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Bargain Videogame Tips For Holidays?
Thanks to GamerDad for their editorial discussing the multitude of videogames currently flooding the store shelves, and the knock-on effect for bargain hunters. It's pointed out: "With all the new releases comes a shelf space crunch that means a lot of recent games, some from spring and even later, are getting marked down for quick sales." As an example, the column author "...recently picked up Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner, a fantastic action game for PS2, for a measly ten bucks", and he also points out "...a bunch of excellent additions to the Greatest Hits lineup for Sony's machine including Sly Cooper, Ratchet and Clank, Tekken 4 and the brand new Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution." What other cheap console titles can you recommend for a personal early holiday present?
NES:
River City Ransom
The Legend of Zelda
Super Dodgeball
Super Spike Volleyball + the 4 player adaptor
Take a look at cheapassgamers.
Scratched Emulsion
As per techbargains.com, go to EB Games, select a console from the select menu in the top right, select 15 games for $50.
Options:
Nintendo 64
Sega Genesis
Dreamcast
Super Nintendo
Nintendo NES 8bit
If you haven't played it yet, and whether you like the series or not, Buffy the Vampire Slayer tops my list of games that should have stayed full price longer and sold more. Sells for $25 or less.
For the visceral thrill of beating your opponents to a pulp while playing a futuristic frisbee football (think Discs of Tron combined with that silly game they played on Battlestar Galactica), Deathrow is quite a bargain. Sells for $20 or less, usually under $15.
Mechassault was a lot of fun on Xbox Live, though it got a bit repetitive. Fortunately, even the single-player campaign is worth its current $20 pricetag - playing through every difficulty level was a blast for me.
It's become a cult favorite with its original incarnation on the Dreamcast and the sequel on the Xbox - accent on the "cult" since it's never sold that well in the US. Jet Set Radio Future is well worth your time if you didn't get it bundled with the Xbox. This one is relatively hard to find new but used copies can be had for under $10.
Outlaw Golf and Outlaw Volleyball are both very fun games in the "silly sports" genre. Despite their silliness, however, there's enough simulation depth to ensure hours of fun - Outlaw Golf in particular gets props from me for having an analog swing instead of the old double/triple-click systems. Steve Carrell of The Daily Show fame does the announcing work on both and he's hilarious. Outlaw Golf runs $25 or less new with Outlaw Volleyball still relatively new at $30 or less.
Note that these are all either Xbox exclusives or, in the case of Outlaw Golf which ended up with a Gamecube port, Xbox originals. If I were going to mention some great multi-platform games, I'd probably throw in Max Payne (if you didn't play it on PC for some reason) and SSX Tricky (just a lot of fun, but blown away now by SSX3), both coming in under (sometimes well under) $20.
Gamecube has plenty of Players Choice games that are quite good and don't cost too much. Pikmin, Resident Evil and others are good if you haven't picked up already. I've also seen Timesplitters 2 and Tony Hawk Pro Skater 4 for cheap (30 in Canadian Dollars)
- Sonic Mega Collection includes all the 16-bit Sonic games plus a few nifty extras and bonuses, such as Ristar and some history of the blue hedgehog. It retails for $40. Keep in mind that's for Sonic 1, 2, 3, Sonic & Knuckles, Sonic 3 + Knuckles, Sonic 2 + Knuckles, Sonic Spinball, Sonic 3D Blast, Mean Bean Machine, Flicky, and Ristar. That's a great deal if you missed out on these games the first time around. They're aged very well.
- $40 also picked up a port of the first Sonic Adventure title for the Dreamcast, now upgraded to Sonic Adventure DX. It also includes all the Sonic games for the Game Gear as hidden unlockables. The port's a little rough around the edges, but it's still a great buy if you missed out on it the first time around.
- Part of the Player's Choice series includes Sega's port of Sonic Adventure 2, now redone as Sonic Adventure 2 Battle. This one costs only $30 and includes some multiplayer enhancements that weren't present in the original Dreamcast version.
Turning back to Nintendo itself, a number of their first party games hit the discount rack earlier this year. Don't miss out on Pikmin and Star Fox Adventures for $20 each, while Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Mario Sunshine are out there for $30. They're all worth your time if you've never experienced them before and come highly recommended. Also note that buying two of Nintendo's new releases (such as Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, Mario Party 5, Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga (GBA), and 1080 Avalanche) will allow you to send away for the free Zelda Collector's Disc that contains the classic Zelda 1, 2, Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, a demo of Wind Waker, and some other goodies. Or you might be able to find stores selling the disc seperately against Nintendo's wishes for between $10 and $40. Don't bother buying this from eBay if you want to pick it up seperately though; the people there who are selling it know they have a hot holiday item and will overcharge you like you wouldn't believe.Happy shopping and happy holidays!
This looks pretty cool. It will retail for $20, be released for all three consoles, apparently feature 3/4 player support on xbox/gamecube, will support a global high scores list on xbox via Xbox Live, and contains: "Spy Hunter, Defender, Defender II, Gauntlet, Joust, Joust II, Paperboy, Rampage, Marble Madness, Robotron 2084, Smash TV, Bubbles,
RoadBlasters, Blaster, Rampart, Sinistar, Super Sprint, 720, Toobin', Klax, Splat!, Satan's Hollow, and Vindicators" (!!)
Another thing to look out for if you've got a Gamecube: Once Dec 6 comes, you will be able to buy "Pac Man Vs.", a really cool-looking 4-player Pac Man game (Player One uses a GBA and plays Pac-Man; Players 2-4 play on the gamecube, and play ghosts. The ghosts cannot see the entire board.), for $20 bundled with Pac Man World 2. You can also get this game free if right now you order I-Ninja or "R: Racing Evolution".
Also if you have a Gamecube: bestbuy.com is still selling Ikaruga for $20 with free shipping!! Trust me. YOU WANT THIS GAME. It is considered by many to be the greatest space shooter game of all time.
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
Starcraft Brood War, Deus Ex, Diablo II, Civ3, GTA3, etc. are all fantastic games that can be found for less than $20.
It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
Xenosaga came down in price recently (I saw it at Wal-Mart for $30), which averages out to a dollar per two hours of cutscene. Good choice.
Also worth checking out is Gungrave for PS2-- should be $20 by now. Excellent "shoot the hell out of everything" game. Perfect if you liked Trigun.
You might have to hunt through the used bin for this, but Skygunner for PS2 really turned out to be a good deal. Think Star Fox with a more cutesy atmosphere and without the corridor-style or space missions. Frenetic dogfights and the like.
Game Boy Advance games, well, you're not limiting yourself to much if you want to go $30; however, I'd spring for the e-Reader and three or four game sets for that. If not, well, Phantasy Star Collection, Advance Wars, and Golden Sun should all be under $20 now.
I can't really think of too many bargain games for Xbox or Gamecube right now, primarily because I haven't had those for as long as I've had the PS2. However, Spy Hunter (Xbox), Tetris Worlds (XBox), Sonic Mega Collection (GC), and Hunter: The Reckoning (GC) all seem like good buys.
Hope that helps some.
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