A bit of an explanation of this new segment I want to start doing. I live in a small city of about 50,000 in Missouri. There's not much to do here other than movies, concerts, paintball, and... Well... I guess there is stuff to do here, but it's still boring for the most part.

However! This has resulted in a huge base of gamers here, which has resulted in about 4 or 5 separate game stores within about a 5-7 mile radius of each other. However, do to the small population it also makes it easier to come across classic games that would sell as soon as they hit the shelf elsewhere (one copy of Earthbound sat on the shelf for almost 2 months!). It also means that they're usually cheaper here too (actually, my city used to be the second cheapest place to live in America, now it's like 9th or something). Which is good, because I'm usually poor...

So! About every week or so, I do a "game run" when I'm in town, systematically going to every store that sells used games and seeing what I can dig up. I usually find at least one good deal, however, I've never had a place to express my excitement for the treasures that I uncover until now...

Game Run! 7/9/2008

1. NBA Jam: Tournament Edition


System: SNES
Store: Game Xchange
Price Paid: $1.95

Man! I hate sports games... Why not just play the sport? However, things are different between me and NBA Jam... I love this game with all of my heart and used to play it with my step-brother CONSTANTLY (even though I was awful...). My heart was broken when we lost it in a move to a new house some 8 or 9 years ago. Since then, I've seen it on several occasions, but never really decided to pick it up again. I was probably just bitter at having to buy a game I already used to own... However, when I saw the price tag on this little cart, how could I pass it up!? $1.95!?

If you haven't played the game...
...First off, I'm not sure whether to shame you or ask when you moved out from underneath a rock... It's two-on-two straight-up 90's basketball complete with crazy flippy, spinney dunks and spot-on controls. Also, if you're schooling the other team (like my brother constantly did me) the basketball even catches ON FIRE!! Awesome. Oh! And you can play as Bill Clinton.

2. Out of This World/Another World


System: SNES
Store: Vintage Stock
Price Paid: $3.99

HOLY HELL!! WHERE HAS THIS GAME BEEN MY WHOLE LIFE!? I had heard about Out of This World from a few random sources, but the screenshots didn't appeal to me and I sort of passed it over... Until last week when Hideo Kojima listed it as one of the top 5 games that influenced him most (he also listed Metal Gear Solid... What a tool...). I also heard it discussed on a couple of different podcasts and decided to try it out. I download a rom... Started it up... Hit the start button and... Died...... You die in this game... ALOT. It could have been called "Trial and Error: The Game". However, about 5 or 10 minutes into it I said to myself, "I have to buy this game..." so I hopped over to ebay. The price was generally about 10-20 dollars, but I hate buying things over the net so I decided to wait. Boy am I glad I did! $3.99 is SOOOO worth it!

If you haven't played the game...
... It's a strange type of... Adventure... Platforming... Action game? Maybe? I don't know... All you need to know is that it's very "artsy" and if you were into games like Portal, Ico, or Shadow of the Colossus purely for artistic genius, you'll love this game. The animation is VERY fluid, because the creator used a style similar to the original Prince of Persia where he drew sprites over live-action actors... But the sprites weren't really drawn... I can't explain it... It's awesome and everyone needs to play it.

SUMMARY!?

A ROCKIN' run! It may even beat out last week's run of Skyblazer (SNES) and Warsong (Genesis). I spent barely over 6 dollars and got WAY more than my money's worth. I'm off to die some more in Out of This World! Cya!