With PC games, if I’m not sure about a game, I usually wait a month until the price drops $10 or $15, unless it’s a game I can’t wait to play.
However, GBA game prices almost never drop, unless you buy used, and there isn’t a whole lot of them in my local EB. Plus there are no demos to even try the games.
I’m looking to buy either Super Mario 3, Mario & Luigi or MOH: Infiltrator.
I’ve played Super Mario RPG, and liked it, but M&L looks nothing like it, and I’ve only ever played the first level of Super Mario 3 on the NES.
I like games to have some replay value, be addictive and just be plain fun.
Played AW and finished it, got bored with AW2. Almost done FFTA as far as I can tell. I need a break from strategy games, I think. They were causing me too much stress at work.
I’m playing Mario & Luigi and if you enjoyed Super Mario RPG, you definitely will love M&L. There’s tons of well-written humor, lots of RPGness and even a bunch of cool action stuff. It’s highly recommended!
Super Mario Bros. 3 (Super Mario Advance 4) is probably the greatest of the Mario side-scrollers for sheer superb gameplay. You really cannot go wrong with that. It’s also $24.99 at Target tomorrow. I think M&L is as well.
GBA games are so worth their $29.99 MSRP most of the time, especially the Nintendo ones and some of the Konami and Capcom stuff too. The games are usually plenty long and have lots of replay value. I mean, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance is something you could probably play for years to come.
Do you mean $60 CDN with taxes? Futureshop usually has good prices on GBA games, and all the recent GBA games I’ve bought from EB have been around $45 pre-tax.
The most expesive I’ve ever seen is something like $64.99 for the Wolfenstein remake. Ouch!
Actually, the bit about the currency wasn’t directed at you and yeah, I know the Queen is on the coins, that’s why I specifically referred to bills. Now my feeble little joke is very dead.
Perhaps it is for the best.
Anyway, EB’s prices (in Vancouver, at least) are a real mixed bag, perfectly in line with Future Shop and other retailers in some cases, way overpriced in others. I end up buying most of my games at a local non-franchise shop.
Mario and Luigi is good. It doesn’t take itself very seriously and it’s got some pretty clever gameplay ideas (that don’t require any cleverness from the player, which is sort of wanky I guess).
Get Wario Ware if you haven’t already. That’s dropped in price where I live.
Pokemon was $40 new over here. I almost went crazy and bought it. I guess I’m not that much of a masochist.
The dialogue of one of the villians in M&L is absolutely hilarious–over the top Engrish stuff which is done on purpose. I can’t imagine how the original Japanese dialogue sounded.
I played a lot of M&L this weekend while out of town and it just gets better. Loads of fun with great dialogue and neat gameplay gimmicks all over the place. All the self-referential humor to games in the series is also good fun.
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow is my favorite CV game yet. It’s a great combination of the better parts of the previous GBA CV games: the graphics and sound are great (for a GBA game, anyway), the difficulty level is just about right, and the magic system is excellent. It’s addictive and does have some replay value with a few endings and a great number of monster souls to collect.
The 2003 GBA lineup kicks ass. I’ve spent over two hundred hours on AoS, Pokemon Ruby, and FFTA this year and I’m just getting started on FFTA. I also can’t wait to try M&L.
Oh, and if you haven’t played it yet, Metroid Fusion is a must. Especially if you have a Gameboy Player.
