Buyer's Remorse #2

Welcome to another installment of “Buyer’s Remorse”. I don’t think there’s much I need to add in terms of what these posts will be about that Tyson hasn't already touched on. Some of the most fun that Tyson and I have when we’re out chasing for games is the end of the evening recap where we try to recall place by place everything we purchased that night. Especially when we get the opportunity to rib the other guy about something bad he wasted his money on.

Initially I planned on putting this entry up on Monday as Tyson and I made a run out to the flea markets and a few of our other usual stops. But as the week went on I had more and more online purchases arrive at my house. Add in a Kijiji pickup to that and I decided that I would just hold off and put everything together in one post.

The Flea Markets didn't have much to offer on this particular trip. While Tyson was contemplating purchasing a game related item (more on this in Buyer’s Remorse #3) I stood around disappointed that I didn't see anything of interest. The most interesting thing I saw was a real work of art, unfortunately a little out of my price range.

The disembodied head of Mac Tonight

The day actually started off just as an excuse to get out of the house for a few hours but the realization that some of the pawn shops were open turned it into a definite chasing day.  We made our first two stops and I grabbed my first purchases of the day.

Time to break out the sticker removal supplies

Digital Devil Saga 2 was a nice surprise especially at the $5 they had it priced at. Usually I hate buying a sequel before I have the original but in this case it was easy to make an exception. MK vs. DCU was a game I’d been thinking about picking up for awhile. I know there were a lot of complaints because they had to tone down the violence due to the DC licensed characters, but come on, a game where I can be Batman and beat the hell out of Superman…where do I sign up?

The next pickups came at one of our not so regular stops. However this pawn shop was selling everything in the glass case (Wii/PS3/Xbox360) for $5. At that price I'm willing to take a shot at some newer games that haven't been favorably reviewed, but that I've had a bit of interest in.

The highlights in this batch were Batman Brave and the Bold which Tyson has raved about to me in the past and Dead Space: Extraction. I finally picked up a copy of Enchanted Arms on 360 as well. I rented it when it first came out and I remember parts of it being decent but not something that I would pay full price for. Again at $5 even if I play it again for a few hours I'll have got my money's worth.

That concluded the chasing portion of the weekend and I was ready to post this blog on Monday night. But part of me felt like something more was needed. Tyson and I talk about our love for retro/classic games yet installment #2 of "Buyer's Remorse" was about to conclude and the most retro thing we had to show for was a PS2 game? That just didn't seem right. It just so happened that when I came home on Monday that I had a package waiting for me. I had bought a few things from various online sources a couple weeks ago so I decided to include them mainly because until they arrive in the mail, I don't consider them to be part of my collection. I don't even add them to my collection list on GameFaqs until I have it in hand.

Monday was the start of the incoming mail and I also had packages arrive on Tuesday and Wednesday. Here's the accumulation of what came in all those packages:

Kartia on PS1 was something I've always had an interest in playing. I remember always seeing it in magazines and advertised in comic books around its release, but never had a chance to pick it up. Tuesday's arrivals finally marked something a little bit more retro with a boxed copy of Super R-Type on SNES and an empty box for Gradius III (already had the cart). On Wednesday was the arrival of two games for the PS2 Odin Sphere and Magna Carta. As you may have noticed there's a theme with some of my pickups, that being that a lot of these games were published by Atlus. However, this entry is already kind of lengthy so I'll leave the explanation for my love of Atlus for another time. The last two games pictured were from a local pickup. Tyson texted me that a guy was selling a copy of Snowboard Kids on N64. It was more than I was willing to pay, but he had a great deal on the complete copies of Hybrid Heaven and Jet Force Gemini you see above.

I'll close off this session with a quick little story and an item that was purchased for me. This past Wednesday was my birthday, but if you rewind a few weeks ago I got an email from EB Games telling me about an item that was available for pre-order. I knew this item was coming out but the price was high enough that it's not really something I would buy for myself, especially this close to the holiday season. I sent a quick email to a few family members to tell them they should all just chip-in and get me one for my birthday. Usually when I do things like this they've already figured out what to get me, so I didn't put much thought into it after sending the email. Fast forward to my birthday and I open my card and in it is a little note saying that this had been pre-ordered and would be in stock the next day:

Pre-loaded with 20 games. Where to even begin?

Seriously, one of the best birthday surprises I've ever had! My family usually doesn't help feed my game addiction because I have so many different games, so why do I need more? I'm sure some of you know all about the NeoGeo X, but if you don't, check out their website www.neogeox.com I may do a further in-depth review of the product once I've had some time to try it out.

As I sit here writing this, it's 5 days until Christmas and this will probably conclude any pickups until the Boxing Week sales start. So drink some eggnog, hook up those old systems, and play some games that remind you of Christmases past. Until next time, Happy Holidays everyone!

Hitman Tommy