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From this image, everyone recognizes the 'Player's Choice' label variation. Now, I ask: Is this
really a good thing? In this issue of ask a blog, we will explore the pros and cons of the run-of-the-mill rerelease, and then, you get to tell
US what you think.
When a game is released, the company has two main things in mind: Will this sell well, and will the customer be satisfied? Every so often, a game meets both of these criteria extremely well, selling copies into the hundreds of thousands, or even millions. This is where the typical rerelease comes in.
For example, take the popular SNES game F-Zero. It was released in 1991 in North America. Once it passed the 1,000,000 sell mark, it was rereleased as Player's Choice. Now, what exactly did this do? It allowed them to stop producing the original version, and produce this second version, with slightly different packaging, and one other major difference: no dust cover. Now, this may not seem like a bad thing, but it sets the scale as for what rereleases do to the game. They usually package it poorly, leave special items out such as promotional coins and mini-mags, and may even use a
lower quality product. This allows them to keep production costs down even more, while still making the same amount of money on the other end.
Granted, if a game makes it to player's choice, chances are that you will be able to find an original copy, with no problem. Other types of remakes also exist, such as with
Ikaruga, the shoot-em-up originally released for the Japanese Dreamcast, later ported and rereleased on the Gamecube and Xbox 360. With the release of the 360 version, prices on the GC and DC versions plummeted, even though their rarity was still the same.
So, rereleases make access to either: hard-to-find games more accessible while driving their price down (yet keeping their rarity), or easily found games even easier. Rereleases, in my humble opinion, are a good thing in that they can give access to an unknown game that is very good. The major downfall is that those who own the original are left with a game that may have devalued by half or more. Does either of these outcomes outweigh the other? Only you can decide that.
And now... We want to hear from
you! The reader!!! What are your thoughts and feelings on a rerelease? Are they great, evil, okay, so-so, not too bad, or completely your lifesaver? Post a comment below, and until next time: Keep having an opinion!
Wow, it seems like only yesterday, really. Interestingly enough, it's not. In fact, it's been 5 years since we launched. How time flies. Sure, a lot has changed since June 8, 2004, but we're still the same site at heart, and we'll continue to be the site that exists for you, our community.
Of course, some contest ended today. It seems as though in recent history contests start on April 28 and end on June 8. Some sort of symbolism, I guess. I hope you were taking part in that. The winner will be announced soon, basically as soon as I finish recoding the contest tallying script for submissions. Do you think I simply keep manual tabs on such things? Nah.
Hooray! Five years! What's not five more! To the future!
Another spectacular weekend for finds. Judging from Friday's treasures I thought it was going to be a Sega heavy weekend unlike the last couple weeks which were primarily Nintendo games. But, it turned out to be more of a hardware heavy weekend, in fact, I got 2 new systems, one of which is something I never thought I'd find and is a true piece of gaming history.
Continue reading Treasure Hunt Chronicles '09 - #9
Now that the show is over and everyone's gone home, I've done my research and I'm here to talk about what I thought of some key announcements and games that were shown at E3. Well I wasn't at the show, thanks to the marvel of the internet, you can basically be given a pass to the show with all the sites, blogs, and videos that maintain near constant updates over the course of the show, which is great for those of us who simply live too far away, or don't blog for a big enough website to be invited. Anyhow, I'm sure you're all more interested in what I have to say in that article than you are to hear me rant, so without further ado let's get started.
Continue reading E3 '09: Wrap Up
25 years ago, on June 6, 1984, the US was in the height of the Cold War with Russia and a Russian by the name of Alexey Pajitnov completed the first version of a time-sucking weapon known as Tetris, arguably the most successful puzzle game of all-time, and one of the best video games ever created.
Almost everything that can play games has received a version of Tetris: ranging from common systems like the NES, Game Boy, and Nintendo DS, to more obscure systems such as the Nuon and Virtual Boy. Of course, there are many ports to devices not normally intended for gaming, such as TI-83 calculators (Ztris got me through so many boring study hall sessions in high school) and just about every cell phone ever made (EA's iPhone version of Tetris is one of the best selling games in the Apple App Store).
So, I ask everyone, to spend some time today and celebrate the legacy of Tetris by playing a few rounds. Whether you play it on your
NES,
iPhone, or simply
in your browser, just play it and remember why it's one of the greatest games ever.
Leave some of your memories of Tetris in the comments. Did it suck up your life? Do you remember playing it when it first came out? Do you think it sucks? Let us know!
In closing, here's a little tribute song to Tetris:
MONKEY ISLAND IS BACK! This time, with a new episodic series from the modern masters of adventure, Telltale Games for Wiiware and PC. Here's the trailer:
Also, LucasArts has announced a remake of the first Monkey Island for PC and Xbox Live Arcade.
So yeah, this is a great time to be a fan of adventure games! Both games hit this summer. In fact, the episodic series starts in just one month! You can preorder the series right now at
http://www.telltalegames....store/talesofmonkeyisland
The time is upon us once again, today E3 kicks off with Microsoft's press conference in less than an hour. This year's E3 is supposed to be bigger and badder than the last couple of years, as the ESA tries to recapture some of the show's glory from years past. Over the next few days I'll be bringing you lists of new software announcements, hardware announcements, updated release dates and my thoughts on the press briefings of, at least, the big three. For now, here is a list I'm working on of the games that have been annouced over the weekend and so far today. I'll be updating this as the day goes on and will likely have it posted to the main page after Ubisoft's press briefing this afternoon.
Edit: Updated with announcements from MS Press Briefing.
Continue reading E3 '09: Pre-Show and Day One Announcments
The past few weekends have been spectacular, a little too spectacular actually. My game room is a mess with stacks of games that need a shelf to call home and there is stuff in places where it doesn't belong. So I'm a little relieved this weekend wasn't so heavy with treasures as it gives me a chance to get caught up on organizing and stocking shelves. But it still wasn't a bad weekend at all, mostly thanks to one huge bargain at a garage sale on Friday.
Continue reading Treasure Hunt Chronicles '09 - #8
The Pokemon craze originally hit stateside on September 30th, 1998, with the simultaneous
Pokemon Red & Blue Versions releases. It was an instant success worldwide, and the term 'Pokemon' can be heard uttered from the mouths of children and young adults alike, around the world. I had my first experience with Pokemon at the age of 5 during Christmas '98 with Red and Blue versions on a brand new Game Boy Color, my first system of any kind. At that age, my reading skills were good enough so that I understood a large part of the game, but it wasn't until Christmas 2000 that I really got into the Pokemon craze.
On that Christmas 2000, I received
Pokemon Gold and Silver. Being 7, I got everything, and boy, was I hooked. For some reason, my attention was drawn to the golden color of Gold rather than Silver first. It was the game I put in first, and the game that I finished first, and the game that I logged the most time in. I may not have even beaten Red in Silver, I will never know. Sometime in mid 2004/5, I lost nearly all of my games, and it wasn't until Monday of last week that I got a copy of Gold again. It was like being back with an old friend.
The Gold/Silver world is interesting in that you are given 100 new Pokemon to catch, new moves, new gyms, and of course, a new storyline. What was also neat was the fact that after you beat the Elite Four,
the game still continues for 8 more Gyms! That's right! 16 Gyms, 1 Elite Four, and then Red, the hardest Challenger in the game. While the current speed-run time is 4 hours, 15 minutes from start to end, I know that it took me upwards of 50 hours to finally get to Red and beat him.
Now, to the Nitty Gritty of it all; the review:
The Learning Curve:Well, it is difficult to say that ther is a learning curve at all. Pokemon games follow a very structured path of 'Get the Badges, Beat the Elite Four, and Catch 'em All!', but how you do that can be affected by many variables. Some battles in this game can be considerably hard, while others, mediocre at best. A 5 out of 5 is merited because anyone can really pick up this game and play.
5/5
Gameplay and Story:This game has a very lush storyline, which does redeem it from the fact that it is Pokemon: battles tend to get repetitive, especially random encounters. If you have a goal set, and it takes forever to reach it because of pesky Pidgeies, then you do have the urge to just shut the game off. This is a big aspect of all Pokemon games, but it can be remedied with a Repel or Super Repel.
4.5/5Replay Value:It is difficult to say why, but Pokemon games are such in that when you restart them (at least for me), you have just as much fun playing them as you did the first time. The story doesn't change, but how you go about achieving your goals can vary greatly, changing the game up, giving a new experience.
5/5Music:I love the music in this game. It has old, familiar tunes that have been revamped and made better to fit to the Game Boy Color's improved audio capabilities. I just can't get the 'Team Rocket' theme out of my head!!!
5/5In conclusion, if you are a Pokemon fan, or are new to the franchise, or even want to try a Pokemon game, Gold Version is a great place to start. It earns a:
19.5/20 or 97.5%
It misses perfect by the fact that repetitive random encounters can tend to be annoying. Happy Gaming!
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Posted on May 30th 2009 at 06:08:35 AM by ( Nionel) Posted under PS2 |
The Playstation 2 is the best selling video game console in history, with sales exceeding over 136 million units by the end of 2008 it also sports a library of nearly 2,000 games, it is the only last generation console that continues to see any sort of support or game releases. The console is in it's ninth year on the market and still continues to sell strong despite the release of newer consoles like the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. At this point in the console's life, you might think you'd be hard pressed to find a gamer that hasn't owned one at some point in the last nine years, but it might surprise you to know that I've missed out on a majority of the console's life.
Continue reading Lost Generation: Sony Playstation 2
