Game: £100 Drop

Game: The £100 Drop



I’ve thought about this question for a while, but figured it would make an interesting little game on the forum.

Situation: Your consoles, games and accessories have all disappeared. It could have been theft, financial hardship or your house burned down – it doesn’t matter.

Solution: You have received £100 for Christmas, to take care of your gaming for the next 12-months.

Using pricing from CEX, what do you spend the £100 on to get you through this?

Consoles on offer:

1. Pick a system
2. Feel free to pick as many games as you like
3. If the system you chose requires a memory card, factor this into your budget
4. Justify your choices to the group

I like how the Wii is cheaper than the GameCube even though you can play Wii games on the GC. This is a really easy choice for me though, assuming games are free: 3DS and Wii, hopefully can afford a GC pad and memory card too, stock up on GC and DS games too, everyone's a winner. If games do cost or if the accessories push things over the edge then probably the Wii, but that's a tougher choice.

The reality, though, is that I'd likely not game for a while at all. The games on older systems I've mostly played and don't want to play again or didn't want to play, with very few exceptions. I'd like save my money for a new Switch (or in reality dig into my savings and buy one straight away, but that's not in the spirit of the game!), and in the interim do what I did in the dryish periods earlier this year and last: not game, but read and browse the web a lot instead.

I could use a cheating answer and get a PS3 and redownload all my previous purchases from that but that'd be no fun.

I'd have to buy a Wii for that price, I'd go with:

Wii Console £28
Mario Galaxy £10
Mario Galaxy 2 £12
Zelda Twilight Princess £6
Super Paper Mario £6
Donkey Kong Country Returns £6
Resident Evil 4 £2.50
Metroid Prime 3 £2.50
Rayman Origins £4
Okami £5
Little King's Story £1.50
Pikmin £5

They're all single player stuff I've played before that I'd love to go through again that I just won't with current consoles in the way. That takes it to £88.50, after that I'd have

Epic Mickey £2.50
Batman The Brave and Bold £2.50
Battalion Wars 75p
Zack and Wiki £1.50

These are games I either never played or played little of that I wouldn't mind trying especially at those prices. At £92.75 I'd add Animal Crossing for £5 because it's Christmas and it's always best at Christmas.

The rest I'd probably buy a few snacks with and have a grand old time.

If I'm only going to have one console to play, it's going to be a handheld. It's also got to keep me going for a whole year on that modest budget, so I'm going with the 3DS and Monster Hunter Generations. Sorted!

That's a cracking load of Wii games from someone who's researched them Smurf! Is Metroid Prime Trilogy still going too high to fit in the list?

I'd buy a PS2 for £40 for kick off. There's a a bundle with two controllers for the same price as gjones listed, so I'll be having that. 

With my console and two controllers, I'll get two memory cards too. I'll gamble and buy two MadCatz ones for 50p each. That takes me to £41.

I'll start with platformers, and buy Sonic Mega Collection Plus, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and Super Monkey Ball Deluxe for £9. That's us up to £50. 

A good selection of sports games are a must. This is easy: Pro Evolution Soccer 5, WWE SmackDown Vs. Raw 2006, NBA Street V3, NHL Hitz 2002, Ready 2 Rumble Round 2, Virtua Tennis 2 and MX 2002 Starring Ricky Carmichael are getting bought for £6.00 combined. That's me spent £56.00.

There's a GTA 3 & Vice City Double Pack that's going for a fiver on CEX. I'll have that. I might as well chuck in Oni for 75p too, with £62.75 spent.

I'm well treated for racing/driving/car games on the PS2. Crazy Taxi, Rumble Racing, Burnout Revenge, Gran Turismo 4, Stuntman, Mashed: Fully Loaded, SSX 3 and Ridge Racer V will cost me £17 combined, but that's all right - we're only up to £79.75.


I've got to get some fighting games. Tekken Tag Tournament and SoulCalibur 2 for £5.50 does me nicely, bringing me to £85.25 spent.

Shooting games! Timesplitters 2, Freedom Fighters, Silent Scope and Red Faction are four good games that'll set me back £6.50. I've spent £90.75 (I think)

Random bollocks? Random bollocks. I'll buy Theme Park World, Sky Odyssey, FantaVision, Headhunter, Agressive Inline and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, taking me up to £99.75.


That's me sorted. 

I was going to say an Xbox One as I could just sub to Game Pass and have access to brand new games like Gears 5, Outer Worlds, Afterparty and I know my mate Craig has now played like 10 games in a row via Game Pass with them being new or newish but the cheapest Xbox One is £120 and then you've got to pay the sub.

As that's not an option well not from CEX, I did think about a few systems like the Wii as I've not played much off the library and same goes for PS2 then I was thinking PlayStation TV which opens me up to the VITA library but as VITA games are a tad expensive then I'd have to buy a controller that is also out of the question.

Meaning I'm going for

Console:
PlayStation 3 Slim 120GB Discounted £60, as Seth Rollins has been to my house and burned it down that I'm guessing I have no Blu Ray player either which this will double as, why I didn't say an Xbox 360

Games:
Batman: Arkham Origins £4, The one Arkham game I've not played
Call of Duty Black Ops £1.50, Seems like it might be the most active online
Dragons Dogma: Dark Arisen £2.50
Ico & Shadow Of The Colossus HD £8
Infamous £2
Infamous 2 £2.50
Kingdoms Of Amalur: Reckoning £3.50
Mass Effect 2 £2
Mass Effect 3 £2
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots £1.50
Ratchet & Clank Tools Of Destruction £4
Remember Me £2.50
Star Ocean: The Last Hope International £4

That's my whole budget but I don't need an extra controller or anything like that as the games I've gone for are mainly RPG's. These 13/14 games on average are 21 hours long on HLTB and an 84 on Metacritic, that should be a good year of gaming.

Balladeer wrote:

That's a cracking load of Wii games from someone who's researched them Smurf!  Is Metroid Prime Trilogy still going too high to fit in the list?

Yeah it was £42. Well worth it in its own right but in the situation I'd rather have loads more games.

Got to admit this is an eye opener as to how cheap you can get some cracking retro games for now, my current retro library isn't what it used to be thanks to a lack of space for them but if I ever have space for a games room you better believe I'm spending about £500 building up a massive collection.

Great thread idea!

I'll spend a bit of time another day putting together my list - it's just past 1am and I really should be turning in for the night - but for my money, I think Cappa's list sounds the most appealing to me. If I had to game on a limited budget, I could easily spend hours in the likes of the WWE PS2 wrestling games fannying around with my create-a-wrestler in Career Mode or powering through the excellent story mode in Soul Calibur 2. I could probably tweak some of that list for a couple of LOTR games on PS2 which were absolutely my jam back in the day.

I might put together a DS list - I think some of the 3DS games are still going to be pretty pricey, but having GBA and DS gives me a fair bit to work with.

Excellent arguments for the Wii, PS2 and PS3.

I think for sheer volume of great titles, I'd go for PS2 and not much different to Cappa's list. Although it's a brave move opting for the MadCatz memory cards!

Console:
I looked at the PS2, but the games have slowly crept up in price. Therefore I'm going to follow Mas' lead and pick up a PS3. The model? I'll grab a slim 120GB for £62.

Games:

With only £38 budget for the games, I'm going to make sure there's quality over quantity.

Some lengthy RPGs will make those long winter evenings fly by nicely. Valkyria Chronicles (£3.50), Skyrim (£2) and Fallout New Vegas (£2.50) will do nicely for a mere EIGHT POUNDS. Just the one fighting game should suffice, and Virtua Fighter 5 should do the job nicely (£2). Virtua Tennis 4 is the same price? Oh go on then you CEXy bastard.

With £26 left, Red Dead Redemption is a no brainer (£5). May as well keep on the right end of Metacritic, and pick up Uncharted 2 (£2) and Portal 2 (£5).

Down to £14, I'd grab some random games I've heard great things about but never got around to playing. That sounds like Binary Domain (£2), Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen (£2.50), Sleeping Dogs (£2), Everybody's Golf: World Tour (£3), Vanquish (£2) and X-COM (£1.50).

"Hang on Grant, you've not got any driving games you mad man", I hear the masses say. OK, with the £2 left over I'll skip the coffee in Gregg's and grab Gran Turismo 5.

So that's a PS3 and 15 games. Not bad, not bad at all.

Yep PS2 games and stuff certainly going up, people now have nostalgia for the console. One of the reasons I've started picking up a few games for PS2 such as Clock Tower 3 before they go truly up.

On this game, I do lack other genres but with lack of local play and online being dead or unavailable for most PS3 games, could see me getting bored of a Virtua Fighter (Street Fighter x Tekken is very active because of cross-play though).

JayMoyles wrote:

Great thread idea!

I'll spend a bit of time another day putting together my list...

Blow the entire cost on Ace Attorney Investigations?

Sorely tempted!

But wiser minds prevailed and I've put together this little line-up:

We start with a DS Lite at £38 which leaves me with £62 to spend on games.

Immediately looking at the list, some of the console's heavy hitters are pretty pricey if we're looking for a solid lineup. The Pokémon DS lineup all push around £40 and even the likes of Mario Kart DS are around £20. But, that's where the little slot at the bottom of the machine comes into play - some of the GBA lineup will do nicely to supplement my lineup.

We'll start off with a solid racing game in Mario Kart Super Circuit coming in at £6 unboxed. Perfect for a bit of racing fun and leaves me with £56.

I'll need to splash a bit of cash for one of the heavy hitters I had in mind which was Animal Crossing Wild World - £18, but I'll get my time and money's worth out of that one. £38 remains.

Rhythm Paradise at £2.50? We'll have that. A puzzler wouldn't go amiss and I remember reading about Meteos from someone at some point in time - £2 is all CEX are asking for it, so let's go for it. Trauma Centre: Under the Knife is £3.50, so let's grab that.

After that flurry of games, I'm left with £30. I could do with a fighting game and Super Street Fighter Turbo II is available for GBA unboxed at £5, so let's take that.

Decision time - NSMB and Phantom Hourglass are both £15, so I can't have both. I'm going to go NSMB as it'd feel odd not having a platformer to go with the machine. How about an RPG to round out my line-up? Bowser's Inside Story at £10? Bingo.

So, that means my line-up is as follows:

DS Lite - £38
Animal Crossing Wild World - £18
New Super Mario Bros - £15
Bowser's Inside Story - £10
Mario Kart Super Circuit - £6
Super Street Fighter Turbo II - £5
Trauma Centre: Under the Knife - £3.50
Rhythm Paradise - £2.50
Meteos - £2

£100 exactly, unless I've made a huge mistake. Not a huge number of games, but titles that I can see me playing for a good chunk of time each.

Surprised not a 2DS, then something like Street Fighter 3D which come to £45 for instance.

Can’t play GBA games on that though.

I SAW THAT METEOS MENTION At £2 everybody should be getting it frankly, even if you’re picking the PS2.

Well no you can't but you'd have DS and 3DS, which take GBA Street Fighter for the same price you can get 3DS Street Fighter is what I'm saying.

That's simple to answer really because SF II Turbo > than any other SF game.

Alpha III, mate

How is Super Circuit only £6!? I assumed the GBA would be pricey, but even Advance Wars is only £8. *rethinks answer*

CEX's GBA prices have always been very reasonable. Mind you, you're always taking a bit of a punt with Game Boy Advance games, there's a lot of fake cartridges kicking about. It's true that you can get stuff like Mario & Donkey Kong and Yoshi's Island for a fiver...just make sure it's the actual thing. With a hundred quid, you could build an impressive collection for sure.

The Street Fighter Alpha 3 GBA port is a masterpiece by the way!

That's good to know, wonder if you can use two controllers if played via GBA Player on a Cube.

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

CEX's GBA prices have always been very reasonable. Mind you, you're always taking a bit of a punt with Game Boy Advance games, there's a lot of fake cartridges kicking about. It's true that you can get stuff like Mario & Donkey Kong and Yoshi's Island for a fiver...just make sure it's the actual thing.

What do they end up being? R4s with dodgy ROMs on?

The whole game boy line is a nightmare for fakes. I'm pretty certain that most pokemon games for sale are fakes. Unfortunately some of them can be pretty convincing too

I believe the two local retro game shop's open up Game Boy games before taken in (maybe not something worth little or not worth faking) to see if real or not.

Also I've seen in one of localish CEX's repro Mega Drive games.

I've seen games with home printed covers in CEX, wouldn't put it past them doing it themselves.

My local indie has three copies of supposedly pokemon yellow and they all look different, which is hilarious. Like even the art is different.