Sunday Roundup: 4/10/16

Hakuoki: Memories of the Shinsengumi 3DS Release Date: September 19th, 2013 Purchased at: GameStop (Sunnyvale, CA – $18) Releasing a few years back, Hakuoki is as random a JRPG one can get on the 3DS. I decided to pick up this one for a couple reasons: I needed a game to fit into a Buy 2 Get 1 Free category to maximize the potential of the free game, and two it was released awhile ago and I likely won’t see too many more of it out there. The game isn’t particularly rare, and you can still find it on sites like Amazon, but it might be a game to keep in your collection. If for nothing else, it’s supposed to be a pretty decent strategy game.

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed Wii U Release Date: November 18th, 2012 Purchased at: GameStop (Sunnyvale, CA – $18) Way back in 2012 I reviewed this game for the 3DS and was impressed by its variety in levels, characters, and quality of the racing in general. I have heard good things from a lot of people about this Wii U version (which also happens to be a console launch title!), with some people going so far as to say it’s a superior game to Mario Kart. I don’t know if I’d go that far, but I’m all for games I can play with my friends on the couch! Unfortunately though this might just be a two player co-op game. Can anyone shed some extra light on this for me?

Darksiders II: Deathinitive Edition PlayStation 4 Release Date: October 27th, 2015 Purchased at: GameStop (Sunnyvale, CA – Free) The original Darksiders happened to be one of the very first games I ever reviewed for the now defunct Inside Gaming blog of the Machinima network. I thought it was pretty great back then, but not great enough to pickup the sequel until this “Deathinitive” re-release. Granted, I have had the game on Xbox 360 for awhile now, but this is in HD! Following Death as he fights in the war between the Angels and Demons, Darksiders II takes what made the first game memorable (the Legend of Zelda-esque exploration and gameplay) and makes it all better and pretty on the PS4!

Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars Wii Release Date: March 24th, 2009 Purchased at: GameStop (Cupertino, CA – $2) A port of an old point-and-click adventure game released on the PC way back in 1996, Broken Sword has gone down as one of the more influential games of the genre. Despite this, and the countless systems this game has come out for, I feel like the game has still gone unplayed by a lot of gamers, myself included! The game is a story driven adventure centering around the Knights Templar, a terrorist attack in Paris, France, and the mysteries around those involved. It’s interesting, don’t get me wrong, but I almost feel taken aback by how old the game is I don’t want to even try it. But we’ll see; maybe I’ll be surprised by it one day!

Laters,
Jsick

 

Sunday Roundup: 3/6/16

Mega Man Star Force: Leo DS Release Date: August 7th, 2007 Purchased at: GameStop (Sunnyvale, CA – $7) Another random stop into GameStop after work, another sweet find! I believe the last time I was at the store someone had dropped off a boatload of quality DS games which I was more than happy to swoop in and call my own. I am pretty sure these Mega Man Star Force games were hers as well, because I remember the GameStop associate telling me they were in there. I passed then, but this time around there was a Buy 2 Get 1 Free on old DS and Wii games, so I went to town and essentially got a near-complete Star Force series!

Mega Man Star Force 2: Zenker x Ninja DS Release Date: June 24th, 2008 Purchased at: GameStop (Sunnyvale, CA – $6) The first game had three iterations; Leo, Pegasus, and Dragon. Not unlike the Pokemon franchise, these different version offered up exclusive stuff you could only get in that specific game, but largely offered the same gameplay otherwise. After the first game, there were only two versions released per entry.

Mega Man Star Force 2: Zenker x Saurian DS Release Date: June 24th, 2008 Purchased at: GameStop (Sunnyvale, CA – FREE) Seen as a sort of spiritual successor to the Mega Man Battle Network series, the Star Force series is actually set way in the future and doesn’t have any direct connections to its predecessor. Apparently this was done to not alienate new players by having a backstory set in, believe it or not, six prior Battle Network games! Despite this, the gameplay is largely the same, with grid-based combat decided by chips the player can use to battle enemies. RPG elements abound!

Mega Man Star Force 3: Black Ace DS Release Date: June 30th, 2009 Purchased at: GameStop (Sunnyvale, CA – FREE) The final chapter in the Star Force series! I haven’t played any of series but I hear this one is left off on a cliffhanger. I haven’t heard of anything else coming for this series, so if you ever find yourself looking for Star Force 4 you can probably keep hoping. Sadly, Capcom seems to have forgotten almost entirely about the Blue Bomber. Even if it is another one of these off-shoot games, at least we’d know the company still cares about him!

Mega Man Star Force 3: Red Joker DS Release Date: June 30th, 2009 Purchased at: GameStop (Sunnyvale, CA – $3) Back in 2001 I was pumped for the release of the Battle Network series. It was Mega Man but in RPG form, what wasn’t to like? And in most respects that original game was great… it just wasn’t the Mega Man I grew up with. Much the same here: this just doesn’t feel or look like Mega Man. It’s almost as if they attached the name just to make it sell better. Which is sad, because as its own world and series I might have been more interested.

Mega Man Zero Collection DS Release Date: June 8th, 2010 Purchased at: GameStop (Sunnyvale, CA – $16) Another series originally starting out on the Game Boy Advance, the Mega Man Zero games had their own storyline and characters (and gameplay style) separate from the core Mega Man X games. The biggest defining factor of these games (of which all four are collected on the DS cartridge) were playing as Zero instead of Mega Man exclusively (at least I think exclusively, I only played the first), and a hardcore difficulty curve. Nothing unbeatable, but it looked back to the original Mega Man games of yore. I really liked the first game, and it’s a shame there aren’t any more of these coming out, either!

Pop Cutie DS Release Date: September 30th, 2008 Purchased at: GameStop (Sunnyvale, CA – FREE) Sometimes it’s the games you’ve never heard of which are the most fun to find! Pop Cutie is a fashion editor simulation game which has you creating the next big fashion line! Believe me, I wouldn’t be caught with this game if it didn’t have a great premise and a killer price tag. Usually it sells for much more than, well, FREE, online. Oh, and your clientele aren’t normal people: instead you sell to eccentric people who want all kinds of ridiculous things! It was a hit in Japan, and honestly it sounds like a pretty good time! And for free? Yeah…

Time Hollow DS Release Date: September 23rd, 2008 Purchased at: GameStop (Sunnyvale, CA – $2) Dude… Dude! When I saw this title on the bottom shelf I literally said outloud (though to myself), “Time Hollow, holy shit!” I’ve been looking for this game ever since I found out about it nearly five years ago. A visual novel in the same style as Virtue’s Last Reward or Hotel Dusk, Time Hollow lets you travel through time to solve the mysteries around you, your family, and the strange pen that’s letting you time travel in the first place. I think it’s been well received, but I feel like the real reason I’m happy to have it is because it’s been so damn long since I’ve wanted it, and this is the first and only time I’ve ever seen a copy!

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD Wii U Release Date: March 4th, 2016 Purchased at: Amazon (Online – $58) The only mainstream Zelda game I’ve never played came out this week on the Wii U. Annnnd I can’t play it right now, because our TV is broken! Ugh! Well, we do have a second TV, but Laura’s been playing through Mass Effect, so it’s kind of hard without another option. But I swear, I’m going to play this one and make sure I can say I have at least played it! Also fun fact, I now have the game on the Wii U, Wii, and the GameCube! Booyah!

Laters,
Jsick

 

Sunday Roundup: 2/14/16

Way back in 2013 when I was just visiting California I decided to check out one of the local used game stores. While I found some games there and the owner had an impressive selection, I never decided to go back there once I moved here because of the prices. They weren’t terrible, they were just fair. And while fair is fine, I’m not usually looking for fair (I’m looking for great!). This week I decided to check out Game World once again, hoping maybe some things had changed. Well, the place was just as cramped and overflowing as before, and the prices were just the same. Regardless, maybe I’ll have to check out the place more simply because it’s really the only place to get PS2 and earlier era games! Let’s take a look at this week’s haul.

 

Sunday Roundup: 1/31/16

A handful of DS games and a duo of games I’ve literally been spending years trying to track down finally fell into my collection this week! After our move, I’m living closer to a different GameStop than before, but seeing as I still work at the same Target, I happen to be close to that ol’ GameStop of mine. And man, this week they delivered: apparently a “regular” who goes to this store often turned in dozens of great DS games. They were all loose, but some of them had incredible prices! I couldn’t say no to these and a few duplicates for possible reselling. Hmm… maybe I’ll finally start getting into that this year…

 

Sunday Roundup: 10/18/15

This is going to be one of the biggest Roundups for the site! I made it a goal last week to hit up literally every GameStop in the greater San Jose area in hopes of finding some harder to find gems in the ranks of old DS, Wii, and even some Xbox 360 and PS3 racks. While most of the GameStop’s I won’t be making special trips to again, there were a few stores in some nicer areas that really surprised me! Unfortunately none of these games I would classify as “Super Rare” or anything like that, but there are some fun games here that I’m happy to have in the collection. And I can safely say if you are looking hard enough, you can still find some diamonds in the rough that is retail video game shopping.

 

Sunday Roundup: 10/11/15

While Laura’s out of the country for work, I decided to do a bit of a game collecting experiment: Determine of GameStop’s in my area are conducive to collecting. There have been many negative comments on the internet about GameStop, how they’e a terrible place to shop for games, they charge too much for games and give too little with trade-in prices, and in general that they’re a bad place/thing for gamers. Personally I’ve never had a problem with GameStop: they don’t have all the stuff I want all the time, but I can usually find some quality games there time to time. So this week I’m going to try to hit up each of the dozen or so stores in my general vicinity and see if I can actually find decent stuff at each one. Here’s the first part of that, with two brand new GameStop’s I’ve never been to giving me some games I’ve actually been looking for for nearly 5 years!

 

Sunday Roundup: 9/27/15

Collecting two weeks, this Sunday Roundup has a few targeted pickups I knew I was going to grab, as well as some totally random ones, and even some awesome sale prices! Whenever there are sales that lump together a few solid games and some average one in a bundle price, I’ll always take a look if not grab a few to add to the collection. It’s good, though, these don’t come by too often, otherwise I’d have no money at all!

 

Sunday Roundup: 8/9/15

A new Roundup for a new month! Laura and I found ourselves in Mountain View this past week on a day off, and while we weren’t particularly close to GameStop, since we weren’t really doing anything anyway we made the adventure and headed there. I wasn’t disappointed, as a Buy 2 Get 1 Free deal was going on for all used Wii and DS products! Also, some friends of ours are moving this month and they decided to clear out some of their unwanted stuff, some of which included a small box of Xbox 360 games! And, surprisingly enough, I didn’t have many of them! Huzzah for free games (but sadness from friends moving).

 

Sunday Roundup: 7/5/15 – 7/19/15

This blog has been stagnant for the past few weeks because life has been getting in my way. We’ve recently had a handful of birthdays come up (including mine and Laura’s!), a friend returned to the US after studying abroad for a year, and both of my brothers from out of state and out of town visited to go to California Extreme (more on that bit later). With work and other responsibilities getting in the way as well, unfortunately SlickGaming/DownStab has been thrown to the wayside. But that certainly doesn’t mean I haven’t been looking at games when I can get the chance! And with three weeks making up this Roundup, there are plenty of titles to discuss. So let’s begin!

 

Sunday Roundup: 6/28/15

Once again we’re bringing together a couple of Roundups into one, namely a few Just Dance games from last week and then this week’s extremely generous and awesome birthday gifts from friends and family! As always I felt super grateful and loved to be able to have people in my life that want to give me presents such as these, and I am eternally grateful for all that love and support.

I was also able to swing by a few different GameStop’s I don’t usually venture too, and while neither of them had anything too grand to call out, I was able to pick up a handful of Wii games on the cheap as well.