Recent Game Purchases

I've been a fan of Funktastic's collector blogs for a long time now, and I've always wanted to do one of my own, but never had enough material since I don't buy as many games as him. (Though I still buy a lot) Well fortunately for me I've found two really great game stores in British Columbia that have helped me further my handheld gaming collection. I'm a big handheld gamer, so boxed Game Boy, GBA, and DS games are my kind of thing. Though I usually don't buy just any old game for the sole purpose of increasing my collection. (Key word being "usually") It has to be a game I genuinely want, which is another reason why I've had a hard time getting enough material for one of these blogs. Well thanks to Gamedeals and MostlyMusic, I've gotten enough stuff for a somewhat small version of one of these blogs. So let's take a look at my most recent purchases, shall we?



This was my first trip to MostlyMusic, which is the store I prefer less of the two stores I go to. It's harder to get to, the staff aren't as friendly, and it's really freaking expensive. However it has a FAR superior selection to Gamedeals, so that's the reason I still go there. This trip was mainly to get Land of Illusion for the Sega Game Gear I bought at the thrift shop, but as I wandered around I saw a boxed copy of Kirby's Dream Land 2, and simply HAD to get it. Kirby is my favourite video game franchise, and Dream Land 2 is one of his best games, so I really wanted it boxed. It stinks that it's the Player's Choice box, but I wasn't going to let it go just because of that.

That Mega Man Game Gear cartridge was a total accident that I found it. While the staff were searching for their Game Gear games cause they couldn't remember where they put them, the guy opened random Game Gear carrying cases that had a few games in each. MegaMan just happened to be in one of them, and I HAD to get it since it's one of the more rare Game Gear games. It wasn't listed on their site either, so they must not have even known they had it. They actually had to call up someone and ask how much they should charge for it. I ended up paying 40 bucks for it, but I was still pleased with the purchase since it's a hard to get collector's item, and I got it cheaper than what I'd have to pay for it on ebay.



This was my first trip to Gamedeals in New West Minster. I was still looking for Game Gear games, one in particular called "Defenders of Oasis", which is also pretty tough to find. I didn't find it, but I ended up buying these three games. The Lion King has a few issues with it that make it more difficult than it should be, Chaken I had heard was really hard, and that always calls out as a challenge to my pride, and Ecco the Dolphin is surprisingly enjoyable for all the hate it gets. Though the controls really are a bucket of balls on the Game Gear's dumb circle pad.



On this trip to Mostlt Music I traded in a bunch of games for store credit, (Which they totally ripped me off on, so never trade stuff in there) and I bought a few more things. I went there to get Ace Attorney 1 and 2 which I saw were there on their site, but when I got there I found out that Justice for all had already been sold. So I bought these other two Game Boy games I saw the last time I was there. Final Fantasy Legend II was one of the biggest rip-offs ever, because the box looks like crap, the cartridge looks like crap, and it didn't have the manual, (which I only found out after I had gotten home) and it cost 40 dollars. Oh well, at least Ace Attorney 1 was worth it. Oh, and that's the original grey cartridge release of Wario Land II, not the colour updated one that came out later.



Going back to Gamedeals, I only knew about Lagoon for SNES because I stumbled upon its awesome soundtrack on youtube, (Elf Field in particular), and I had been curious about it ever since. Turns out it's a VERY mediocre action RPG where you have, and I'm not kidding here, the WORST weapon in the history of video games. You start out with this horrible sword that only hits the enemy if you're literally like, two pixels away from it. It's the absolute worst weapon I've ever used in a game. I still give Lagoon some credit though because it feels like a great game to pull out at a "bad video game" night. Even though there was nobody else in the room, I couldn't help but mock it out loud, and I even cracked myself up a couple times.

As for Trax, it's a game by Hal before they created Kirby, and while it's so short that you can literally beat it in a half hour lunch break, (seriously, I actully did that once) it's still a fun game. I only paid five bucks for it, so the shortness factor really isn't much of an issue for me. Plus it's a game I've replayed many times already.



You gotta give Gamedeals some credit, most of their Game Boy Advance/Game Boy boxes are in REALLY nice condition. WarioWare Inc Mega MicroGame$, Mario Party Advance, and Yggrda Union: We'll Never Fight Alone, all in BEAUTIFUL condition, and at dirt cheap prices. Yggrda was 15 bucks, and WarioWare and Mario Party were both 20 bucks. The only game I went there to buy was WarioWare, but for reasons still unclear to me, I bought Mario Party Advance.

Yggrda Union on the other hand was completely intentional, because I had heard of the PSP version, but I never knew that it was originally a GBA exclusive. I figured it must be pretty hard to get if I had never heard of the GBA version, and sure enough when I got home I found out it's pretty tough to get. Not as rare as certain other games I bought for dirt cheap at the thrift shop that turned out to be extremely rare, like my six dollar copy of Bonk's Adventure for NES, and my six dollar copy of Bust a Groove for PS1, (both of which I traded in at MostlyMusic and somewhat regret now) and my six dollar copy of Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo for PS1, but still a pretty good price to rareness ratio.

When I got home and found out it was made in 2006, my interest suddenly spiked in actually playing it because a lot of the best handheld games ever were all released in 2006. I really love the boxart too. Atlus has a few games with boxart that I pull the game off the shelf just to look at. The game seems way too complicated for my brain though, so I probably won't ever really play it too much. Tried the first mission and understood it well enough, but the manual shows that it gets REALLY complicated down the road. Not to mention in the PSP version they added an easy mode which was the default game, and the hard mode you can unlock is the original GBA version, which goes to show how hard the game would be. Oh well, I still like having it in the same way I like having the Etrian Odyssey trilogy and Electroplankton. They're just cool to have.

And that's all I've got for ya. This was pretty fun to do, but I doubt I'll get to do any more of these any time soon, what with me not being filthy rich, and having to buy food and shit. Though if I ever get another chance, I'll do another. Oh, and I guess I'll end this by telling you to go check out Gamedeals and MostlyMusic in British Columbia. Both stores have issues, but whatever flaws one store has, the other fixes, so they're pretty balanced in that aspect. Though really, I recommend GameDeals over Mostly music, if not just for the prices. See ya later!