4th January 2012, 12:46 AM
Wii
--
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword - $46, but $20 of that was with a gift certificate I got for Christmas, so I only had to pay $26. Not bad, and it was the obvious choice to use the certificate on.
DS
--
Mega Man ZX Advent - $8, card only - Got even though I'm still in the middle of the first one because it's rarely this cheap, and if it's as good as the first one it'll be a must play for sure!
PSP
--
MediEvil Resurrection - $8, disc only. Not so sure this was worth it, we'll see...
PC
--
Tetris Worlds - $1, jewelcase only - I do have the Xbox version of this.
Rage of Mages - $2, jewelcase only - topdown action game.
SNES
--
Yoshi's Cookie - $5, cart only - I had this for GB but not SNES.
In addition, for $5 I got a complete in box "Power Joy" Famiclone. This is one of those N64-controller-clone ones, that uses the N64 controller as the system itself, with batteries in the controller pak port. I have another one I got a little while back, a Super Joy III, but this one's more complete, and maybe better too. It's cool to have the box, instructions (with complete game list with descriptions and controls), and accessories (second controller, AC adapter, 84-in-1 Famicom multicart...), too, for sure. This looked unused -- though it wasn't sealed, there were plastic baggies around the parts, and everything was wrapped in plastic ties. Huh.
Anyway, the thing is a pirate Famiclone, of course. The thing has an interesting design, though -- it looks like and N64 controller, but it's also a light gun at the same time. There's a clear plastic part sticking out of the center that you use as a gun for gun games. It also has a comfortable center handle with trigger, also for use with the gun. For normal games, you have your usual N64-controller-knockoff design, with Start and Select in the A and B button locations, the Famicom's A and B buttons on the C buttons (one pair for normal, the other pair for turbo; and no, they aren't any bigger than C buttons. Heck, the Power Joy even leaves the C button arrows on them, no other labels!).
As for the main controls, the Super Joy III has an "analog stick" in the middle, but it doesn't actually move or work, you use the d-pad. The Power Joy is better -- the stick does work, as does the (not analog as far as controls go of course, it's all digital as far as actual control goes) stick. This is good, because the d-pad isn't particularly good; I quickly found myself mostly using the stick, which worked okay. The buttons are small, but work. The center prong is pretty comfortable. When using it as a gun it works well, but I can't hit much of anything at any distance. Of course, that's true for me with almost any light gun for any system, so that's not saying anything about this gun in particular. :p I'm just terrible with light guns. The controller/gun hybrid design is cool, works well, and looks better than you'd think -- this doesn't look super cheap, and feels like it has better construction than, for instance, the Super Joy III.
The second controller has a different button orientation, design (looks like a modified Playstation controller), and d-pad, but works fine. It's nice to have it -- I got the Super Joy III with only the controller/system itself and gun, so I didn't get its second controller, which uses a 9-pin port just like this one does. Oh, both also have Famicom cartridge ports on the bottom as well, for playing games not built into the systems.
The battery compartment is far better designed in the Power Joy too -- you just open the flap and put batteries in. The Super Joy III has a stupid battery box you have to remove from that, pry open (this is not easy), and put batteries in. However, the Power Joy uses only AAA batteries, not AAs like the Super Joy III, so it gets worse battery life. Of course, the thing came with the AC adapter in the box, so I don't care much about that because I can just use AC power, which is great. I don't think the Super Joy III came with an AC adapter, even if I did have that complete...
As for games, the Power Joy has only ten built in games, far fewer than the Super Joy III's internal multicart, but at least they're all actually different games... well, sort of. See, two pairs of three are just three modes from Duck Hunt and Hogan's Alley, split up into three parts so as to pad the game total I assume. The other four games, which don't use the light gun, are actually different, full titles. Interestingly, the ten built in games aren't just straight rom dumps -- they've got redone graphics or gameplay, all ten of them. The gameplay is the same in most cases (Tengen Tetris was significantly altered, but the others are the same), but the graphics are different, which is interesting. The 84-game multicart is not like that, though -- it's just straight roms. They don't even change the names of most of them, so stuff like Gradius, Challenger, The Goonies, Xevious, etc. is all here in its original form. Some of the games I recognize, but others I don't. I don't know if they're games which I just don't know about, or whether they changed names and title screens for some of the games on this multicart. I might want to look into that. Some titles are misspelled, but most are right, and the manual and game menu both have exactly the same spellings for the misspelled titles. All 84 games on the cart are entirely different, so there's none of the padding you often see in multicarts, which is great, but a couple of games are on both the system and multicart (though with different graphics on the system of course), which is kind of annoying when only ten (six, really) games are on the system. ALso, the only lightgun game on the multicart is the Duck Hunt skeet mode again, which is also redrawn on the system, so there are really only two games to use with the light gun, Duck Hunt and Hogan's Alley. If you want to do anything else with it, you'll need to import some Japanese lightgun games. American ones presumably wouldn't work even with a converter thanks to the different lightgun formats.
... Um, on the note of the Power Joy's internal variation on Tengen Tetris, the graphics are unaltered, except for one thing -- the pieces are all removed and replaced with completely different shapes. There's a single block, a two block line, the "three long with one sticking out in the middle" Tetris shape, a 5-block U, a 3-block diagonal shape (like the third one in this description but with the center block removed - and no, this is Tetris so they won't fall down once placed above a space.), a 3-block corner piece, and that piece with the center piece removed (leaving two pieces diagonal to eachother). Yeah, it makes for a seriously weird game of Tetris.
Oh, and yes, the multicart IS a normal Famicom cart, and worked on my NES once I plugged it into my Honey Bee converter. I've owned that thing for years, but had never actually owned a Famicom game to test it with... there are so many NES games out there to get I'd never bothered with importing. Well, I've finally got one, and the thing works fine. That's good.
As for the Super Joy III, it didn't come with a separate cartridge, just built-in stuff. It's one of those multicarts with lots and lots of "different" games that aren't any different at all... that is to say, lots of padding. The system's also flimsier and not built as well, and as I said that battery box is a pain, and required because I don't have the AC adapter for that one. Ugh. If I use one of these things much, it'll definitely be the Power Joy, it's easily the better of the two.
--
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword - $46, but $20 of that was with a gift certificate I got for Christmas, so I only had to pay $26. Not bad, and it was the obvious choice to use the certificate on.
DS
--
Mega Man ZX Advent - $8, card only - Got even though I'm still in the middle of the first one because it's rarely this cheap, and if it's as good as the first one it'll be a must play for sure!
PSP
--
MediEvil Resurrection - $8, disc only. Not so sure this was worth it, we'll see...
PC
--
Tetris Worlds - $1, jewelcase only - I do have the Xbox version of this.
Rage of Mages - $2, jewelcase only - topdown action game.
SNES
--
Yoshi's Cookie - $5, cart only - I had this for GB but not SNES.
In addition, for $5 I got a complete in box "Power Joy" Famiclone. This is one of those N64-controller-clone ones, that uses the N64 controller as the system itself, with batteries in the controller pak port. I have another one I got a little while back, a Super Joy III, but this one's more complete, and maybe better too. It's cool to have the box, instructions (with complete game list with descriptions and controls), and accessories (second controller, AC adapter, 84-in-1 Famicom multicart...), too, for sure. This looked unused -- though it wasn't sealed, there were plastic baggies around the parts, and everything was wrapped in plastic ties. Huh.
Anyway, the thing is a pirate Famiclone, of course. The thing has an interesting design, though -- it looks like and N64 controller, but it's also a light gun at the same time. There's a clear plastic part sticking out of the center that you use as a gun for gun games. It also has a comfortable center handle with trigger, also for use with the gun. For normal games, you have your usual N64-controller-knockoff design, with Start and Select in the A and B button locations, the Famicom's A and B buttons on the C buttons (one pair for normal, the other pair for turbo; and no, they aren't any bigger than C buttons. Heck, the Power Joy even leaves the C button arrows on them, no other labels!).
As for the main controls, the Super Joy III has an "analog stick" in the middle, but it doesn't actually move or work, you use the d-pad. The Power Joy is better -- the stick does work, as does the (not analog as far as controls go of course, it's all digital as far as actual control goes) stick. This is good, because the d-pad isn't particularly good; I quickly found myself mostly using the stick, which worked okay. The buttons are small, but work. The center prong is pretty comfortable. When using it as a gun it works well, but I can't hit much of anything at any distance. Of course, that's true for me with almost any light gun for any system, so that's not saying anything about this gun in particular. :p I'm just terrible with light guns. The controller/gun hybrid design is cool, works well, and looks better than you'd think -- this doesn't look super cheap, and feels like it has better construction than, for instance, the Super Joy III.
The second controller has a different button orientation, design (looks like a modified Playstation controller), and d-pad, but works fine. It's nice to have it -- I got the Super Joy III with only the controller/system itself and gun, so I didn't get its second controller, which uses a 9-pin port just like this one does. Oh, both also have Famicom cartridge ports on the bottom as well, for playing games not built into the systems.
The battery compartment is far better designed in the Power Joy too -- you just open the flap and put batteries in. The Super Joy III has a stupid battery box you have to remove from that, pry open (this is not easy), and put batteries in. However, the Power Joy uses only AAA batteries, not AAs like the Super Joy III, so it gets worse battery life. Of course, the thing came with the AC adapter in the box, so I don't care much about that because I can just use AC power, which is great. I don't think the Super Joy III came with an AC adapter, even if I did have that complete...
As for games, the Power Joy has only ten built in games, far fewer than the Super Joy III's internal multicart, but at least they're all actually different games... well, sort of. See, two pairs of three are just three modes from Duck Hunt and Hogan's Alley, split up into three parts so as to pad the game total I assume. The other four games, which don't use the light gun, are actually different, full titles. Interestingly, the ten built in games aren't just straight rom dumps -- they've got redone graphics or gameplay, all ten of them. The gameplay is the same in most cases (Tengen Tetris was significantly altered, but the others are the same), but the graphics are different, which is interesting. The 84-game multicart is not like that, though -- it's just straight roms. They don't even change the names of most of them, so stuff like Gradius, Challenger, The Goonies, Xevious, etc. is all here in its original form. Some of the games I recognize, but others I don't. I don't know if they're games which I just don't know about, or whether they changed names and title screens for some of the games on this multicart. I might want to look into that. Some titles are misspelled, but most are right, and the manual and game menu both have exactly the same spellings for the misspelled titles. All 84 games on the cart are entirely different, so there's none of the padding you often see in multicarts, which is great, but a couple of games are on both the system and multicart (though with different graphics on the system of course), which is kind of annoying when only ten (six, really) games are on the system. ALso, the only lightgun game on the multicart is the Duck Hunt skeet mode again, which is also redrawn on the system, so there are really only two games to use with the light gun, Duck Hunt and Hogan's Alley. If you want to do anything else with it, you'll need to import some Japanese lightgun games. American ones presumably wouldn't work even with a converter thanks to the different lightgun formats.
... Um, on the note of the Power Joy's internal variation on Tengen Tetris, the graphics are unaltered, except for one thing -- the pieces are all removed and replaced with completely different shapes. There's a single block, a two block line, the "three long with one sticking out in the middle" Tetris shape, a 5-block U, a 3-block diagonal shape (like the third one in this description but with the center block removed - and no, this is Tetris so they won't fall down once placed above a space.), a 3-block corner piece, and that piece with the center piece removed (leaving two pieces diagonal to eachother). Yeah, it makes for a seriously weird game of Tetris.
Oh, and yes, the multicart IS a normal Famicom cart, and worked on my NES once I plugged it into my Honey Bee converter. I've owned that thing for years, but had never actually owned a Famicom game to test it with... there are so many NES games out there to get I'd never bothered with importing. Well, I've finally got one, and the thing works fine. That's good.
As for the Super Joy III, it didn't come with a separate cartridge, just built-in stuff. It's one of those multicarts with lots and lots of "different" games that aren't any different at all... that is to say, lots of padding. The system's also flimsier and not built as well, and as I said that battery box is a pain, and required because I don't have the AC adapter for that one. Ugh. If I use one of these things much, it'll definitely be the Power Joy, it's easily the better of the two.