New Haul!

Last weekend, we went to the Barrie Game Exchange (my wife stayed in the car).  I was able to pick up two NES games that I needed for the collection

This title is the last of the “super cheap” games that I needed.  By super cheap I mean under $10.  Nothing remarkable.  I thought this might be like the board game Taboo which can be a lot of fun, but no this is a game of Tarot cards.  In fact the instructions say not to play this game if you are under 14, and not to take the advice given to you seriously… Nintendo’s way of covering it’s ass if you do something bad based on what the game told you to do.  The music is actually pretty good, but that’s where it stops.  I can see why this is an under $10 game, and can’t believe people actually bought this thing at full price back in the 1980’s.

The game play in Pugsley’s Scavenger Hunt actually isn’t the worst title out there, and this is a way better game than the earlier Addam’s Family.  The controls are actually a lot like Mickey Mouse and the Castle of Illusion on the Sega Genesis in that it’s a platformer where you jump and sit on enemies to dispatch them.  The weird thing is that there is hardly any music in this game, and that’s a major bummer!  Overall I’d give the game a 5/10.

Over all the show was worth the drive, but I don’t understand why dealers bring their very rare/expensive games if they don’t want to actually sell them?  I mean one dude had Little Samson at $1800?!  What moron would fork out that kind of cash?  I’m waiting on the advice of Pat the NES Punk who predicts the game should take a drastic dive in price.  Also this guy had Stadium Events (that wasn’t even for sale) whom said he was going to get graded first.  He valued the game at around $14,000US… I think he’s either extremely high, or that he’s REALLY proud of it! Pricecharting.com values it at under $2700 Canadian dollars, and my collectors app has it at just over $3300 for a good condition copy.  Even this is outrageous considering the same game can be bought with a different label for under $5!  Essentially you are paying for a sticker…. a rare sticker, but just a sticker!  The guy also said that there were only between 35 to 50 copies out there.  Weird how they keep coming up?!!  Every where I look online tells me that the low estimate is 2000 copies.  Oh ya, this guy was real proud of it!

SEGA Corner:  Coincidentally after buying Pugley’s Scavenger hunt on the NES and comparing it to Mickey Mouse, I ended up paying $40 for a complete copy of Castle of Illusion.  This game is awesome… great graphics, sound, and game play… just some good wholesome fun!  I remember back in the 1990’s when I bought it (at full price!) that the Sega Dude thought I was crazy.  Well the jokes on him as this was one of my favorite games on the Genesis!

Liquidated!

It’s been a while since my last post, but the game collecting has been going rather well lately.  I’ve officially decided to part ways with the N64 for the simple reason that I never play it.  It is in my opinion the worst of the Nintendo consoles, and I never really did get into the blocky 3D style graphics.  So when I went to the latest Waterloo Video Game Swap with the Sega Dude, I brought most of my N64 games to trade.  It was actually difficult to line up trades as not many people were interested in what I had (even though some of the titles were well known such as Majora’s Mask, Mario Kart 64, etc., all with mint labels).  I think N64 collecting is going downhill rather quickly and my advice to you is that if you have any games, sell them now before they become worthless.

The game swap is always a good place to trade games as most vendors will give you a lot more trade-in value.  The guy I traded with gave me 80% store credit on my games which is a deal considering that if I walked into any store I would only get between 30 – 50%.  All in all I did okay.  I traded my N64 games for NES games that I actually wanted.

These were the games I traded for at the game swap.  What we have here is a copy of Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, Shadow of the Ninja, Klashball, Ghoul School, and Ultimate Air Combat.  What you don’t see here is a copy of Godzilla 2… I didn’t think it was part of the trade, but I’m going to get an earful from the Sega Dude as he thought that game was also part of the deal.  It would have been pretty sweet, but it wasn’t to be.  I honestly don’t think Godzilla 2 was part of the deal, but if it was, I’m a total dumb-ass and I left it behind!  Either way I still don’t have the game in my collection:(

These are some of the other pick ups from the game swap.  Batman: Return of the Joker, Gremlins 2, Bart Simpson Meets Radioactive Man (with an “okay” label), Alien 3, Silk Worm, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and The Last Starfighter (this was a label upgrade as I already had the game).  The prices were expensive, but at 50% off it was actually a pretty good deal.  The games were purchased from a vendor who owns a local store called We Got Gamez.  The owner is a really friendly guy, plus he sold me Super Metroid (the best SNES game) for $45 a few years ago.  Now if these games were truly 50% off what the guy sells them for in his store, then his prices are VERY high!  Either that or as I’ve been saying for years I should sell my collection and retire.

The best trade actually happened outside the game swap in a little town called Orangeville which is about an hour north west of Toronto.  I saw an ad in Kijiji that a guy had posted saying that he was looking for Mario Party 1 – 3 on the N64.  Up for trade was his excellent copy of Mighty Final Fight.  I had passed on this game a while ago at $150 and have regretted it since.  $150 seems to be the magic number as I also passed on a copy of Snow Bros for the NES for the same price.  It was too expensive… I didn’t know the price would double in a year!  Now was my chance to partially redeem myself.  I had paid about $60 for both Mario Party 1 & 3, and part 2 I acquired through a trade that I literally paid $2 for at a yard sale.  So for $62 I picked up a copy of good copy of Mighty Final Fight, and this is now officially the most valuable game in my collection!  I hope the dude is as happy with the trade as I am.

So as far as my N64 collection goes, all I have left is the console with the memory expansion, a few controllers, and a complete mint in box copy of Diddy Kong Racing.  I’ll be selling the game, and trading the console at a later time.  I now have a vacant shelf where my N64 used to be that must be filled with more NES games.  MORE I SAY!!!

These two games were purchased at a local pawn shop.  The price listed is what I paid which isn’t a great deal, but isn’t too bad either.

Lastly these two games were my latest find at a local Value Village thrift store.  I paid $17 dollars for a complete Zelda and $4 for the Kirby game (missing the manual).  I actually thought I was getting a major deal, but I mistook Epic Yarn for Kirby’s Return to Dreamland.  Oh well.

So the N64 collection has been liquidated, and the NES collection now sits at a respectful 546 games.  Unfortunately I think I have most the “cheap” games and what’s left is going to hurt my wallet and marriage.  Maybe I should start a Go Fund Me campaign?  For some of the more expensive games I’ll probably just get a reproduction cart rather than spend the money on the original.  As much as I want Little Sampson, there is no way I’m forking over $1600 for it.  Or worse, possibly $10,000+ for Stadium Events which is basically the same game as World Class Track Meet which sells for $7.  That is a crazy amount to pay for a different label!  Yikes!

How I Long for 2008!

If only I got into this game collecting hobby sooner… 2008 to be exact.  At some point in ’08 I could have picked up Snow Brothers on the NES for less than 50 bucks. That would be a deal considering I’ll be paying a minimum of $150 for it now:(  I guess I could wait and let this video game fad fade away, but that just wouldn’t be any fun.  Besides, my old man has been trying to get me to sell my Transformer collection for the last decade, yet their value has remained relatively constant for the last 20 years.  I can’t wait that long to complete my nintendo collection (keep in mind I only intend to get the official Nintendo games, so I don’t have to worry about getting my hands on a copy of Nintendo World Championships… that should save me nearly $25,000:).  I don’t know why the aforementioned game is so expensive as it isn’t even that good.  I guess it’s super rare, but I could never justify the price tag.  The most expensive game (please correct me if I am wrong) I need to get into my collection is Stadium Events… which goes for a measly sum of $4,500.  I just don’t have that type of disposable income.  I’ll have to fund raise for the rest of my life to get this last game!  Right now my claim to fame is that I have a mint copy of Mega Man 5 which isn’t much, but it puts a smile on my face.

I thought I would review a game in this post.  The game up for review is Blazeon: The Bio-Cyborg Challenge on the SNES.  I’m not really one to beat around the bush so I’ll get right to it:  This game sucks and I can’t believe I spent $28 on this piece of crap!  The best part about this game is it’s cover (which was the reason I bought it).  The old saying “never judge a book by it’s cover” seems really meaningful here.  The only other good thing about the game was watching your ship explode into pieces whenever you were hit by enemy fire.  Here are a few reasons why I would not recommend this game:

1.  Lack of power-ups.  What makes a shooter fun is the power-ups you collect along the way to make your ship more powerful… this game had hardly any.

2.  Some obstacles will kill you while others you can fly right past… and there is no way to differentiate one from the other.

3.  The boss music becomes annoying very quickly!  This is a shame as in my opinion can make or break a game.  This game is broken.

4.  While the graphics were generally pretty good, there are times when nothing at a all is happening.  No enemies or obstacles on the screen.  It’s almost as if they wanted to make this game a certain length to play through, but ran out of ideas for some parts.  This makes sense as the levels became rather boring very quickly.

5.  Lack of an auto fire option.  My thumbs aren’t used to this kind of marathon button mashing and cramped up really quickly.  Perhaps I’ll revisit the game (yeah right) once I purchase a rapid fire game pad.

6.The Thunder Force ship looked way cooler and was far superior in terms of design and fire power.  Heck even Opa Opa and the R-Type ship had a bigger arsenal!

So over all i was very disappointed in this game and would only recommend it as torture for prisoners doing hard time in a federal penitentiary.

In other news, I tried out the Game Boy Advance title “Mario vs. Donkey Kong”.  I wasn’t expecting much, but this game is actually pretty cool.  It is a fusion of a platformer with a puzzle solving game where you have to figure out how to solve each stage before finally facing off against Kong.  The music was a compilation from past titles such as the original 1981 Donkey Kong, mixed with Super Mario Bros., and some new stuff.  Mario’s “mamma-mia” after being killed can get a tad annoying after a while, but this is easy to put up with after playing Blazeon.  I can’t wait to try out this title on the Retron 5, though admittedly it might best be viewed on the 2.5″ x 2.5″ screen of the GBA.

 

Sega Corner:  No news to report on this week.

Take care,

Nintendo Joe