Buyer's Remorse #4 - Holiday Edition

Welcome back!

It's New Year's Eve and before I drink some shots of Xtabentun (look it up) and dance around like a Mayan Shaman, I figured it was a good time to update RCR with some spoils of the season. My day job does not close it's doors over the holiday season and I was stuck working seven days in a row over Christmas while Tommy sacked the whole city with a mitt full of cash and gift cards. He cackled and twirled his evil mustache as he plundered the Boxing Week sales while I busted my ass at work. I'm not sure if he'll be able to even submit his next collection update as he scored so many games that he's probably lost track of them, or he's lying dead under a huge pile of games that toppled over and pinned him like a coal miner in a cave in.  

My first surprise was a gift of The Last Story on Wii from my lovely wife. I've been wanting to give it a try and I even wrote a letter to Hironobu Santa-guchi asking for it under the tree. The Wii is rattling out it's final breaths and I wanted to give it some love before it joins the other deceased consoles in the retro graveyard. Tommy and I christened December as "Wii Month" and did our best to play some Wii games we've been meaning to get to. We finally got together for a regular chase night on December 28th and did the pawn circuit again as the $5.00 sales continue to bear fruit.

Atelier Iris 2 held a painful secret in it's case...

I finally knocked a few big ones off my want list as I've been looking for the second PS2 Atelier Iris game for a few years now, as I owned the first and third games in the series, but the second one always eluded me. Muramasa on Wii was another one I've been dying to play, but it was terribly overpriced whenever I would see it. The others were $5.00 goodies that were easy purchases to make. 

I sat with my proud pile of new game-children and cleaned them up and removed old price tags before tucking them into their new homes in my collection. I have the craziest OCD when it comes to price tags. I must remove ALL price tags from anything I buy, down to the last speck of gummy sticker residue. Through a combination of packing tape, alcohol swabs, Norwex cloths, and maniacal dedication, I have removed every price tag I have ever tackled. I have even removed old tape from paper inserts and instruction booklets with little or no damage. I tried to put a game in my collection one time that had a price tag on it as I was really sleepy and had to work in the morning, but I ended up not being able to sleep and found myself standing in the basement in my underwear, peeling off the sticker at 1:30 am before I could get back to sleep. If that's not the clinical definition of OCD, I don't know what is...    

Anyways, I saved cleaning Atelier Iris 2 for last as it was the best purchase of the day and I was savoring the feeling of finally putting a spear in a white whale. I opened the case and gazed inside:

Wait for it.......

Yep, the case was empty. FUCK! In fairness to the clerk at the awesome local game store I bought it from, I distracted him while he was ringing me through, as he was a fan of the games I was buying and we were chatting away during the transaction. I did not check inside the case after we left (I usually do!) and did not notice my Atelier Fail until the next day. Tommy drank in my rage and despair like fine wine and felt his soul nourished with my pain. What a prick.

I took the case back the next day and the clerk grabbed my disc for me in no time at all. I had no doubt that it would have a happy ending as this particular store is family owned and always treats it's customers extremely well. I just wanted to highlight the stupid hilarity of me painstakingly removing all the stickers and shining it all up before actually opening the damn thing and finding the disc missing. 

The rest of the week was filled with some fun gaming sessions (I beat Super Mario Galaxy!) and one more small group of scores:

 
Xenosaga II and Gyromite came courtesy of Tommy, as he had duplicate copies and the other games were a package deal at a pawn shop. I love the Sly Cooper games, so I did not mind paying ten bucks for the collection. After all these five dollar victories, I'm starting to turn my nose up when I can't get a game for less than ten. Even walking near a Game Stop makes me shiver when I think of all the poor people paying $19.99 - $49.99 (plus tax!) for the used games inside. 

Well, I guess that's all for now! We're planning to add more content to River City Retro in 2013 in the form of videos, reviews, editorials, and opinion pieces. We may even get back into podcasting at some point!

Oh yeah! I forgot to mention that January is FIGHTING GAME MONTH!!

http://lost-tyrant.deviantart.com/

Happy New Year!

Super Robot Tyson