing since I got a Genesis...
SNES
--
Clayfighter: Tournament Edition - $7, cart only. Clayfighter isn't a very good game, but this version is supposedly enhanced over the original release (which I have the lesser Genesis version of), so... I got it anyway.
Xbox One
--
Arslan: The Warriors of Legend - $8, complete. This is a _____ Warriors game with the anime/manga Arslan for a setting.
Fallout 4 - $2, disc only. I'm obviously a longtime critic of Bethesda, but this is cheap enough that I decided to get it. The Boston setting kind of interests me, I've been there quite a bit...
Ride 3 - $2, disc only. Another pretty good loose-disc find here! This is a sim-style motorcycle racing game; it's probably not my thing, but for this price I've got to give it a try.
Watch Dogs 2 - $2, disc only. Yeah, I was lucky to be there before someone else grabbed these three.
Game Gear
--
Shinobi II: The Silent Fury - $12, cart in case. One of my most-wanted Game Gear games that I didn't have, this one was a fantastic find! I find the first GG Shinobi game good but way too hard, but this one is supposed to be better. It adds a password save system, which is great, and has similar but improved gameplay. It's good.
Xbox 360 (the last three were all part of a 'buy four $5-or-less games for under $10' deal.)
--
Lego Marvel Super Heroes - $2, disc only
Mayhem - complete, $2.25 ... complete with the original pair of 3d glasses someone kept! Heh.
Body and Brain Connection - $2.25, complete (Kinect Required) - A Kinect Brain Age knockoff, I guess? Huh.
Big League Sports - $2.25, complete (Kinect Required)
Wii U
--
Game Party Champions - $2.25, complete. This is the last of the 4 games I got with that deal. It's a sports minigame collection, yes, but it does use the Gamepad and is Wii U exclusive, so maybe it's amusing.
Wii Sports Club - $35, disc in case (no manual). Wii Sports Club is a surprisingly expensive game, but I saw it again and this time decided to get it. I still have no idea how they messed this one up so badly, even for the Wii U's small audience a Wii Sports update should have been a hit! But with no new sports, only the 5 from the original game. and an initial launch as a download-only game, it happened. I know I lost a lot of interest in this game when it became clear it'd have no new sports...
DS
--.
Personal Trainer: Cooking - $3, complete. This is a first-party Nintendo release.
T.A.C. Heroes: Big Red One - $8, complete
Intellivision
--
Frogger - $5, cart only
Playstation 2
--
Fantavision - $3, complete
Switch
--
Soldam: Drop, Connect, Erase - $18 - this is a very tough, somewhat Reversi-inspired blockdropping game.
Genesis
--
Barkley: Shut Up and Jam! - complete, $4
3DS
--
Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth - $37, new. I never did buy the first Persona Q game, the Etrian Odyssey world exploration style series with Persona characters and battle systems, but I decided to get this one because I am interested in them and this is definitely one of the last physical-release 3DS games. I've played a few hours now and it's good, but I'm sure I'd get a lot more out of this if I knew/liked the Persona games. Oh well, it's fun exploring around and drawing walls and stuff, and the battle system's solid.
Switch Digital Download
--
Puyo Puyo Champions - $5, on sale
Transcripted - $1, on sale
Fear Effect Sedna - $2, on sale
Collection of Mana - $40. After going back and forth on this new release, I bought it because I really want to play Seiken Densetsu 3, in English, legitimately! So, despite knowing that the game will go on sale eventually, I bought it now. It's worth it though, because SD3, now known as Trials of Mana, is as fantastic as I remember. This collection's price is obnoxiously high, but for English SD3 (Trails of Mana), at long last, it's definitely worth it.
GBA
--
Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga - $12, cart only. Why did I buy this? I've never thought too much of the game, as I'm sure I said back then, and it wasn't cheap, but... I got it anyway. Oh well.
Colecovision
--
Squish 'em featuring Sam - $30, complete. This is a pretty average game, but it's worth at least this much complete in box. It might sell for well over this on ebay actually. The game's unexciting, but the box is pretty cool and the manual has a nice poster on the back so it was probably worth getting.
Wii U
--
Assassin's Creed III - disc only, $2
Wii U - DD
--
Quest of Dungeons - $4 (on sale) - this comes with the 3DS DD version as well, it's both versions for one price.
Inside My Radio - $2 (on sale)
Super Toy Cars - $3 (on sale)
Switch DD
--
Kamiko - $2, on sale
Kid Tripp - $0.75, on sale
Mario and Luigi, the first one, is a very good game. It takes what made Mario RPG good and focuses it down to the reaction command side of things. Play it, I think you'll like it.
My opinion on the series has always been that it's okay, I guess, but they're barely even worth considering compared to the real Mario RPGs, aka the Paper Mario games for N64 and GC. Before this the only one I owned is Bowser's Inside Story fior DS, which I played for a few hours and said 'it's better than I expected, I guess, it's good maybe' before going back to thinking more negatively than positively about the Mario & Luigi franchise in general... not that they're bad, but it's so frustrating that this forgettably okay series has had so many entries, while the fantastic Paper Mario RPGs have been abandoned or turned into probably even worse experiments, like the 3DS and WIi U games...
Atari 2600
--
Laser Gates - Cart only, $14 - This slightly uncommon game (this is one of the first copies I've seen since I got the 2600 years ago, I'm pretty sure) is good, so it's a very nice find.
Wii
--
Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility - complete, $6. I've always assumed I wouldn't like this franchise one bit and still think that, but this was cheap enough that I decided to get it anyway. I mean, I like SimCity, but the whole "farming game" thing has always sounded so unfun. At this price though maybe it's worth the try.
The first one is pretty good, before Mario & Luigi as a series decayed too.
Switch
--
Mario Maker 2 - $56 new. I went back and forth a bit on buying this right at release, but with how amazing the other Mario Maker games are, I decided to get it recently. I've been playing it, and yeah, it's amazing as expected! There are some things added and some things removed versus the Wii U game; for playing levels this is an overall improvement thanks to all the added stuff, despite a few little things removed, but for making levels it's a whole lot worse than it was on Wii U. The absence of a second screen with a precise reactive touchscreen has never been more noticeable than it is here, that's for sure. I will need to get a stylus, but I want to look at the TV, not have to go take the Switch out of the dock just to make levels! Having to go back over there to dock it just to test the level on the TV is inconvenient too. The Wii U is the better system in some significant ways, really.
Switch DD
--
Sega Ages: Virtua Racing - bought with Nintendo Gold Points (so free, would be $8). This new release is a fantastic port of the arcade version of Sega's great early '9s racer Virtua Racing. It's really good, apart from the sad absence of all of the content added in the 32X and Saturn versions of the game. Even without that stuff this is definitely a must-have release, though.