Sunday Roundup: 4/5/15

Zone of the Enders

Spying this on the bottom shelf of Goodwill was the start of a great find for me! Zone of the Enders is a sci-fi mech game by Hideo Kojima of Metal Gear Solid fame. I feel like Zone of the Enders is the only other franchise he has notoriety for, but there are actually plenty of others games he’s famous for helping develop. Anyway, part of the draw to this game when it first came out was, coincidentally, the inclusion of a demo of Metal Gear Solid 2 on a separate disc. Thankfully this copy includes said bonus disc, otherwise I may have passed. There’s actually a sequel on the PS2 as well that I’ll try to track down as well.

Super Bust-A-Move

Horrible box art aside, the Bust-A-Move series happens to be one of my earliest and most cherished arcade puzzle games. Even the music has remained in my head nearly two decades after first playing the game at a bowling tournament of all places. This PS2 version isn’t anything special, but what is special is the bonus I found with the game. For some reason, there was another disc behind this game when I took it home… Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo for the PS1! It was in good looking condition too. Loose, obviously, but the disc itself regularly sells for a decent amount, and considering I already have a complete version of the game and paid literally nothing for this one, it’s all profit from here. Thanks random guy who double stacks his games, and/or Goodwill employee for not noticing this mixup!

Gadget Racers

Gadget Racers is part of the Choro Q line of games from Japan: combination RPG and racing games with chibi-cars and cutesy graphics. I’ve been trying to put my head around what the series looks like here in the states, as it has gone through a variety of name changes and publishers. If I’ve got it right, this is the first game on PS2 in the states. The sequel is called Road Trip: Adventure, which coincidentally Laura actually had. This was followed by a combat themed game called Seek & Destroy. The final game on PS2 in North America is simply called ChoroQ, which I bought way back in 2011 or something, not knowing it was part of this ludicrous series, which I somehow managed to complete in exact reverse order. Huzzah!

Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn

Chock it up to Goodwill for allowing me to complete the entire PC RPG classic Baldur’s Gate series. Admittedly a bit pricey for a jewel case only and not the awesome looking big box of the original PC release, Baldur’s Gate II follows in the tactical/strategy RPG roots laid out by its predecessor. Many RPG lovers call this series one of the best role playing series’ ever created, which, if it’s anything like the original I’ve played through, is very justifiable. I don’t even know if my computer can even install and run the game anymore, but if I wanted to play it I’d probably just buy a digital copy anyway. Awesome to have on the shelf though, for sure!

Baldur’s Gate II: Throne of Bhaal

And two bucks for the expansion pack! Not to rail on about the game, I have a small story. Sitting next to these games were some other PC RPGs: if I can recall correctly some version of Might & Magic as well as another Dungeons & Dragons game, Icewind Dale! The cases and art looked weird, and when I opened them up to check out the discs, it was quite obvious they were fake! Blurry text, but off images, and when compared to the images I found on Google they looked nothing like they should. Needless to say, I passed on those. Let it be a lesson: check discs before you buy them from a place that doesn’t always know what they have or don’t have!

Might & Magic IX

Having no real knowledge of the Might & Magic series (aside from there being at least 8 other entries in the series at this point), I really decided on picking this up because it was just two bucks. I had heard of the series prior, but only knew it was an RPG PC series. A quick lookup through the databases online told me this was the last in the series until very recently: in 2014 a tenth game in the series released digitally! And yes, I did check this one to make sure the disc was authentic: as far as I can tell, it’s legitimate.

Nintendogs: Dachshund & Friends

A loose copy of one of Nintendo’s highest selling franchises on the DS. Five dollars is kind of high for this one, but it was part of a lot of games I got and I wasn’t really looking at this as one of the games I wanted. Still though, a new game is a new games, so add it to the pile and move on.

Treasure World

Treasure World has a very interesting concept: you use various Wi-Fi connections/hots spots to find treasure in the game world. I’m not positive in new Wi-Fi locations offer up different stuff for you to find and collect, but the idea of taking a game with you and having the world change based on your location is pretty cool. I wonder if the game is even playable nowadays, due to Nintendo possibly closing off the old DS’s online capabilities. Didn’t that happen some time ago? Or something along those lines?

Bubble Bobble: Double Shot

One of the reasons I wanted this lot of games was because of Bubble Bobble Double Shot here. It features largely the same gameplay as past entries in the Bubble Bobble series, but this time around certain enemies need to be defeated by a specific character, which you can switch too in the middle of each level. I’m all for more Bubble Bobble, so I don’t know why reviewers seemed to rag on the game when it first released.

Story of Seasons

I bought this game for Laura as a gift because she really loves the Harvest Moon series, of which this is a re-branded new entry. She’s been playing it almost nonstop since Thursday, and so far she seems to be really enjoying it. The gameplay is reminiscent of past Harvest Moon games, but with improved visuals and slightly tweaked, albeit largely the same, gameplay. Who knows: maybe I can get her to write a guest article for you all about it sometime!

Skate City Heroes

Yeeeees! Haha, the lamest games always attract me the most. Skate City Heroes is, by all accounts, not a good game at all, but to me it’s been one I’ve been trying to track down on the cheap for a long while. Two dollars is a must-buy price for me, so here we are! The game honestly looks like a shitty ripoff of Sega’s Jet Set Radio series. I guess if this game is half as good as those then it’ll be alright, but that might be asking a lot from a game that has some poor box art.

Celebrity Sports Showdown

Haha, a game that lets you play as has-been celebrities and sports stars is a must! For your reference, you can play as hideous Wii versions of: Fergie, Avril Lavigne, LeAnn Rimes, Nelly Furtado, Keith Urban, Paul Pierce, Mia Hamm, Kristi Yamaguchi, Reggie Bush, and Sugar Ray Leonard. As far as celebrities go, none of this guys are standouts, with most all of them barely passing as relevant at this point (posibly an exception to Paul Pierce, but lets not digress). While I’m sure the gameplay sucks, I really can’t NOT buy a game that features real-life people as playable characters. You just don’t see that too often. They must really need the money…

Onechanbara: Bikini Zombie Slayers

Oh man, was I happy to find this one! Not only have I been searching for it for awhile, it’s also a completely bonkers premise (scantily-clad women bathe in the blood of zombies to become more powerful), and for just two dollars it was an absolute steal! Watching the game online sell for over $15 regularly makes me feel even better at this pickup. Now I’m not sure which game to play first: this one, or the first game to come out in the States for the series on the Xbox 360.

Anubis II

The game was free thanks to a Buy 2 Get 1 Free deal, but considering the game was only $1 to being with, I didn’t really save anything. The real winner for me here is having a great copy of the game itself which I can use to compare with Ninjabread Man and Trixie in Toyland. I guess there’s a fourth game, Rock n Roll Adventures or something like that, which is also a copy of this game, but I don’t have it yet. I recall seeing it somewhere around here, and as I’m sure demand for that game is limited to only me, maybe I’ll run across it again here soon. Wish me luck!

Tournament of Legends

I’ve seen Tournament of Legends on the shelf at some stores before but always passed it up. This week though I decides to take a look at the game and discovered it’s actually a fighting game set in ancient Rome! The sealing factor for me was the ol’ Sega logo on the front. “Why not?” I thought, as I was adding it to my small stack of cheap ass games to buy. Interestingly, the developers of this game, High Voltage Software, have worked on some high profile ports and versions of games, including fighting games! They were responsible for parts of Mortal Kombat in 2013 on PC, and are actually the developers behind the upcoming Mortal Kombat X on PS3 and 360! Also, they’re the guys behind the Wii’s Conduit series.

MechAssault: Phantom War

Browsing through the loose/cheap DS games I came across this one for just a buck. I didn’t know about the series before I bought the game, but apparently this is a DS game based on the original Xbox series of the same name. For just a dollar you really can’t go wrong, but this one still sells for a bit more online loose, so the investment aspect is there as well. In terms of gameplay the general reviews I’ve read seem to be on the fence on whether or not its good: some like it and says its complicated fun, others say it doesn’t compare to the Xbox games. Either way, it’s unique, cheap, and mine! Hooray!

Kurupoto: Cool Cool Stars

Talk about fast finds! I first discovered Kurupoto on Friday when perusing through some games on Amazon, and then I ended up finding this copy far cheaper on Saturday! The game is a puzzle title which has you rotating the world you’re in to light up stars in the sky to create constellations or something like that. Reviews say its kind of ok but kind of not, so we’ll have to wait and see.