Be Excellent To Each Other

All these years later and I still have to feed my Digitiser withdrawal symptoms by reading GameCentral on teletext in the mornings before getting ready for work. Anyway, this weekend the Hot Topic on their letters page is all about which games you own that you could never trade in and why. I can't be bothered participiating with that lot, so I figured I'd ask the question to you swines...


For me, the games I couldn't ever part with are...

Panzer Dragoon Saga, Saturn. Haven't played it in years, but it's one of the best games I ever have played and being as it is hideously expensive to buy second-hand I dare not part with it. Besides, I bought my copy when it first came out, so not only does it have nostaligic value, it's also in mint condition.

Crying, Megadrive. My own little Radiant Silvergun, on account that I'm too stingy to buy a copy of Radiant Silvergun. It's a lovely game too.

Wipeout 3 SE, PSX. Best Wipeout game of the lot in rare-as-rocking-horse-shit-these-days shocker!

Wipeout Fusion, PS2. I'm convinced that there's an awesome game in there somewhere.

And, in keeping with the vague 'batshit insane' theme...
Perfect Dark Zero, 360. To the point that if I do sell the 360, and I'm a good 95% certain it'll be this month, I'll probably keep hold of this on the off chance I buy another 360 later on. It is a crap game really, but for some reason I really like it. This may be because I also really liked it's predecessor and by extension this, even though it is effectively raping the fetid corpse of aforementioned predecessor.

I'm confused - are these shit games that you love and would never trade in even in the face of superior offerings, or just games that you are so happy that you own (for any reason) that you'll never ever sell 'em?

Just games that they (whoever they may be) would need to prise from your cold, dead hands, such is your affection for them.

Transport Tycoon Deluxe and Rollercoaster Tycoon 1, also Theme Hospital and XCOM Apocalypse. They're acebest.

Deus Ex (PC) - a good one for me to return to every so often, to try out new stuff. I genuinely have discovered lots of new stuff every time I've played it, too.

Chess - any version. Eh, it's the game I've played most, its familarity is useful and comforting and stuff.

Grand Theft Auto 3 - any of them. They're brilliantly replayable, and I've never truly tired of any of them, despite several plays of each.

Syndicate (Amiga) - assuming I also had the means to play all of these games and stuff, then coo, Syndicate please. See above for why. The PC version would do a substitute, but only with significant whining from me.

Erm, that's it really. After that it'd just be a list of my favourite games and stuff.

All of 'em. I never sell, trade or get rid of any of my games, with the exception of a few duplicate NES and Atari 2600 carts I gave to workmates. They'll have to prise my entire collection from my cold, dead hands. Or just bury it all with me.

you know that King's Bounty? The Amiga/PC/Megadrive strategy RPG?

I've got that on the PocketPC and it's by far the best incarnation of it and I've probably completed it 50+ times. But I can't stop playing it. I can live without any other game but must continue to own this one.

Ouendan and Ouendan 2 for the DS. Not least because nowhere will trade them.

Final Fantasy VII. I replay it every couple of years. I probably wouldn't get rid of any of the FF games though to be fair.

Ico, and Colossus. I'm going to fucking LOVE replaying those bad boys when i've forgotten enough about them.

We Love Katamari. Unless they bring out another decent version on a system I own that will provide me with my collection getting lust.

I think I finally understand this.

Outlander (Genesis)
Snatcher (Sega CD) - because both are rare and beloved games from my past

Virtua Racing (Genesis)
Sailor Moon (JP Megadrive)
Sonic Drift (Game Gear) - All are games my dad brought me back from his business trips to Japan... though all are flawed in one way or another (Virtua Racing isn't as good as the 32X version, the Megadrive version of Sailor Moon lacks the two player mode of the SF version, and Sonic Drift is stupidly short and easy, even compared to the sequel) they're special because they came all the way from Tokyo or Hong Kong in his suitcase.

Fallout (PC) - I bought it on the strength of the very weird demo and the character creator (which they thoughtfully included to let you play around with) - it's the proper 'survival kit' box with the spiral-bound manual.

Darkstalkers 2: Night Warriors (Saturn) - I was delighted to find consolemad had a copy for sale in his little shop. I still haven't played it nearly enough but I greatly prefer it to Street Fighter.

Radar Mission (Gameboy)
Hunt for Red October (Gameboy) - two marvellous two player games that my friend and I obsessively played during our infatuation with naval warfare, aged 11.

I'm pretty much the same as Malc74, but if a big gang of theives broke into my house with the sole intention of stealing all my games, I'd definitely be clutching Gradius Gaiden, X-Multiply (Saturn double pack version, with Image Fight) and R-Type Delta in one hand, and a clawhammer in the other.

Super Metroid's a bit more common, y'see, so I'd let them off with that.

not excactly sure how this differes from the top 10 list, but i couldn't live without sensi and a good shmup..

Well, the Top 10 list is the best games you've ever played EVAR. But for lots of people that's going to include games they don't actually own, or games that are common as muck and that they'd have no trouble replacing were their current copy to go walkies.

This is about games in your collection that you would want to keep come hell or high water. Y' know, the games that you'd actually kill for. Though I accept that may just be me.

To go off on a slight tangent, are there many games that wouldn't be replaceable one way (legal) or another (less legal) these days, what with downloads and ebay and suchlike?

Sorry, not trying to piss on the idea behind the thread (which is a good one, and I'm still thinking about my answer), but apart from trying to get e.g. GTA IV a day after launch, do people have much trouble getting hold of games lately?

For me it depends on the region. I want to replace my copy of Ultimate Muscle - Legends Vs New Generation* for the Cube (my favourite wrestling game along with MD Royal Rumble and Wrestlefest) but as it didn't come out over here, it'd have to be a US copy and although I've not looked for a bit now, there never seem to be a huge number of copies about.

*bought it three times I think now, finished it all each time, then sold it on.

For me, I quite like physically owning my games. My Megadrive collection is one of my most prized things, even if I do normally crank up an emulator to play most MD games rather than set the actual console up on an actual telly.

Virtua Tennis, DC. Never, EVER, being sold.

I've got them all on emulators, the stuff I really like I have.

You'd have to pry either of my copies of Comix Zone from my Charlton Heston'd hands.

My (x) Warriors collection. Even though they're largely all the same and there's loads of them. I just love them so much.

Are there any of those that aren't overly repetitive? I picked up Warriors Orochi the other week and it seems similar to other stuff of its ilk that I've played like Mystic Heroes and Ninety-nine Nights. The novelty of killing 1000+ enemies per level wears a bit thin!

Just Animal Crossing.

I'm getting my DS Lite back today, so I'm looking forward to more Phoenix Wrighting and Advance Wars 2.

As for the PC, I can't help but be on-off hooked on Lord of the Rings: Online and Company of Heroes. I don't think I can uninstall those two. Lordy Lordy just keeps getting bigger and bigger with entire new lands opening up every few months, and though I'm a very casual player I keep going back to it for a half dozen hours every week as I love exploring the land. And it's the only elves & orcs lore I like. (My epic fantasy tastes usually revolving round the more cynical anarchic/surreal Mervyn Peake, Michael Moorcock type stuff.)

probably donpachi and dodonpachi. These are the only games i play every now and then

Yes and no. There's always these little improvements in each game that make it just enough difference for me. Differing level designs also help things and variations in the way the combat works. I'm not sure about Orochi yet. It's interesting but doesn't quite feel as good as DW6 or Samurai Warriors 2.

Orochi is annoying me and I'm only on the second level. You have to protect two characters and at one point in the level Yie Ying (or whatever) buggers off into the distance so you can choose to either follow her to protect her or stay and protect the other fella. Whichever I do, the other person always gets killed and there doesn't seem to be the time to flit between the two of them. Probably a doddle in co-op but I can't see how I'm supposed to be in two places at once.

Those games are MADE for co-op.