Rarer than a straight Yoshi

Well, I may have been the lucky purchaser of a quite rare piece of video game goodness yesterday. I'm not going to say what it is yet, because I still have no idea if the person will actually send it. You see, there have been times when I bought a hard-to-find game and the seller, for whatever reason, decided not to/refused to sell it. Which is simply ludicrous. If it's on eBay for people to bid on, why would you not sell it. I'm sure such people will burn in hell.

In any case, I believe the items will arrive early next week, so expect me to get all giggly like a school girl when it happens. You shan't be disappointed.

With that in mind, today I'd like to share with you some of the rarest of Nintendo games. Behold!

#5 - Pikmin 1 & 2: These insanely popular games were developed late in the Gamecube's life cycle, and many people did not get a chance to enjoy them (myself included). When Smash Bros. Brawl came out this March, Captain Olimar (the main character in Pikmin), was included as a playable character. Many of the trophies described how the game worked. This caused people to want the game, so the prices skyrocketed. While the prices have gone down some since then, they are rare to find outside of internet auction sites. I was extremely lucky to find one 'in the wild.'

#4 - Dance Dance Revolution Mario Mix: This one has a rather strange history. Nintendo only produced a few hundred thousand copies at first. Then they discovered a problem with the dance pad, so they stopped making them. Then, when the public clamored for more, they reprinted more copies, but it was never enough to satiate demand. And, not only is the game hard to get a hold of, it's fun to play, making it that much more difficult to get. Typically, copies of the game go for at least $50 on eBay, without a dance pad. I was able to get a pretty good deal on mine, but it was still more than the original price.

#3 - Megaman X3: - The third entry in the difficult but fun Megaman X series was going for around $70 or more on eBay five years ago, so who knows where it's at now. This is likely another example of an under-produced, over-popular SNES game. Other include Chrono Trigger, Earthbound, and Kirby's Dreamland 3.

#2 - Jack Bros. (and other Virtual Boy games): Ah, Nintendo's short-lived, but crazy-fun 3-D system. It has two screens and you put your face right up to it. Each eye looks at a different screen, giving the illusion of 3-D. But don't be mistaken: despite poor reception, the thing was a stinkin' blast to play. There were speakers near each ear for good surround sound, and the thing was portable (if you had some way to strap it to your head). There were only 14 games, many of which are nearly impossible to get anymore. Mario Clash is one of more hard-to-find ones.

#1 - Nintendo World Championships: - This is easily the most difficult (and expensive) Nintendo game to find. The Nintendo World Championships were a series of contests in the early 90s. Major cities would hold tournaments using a specially-made cartridge with timed versions of Super Mario Bros., Rad Racer, and Tetris. The further you got on each game, the more points you would earn. The winner of each city tournament was given a standard gray-colored copy of the game. Those people would go to the National Tournament to compete for $10,000 and a new car. These gray cartridges now sell for about $6,000 each. But that's not the end of it. Nintendo Power held a special contest where they gave away 26 copies of a gold-colored cartridge. These are considered the Holy Grail of video game collecting. Only 12 of the 26 have ever surfaced. It is extremely unlikely that you will ever see one, let alone be able to afford it. But if you can, I congratulate you, young Nintendo Freak.

So there ya go. Rare games. I have some of those games (and with any luck, I shall have more soon). Have any good rare games? Let us know about them in the comments.

-benjamines

Currently Awaiting: something awesome