de Blob works as a great Wii title because it plays off the systems strengths and doesn’t try to be anything it can’t be. It has a simple, bright, and colorful art design that uses iconic and easy to render character designs to make up for the Wii’s relative lack of graphical prowess compared to its competitors. As a result, you get one of the better looking Wii titles out there, even though it’s certainly not doing anything revolutionary. It also makes good use of motion controls without being annoying or completely out of place. You shake to hop and jump on things (which is an ease and joy, as you can happily target using the triggers on the nunchuk), and occasionally have to shake wildly to fulfill a paint requirement to liberate a building. Other than that, you use the buttons for logical things like moving around and the game doesn’t try to be more complex than it needs to be. That may be my #1 complaint of many Wii games, that they simply try to put motion controls and other gimmicks into the game that just don’t need to be there. de Blob avoids that downfall and is all the better for it. Another reason it works so well is that it adopted Nintendo’s strategy of playing to all audiences. It’s not just for kids, it’s not an oddly placed M rated titled or very Japanese RPG, it’s a title with a memorable cast that kids will likely enjoy, and it’s not particularly hard, but it has lots of extra challenges for more invested audience, and the level of polish is unmatched.

I also like the whole revolution plot idea the designers came up with to match the premise. The idea that you have to paint every surface of the game a bunch of different colors is neat, but what really sells it is the gestapo-type Inkies that rule the land of Chroma City and throw the land into an ugly black and white, and you are part of a growing resistance to restore color to the world, and an army of ink spraying goons are in your way to try to rub you out. The cinemas that accompany the levels are cute and fun, with the characters speaking in funny sounding gibberish while moving the plot along but never making it too serious. I think the general laid back tone to the game really works to its advantage, as you are usually given plenty of time to complete levels (there’s a timer that you can constantly add time to by completing tasks, but usually you will end with well over 15 mins to spare), and really, the game is as long as you want it to be. You can speedrush through the level doing the minimal amount of tasks to get from point A to point B, or you can paint around town and find all the sidetasks to do, while exploring the environment and finding hard-to-get in-game achievements. Levels can take 10-15 mins are well over an hour.

The music similarly is pretty laidback jazzy funk stuff that has a distinct retro feel to it at many times, and is perfectly suited to this game. It’s music that stands out in a time when I feel that many newer games simply bring nothing to the table thats particularly memorable. Appropriate, maybe, but rarely is any new game music all that catchy. de Blob really succeeds here and I wouldn’t mind having this soundtrack outside of the game itself.

There’s some minor issues here though. I don’t like the fact that the game never really clues you in as to whether you can turn off the game midlevel, which becomes a problem as you progress, since the levels get longer and longer and occasionally, you want to take you time and find everything, but you just don’t have all that time to sink into the game. I mean, it’s entirely possible that you can save midlevel, but it certainly never seemed that way to me, and I was always too scared to turn it off because I didn’t want to lose my progress. Additionally, while Blob is extremely easy to control and at times you can really bop around and do some nifty things, his move set certainly could have stood to have some extra stuff thrown at you as you progressed. But essentially, what you start with is what you end with. Some super moves and bigger enemies to dispatch would have been rather welcome, but it never comes. Also, oddly, the game simply doesn’t have a ton of enemies. You certainly do fight your share of bad guys, but it’s never overwhelming and often you are just left to your own devices to do whatever. While this does give the feel of laidback and relaxed gameplay, it also seems like they are taking it too easy on you sometimes, especially since the whole idea of the game is that a huge force of enemies has taken over your city. Additionally, while the gametime runs a good amount (you will definitely get in over 10 hours just on the story alone, and then there’s 2 extra missions if you get Gold medals on each story part), the tasks you are asked to do in the game never really change. You will be predictably asked to fight some goons, or paint buildings a certain color, or race to an endpoint, or liberate a building depending on the type of colored mission you accept. The missions are always short and enjoyable, so it’s not a terrible thing, but some other types of missions would have really spiced it up a bit.

de Blob really is one of the best titles on the Wii. It’s a well-crafted, smartly thought out exclusive title that makes great use of the system’s strengths and downplays all its weaknesses. It has great characters ripe for future sequels, a premise that’s clever and unique, great controls and graphics, and a perfect soundtrack to set the mood. While there are many core differences, the Katamari games seem to be an excellent comparison if you are looking for something it may be similar too. Bright graphics, memorable characters, big environments with large cities, great music and time based objectives. It’s also a game that anyone can enjoy on various levels. This should definitely be one of the must-have non-Nintendo made Wii games. It’s also very cheap nowadays, most stores offering it used for $10 or so.

Also, the official video is…awesome. Good god, the clothes, the hair, the boomboxes…

Find: Kim Possible: What’s the Switch? (PS2)

Price / Condition: $3 / Complete; Excellent condition.

Where at: Pawn X-Change

Why: Alright, go ahead and get your snickering out of the way. It’s alright; I won’t take it personally. You finished? Now hear me out. I recently stumbled across this article (http://www.racketboy.com/retro/sony/ps2/2008/11/the-best-undiscovered-playstation-2-ps2-games.html) on underappreciated Playstation 2 games. It caught my eye, because there’s always a ton of cheap PS2 games to dig through at most game stores. Kim Possible made the list for being a decent 2D beat-em’up (think Viewtiful Joe, with less moves) that usually can be had for very cheap. Since it was only three bucks, I went off the writers advice and got it. It’s not amazing, but it will surprise you in just how polished it is.

Deal or Not a Deal? Don’t pay any more than what I paid for this (unless you’re a die-hard Kim Possible fan), but at that price it’s a good game to add to your PS2 collection.

Find: Roll Away (PS1)

Price / Condition: $4 / Complete; Stickers on case.

Where at: St Vincent De Paul Thrift Store

Why: I’d never heard of this game, which piqued my interest a bit, but not enough to spend money on it. Luckily, I had a friend with me who had web-browsing on his phone. He checked Digital Press, and gleaned that it’s a somewhat hard-to-find Psygnosis game that comes highly recommended by the DP editors. A quick glance at the back of the case was all I needed to seal the deal, as it resembled games like Monkey Ball and Marble Madness. It’s a little bit in-between those two, and definitely worth your time.

Deal or Not a Deal? For fans of action-puzzle games, this is a steal!

Find: Wonder Boy in Monster World (GEN)

Price / Condition: $3 / Clean cart, good label.

Where at: Value Village

Why: I don’t love the Wonder Boy series, but I’ll give it some props for it’s style. The one I have for the Master System is a little slow and unwieldy, but I can see a good concept lying underneath. I picked this up in the hopes that the Genesis version is a little more smooth and polished. From what I’ve played so far, it may well be. The jury is still out.

Deal or Not a Deal? $3 is reasonable, but I would’ve liked to get the case and manual too.

Find: Rock Em Sock Em Robots Arena (PS1)

Price / Condition: $6 / Brand new!

Where at: Half Price Books

Why: I’m a sucker for anything that’s still factory-sealed, and even though this is probably a mediocre fighting game, I couldn’t pass it up. The fact that Mattel published it doesn’t exactly give me confidence, but then again it could be a surprisingly entertaining smashfest. The screen shots on the back look good, for what that’s worth. We’ll see.

Deal or Not a Deal? I’d say that any time you can get a sealed game for under ten bucks, it’s a deal. Unless it’s a sports game/Olsen twins game.

Find: Tetris (DOS)

Price / Condition: $2 / Brand new!

Where at: Value Village

Why: When I first saw this, I didn’t even notice it was still shrink-wrapped (Value Village sells most of their games in little plastic baggies, so it was hard to tell). I was still excited to purchase it based solely on the fact that it was a complete-in-box PC game. Vintage versions of Tetris have gotta be worth something, I figured. Turns out I was right, as I was able to flip it on the bay for $35. It would’ve been nice to hold onto it, but it’s probably not as good as the Game Boy version anyway.

Deal or Not a Deal? As evidenced by my quick profit, definitely a deal!

Find: Asciipad Turbo Controller (SNES)

Price / Condition: $1 / Clean; buttons are responsive.

Where at: Deseret Industries Thrift Store

Why: This is my personal favorite SNES pad, so even though I already had two, I couldn’t pass up another at a such a low price. My reasoning is that eventually the controller might die, and having a back-up eliminates the need to repair it, or search for another. This actually worked out well for me, because shortly thereafter I discovered that they fetch a decent price ($10-$20) on eBay.

Deal or Not a Deal? Excellent deal. I highly recommend this controller to anybody who owns a SNES.

Find: Ascii Fighter Stick SN (SNES)

Price / Condition: $5 / Needed some cleaning; buttons are responsive.

Where at: Goodwill

Why: Hey, another Asciiware product! Fanboy that I am, I scooped this up without a second thought. Turns out a second thought might’ve been in order, because I failed to notice the wacky button arrangement. LXR, YBA?! Who does that?! Oh well; it’s still a neat addition to my Asciiware collection. One can always rearrange button configs.

Deal or Not a Deal? Well, it’s a better deal than the much bigger and crappier Super Advantage, and five bucks isn’t too much to ask. A decent deal despite the silly button layout.

Find: Wolverine (NES)

Price / Condition: $2 / Clean cart, good label.

Where at: Pawn X-Change

Why: Like most kids, I always thought Wolverine was the coolest X-Man. I also have a mild fascination with the real life animal, so grabbing this game on the cheap was an easy decision for me. It’s not a fantastic platformer, but it’s passable, with an awesome Follin soundtrack.

Deal or Not a Deal? This is about what you should pay for a loose copy. I’m happy with it.

Find: Street Fighter Cammy Action Figure

Price / Condition: $1 / In original packaging, but a little beat-up.

Where at: Goodwill

Why: Cammy is hott. Case closed.

Deal or Not a Deal? Even though the packaging isn’t in perfect condition, a dollar for anything brand-new is a steal. Thank God for the red-tag sale that day!

Find: How to Win at Nintendo Games #2 & #3

Price / Condition: $1 each / Good; no ripped pages.

Where at: Half Price Books

Why: Hooray! More hilarious Jeff Rovin books for my collection! Some samples of his ability to wax poetic about NES games: under “game type” for Ghostbusters, he writes: “driving and shooting game (though not at the same time)”. Blaster Master is classified as a “seek-and-destroy quest”. I love this guy.

Deal or Not a Deal? Two bucks doesn’t normally provide this much amusement. Whatta deal!

Find: Best of 3D Action Games (DOS)

Price / Condition: $2 / Near mint disc

Where at: Value Village

Why: These CD-ROM collection are a dime a dozen, but I like to glance at them from time to time to see what’s included. This one actually surprised me with such classics as Blake Stone, Jazz Jackrabbit, Raptor, and Rise of the Triad. It has 16 games in all, and I can’t wait to boot up my 486 and have a blast from the past!

Deal or Not a Deal? Not very valuable at all, but a solid nostalgic purchase on the cheap.

Find: Bombastic (PS2)

Price / Condition: $5 / Complete; Excellent condition manual and disc.

Where at: Play N Trade

Why: This is the sequel to Devil Dice, a PS1 action-puzzle game that I absolutely adore. Picking this up was mandatory for me, especially since it supports up to 5 players. Seriously, anybody who hasn’t tried Devil Dice yet should track down a copy of either game. I guarantee satisfaction!

Deal or Not a Deal? A great game, a great deal!

Find: No Escape (SNES)

Price / Condition: $8 / Complete; Box is mostly undamaged, contents inside look great!

Where at: Half Price Books

Why: As you might be able to guess from the quality of the movie itself, this game isn’t very good. However, it is one of the rarer SNES games, with the box and the manual being especially hard to come by. I picked it up purely because I might not see another one again, and it might hold some value to people trying to complete a CIB SNES collection.

Deal or Not a Deal? Hard to say on this one, as there’s not really a lot of supply or demand on eBay. Based on rarity? A good deal. Based on gameplay? I wasted eight dollars.

Find: Awesome Possum (GEN)

Price / Condition: $3 / Cart defaced by the evil rental store stickers.

Where at: Play N Trade

Why: Well I thought this would turn out to be a silly, good-time platformer for the Genesis, but oh how wrong I was! The best part is the title screen, where sampled voices proudly sing that Awesome Possum “kicks lord Machino’s butt”. I got a good laugh out of that, but the actual game play is no laughing matter. Lack of cool things to do, terrible animation and frame-rate, and uninspired levels and music. BLAH.

Deal or Not a Deal? I wasted my money, but at least now the rest of you know: STAY AWAY!

Find: Crue Ball (GEN)

Price / Condition: $3 / Clean cart and label.

Where at: Play N Trade

Why: Here’s another game that I expected to get a cheap laugh out of, but I was pleasantly surprised to learn that it’s actually fun to play. My pinball aficionado friend tells me that the physics aren’t up to snuff, but maybe that makes it better for a pinball newb like myself. The soundtrack is as awesome as you would expect; even though there are only three Motley Crue songs featured, it’s fair to say that the rest are inspired by the band. I’ll admit that my expectations being low helps this one out somewhat, but come to think of it, I do usually enjoy pinball games on the Genesis for some reason.

Deal or Not a Deal? About what you should pay for it. The fact that I rather enjoyed it means I’m not as worried about missing the case (although it would be an awesome display piece).

Find: Mortal Kombat Gold Controller (PS2)

Price / Condition: $3 / Excellent; Buttons work well.

Where at: Value Village

Why: What can I say? There’s nothing really special about this, other than the cool artwork on the casing (depicting a decapitation fatality, of course). The d-pad and analog sticks feel good, and it looks bad-ass. I was waffling on it, but then I decided the fact that it’s gold makes it worthwhile. I want the gold. Gimme da gold!

Deal or Not a Deal? Totally reasonable price for a quality controller in good shape. It might even be a somewhat limited edition, since I’ve never seen it before.

Find: Resident Evil 2 Prima Guide (PS1)

Price / Condition: $1 / Good; normal dog-earing on the corners.

Where at: Value Village

Why: Egads, that cover art is AWFUL! Oh well. It’s still a cheap strategy guide for a good game. Can’t pass it up.

Deal or Not a Deal? A good deal. I just have to keep it hidden, as it may scare animals and small children.

Find: Knife Edge Nosegunner (N64)

Price / Condition: $5 / Clean cart.

Where at: Play N Trade

Why: I took a shot in the dark on this one. It’s a so-so on-rails shooter, but I don’t have many of those in my collection, so I’m not unhappy with it. Oh, and if you haven’t seen the magazine advertisements for this game, do yourself a favor and try to track them down. Horrendously awful; like, worst ever.

Deal or Not a Deal? Not really an awesome deal, but not a bad purchase either.

Find: Rocket: Robot on Wheels (N64)

Price / Condition: $5 / Lots of ugly sticker residue on the cart.

Where at: Play N Trade

Why: I passed this game up at a Value Village some months back, and after finding out it’s somewhat rare, and a unique platformer to boot, I was kicking myself. Never again, I vowed! So when I saw this yesterday, I had to get it despite the stickers all over it. My friend and I played it a bit, and while it’s definitely unique, it’s also a bit weird. I’ll probably warm up to it.

Deal or Not a Deal? A bit better than the last deal, given the rarity and quality of the game, but I imagine it’s not that hard to get it cheap when you do find it.

Find: Princess Zelda Ocarina of Time Action Figure

Price / Condition: $3 / Brand new!

Where at: Deseret Industries Thrift Store

Why: People are ga-ga for Ocarina of Time, and I figured this one might be worth something to somebody. Turns out I was right, as it sold with Buy It Now mere minutes after I put it up for auction. The buyer must’ve been looking for this for a while to jump all over it so quickly. I’m glad it will help complete their collection of Zelda figures (and net me a little money in the process).

Deal or Not a Deal? Clearly, this was a deal. I made more than double what I spent on it.

Find: Microcosm (Sega CD)

Price / Condition: $1 / Complete, but the jewel case is busted up.

Where at: Play N Trade

Why: I like to pick up a random Sega CD game now and then, just to round out my collection. I usually don’t do it unless they’re dirt cheap, though, since many of the games tend to be god-awful FMV hack-jobs. Microcosm sounds pretty questionable from the description on the back, but it is a Psygnosis game. If nothing else, I can rip the soundtrack for my listening pleasure.

Deal or Not a Deal? Like I said, dirt cheap, so why not?

Find: Rambo: First Blood Part II (SMS)

Price / Condition: $5 / With case; good condition.

Where at: Half Price Books

Why: What I just said about Sega CD games also applies to Master System games. This one wasn’t quite as cheap, but it actually looks like a decent commando-ish game. Makes a fine addition to my small SMS library.

Deal or Not a Deal? I probably paid a bit too much for this, considering it doesn’t come with the manual, but Master System games only appear sporadically in my neck of the woods. It’s hard to say what’s a deal and what’s not, just because I don’t see them that often.

Find: Fire Shark (GEN)

Price / Condition: $1 / Cart is a little beat-up.

Where at: Play N Trade

Why: I was super-excited about this find initially, but after playing it, it’s not quite the mega-score that I thought it was. It’s just another decent-but-not-amazing shoot-em’up on the Genesis. Not bad by any means, but not as good as I was hoping it would be.

Deal or Not a Deal? Still a great deal at just one dollar, though!

Find: Game Boy Game Genie

Price / Condition: $3 / Excellent; with code book.

Where at: Goodwill

Why: These things are so cute! Look, it even has a little compartment in the back for the code book! The fact that you can only use it with the original “brick style” Game Boy does limit its usefulness somewhat, but it’s still a neat oddity to have. I’ve got genies for the SNES, Genesis, and NES, and with this I think that makes the full set.

Deal or Not a Deal? Kinda hard to find in the wild, but it will probably be this cheap whenever you do. It’s up to you whether or not it’s worth your money.

Find: Dreamcast Fishing Controller & Sega Bass Fishing

Price / Condition: $5 / Rod: Excellent; Game case: busted up.

Where at: Play N Trade

Why: I’ve seen these special controllers before, but always the Nyko knock-off, and always with a piece of it busted off. Couldn’t pass it up when I saw the official version bundled with a game. I have no idea whether or not this actually makes fishing enjoyable, but I’m willing to find out.

Deal or Not a Deal? The controller itself usually costs upwards of ten bucks, so this is an excellent deal!

Find: Game Boy Color w/ 10 Games & Carrying Case

Price / Condition: $20 / Everything in excellent condition!

Where at: St Vincent De Paul Thrift Store

Why: As soon as I opened up this mystery bag and saw three Pokemon games peeking out of the top, I was sold. Those three alone will recoup my investment, so in essence I get a free Game Boy Color (in my favorite color, too: see-through purple!). I was able to give Game & Watch Gallery 3 to my friend as a birthday gift, and Dragon Warriors Monster 2 ain’t half bad either. Sure, the rest of the games are garbage (and so are the faceplates, literally: I threw them away), but there’s so much other good stuff here that it doesn’t matter. The case is actually very handy, being able to store my GBC and GBA SP, as well as several games.

Deal or Not a Deal? This is a bonafide MONSTER DEAL!

Find: Pair of Wavebird Wireless Controllers (GameCube / Wii)

Price / Condition: $20 Each / Both brand new, but one with the packaging cut at the top.

Where at: Pawn X-Change

Why: These things are in very high demand right now, because people love to use them for their Wii, and they’re not in production anymore (as far as I know). I’ve had one for a while myself, and I can attest to the fact that they are some of the best wireless controllers you can find (if you can get past the fact that they don’t have any force feedback).

Deal or Not a Deal? I knew this was a fantastic deal as soon as I saw them, as used Wavebirds tend to go in the $20-$30 range. It was hard not to hold onto these, as they are excellent pieces of hardware, but in the end selling them tripled my investment. Keep your eyes peeled for these things, guys.

Find: Nintendo Power – 12 Vintage Issues

Price / Condition: $0.49 Each / Fair-to-good condition; no pages or posters missing.

Where at: Goodwill

Why: This is actually one of my favorite finds in the last few weeks, just because it’s so rich in nostalgic glory. These are some of the best issues of Nintendo Power from the early nineties, with classic articles like “Why Your Game Paks Never Forget” and “Mega Man Robot Design Contest”. I never had a subscription to Nintendo Power myself; I had to borrow ‘em from some kid down the street. It just feels right having them in my game room; they’re the best kind of coffee table material.

Deal or Not a Deal? I definitely got these for the nice price. You can get them fairly cheap off eBay, too, but paying for the shipping puts a damper on things. A nice deal that leaves me with a warm, fuzzy feeling. =)

A pretty good assortment of finds, eh? Even as I sit at my computer finishing this up, I’ve already got a stack of great finds for the next article ( I hit a minor jackpot at Value Village today). I’m sure I’ll have more than can fit into a single article by the time I’m done hunting tomorrow. Hopefully, some of you guys get a chance to go out and experience the President’s Day sales, too. There are plenty of hidden treasures waiting to be found out there, so let’s get hunting!

Brooks works in the graphic novel/comic medium for the first time here, backed up by artist Ibraim Roberson to expand upon what was originally just a short addendum chapter on the Survival Guide novel. For being 130+ pages, it’s actually a pretty quick read, as I got through it in a little over an hour, but it jumps through various times in history and talks about recorded attacks by zombies based on the people who survived them. What I like about the book is that it has a certain degree of believability to it. Every story is presented a bit differently, and many touch on real societal issues from the past and present. Some stories are just a few pages based on facts from history and speculation on “what really happened”, others are much more detailed, as they are presented as covered up army documents that discuss using zombies as bioweapons that failed miserably or siege situations that went awry.

I enjoyed stories like the one from Egypt where they speculated that the brain might have been removed during mummification as a way to prevent the corpse from returning from the dead and the inventive way the Romans, vastly outnumbered, managed to funnel the zombies into a narrow passage surrounded by spikes and flames and were able to dispatch them with relative ease. The believability I mentioned before is accentuated by the fact that many of the stories aren’t happy endings, where the “heroes” end up getting killed or imprisoned. There’s a good story about black slaves banding together to save an entire island of St Lucia from an outbreak, only to be greeted by reinforcements that promptly killed many of the slaves and put them back into slavery after their heroics, claiming the entire incident was a “slave uprising” and made no mention of the outbreak of the undead. Similarly, there is a fantastic story about the French Foreign Legion who were trapped in an outpost in the desert by a rogue zombie swarm for 3 years before pulling off a clever tactical maneuver to trap the zombies inside of the outpost by luring them in and escaping over the walls. Their reward for it was being imprisoned and branded as deserters for going MIA for 3 years. They are stories that kinda make you mad, but add to the realism that Brooks strives for.

Brooks’ writing is backed up by some pretty gorgeous art as well by Roberson. He has a tremendous amount of detail and emotion in his characters, and draws believable environments that at times feel like an artist’s rendering of some actual event that happened. More importantly, the zombies are disgusting and terrifying, with rotting flesh sagging from the bones, and he presents them in many different forms and states of decay, adding to the believability. There’s also several large fight scenes that done very well and give a nice sense of scale when talking about how intense these outbreaks got. I think this could have been even better with it fulled colored, but the black and white is pretty great on its own too, and as a stylistic choice, I respect it and have no problem with it overall.

Taken as a whole, the book is a great quick read that will satisfy anyone who read Brooks’ first two books and wanted some more, or wanted some imagery to go along with his writing. I wish it actually could have been longer, and that some of the stories could have gone more in depth (some of the shorter ones were also the most intriguing). It’s also a bit pricey at $17, but you can find it for cheaper than that on Amazon and other places used. I’d recommend it if you have interest in either the subject matter or the author.

Find: Mirror’s Edge

Price / Condition: $10 / New!

Where at: Newegg

Why: Mirror’s Edge is a game I had a lot of interest in when it first came out, but since I didn’t have a 360 at that point, it kinda passed me by, since it wasn’t exactly a blockbuster smash hit. However, the reviews are pretty great and for a closeout deal from Newegg, I think 10 bucks with free shipping was more than worth it.

Deal or Not a Deal? Maybe not a huge deal, as I’ve seen it for 15-20 bucks new in most places, but it’s definitely cheaper than you will find in most every place new and unopened.

Find: Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories

Price / Condition: 9.98 / New!

Where at: Target clearance

Why: It’s one of the best rated games for PSP and for some reason I never got it. I’ve gone through phases where I loved GTA games and then really disliked them, but considering this is a portable GTA III with extras, enough time has passed since I played it that I’m pretty excited to dig into this.

Deal or Not a Deal? Like Mirror’s Edge, you can find this new in the 20ish dollar range and used for a bit cheaper, but for a brand new copy of one of the better PSP games, this is a good value.

Find: Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars

Price / Condition: $9.98 / New!

Where at: Target clearance

Why: Again, a top-rated portable game, this time for the DS, and I didn’t buy it when it first came out. Kinda funny that another GTA game was in the same clearance rack as the previous deal, but I wasn’t about to say no to another deal.

Deal or Not a Deal? I think this is a pretty good deal. This game isn’t very old and I still see it for 30 bucks or so in most places, so I was quite surprised to see it in clearance. I guess the poor sales of the game are to my advantage!

Like I said, pretty brief. I’m sure Eric will be back soon with some great stuff, but in the meantime, hopefully this tides out thirsty game hunt readers over till next time!

Well, quite simply, this game has a wonderful battle system surrounded by a pile of crap. The story is so incredibly boring. The characters are derivative of many characters from the past Grandia games, but blander. There’s very few towns to visit. There’s seemingly endless battle fields to clear in order to advance the story. The difficulty ramps up significantly for certain battles with no warning. The music and graphics are very generic. Nothing awful, but does not stand out either. Well, I take that back. The j-pop teenybopper intro song is absolutely awful.

But here’s why this game fails in comparison to the other Grandia games. At its core, this game isn’t much different from I and II. Same basic structure is there, same traditions, same general ideas. But the story here is just garbage. You start out as a young adventurer named Yuki, who is a mix of Justin and Ryudo from the previous games, but much less interesting. You establish early on that he wants to be a pilot. You meet his mom (who joins your party), a chick in the woods (Alfina, who is extremely similar to Elena from Grandia II, but without any of the interesting split personality stuff), and later a sea captain named Alonso. Then for about 10 or 12 hours of this game, the general plot is “let’s go across the sea, and take Alfina where she needs to go! Also, I want to meet my idol, a legendary pilot!” In other words, this is ungodly boring. I spent most of that time questioning why there was no plot and what the point of the game was. One of the highlights of the series is that it manages to build up to an epic plot but you feel like your party is family, as there are interactive dinners with the party and you get to learn and care a lot more about your team members. While I can see that this was the goal of the beginning of the game, you never get much of any feel for these characters, as they are all rather shallow, one dimensional characters. After the game finally gets around to giving you a plot about 20 hours in, it’s about the most disappointing thing ever. It’s so…lame. The main villains spout off about ridding the world of love (eyeroll) and killing these god-like guardian creatures, which your party fails miserably at protecting, then they leave you for a few hours and you are dumped into a bunch of dungeons and battle fields for no apparent reason. It briefly gives you glimpses of what could be a slightly more interesting game with some decent cinemas here and there, but it almost always follows it up with hours of mindnumbing dungeons with zero plot advancement. Sadly, this game seems like a bad mix of generic plot mixed with a bland translation.

Which frankly really hurts the game, because when I want to play an RPG, I want an intriguing plot to make the battling worthwhile. Instead, the game heavily frontloads the game with battles and trickles a poor story to you at a snail’s pace. I don’t understand why there’s so much battle busywork in this game. Going from a town to a dungeon in some instances has 6 big fields of battle just to reach this long dungeon, with no story and only basic puzzle solving, if any at all. Maybe I’m just getting old. I used to be able to put up with more bullshit in my role playing games, like long battle sequences, long dungeons, level grinding, and mediocre story. But for this game, I hit a boss around 35 hours in, where I had been pretty much cruising the entire game, that absolutely destroyed me. Several times. After looking online, most guides recommended I be a full 10-15 levels over what I currently was at. After grinding for an hour in the toughest area I could find, I gained a level and a half. It’s not hard to do the math and figure out I was likely looking at about 10 hours of grinding to stand a chance. And, as I read, my reward for beating this boss was….another long dungeon! It was at this point I realized it was time to quit. There is no reward for me to waste this time in my life when I have about an hour or so a night to play games. Quite simply, I figured out this was a mediocre game, I had beaten probably 80% of it, and the pointless difficulty spike to make me grind in order to extend the game time (perhaps to make up for the lack of towns and additional party members the game appeared to be missing) was not worth my time when I can just hit Youtube for the cinemas and consider it “done”. I’m sure some would not approve of this tactic, but there comes a time when you realize that there are better games to be played and you are truly wasting your time, even if you really love the series.

It’s a shame too, because the battle system in the game is so much fun. Everyone is on an active time dial of sorts, and it’s much like previous games in that you can cancel enemy attacks and they can cancel yours based on when an attack is made and how long it takes you to get to an enemy (range and distance is also a factor here). The only downside of the system is that occasionally, you are essentially locked into what the computer recommends you do, unless you want to be slaughtered by enemy spells. So sometimes you really can’t do what you want, and you have to be much more defensive and preventative than most would be comfortable with. Another issue (and one of the reasons I quit) is that if you face an enemy thats stronger than you, they can essentially keep you from attacking because their attack meter moves faster than yours and they can cancel you over and over again with punishing attacks. It screams unfair when the enemy just gets to attack endlessly with spells while your characters keep having their meters reset.

I mentioned the graphics and sound earlier, and I’ll elaborate, but keep it brief. Grandia had a great art style, and a nice mix of 2D sprites on a 3D plane. Grandia II had colorful graphics, slightly deformed stylized characters, and great character designs. Grandia III has more realistic human bodies with anime faces and less interesting character designs (seriously, these could background characters in any random anime show), subdued colors and towns, and a thoroughly uninteresting graphical style. Add in overly enthusiastic or dramatic voicework to a bad script and it’s a clunker all around. It’s really sad that the game is so bleh to look at and listen to considering its pedigree (Grandia II had teriffic voicework). The music ranges from terrible (the aforementioned opening song) to generic (essentially everything else). Most of the music is appropriate (Baccula Settlement comes to mind) but very little of it is memorable at all.

And sadly, “not memorable at all” is the best way to describe this game. It’s technically sound with its battle system, and sadly, that’s about all it has to lean on. And you will be using it a lot. Battle battle battle, small bit of a derivative and sometimes laughable story, battle battle battle. I may have persevered through this 10 years ago, but I can see pretty clearly now that this is not a good game, and it is not worth wasting anymore time playing or writing about. I would avoid.

Find: Warlocked, Chase HQ, Wario Land, Avenging Spirit (Game Boy)

Price / Condition: About $5 each / Loose carts in excellent condition

Where at: Play N Trade

Why: I’ve been stopping by this Play N Trade store every now and then, since I have some store credit to use, and was waiting for something worthy to show up. Turns out they had a whole bag of Game Boy games in the back that they couldn’t fit on the shelf. After digging through it, I found some solid titles for my GB library. Warlocked is an admirable attempt at Warcraft on the GBC, and Avenging Spirit is a game I took a chance on just because of the goofy cover art. Turns out it’s a port of a pretty original platformer, in which you play a ghost who possesses enemies and uses them to fight your way through each level. Cool! Chase HQ is a fun, unique racing-type game, and Wario Land is obviously good.

Deal or Not a Deal? The price is nice on Warlocked and Wario Land for sure, but maybe not so much on Chase HQ and Avenging Spirit, little-known games that you might expect to get for a couple bucks. Thankfully, I didn’t actually shell out much of my own money, so overall it was a great deal for me.

Find: Game Boy Color system with cleaning kit

Price / Condition: $6 / Excellent. Screen looks great, buttons don’t stick.

Where at: Deseret Industries Thrift Store

Why: Even though a Game Boy Advance will play GBC games, it’s still necessary to have a bonafide GBC system on hand for certain situations (card-popping in Pokemon TCG, for instance). Sadly, the one I own is pretty beat-up and missing the battery cover, so I was more than happy to pick up a better looking unit with the cleaning kit (which I had never seen before).

Deal or Not a Deal? Fantastic deal, especially since the Game Boys you find at thrift stores tend to be beat to hell, and this is less money than you would pay for one from a game store.

Find: Prime Time NFL Football Starring Deion Sanders (Genesis)

Price / Condition: $2 / Good, contacts need some cleaning though.

Where at: Goodwill

Why: I know, I know… I really shouldn’t be wasting money on a sports game. The only justification I can give here is that I like Deion Sanders. Silly reasoning, I know. Fun fact: this is the same game as Joe Montana Football; they just put Deion’s name on it after the Montana license ran out. I’m sure it won’t get as much play time as Tecmo Super Bowl, but at least I can pretend that I’m “Prime Time” in this one.

Deal or Not a Deal? Not a deal. I don’t condone paying any money for sports games. There are exceptions to this rule, but they are few and far between.

Find: Fallout Tactics (PC)

Price / Condition: $5 / Box is pretty beat-up, but it’s got the manual and reference card.

Where at: Value Village

Why: I’ve heard good things about the Fallouts series. I’ve never tried any of them, cuz I’m a bit leery of lengthy RPGs, but this won me over because I love tactics games.

Deal or Not a Deal? The sad thing is, I could’ve bought the Fallout Collection with all three games for only a little more money.. Still, I’d probably never play the other two games, and $5 isn’t bad for a complete PC game.

Find: Diablo: Hellfire (PC)

Price / Condition: $3 / Disc and jewel case only, disc in near mint condition!

Where at: Goodwill

Why: This actually marks the THIRD time I’ve found this rare Diablo expansion mixed in with the regular CDs at Goodwill. This was sort of an “unofficial” add-on released by Sierra. It’s not bad, but it’s no Diablo II, either. However, it is hard to come by, and I snatch it up whenever I see it.

Deal or Not a Deal? Definitely a deal, as you’re not likely to find it anywhere outside of eBay, which will cost you more than I paid for sure.

Find: Magic: The Gathering Battlemage (PS1)

Price / Condition: $4 / Disc only, decent condition.

Where at: Value Village

Why: This is a perfect example of how brand association can influence you into making bad purchases. I used to love playing this card game in my younger days, so I figured this would be a good way to relive some of that nostalgia. Wrong. They managed to not include anything that made the card game fun, and instaad gave us a crappy bastardization. I don’t even know what genre this stinker fits into. Oh well, it’s by Acclaim. I should have known better.

Deal or Not a Deal? Wasted money, ‘nuff said.

Find: ASCII Fighter Pad (SNES)

Price / Condition: $5 / Excellent

Where at: Goodwill

Why: I’ve said it before: I’m a sucker for strange or exotic controllers, especially if they’re made by ASCII. The fact that this might help me enjoy Street Fighter 2: Turbo even more is just icing on the cake.

Deal or Not a Deal? A fine deal on a good controller. I’ve only seen two of these in all my hunting, so I assume they’re somewhat rare.

Find: Suikoden Action Figure

Price / Condition: $3 / In original packaging, but said packaging is starting to fall apart.

Where at: Value Village

Why: I’m not a huge mark for this RPG series, but I always find it hard to pass up an action figure in the original packaging (which I’m seeming to find a lot of in my travels). This figure is actually from Suikoden III, which I’ve never played (only finished the first game), so I’ll probably just end up selling or trading it.

Deal or Not a Deal? Considering the ridiculous amount of money that the games themselves can go for, this is not too much to ask for related memorabilia.

Find: Mario Kart: Double Dash (GC)

Price / Condition: $4 / Complete, excellent condition.

Where at: Goodwill

Why: You could almost call this one the black sheep of the Mario Kart family, but I think it has enough supporters to offset it’s detractors. Personally, I think the game is rather good, and probably better than Mario Kart Wii. I actually thought the two-driver mechanic was pretty cool.

Deal or Not a Deal? Like I said, regardless of where some people place it on the Mario Kart totem pole, there is a lot of demand for this. It will usually go for much more. Excellent deal.

Find: Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door (GC)

Price / Condition: $3 / Complete, excellent condition.

Where at: Goodwill

Why: Somebody must’ve decided that they didn’t want their GameCube Mario games anymore, cuz I found this next to Double Dash. I don’t know much about it, but figured the quality is at least going to be high enough to exceed the low price tag. I’ve never had a chance to play a Paper Mario game, and this is the perfect opportunity.

Deal or Not a Deal? Usually, if a game has “Mario” in the title, that will jack up the price considerably. Ditto if it’s an RPG. Apparently, whoever was pricing games at Goodwill that day didn’t follow these conventions. Bless their heart.

Find: Dark Savior (Saturn)

Price /Condition: $2 / Complete, cracked case, but otherwise good.

Where at: Goodwill

Why: I bought this one was because it was a cheap Saturn game that looked interesting. Come to find out that it’s part of the same series as Landstalker (a great Zelda-esque game for the Genesis). What a delightful discovery! This is the kind of find that makes me happy.

Deal or Not a Deal? While not very rare, or in high demand, this was a dirt-cheap steal!

Find: GamePro Presents Sega Genesis Greatest Tips

Price / Condition: $1 / A little worn, but still decent.

Where at: Value Village

Why: My collection of vintage hint books and strategy guides continues to grow. Check out this compendium of “pro tips” from that one magazine that wasn’t quite as good as EGM (but we all still read). Books like this are fun, especially when they’re semi-official.

Deal or Not a Deal? It’s not very valuable, but I didn’t pay very much for it either. Acceptable.

Find: Leisure Suit Larry’s Greatest Hits and Misses (PC)

Price / Condition: $4 / Jewel case and disc only.

Where at: Half Price Books

Why: YES! I already own anthology discs for King’s Quest, Space Quest, Police Quest and Quest for Glory. Nabbing this collection is the last link in reliving all of my old PC adventuring days, and the fact that I already own an awesome hint book for the series makes this doubly sweet. It would have been nice to get the box and manual, but I don’t see Leisure Suit Larry in stores very often. Had to grab it.

Deal or Not a Deal? This is more of a moral victory for me. Not an amazing deal, but a good personal find.

Find: X-Men Legends (GC)

Price / Condition: $5 / Complete, but has a stupid GameStop sticker on the case.

Where at: Value Village

Why: This is strictly to satisfy my curiosity as to how good an X-Men action RPG could be. I’m crossing my fingers…

Deal or Not a Deal? This is just a little less than you’d have to pay for it elsewhere, so not a bad deal.

Find: Kid Dracula (GB)

Price / Condition: $3 / Almost mint!

Where at: Goodwill

Why: Here’s a cute Konami platformer that I don’t see around very often. It’s a bit of a spoof on the Castlevania series; the first level contains a happy-go-lucky rendition of the revered “Vampire Killer” theme. How could I resist?

Deal or Not a Deal? For a fun, obscure game that is hard to come by, three dollars is a steal!

Find: Shenmue (DC)

Price / Condition: $5 / Complete and near mint!

Where at: Goodwill

Why: Everybody talks about what an amazing and unique game this is, so I was pretty giddy when I found this at Goodwill. I can’t wait to find out if this is really one of the best Dreamcast games of all time.

Deal or Not a Deal? To be honest, it doesn’t command an exorbitant price tag, but finding it in this condition at this price is pretty rare in itself. Finds like this allow me to add some real gems to my collection.

MEGA Find: Castlevania: Lament of Innocence (PS2), Kingdom Hearts (PS2), Kinetica (PS2), Final Fantasy X (PS2), DDRMAX (PS2), Suikoden IV (PS2), Final Fantasy IX (PS1), Final Fantasy VII (PS1), Bomberman: Party Edition (PS1)

Price / Condition: $5.50 each / Almost all of them complete and near mint!

Where at: Value Village

Why: Wow, ok…. So somebody wanted to get rid of all of their best Playstation games, and decided craigslist is too much work. Which is good news for me, cuz I ended up paying about $50 for this stack of games, and FFVII alone would run you about that much at most places. When I got out to my car with my loot, I actually yelled so loud in triumph that I made a passer-by jump.

Deal or Not a Deal? It gets tough to rank my finds after all the hunting I’ve done, but I’m pretty sure this will be remembered as one of my best. Not much else to say here, other than the fact that Kinetica is the only really questionable purchase in this lot. I got caught up in the moment, and bought a game that could very well suck hard. Even so, everything else in the deal offsets that.

What a way to cap off a great year of hunting! I bolstered my collection with top-notch titles for several different systems, and found enough valuable stuff that I was able to recoup what I spent to get them. I didn’t even have time to mention the armful of cheap SNES cartridges that I picked up at Goodwill, which helped push me closer to the halfway mark of owning every SNES game. The “day-after-xmas” half-off sale was really clutch, and served to intensify my anticipation for the President’s Day sales. I was anxious before, but now I’m absolutely rabid! We’re less than a month away! Hey, maybe I’ll find something truly amazing, like uh… Earthbound for five bucks? Who knows… I’ll probably have dreams about it. I’ll be counting the days until then.