Showing posts with label nintendo. Show all posts
M Rated games, Kiddie Nintendo, and Bayonetta 2 thoughts
I just discovered that there are people still upset about Bayonetta 2 being on the Wii U.
This came as a surprise to me honestly. I assumed it was just a minor annoyance and would dispel after a while only to have it brought up again. I've always enjoyed a good conversation, as it's hard to do, I thought it would be more fun to do this myself and ask as many of these same questions and answer each one. I just figure I'll have a conversational debate. Do the best I can to think of as many thoughts to this topic.
I can't believe Bayonetta 2 is going to be on the Wii U. That's a terrible idea.
I don't see how. The game looks pretty good so far. I never really played the first one much so it's not really a big deal for me.
That isn't the point. The original game was on the 360 and PS3, if they respected the fans they would have made it available for those systems as well.
Well to be fair, most gamers have been spoiled in a good way by many third party games which came out for every console. Nintendo fans watched Final Fantasy and Mega Man which were specific to their systems go to the Playstation console. Exclusive games just happen as a company moves to where the money is. I have always thought of games as being art. Games need to occasionally do something new and different, or it just becomes commercialized art. People hated the look of the Wind Waker when it was first revealed, myself included. Now it's not just a classic, it's seen as one of the best in the series. A good game matters more than only trying to appease fans. There are gamers that don't like change, but I want to believe that most only want a good game regardless of what changes. If the new Skyrim was suddenly made to look like a cel shaded anime, but still had the same level of detail, people might be annoyed, but in the end I think as long as the game was just as much fun, it would be accepted.
Then why the Nintendo Wii U?
Why not?
Nintendo does kiddie games which is why Grand Theft Auto will never be on it. Bayonetta 2 is wasted on the system.
Nintendo paid them a ton of money to get exclusive games. Wonderful 101 was made because of that and we are better for it.
They shouldn't have done that.
Not make Wonderful 101? Not take money?
They shouldn't have screwed over the fans by only having it on the Wii U.
Again, this is a contract. They said in an interview that the game would never have been made at all unless someone had paid for it. Nintendo stepped up. Isn't it better to get a game you want, then not to get one at all?
No, they should have put in a clause that it wouldn't be an exclusive game.
That makes no sense. I'm not talking fans, I'm talking straight up cash. If they refused the money, they would not be in business for long. Why do you think Pepsi isn't available at the local McDonalds? Contracts and money. That's just business.
Just stupid it's on a kiddie system.
I never understood that concept, video games ARE for kids. They are toys. Therefore it's all kiddie. Heck I think M rated games are geared towards kids more than adults anyway as the coolest kid is the one that gets to play those games, yet as an adult it isn't normally discussed around the water cooler as often as the scores for the the football game and the hot new person in accounting.
It isn't kiddie, you play them.
Yes. I do. I also enjoy cartoons and super hero movies as well as cooking and the stock market.
So you are an adult that plays them.
Yes, I also think I have a stuffed Yoshi doll and an Optimus Prime action figure. Those are toys as well.
My point being that you don't normally play with toys. They are defined as something children exclusively play with. Games have had to do a lot over the years to establish itself as a hardcore market. Nintendo constantly puts out Mario and Zelda games which are primarily towards kids, and the Wii was like a baby toy you swung around like a rattle. The xbox systems and the Sony systems are made for everyone but geared towards adults. The original xbox controller was supposed to be for a man's adults sized hands. The playstation is even designed to be more like a computer or an entertainment center that can do everything. They are different, they are an electronic entertainment device, not a toy.
Technically toys are also defined as amusements and past times. Sure you can have play with toys or video games as a job, but it is generally not your profession, even making a game is programming or art, playing the game is for testers. For most people, gaming is the past time you do after work or school for kids, when you have the free time to play it. On a second thought, I never cared for the term 'Electronic Entertainment Device". I like to think of Video Games as art.
Well. . .yeah, video games are art. That's my point.
Well art is hard to define, plenty of people don't see it as art regardless of how we perceive it. However I feel that almost any form of creative expression is art. Sometimes that means people don't like it right off the bat, or it doesn't sell as well. If all you do is churn out a cut and paste game, or constant sequels, then it feels more like you are making it for profit, which I think of more as entertainment than art. Oh entertainment CAN be art, but think of the game where they only add a few upgrades, polish a graphic here and there and then throw it out to make money. That's why I call them toys, I want to believe that the majority of them are refined to make something beautiful and creative. Looking deeper at a console, or at a game that is art, and you'll find all sorts of interesting stylized bits here and there. So, I feel games are toys, and if they are toys, then their primary target should be children, which it sorta is. When that is forgotten, you lose something. It's why the media constantly freaks out when an adult styled game comes out for it. It's like having an ICP song made for the Teddy Ruxpin doll BY the company. Adults would love that, and kids would find that hilarious, but it would freak the media out as it's a toy.
What's Teddy Ruxpin?
. . .never mind, I'm old. Anyway, toys are everywhere, They are amusement, a pastime, playing baseball, kicking a can in the street, playing with a cardboard tube or a board game. Most sports are built off of toys, I think it's pretty neat to be paid to play a game. But it had to start out as a kid just having fun in they're free time. Having fun. Once you forget the kids, you risk losing your primary market. Kids may not attend the super bowl, but they play the game, they have their heroes, and grow up watching it. When you make something for kids, but allow access to adults, you do stuff like Lego does, making full motion pictures and games, yet still keeping it for kids to enjoy, but so adults can appreciate it as well. I respect G rated films that do that like Toy Story 3. Sony and Microsoft suddenly added motion play, not the greatest idea, but why? To get others to play, because more people go to the theaters, buy cel phones, and play on mobile devices like the DS systems. That and to get another 2 years life out of their systems.
I don't agree with you. The systems should focus on M rated games as the industry is run by mature games nowadays. Grand Theft Auto V was the best selling game of the year, and Call of Duty is always a big seller. Nintendo will always have its place as a kid based system, but it should only get mature games third party or remakes/ remastered games. Putting a hardcore or mature franchise exclusively on any Nintendo system is doomed to fail as the fans won't buy it.
I sorta disagree with that. It is true that many series did not sell as well as they had hoped on the Nintendo, yet I hear people saying how Nintendo needs to 'step up' and stop pushing kid games. Yet when they do, people get upset or say 'why bother'? At the end of the day, you want to focus on games like Tetris, a game for everyone rather than a game for one kind of person. In essence, I'm fine with mature games, there should always be a place for them in the industry. However I see old Grand Theft Auto games that sit around forever in my shop, and yet I can't keep Spyro, or Crash Bandicoot longer than a day or two. We want to buy the games we played as kids, and we want to see those games come back. Skylanders is HUGE, and I've never played it, probably never will. I don't really play Pokemon any more either. Yet both are CRAZY best selling, Skylanders is already over 1.5 billion dollar industry and growing as long as Activision doesn't screw it up like they did Tony Hawk and Guitar Hero. . . Listen, I could be wrong, the numbers show that M rated games tend to run the industry, and that M rated games sell poorly on Nintendo consoles, however I don't see a problem with trying to do a little more and spending a little money to get there.
Just saying. . .
Throw me your thoughts in the comments.
Top ten games that need a remake under 16 bits
You know how it is, there's that one game, you see it and, AH! YEAH! I remember that game! It was SO much fun! Why don't they do that anymore? There's some great properties in the past, and seeing as how games are becoming more and more samey, it might be nice to put some of that and redo it for the future.
So many games are getting the revamp treatment, for good or bad, we'll come to that later. In a long list of older games, there are a good deal that I think would be great to revisit. Here are the top ten games that need a revival.
10.Phantasy Star
Yes, I know there is a Phantasy Star Universe game. It's great, sure yeah, but I miss the great role playing game it used to be. Sega needed a win on their Master System. Nintendo had Dragon Quest, widely popular, Sega turned to a fledgling game designer, Yuji Naka who would go on to be the lead designer of the Sonic series. Using basic algorithms (tech word for magic) they made 3D dungeons and an expansive world. The stories and the games themselves were fantastic, excluding the third one.
The main star was Alis Landale, a 15 year old woman who was tasked with saving the world. She was the original star of the series and is still spoken of in legend in teh Phantasy Star world, pushing the heroes forward in the second game, and having followed by another female hero, Alys Brangwin in the fourth game. The games are still considered some of the best role playing games ever made.
Good old jRPG's still exist here and there. Would it really hurt Sega's bottom line to release one offline RPG? Will I have to ask the same of Dragon Quest five years from now since the have now released their series as an MMO?
Closest next gen game: Skies of Arcadia - Dreamcast, Gamecube
9.Battletoads
Is that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? Not even close. With the three badical (it was a word in the eighties) toads and an overly judgmental professor, this group would smash and bash their way through an entire world meant to destroy them. They sold well, but couldn't get the momentum going for the series at the time. This with the animated pilot (it was pretty terrible), the marketing and some very fantastic villains We all loved the Dark Queen.
Pushing the boundaries of the NES console was one of the big purposes of this game. With everyone moving to the bigger consoles, Rare tried to push the NES to it's very limits, as well as our sanity. Seriously, I could barely get past the third level! Gamers are clawing at games that kick our tails and make us work for a victory. Push the limits of the Xbox One, make this game the hardest thing we've played and show us our awesome toads in action again RARE!
Closest next gen game: Dark Souls - PS3, 360
8.Tecmo Super Bowl
People tell me that I'm just not a sports game guy. So not true. Mutant League, NFL Blitz, Bases Loaded, I enjoy sports games that are a bit more frantic and fun. Never one for realism. Unless it's done right. Take Tecmo's Super Bowl series. Oh how many many people love this game. The old NES classic has one heck of a cult following and is one of the few football titles to gain in value even 20 years after it was released! They kept it going with SNES titles 1,2, and 3, then disappeared for a while. If you played it, you understand why people love it so much and STILL go back to it even with all the new titles available. It was tight, it was fun, it actually gave you a sense of accomplishment when you scored, it was good fun and used the real rosters, being one of the first to do so. I would love to see Tecmo retool this game and spend some serious cash, and make a brand new 2014 tecmo bowl. After Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden, it would not be that hard to do. Just do it well, unlike that weird Rygar game. They would rake in SO much dough.
Closest next gen game: Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff and Throwback - DS, Xbox live
7.Actraiser
Quick! What would you say to a game that acted like civilization, yet you talked to the people as if you were their patron deity? Enix broke ground like crazy back in the day. The SNES was its palette or choice and it made some impressive art. The music was fantastic, the switch out between the genre's was well done. This was a crazy new game.
This is the best way to describe it. Imagine that this remake, had the same graphics as say, the newest Simcity or Civilization. You would fly your little messenger around to point the people in the right direction. During which you would attack monsters flying the skies until the people on the ground could ward them off. Then you send down the big guns and it turns into a god of war style action game as you defeat the boss monsters to unlock new lands. The second game did away with the civilization stuff which took away the point of the game. To see the original remastered with some next gen graphics? That would be so awesome to see make a comeback.
Closest next gen game: Nothing I can find
6.Smash TV
Like the predecessor Robotron 2084, this was a run and gun game. Yet this one has some serious style. A two player game show where you killed and survived as long as possible to collect fabulous prizes from a snarky announcer. If you want to know what to expect, watch the Schwarzenegger classic, The Running Man. The game was frantic, silly and fun and seemingly endless. This game would be amazing to see redone in a third person style with a friend with all the crazy armaments and more available.
Closest Next gen game: Bulletstorm or Armed and Dangerous- PS3,360
5.Saturday Night Slam Masters
Anyone that has played this will tell you tales of wins and losses. The insane mash up and frantic fun of this game was beyond understanding, you just have to play it. Most wrestling games rely on button mashing and can be a bit slow. This was the craziest game to play on the SNES. You wrestled and fought like a brawling game. With tons of crazy original and unique wrestlers and multiplayer action, this combined wrestling with street fighter style moves. Once you started it was just crazy fun rocking in that ring. The character designs were even made by the artist and writer of the Fist of the North Star series just to add a bit of hulking muscular depth to the fun.
I could see this being remade with character creator, using the same art style and an intense eight player showdowns with online multiplayer ability. Am I dreaming? I hope not. Come on Capcom! Ducktales happened! This needs to be made!
Closest Next Gen Game: Fire Pro Wrestling Returns - PS2
4. Star Tropics
While I can question the bizarre storyline and the questionable ending, the fun Zelda themed game was made exclusively for america by Nintendo. Perhaps that is why we haven't seen ANY sort of development in this game. It's a strange and silly game that's highly addictive.
You played as a boy, Mike Jones, who finds his Uncle missing and follows clues to track him down. It was a great exploration game that even had a clue you could only learn by having the game brand new. You had to dip the letter that was in the box, in water, thereby revealing the secret code needed to continue. Wild right? There are a lot of people now who know the thrill of realizing that the letter in the box was more than just a neat bit for the game, but actually made you feel like you were part of it.
With a sequel, this game series was fun and enjoyable, Mike Jones needs to make his way to the current gen sometime soon. There is a good fanbase trying to make a third game, and several game studios like camelot (golden sun) and retro (metroid prime, new donkey kong country) have expressed interest in making a third installment. Let's get to it!
Closest Next Gen Game: The Zelda series
3.Dungeons and Dragons Arcade
I refer to the Capcom Arcade games, not the strange first person ones. I could never get into the Bard's Tale or games like it, but the arcade version with the various characters was SUPER fun. I played it and it's sequel anytime I had the chance to play with friends at the Space Station in town. A brawler with RPG elements? add the ability to grow and change to ANY game and you want to play and get further. Add your friends and it's a Friday night party!
The closest we got to a full release was a Sega Saturn Import. Now they did make an HD version of it for download, but come on. With the graphics on the new street fighter, you could easily make this game. Not only that, but with downloadable levels, characters and such, you'd make a killing! Online play that D and D game people!
Closest Next Gen Game: Dragon's Crown
2.Street of Rage
Sega. I'm looking at you. Capcom has it's own issues with Final Fight, but Streets of Rage you have had so so so many opportunities. I'll give you that you can't make Shenmue as you have lost all of the Sonic Team and to be fair, the game series is slow to start and most people don't have that kind of attention span, and it cost too much to make. . .what was I talking about? Streets of Rage! yes! This game was EVERYWHERE and was even the corner stone of your failed action circle thing that was supposed to promote movement in games. It will make you so much money, just get on it and let us beat up crime and rock it with Adam, Axel and of course Blaze.
Closest Next Gen Game: the downloadable Double Dragon from Way Forward.
1. River City Ransom
Closest Next Gen Game: Diablo 3
Well that's all I got for you today. Think fondly on the possibilities, I just know that some things are better left to the past. What games have had great remakes and terrible remakes? We'll find out next time.
Later Gamers!
Wow. Smash brothers rocks at fan service
So Sakurai posted a picture on the Miiverse recently with a picture from the upcoming Smash Brothers game for the 3DS.
That is truly awesome. I have to wonder just how much they'll put into this game. Come on people, you dang well better know who that is! You fight them constantly just to get a cool looking hat!
https://miiverse.nintendo.net/posts/AYMHAAACAAD4UgHtHQ2Osw
That is truly awesome. I have to wonder just how much they'll put into this game. Come on people, you dang well better know who that is! You fight them constantly just to get a cool looking hat!
https://miiverse.nintendo.net/posts/AYMHAAACAAD4UgHtHQ2Osw
Top 11 rarest NES games you probably won't just run across
The title may sound odd, but I plan on doing a list of NES titles that you could have easily have bought and may find lying around the house. THIS list is for the crazy stuff, the stuff that you probably don't have a high chance of just stumbling across.
The prices I am pulling are guesstimates. Many of these titles do not pop up often, some only coming up once a year at best, some versions never. Some can be new, while other never had a box to speak of to make it complete or new.
So without further ado, lets begin with NUMBER ELEVEN!
11. Honey Peach
Release Date: 1990
Publisher: Sachen
Developer: Sachen
Sachen games were pretty plentiful. You wouldn't have heard of them as they were primarily Taiwan based, they released dozens of games, all rip offs or just terrible games, and only a handful making it to the states. I literally can't list anything else they have done that truly matters as most of the titles were not released in America, thus we were spared 'Worm Visitor'.
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| Yes, Worm Visitor is a really poor Frogger clone. |
You can probably surmise from the title that this game is up to something special. Is it a Harvest Moon style game were you grow peaches and other fruits? Does the character get special power ups from eating them? So much wishing, so little to do with what it is about. The saddest version of the story is that it is an adult game. Yes, 8 bit pixelated (that word is not coming up on my spell check.) nudity. This was yet another tired strip poker game for people who seriously had nothing better to do or cheaper way to go. A good ole rock- paper- scissors throwdown (or as we call it, quartz-parchment-shears) with nes 8 bit girls playing. I can not stress this enough that this was 8 bit. Sure it looked better than the Atari, but really. . . you play, they strip, you get a code, there are six girls. As you can imagine it probably gets old pretty quick if not already in this sentence.
However, as with a good deal of unlicensed games that feature nudity, they weren't sold in the general Mom and Pop's video game store, thus making it difficult to get. They did however release quite a few of them, keeping it lower on the list than the others.
Collectors Value
Cart 500
Complete 800
New N/A
10. Little Samson
Release Date: November 1992
Publisher: Taito
Developer: Tekeru
Video games have transitioned a lot. There is always games that everyone else wants to copy the success of. During the NES days, it was platformers. Mario, Sonic, Adventure Island, Mega Man, all big franchises that made the companies millions. Taito needed that hit. Apparently Space Invaders and Bubble Bobble wasn't enough, but to be fair, a solid platformer was sorely needed. This was one of the few games on this list you might have been able to get in the store, yet obscure enough to it still being highly unlikely.
The designer Shinichi Yoshimoto worked on the original Strider game for the arcades, a solid hit for Capcom in the arcades before Street Fighter 2. The design work shows as the game has been well reviewed and enjoyed, despite being unknown.
So here's the plot, during a bad thunderstorm, an evil prince is awoken having been sealed away. No reason or questioning., he's evil, it's Nintendo, deal with it. Moving on. The king summons four heroes to fight against the newly risen evil. K.O. the mouse, Gamm the Golem, Kikira the Dragon, and the title character, Little Samson. Much like 'Legacy of the Wizard' and 'Donkey Kong 64', each character has their own skill you have to use on various levels to move on. Interestingly enough, the story has no dialogue in the game, it is all told in cutscenes much the same way Sonic games on the genesis were told using facial expressions and without narration.
What was supposed to be a huge platforming success, is virtually unheard of anymore. It's a shame because it looks like it would have been a lot of fun.
Collectors Value
Cart 650
Complete 1800
New N/A
9. Flintstones Surprise Dino Peak
Release Date: August 1994
Publisher: Taito
Developer: Konami
Meet the Flintstones! The series now owned by Seth MacFarland, was one of the biggest hits on television and a weird cereal to boot. It's games left something to be desired. The first game was The Rescue of Dino and Hoppy. It's easy to find and not worth much which means that most people wont know if they have a rare gem or a worthless game if they don't know the difference. What made the second game worth so much? Was it fantastic? Nope, it wasn't released in stores, instead, this game was only released at the local blockbusters for rental. You are going to see that a lot in rare games on these lists.
You switch between Fred and Barney as you search for missing Pebbles. Not the stones, the baby. Rock puns. . .Fred is stronger using a club, while Barney uses a long range slingshot attack and can climb up skinny poles being lighter than Fred. The final boss is a flame breathing dinosaur with a punk rock hair do. They apparently has the kids and has control over the Lava trapping them. Not making any of this up. After defeating him and stopping the Lava, the kids become angry because they were going to roast marshmallows over the lava and are now upset at their fathers, leading Fred to exclaim, "Boy I feel foolish!". Right. . .shutting off the lava was the only part that didn't make any sense. . .ah Nintendo games. . .
Released late in the consoles life (seriously, 1994? Super Mario World came out 1990!) the game was virtually unknown and then as usual sold in the 9.99 bin to be forgotten.
Collectors Value
Cart 650-1000
Complete N/A
New N/A
8. Peek-a-Boo Poker, Hot Slots, Bubble Bath Babes
Yes, I'm combining these three, these three fabled Panesian games. Where the Honey Peach is unknown, these gems went into a craze during the rise of the NES roms. So many tales told of these rarities and the difficulties of finding them. Most collectors own them with a show of pride on their wall due to the rate they continue to pop up online. They are also pretty darn terrible. Sold without the Nintendo seal of quality(which really only meant that you followed their guideline and paid them, not that it was a good game), they were bootlegged carts sold through mail order in Japan, but released by another Taiwanese company called, you guessed it, Panesian.
Peek-a-Boo Poker was a poker game, Hot Slots a slot game and Bubble Bath Babes a bizarre tetris style game. I'm really working here aren't I? Only interesting thing to note is that Bubble Bath Babes had two releases, one regular, and one with the nudity removed and re-titled as 'Mermaids of Atlantis'. Well that, and one of the other games developers, C&E, had one note worthy game, Beggar Prince for the Sega Genesis.
The more you know. . .
Collectors Value
Cart 900-1100
Complete 1200-1500
New N/A
7. Zelda Test Cartridge
Released: N/A
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo
In order to keep broken consoles working quicker, various repair technicians were spread throughout the country. These certified reps were given test carts and tester systems, they would use one cart to test a pad or a controller and find what was wrong, and a test cart to test a system so that repairs and technical support could be offered locally. However with the myriad of video game collectors, it's just another difficult to find version of a game.
The only difference is it is featured in a yellow cart rather than a gold or grey cart. That's it. It pops up almost never due to many of them being destroyed as most of these carts were once the new consoles were available. No box or case was made for it so this is a cart only game.
Collectors Value
Cart 1000-1200
Complete N/A
New N/A
6. Cheetahmen 2
Release date: N/A
Publisher: Active Enterprises
Developer: Active Enterprises
So there was this game. . .Action 52. Anyone who watched the angry video game nerd (so much win) has to have seen the episode where he tries all the games on it. Many of the games were crude, and a few didn't even work. However it was all an elaborate ruse to get sales up to show off it's game, Cheetahmen.
There they are, the average consumer at the store. They see the game and think, "Jimmeny wilikers! What a deal! 52 games on just ONE dang gum cart? That's way better than getting only one game, and I would be saving money at just under a dollar a game! Jeepers, I would be a fool NOT to buy this game!" or so the marketing division, enacted using puppets and a crude understanding of the human language, told themselves. I believe this to be true thanks to the time period, and Cheetahmen. Cheetahmen was a game trying to capture on the success of animal humanoids fighting villains. I'm sure there was one or two in the 1990's right? Ninja Turtles, Street Sharks, Street Frogs, Thundercats and Tiger Sharks. No there weren't any of these things then (gotta work on my sarcasm font).
So here's the skinny, a mad scientist, Dr. Morbis, kills a mother cheetah and then takes baby cheetah's and genetically modifies them to be part of his army. Now that we have sufficiently painted him as an evil with no way to save him, we just need for the unexpected twist of his own creations turning on him. Really? After all he did for you, killing your mom and turning you into a part of his super powered army. The three characters were, Hercules, Aries, and Apollo as all the famous painters were taken and philosophers might not have been cool enough.
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| Although that does sound pretty wicked. "Horus! Back up Diogenes!" |
The first game was released on the Action 52. However, the SECOND game was planned but never released. So this wasn't one you could just find anywhere in particular. So how did it get into circulation? Well in 1996 a famous explorer, uncovered ancient incan ruins, revealed a secret plot to overthrow the junior baseball league of america. Sorry, the actual version is a bit boring. Someone bought a warehouse filled with games, including Cheetahmen 2, then just auctioned them off. Only 1500 games were sold at auction.
Be warned, if you go out looking for this game, they did a reproduction of it as a kickstarter project. You'll see complete games for around 2-300. However original titles are far more expensive. However if you are just the kind of person who HAS to own that game, go crazy.
Collectors Value
Cart 1200
Complete 1800
New 3500
5. Myriad 6-in-1
Hey look! Another great buy of multiple games on one cart! You see those guys selling 12,000 games in a plug and play controller? We always assume having more is better, when the reverse is generally true. Then again, these turned out to be worth a lot so perhaps the last laugh is on us.
Caltron 6-1 was one of many multicarts published in 1992 (just wait, I'm going somewhere with this. . .) released by Caltron (well yes. . .) for the NES, it was pretty terrible with every game being a quick slap together, and yes, it was unlicensed. Shocker. The game itself was pretty rare to begin with, as they didn't sell too many of them. Shortly after, the business went south, and another company bought the games. Can you guess what the name of that company was based on the clues?
So they released the game, slapping a quick sticker over the Myriad title with a plain white cover and printed text. It was so bad you can still see the sticker underneath around the edges, and the opening of the game when started, still says 'Caltron 6-in-1'. Hilariously, they went out of business as well. With less than 100 copies of the game released, it is the rarest unlicensed game on the market.
Collectors Value
Cart 1200
Complete 4000
New 5500
4. Family Fun Fitness Stadium Events
Now we are getting to the fun ones. Only a few more to go! So, around 2009, people started going crazy for NES consoles when a ebay seller got 13,000 dollars for one online. For months people believed that the old NES console was worth a ton of money, so much that there is an episode of Storage Wars where some dude thought they would get at least 5000 dollars for it after reading the 001 serial number on the back. Those of us who collect, just remember a triple title for the Nintendo that was the true cause of the price craze.
So you see, Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt/World Class Track Meet was, as well all probably know, a triple title given free with the NES Fitness System package. You run on the pad using by banging your hands on the pad because trying to run that fast normally is tiring and you just want to beat the fast cheetah guy at the end. However, a company we know as Bandai, first released a Power Pad game called "Family Fun Fitness Stadium Events". It was out for only a short time on the east coast. Didn't sell at first, I mean, who buys a console to workout in the 1980s? Nintendo bought the game rights and then pulled the games from the market so they could have a quick game to sell with their Power Pad. With so few released, in so small an area, with so few sold, you can see that just finding a game on it's own is astronomically difficult. The person who sold the Nintendo had several BOXED COMPLETE games, one of them being that game. THAT is what everyone was fighting for.
It is the rarest licensed release on the market. Even the European PAL version is worth a good deal, however it is less rare, thus goes for a little less, but still, take a look at the numbers!
Collectors value
Cart 5000
Complete 8000
New 25,000
3/2. Nintendo World Champ Grey/ Nintendo World Champ Gold
The holy grail of the game collecting world. Nintendo World Championship Gold, and Grey. The titles are considered the crème de la crème (that's french for 'wow you have that cart?!') of the game collecting community, regardless of what system you collect.
Anyone who watched 'The Wizard' knows how ridiculous the game event in the movie really is. You don't get points for using a warp whistle or finding a secret areas. You get it for staying in the air and hitting the enemies in succession. Dying actually is a better strategy, but I will come to that in a moment.. Back in the day before Pokemon, Nintendo would hold crazy game events, and one of them, in 1990, was the Nintendo World Championship.
There were three age categories and you had to score a minimum of 200,000 to qualify. Once you did, you moved on to the World Finals in Universal Studios. There they played on the specialized cart designed for the contest. They would play Super Mario Bros until they got 50 coins, then one custom level of Rad Racer, and then they would play Tetris as long as possible within a time limit. The points would then be mulitiplied giving you your score.
This was how it was added up:
(Super Mario Bros. score) + (Rad Racer score x 10) + (Tetris score x 25) = final score.
The actual strategies employed were actually pretty brilliant. The idea was that moving faster would get you a better score. As I stated before, points were not determined by secrets. Many contestants simply ran around gathering coins but beat up enemies to get more points. The most common tactic was using the warp pipe to gather coins and moving to the next level. However dying proved to be a faster method, as you keep your coins and lose nothing by dying. After all, you had 99 lives in Mario, and a full timer in Rad Racer. You really couldn't die permanently in those two. You could in the last game however, in Tetris, by stacking lines to the very top, ending your session and waiting for the timer to run out. Thor Aackerlund is still one of the high score winners by gathering the coins, then dying, and gathering them again, scoring over 4,000,000 points!
The winners would receive a gold or grey cartridge of the game they just played along with fabulous other prizes like a 10,000 dollar savings bond (most of the contestants were under 18 mind you) new 1990 Geo Metro Convertible(and yet), a 40" rear-projection TV, and a gold painted Mario trophy(real gold might have posed a problem but would have been really cool to see Indiana Jones style). the Second place got a silver Mario trophy.
We don't care about any of that however. We care about the 116 carts made for the competition. 90 gray, 26 gold. Each one has a unique number making it easy to track and to authenticate it. It had the games and the format from the competition, only you can adjust the DIP switches to change up how you want to play the game as well.
A collector owns it and makes reproductions for others to try the game out on their own. The cost for the original game is astronomical. Grey copies are more readily available and still sell from as little as 5000, to more than 8000. A gold has sold for no less than 15,000. Crazy thing is, NOT ALL OF THEM HAVE BEEN LOCATED. Take the story of an eBay bidder who's son died in the military. They were just selling the games and took two big pictures. Collectors then noticed a hidden gold cart among them, leaping the bidding up to over 24,000. There is speculation about the auction itself, but this is one of those wonderful 'hidden' gold we collectors love to imagine. Coming across an old attic, opening it up and there is one hidden there covered in dust. Still hiding, waiting to be found. . .
Collectors Value
Cart 18,000
Complete N/A
New N/A
1. Nintendo Campus Challenge 1991
Wait, there is a game more valuable than the Holy Grail of gaming?! Actually, yes there is. Only recently was the throne upended when this cart was discovered in 2006 by the one of the world's luckiest jerks. The game was found by Rob (the last known owner of the Genie's Lamp) Walters, at New York in 2006. You see, they came across a garage sale and saw some nice SNES games. The man who was selling them remains anonymous due to legal issues, having been a former Nintendo Employee. They had a mountain of rare items in a box filled with dozens of rare carts, promo items, and more in a closet.
Now that the screaming has subsided, let's talk about this game. The Campus Challenge was held at, you guessed it, colleges. Running it out of 58 college campuses and spring break locations. You played on various game consoles, both the NES and the Game Boy, and could play as often as you wanted to try beating your score and getting the top prize.
This time they were flown to Disney World over New Year's weekend in January 1992 to play against one another.
The event gave each player a time limit to play.
Collect 25 coins in Super Mario Bros. 3.
Get 100,000 points in a custom version of Pin*Bot
Go as long as you can in Dr. Mario
The score was totaled using the following formula:
(Super Mario Bros. 3 score x 10) + (PinBot score) + (Dr. Mario score x 100)= total score
The final round pitted Steven Lucas who won with a score of 2,394,130 against Matt Sekelsky. I don't know how, I wasn't there.
The cart was never given out, and they were all supposed to have been destroyed. However people forget about the pack rats who just sorta squirrel things away for no good reason. There is only one known pack rat whose name shall never be known, who still had an original copy of the 1991 Campus Challenge cartridge in existence.
Collectors Value
With only one game, it makes it harder to classify. The game sold for $14,000 in July 2009. After 3 months, the game was resold on eBay for $20,100.
So that's it! Those for the moment are the rarest most expensive titles that are currently known in collecting circles. If you have one, show it with pride if you didn't realize it was worth anything. We will be doing another one on a regular basis and show off unknown games. Think your game is worth something? Write in, take a picture, bring it by and let us tell you what its worth!
Til next time! Later Gamers!
