Four me? Yes! ...terday I bought.

That circle on the back of "Yu Suzuki's Latest Masterpiece" looks like a Datel ad from 1998. I don't know what point I'm making there, sometimes you just way what you see

SSX Tricky for a quid is a blinding purchase, even if it does have that Xbox Classics artwork. I've always liked the Platinum and Player's Choice silver of that generation, but thought the budget Xbox brand felt undercooked.

And Ninja Gaiden Black and Fable The Lost Chapters are only available, in that range (sure Lost Chapters is in the sub best of range) so very annoying as I hate the budget releases sticking out in a collection.

Though on YT, seen people go for complete PS1 Platinum range or PS3 essentials which some are kinda rare, also when all red cases it does look nice along with achievable collection compared to trying to get every PS3 game.

Half-Life seems so far removed from a Cappa game. Portal though, everyone should like that.

I’ve been buying too many games lately.
 
Another Code: Recollection was bought with expiring Game Collection points, taking it down to about twenty quid. The Switch version of Mad Rat Dead had been on my CEX wishlist for nearly eighteen months and never came into stock once. When it did, I bought it immediately; it’s a game that you used to be able to find new without much fuss, until suddenly you couldn’t. I think it’ll become a rarity, £30 might soon prove to be on the cheaper end of the scale.
 
It’s not often you see Wii U games in a charity shop, let alone two that you don’t have. While these aren’t games I’d have given a second look in CEX, for Oxfam I was happy to pick them up. Just Dance was £2.99 and Minecraft was £7.99.
 
On Tuesdays I usually work from an office in town, and at lunch I sometimes take a saunter to the nearby charity shops and second-hand stores. There was nothing different than usual at the Cash Generator, but while I was browsing the sales assistant plonked another fifteen-or-so Mega Drive games onto the shelf. I thought ‘that’s great timing!’, but the stock was either of games I already have, didn’t like the condition of, or felt were overpriced. Asterix & The Great Rescue is in great shape for six quid though, even if the game itself is meant to be a bit mince. I was told that somebody shoplifted some other Mega Drive games when they were left sitting on the counter before going on display – maybe one was Alien Soldier, maybe one was Premier Manager ’97, who knows.
 
Lastly is the latest issue of Retro Gamer. The only place near me that stocks it is WH Smith, and all my local ones seem to only get one copy of it in per month. It’s been ages since I’ve seen a Retro Gamer for sale, and I thought I may as well. I don’t know if I enjoy it enough to get a subscription, but the cover article seemed like something I’d enjoy reading.

Had to look up Mad Rat Dead as I've never heard of it, looks like it plays like Patapon, ohh also being from NIS yeah can see going up in price.

And I'm guessing all of Minecraft Story on the disc, I could see that going up as well seeing it was pulled from online stores. As I'm sure one of the version like only episode 1 on the disc, then it's a code.

Giz and Me did a 3DS look back Nintencast, and we talked about games we missed etc and the one that really stood out to me was Metroid Samus Returns. It coming out after the Switch is one way to put me off, and it being a Metroid game which till the Switch with Dread, Prime Remaster and Fusion I wasn't fussed at all about the series.

As you can tell it's sealed still, I will open when I get around to playing it. If you're wondering where I got it, it was from HIT for £36.49 which is only £4.49 more than CEX used, and they've got a bunch of other new 3DS games still along with Wii & Wii U.

Samus Returns is a nice little game. For me, the peak are the 16-bit ones just because I like the chunky look and feel. Dread is slick because it has the Switch controls, but Samus Returns is still a fun adventure.

Endless Ocean Luminous was bought ages before the reviews came out, and I'd likely have thought twice about getting it if I knew back then what I know now. 
 
Sunsoft 2 and PIKO Interactive 4 were two of my most anticipated Evercade cartridges in a while. As woefully unbalanced as the Sunsoft one is with six 2D platformers and one 2D fighter, most of what’s included has a good reputation and almost all the games will be brand-new to me. The PIKO Interactive compilation has the N64 version of Glover and the SNES version of Street Racer, just about justifying the cost by themselves. I got the Home Computer Heroes 1 too, simply because it had a money-off code that made the other two cheaper.
 
I picked up Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice before its price goes higher than it already is. Folk say that it’s an underrated Sonic game but from my short playtime so far I’m not convinced. It hardly feels like a Sonic game at all, but a different platformer altogether with the Sonic Boom cartoon show license coincidently slapped on top.
 
I salvaged those two Xbox 360 games from a clearance container in my nearby Cash Generator. The container was about waist height and must have stored a couple of hundred PS3 and 360 sports games and shooters for 25p and 50p each. I couldn’t and wouldn’t be bothered to rake through everything, it’s probably fortunate that these two in the photo were near the top.
 
MyNintendo have some pretty nice stuff that you can get with Platinum Points and a small postage fee. I really liked the look of these Pikmin keyrings.
 
Not photographed is a stack of NGamer Magazine guides, books and walkthroughs that they used to give away with the magazine each month. I found them in the children’s books section of my nearby Shelter about a week ago. Please act surprised if you’re receiving any of these as part of the GNamer Secret Santa for the next five years. 

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

Not photographed is a stack of NGamer Magazine guides, books and walkthroughs that they used to give away with the magazine each month. I found them in the children’s books section of my nearby Shelter about a week ago. Please act surprised if you’re receiving any of these as part of the GNamer Secret Santa for the next five years. 

Just as I assumed you must finally be running out . . .

Thanks to Cappa posting about GAME selling of used games at 50% off, I went to my second most local store. Where all the Switch games had gone as the independent had gone in and bought them all for £600 after Ibbsters had gone in and got like £60 worth from a tweet somone showed me

Myself I got these which ended up costing £12.50, £10, £12.50 and £16.50


Was a few other bits had my eye on like AEW for £10, Lies of P £15 but thought I'd go Wo Long instead as I liked Ronin, GT7 £17 and of course some cheap ones like NBA 2K something on PS5 would have come to £1.50 which seems a bargain for a PS5 game.

Was some games I never heard of including one called Insomnis that I think would've been like £7, only ones on Amazon £35+ and same with eBay, yet CEX has two in stock for £12.

I moved apartment, which for those who don't know costs a fucking fortune in Japan. And I didn't even technically buy anything!

I did buy a little futon and a chair thing while I wait to ship / buy real furniture.

And I bought Super Mario RPG because its down to like 2-3000 yen most places.

Woo, congrats! It costs a ton in Britain as well.

Oh I know it does, but there's a lot of "key fees" and "gift fees" which are clearly a fucking grift, and once something is established in Japan that's it - everyone accepts it without questions. I remember paying maybe two months rent, plus one more for a deposit in the UK, and that feeling like a lot.

"Gift fees"!? Who are they meant to be a gift for? The bloody estate agent? I stand corrected, that is worse than the UK. What a con.

To my surprise GAME in Glasgow city centre still had some pre-owned stuff going for between 50% and 80% off before last weekend.
 
The Switch selection was slim pickings. Annoyingly on the counter there was a stack of Switch games that looked like they’d been bought soon before I arrived, Link’s Awakening and Pokemon Shield were two I could see. Still, I’m content to add Tokyo 2020 to my collection again for less than a fiver, I quite enjoyed that when it was new. Cosmic Shake at £9 was the only other thing I think I’d be half-interested in playing, though the three unboxed games at less than three quid each was a bit of an impulse buy. I didn’t remember what Has Been Heroes was and I think Mudrunners is a trucking simulation game, but surely The LEGO Movie 2 is good for the price. The Dragon Ball game was £9 profit at CEX and has already been shifted, I wasn’t saying no to that.
 
On PS4, Resident Evil 2 was mispriced at £19.99 so I think I actually got it for £6.50, Fenyx Rising was a quid and the Mortal Kombat and WWE games are fine for that (half) price.
 
I’d have liked to have had a bit longer at the shop – I arrived at 515 and they were shutting up for 530.

I went into the one that still has used games near me, more than I thought would be left and sure some different things, just like even MX vs ATV Legends PS5 for a tenner I wasn't sure about.

I did get a Sterling Silver DualSense in the Days of Play sale, they did have used DualShock 4's for £18 in black or black so didn't bother with those.

£2.99 for Battle grounds is £2.99 too much.

I might have to try and make time to visit the couple in Manchester City centre, I'm hoping being tucked away in a Sports Direct and House of Fraiser might mean people haven't really looked.

The_Jaster wrote:

£2.99 for Battle grounds is £2.99 too much.

It was half price at £1.49...but that's still £2.99 too much, I take your point.

 I’ve had high-value CEX vouchers burning a hole in my wallet for a couple of years, at one time I had more than £500’s worth. Slowly I’ve been spending it, and in this picture is a £134 store-credit outlay:



The three games are simply ones that I’d wanted for a while and happened to come into stock in my nearby shops at around the same time. The SEGA Astro City Mini was something that I’d umm’ed and ahh’ed about getting for a long time. I could never persuade myself to buy it new for £140 in ‘real money’, but seeing a nice condition unboxed one in my local CEX for £100 was a more straightforward decision. With HDMI output and compatibility with the Mega Drive Mini’s pads, I should have bit the bullet and bought the Astro City Mini ages ago, it’s absolutely class.
 
Down the road is the Cash Generator that’s become madly inconsistent with their pricing. In one of their display cabinets is a regular old unboxed copy of Nintendogs for £24.99, yet opposite that is a ‘bargain bin’ where I plundered these photographed games from it for a total of six quid:

Is that the 50 Cent game where he's chasing after someone with a crystal skull and he angrily shouts "bitch took my skull" in the opening scene?

That's the second one Blood in the Sand which is a great game

I finally got myself an N64 pad for the Switch, I've played a couple of games on it recently that just didn't feel right with the pro controller or JoyCons so I'm hoping that this will fix that for me, it could just be games aging badly...