In my winter downtime from game hunting, I’ve been working on other projects like streaming, creating reviews for my YT channel, and getting back into the swing of making some Super Mario Maker music levels. Here and there though, I’ve stumbled upon a few new games that I wanted to share with you all. In some exciting news, there is word of a winter swap next month that we might try to get out to if the weather is good, but who can tell with these unpredictable Canadian winters? Time will tell, but my little list of games I’m interested in is growing again and I’ve got an itch to scratch!
The first set of games I picked up were for the Wii, and I found those locally in a classifieds ad. When I first saw the posting I probably smiled far too wide because Grey’s Anatomy was in the mix. A number of months ago I was looking for some good Wii games and came across a review or a gameplay video from the Grey’s Anatomy game, and I was in tears laughing at how weirdly intriguing it all seemed to me. I was really into Grey’s when it first debuted, so this was a game I had been waiting to find. It was a steal at $5 since I got the whole pile of games for $30. The other steal in the bunch was Rune Factory Frontier. As some of you may recall, I recently played through Harvest Moon 64. Rune Factory is supposed to be all of the things I love about Harvest Moon but with the addition of RPG elements. Marrying two of my favourite things together can’t be a bad thing, right? The only issue is that the disc seems pretty scratched, and I’ve been boycotting the hock shop that does disc resurfacing because they’re a bunch of greedy jerks, but it’s looking like I might need to saunter over there sometime. I don’t know if it’ll play otherwise.
I feel like I got some shovelware with this purchase, but hopefully there’s something worthwhile in those other four titles. I’ve always wanted a Wii Degree after all!
I was also happy to receive two NES games I ordered in the mail: Ninja Kid and Dragon Spirit: The New Legend. Though I’m really, really bad at shmups, I was interested in Dragon Spirit because of the story and the potential for it to be a new mash-up of great gameplay for me. After finishing SpellCaster for the SMS last year, I’m trying to be more open-minded since that game was quite enjoyable despite being in large part genres I tend to stay away from. Ninja Kid is also something I thought might be fun to try out.
I also stumbled upon a few doubles of GBA games I already own at an okay price at the thrift store this week, and those are Golden Sun, Golden Sun: The Lost Age and Pokemon Ruby. I often pick up cheaper games for the purposes of trading or to pass along to friends. The thrift store has been barren for a long time now, so it was a nice surprise to find these.
Also, I found something at the thrift store that I don’t see very often: some big box PC games. My boyfriend has a pretty substantial PC game collection and these were two that I couldn’t pass up on. Though I can’t see myself playing any of the Leisure Suit Larry games, the Collector’s Edition was in excellent shape and it looked pretty complete. I couldn’t remember seeing it on the shelf in the house so I went for it, and my boyfriend was pretty excited when I brought it home. The other PC game I ran across was Bioforge, a game I had previously never heard of but bit the bullet on because it was a good price. After getting it home, I learned that it was reviewed very positively. I can see myself trying out Bioforge. The story sounds like it’s right up my alley! Anyone play that one?
There were a few things I passed up on lately and have regrets about. Apart from a bunch of cheap doubles I could’ve snagged for $30, there was an ad online for Ghost Lion (with its manual), Toxic Crusaders, Gargoyle’s Quest 2 and Pirates! for NES, but the seller wanted $280 for everything. I offered $220 and was shot down pretty hard and the ad disappeared a short time later. All of those games are uncommon, so I feel like I missed out, but I keep reminding myself that they’ll come around again someday. Hopefully. I also really want to find copies of The Uninvited and Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom one of these days too. There’s still so much I’d like to find for NES!
I am cautiously optimistic that we might find some more good stuff soon. Since this blog goes a little quiet over the winter months, perhaps you’d like to check me out over on Youtube sometime. I do the occasional Let’s Play or video review over there and have been pouring my heart out into making some good Super Mario Maker music levels which will be releasing on Thursdays for the next half a year or so at the rate I’m going.
I hope you’ve all been keeping warm this winter. It’s been one of the coldest I can recall in recent years, so I’m anxious for Spring!
Thanks for reading!
-GG