Sunday Roundup: 10/5/14

An enhanced remake of an enhanced remake (seriously!), Front Mission on the Nintendo DS is the very first game in the Mech/RPG series by Square Enix (At the time just Square/Squaresoft), and the first time we see the game released in North America. As I stated last week, I’ve been perusing eBay quite a lot lately, checking in on certain games and auctions I really want to have in my collection. One such game is/was Front Mission. The cartridge alone sells for around $20 online, so for just $5 I’ll happily take it loose!

Game lots are a good way to get a handful of games for a cheaper price. If you’re lucky you don’t already have any of the game in the lot. If you’re super lucky, you don’t have any of the games in the lot and you actually want all of the games listed! That was the case with Bowser’s Inside Story and two other games this week: wanted them all, got them all on the cheap! On a note about this game specifically, I’m doing a decent job of acquiring the Mario & Luigi series, but in reverse order! Partners in Time next!

Whoa! I really cannot believe I got this auction for that price. $17 for the game, complete in the box, totally undamaged, and the guy that originally had it actually left the original plastic wrap on, he just cut the top part to get the game out! Awesome! And this is a game I’m totally going to play. On another side note, I think I’ve mentioned this before, but I’m a huge sucker for Pinball spinoffs. Maybe I’ll do a Worth Playing about that.

The Mario vs. Donkey Kong games haven’t received much love from me at all. It wasn’t until the 3DS game, Minis on the Move, that I really started paying attention. The puzzles and interesting twists to its own gameplay drew me in and I wanted more! I’m hoping the earlier games are strong entries, because I could see the game being Nintendo’s premiere puzzle series if they stick with it!

I had no idea what this game was about when I saw it, but the price was right so I went for it. Here, I’m going to copy the Wikipedia entry for you, and that should be enough to get you interested: “The Munchables, known in Japan as Tabemon (たべモン), is an action-platform game developed by Namco Bandai for the Wii video game console. The player controls creatures of insatiable appetite, using their gurgitating prowess to consume an army of invading Tabemon Space Pirates, each of whom bears an uncanny resemblance to various foods.” Yep, that’s mine.

I’d been looking at this game for quite some time, and this week I finally decided to buy it. Roogoo: Twisted Towers is a puzzle game which has you moving platforms to allow objects to fall through. Interestingly, this Wii game is a sequel to an Xbox Live Arcade title. Also interestingly, this Wii game has a DS companion game, Roogoo Attack, which, when connected to the Wii apparently unlocks some bonus content. Great, now I have to find that game as well. Ugh, my life…

The third and final game in that awesome eBay lot, Sonic Rush I have played before. A few Christmases back I bought the game for my nephew, and he really enjoyed it! Being a bit younger back then, he wasn’t able to clear some of the stages, so when I’d go over to visit I would help him out and beat some stages he had to pass. When I was playing it I was thinking, “Man, I should have bought this for myself!” It’s a solid Sonic game, that doesn’t do anything crazy. It’s feels like a Sonic game, and that’s great!

Hahaha, it was only a dollar! I’ve only played SSX Tricky, and while I enjoyed the game, it didn’t hold a candle to the Tony Hawk series which I liked a lot more back then. Regardless, I was happy to see before buying this game that it received fairly high reviews upon release. I don’t need any justification for spending just a dollar on a game, but when it’s also a game that is supposed to be good, then it just all feels better.

Expect a full impressions piece later this week, but for now, let me levy my only complaint thus far. I was hoping for months that the title of this game would change. Melee and Brawl are legit subtitles, so I was expecting something similar for this game. Instead, we get for 3DS as a subtitle. Even something vanilla like Super Smash Bros. Portable would be great. Hell, I’d take Super Smash Bros. 4 over for 3DS. Anyway, that’s my two cents.

Not a bad price for this game loose, but I still took the plunge. And in a first for my game collecting career, I picked up an empty case and instruction manual online for another five bucks. The total investment is just $10 then, making it a fair price for the complete game. Though I don’t think I’ll actively try to piece together complete games like this, it does feel nice when it works and it’s not too challenging or pricey.