When I was younger and FF3 (FF6) for the SNES was coming out, I wanted my dad to take me to Blockbuster to rent it. He was late, and the last one was rented out. I got to rent Pilotwings instead. I hate that game to this day.
Robocop 2 on NES is a big regret. Such a bad game, but i thought it was a good idea that Robocop could now jump. If time travel only allowed us to send petty messages to the past, I'd tell myself to ask for a G.I. Joe TMNT toy instead.
So many... But in one load, used, I got both Ikari Warriors and Wizards & Warriors. In the same purchase, I also got Spy Hunter and Zelda. So... 50% awful, 50% amazing. That was all of my Christmas money that year. To this day, I think those are the only two games I've ever sold. 😂
I actually got A Link to the Past as a gift and regretted it because I found it too easy, I must've been 6 or 7 at the time and beat it in a day. I brought it back to the store and complained, to which they exchanged it for Battletoads/Double Dragon and told me good luck, I had fun but never beat it lol.
I had a mod chip installed in my PlayStation just so I could import Ranma 1/2: Battle Renaissance. My god, what a piece of crap. I imported a few more Japanese games in the days to come. Some were great (Tobal 2, Street Fighter Zero, Sexy Parodius, Fighter's Impact) but many were garbage (DBZ Ultimate Battle 22, DB GT: Final Bout, Poi-Poi) PLUS the chip significantly shortened the life of my PlayStation. But yeah, that initial investment of $200 just to play Ranma 1/2: Battle Renaissance... still makes me angry thinking about it, 25+ years later.
Our parents bought us 2 games for Xmas 1994. I remember getting Donkey Kong Country for the SNES, while my older teenage brother thought it was too kiddy, so he chose Rise of The Robots.
Storm being underwater is one of the few comic accurate things in Arcade's Revenge. In the comics Arcade trapped her in a flooding room and she had to overcome her claustrophobia to escape.
I was BIG into Renting as a kid too! Couldn't afford too many games growing up so this was how I got my gaming fix on the weekends. Got to experience a LOT of games on the NES and SNES that I otherwise wouldn't have due to Renting from my local Ma & Pa Rental shop.
I'll never forget the day I came home from school, my mom met me at the door and said "we bought a new game." It was NHL Stanley Cup, which the local rental place sold off. What a whiplash of emotion that was. I was never into sports games, but I put time into it anyways. It's one of those hockey games where the goalie is an untouchable tank, but it also lets you take the goalie out like halfway across the ice. So me and my cousin had fun just taking our goalies out and bulldozing all the players and dragging their bodies around while the crowd booed until the penalty was called.
I don’t have a specific regret but I have these horrible memories of whenever my brother would pick out a game he would always pick the worst ones on the shelf… he legit picked dark castle on genesis instead of sonic 2
Oh man, knowing that you used the money you saved up as a kid to buy that Three Stooges game. That's just absolutely brutal. I never actually heard a personal story about that one. I hope the kid inside finds consolation in the fact that you have such a great story to tell people now.
This is a great point. People complain about game prices these days. But they’re way cheaper than the 90s due to inflation. TOTK actually was much cheaper than Majora’s Mask.
Easy one for me, hands down Kasumi ninja for the jaguar. Mortal Kombat was all the rage and I wanted to flex the power of the jag. This was a turd right outta the box. 😅
My mother brought home Cybernoid for the NES for me. I really appreciated her thinking of me and I still smile when I think of that day but there is nothing anyone can do to make me ever want to play that game again. Not even for charity.
I remember renting Westlemainia(nes) when I was like 8 and going back to the rental store and asked them if I could get something else because this sucks lol. Not kidding.
I literally did the same thing! I got _Wreslemania (NES)_ off the shelf because Hogan was on it and I was a little Hulkamaniac.... only to find out it was god awful. It's funny that pat mentioned Arcades Revenge, because I had the same EXACT issue a few years later with _Spider-Man vs X-Men: Arcades Revenge (SNES)!_ I was a huge fan of the Spider-man TAS and X-Men TAS on Foxkids, and picked it up purely on the cover-art... to have my mom drive me back to the rental store the next morning and demand they trade it for something else, and give me my day back. lol. The guy at the counter even knew it was bad! Luckily I was smart enough to chose _The Adventures of Batman & Robin (SNES)_ as it had just been returned, and my bad start to the weekend was saved. 😅
I liked Phantasmagoria at the time. However... I worked at a software vendor so I got an employee discount through Sierra and I _think_ I only paid $12.50 for it (and Police Quest Swat, and The Beast Within). For $12.50 in 1996, it was a great game. That said, I have never once had the urge to replay it.
Sadly, I never really got into playing either of the other two. They didn't immediately set the hook in me, but Warcraft 2 did and that was that. I don't know how many thousands of hours I spent playing that game with buddies. 😂
I bought the Simpsons arcade game for pc and the sf2 pc port on vacation with my own money. The entire trip home I was holding onto those boxes and just dreaming of how much fun I'd have. Man was I disappointed!
I can remember every NES game I bought as a kid. Here's the list: Gunsmoke, Duck Tales, Pro Wrestling, SMB3, Rygar, Ice Climber, Final Fantasy, Zelda, Metroid, Popeye, Rad Racer, Wild Gunman, Ninja Kid, Commando, Bayou Billy, Gradius, Castlevania, Excitebike, Ikari Warriors, Karnov, Monster Party, 1942, Tiger Heli, and Base Wars
I played through Phantasmagoria last year and it's still alright even if there isn't much replay value. The first half of the game is kind of dull and in one case managed to breeze through a chapter in a few minutes just by taking the right path. The last half, it got better, with its hidden passages and secret rooms. It's something to play when you are sick and have your computer hooked up to the TV, wrapped up in a blanket in a recliner. I mean, there's not much replay in Space Quest games but that doesn't stop me from playing those again.
I usually did the same. Unfortunately I got FF Mystic Quest assuming it was a much longer game. Had cleared like 85% of it as a rental. Sure it was simple but I expected something as long as FF 2/4.
MLB Baseball on the NES. It was way too easy. The second day I had it I won a game 135-0! Took it back to KB Toys and they let me exchange it for RC Pro-Am because MLB was a birthday present. Nobody did that back then. Once it was opened it was yours.
Way harder to do that back then compared to now. Also it costs a lot more to buy Magazines, get a lot of info & renting costs more money & more effort is put in too. Now I look up things in the internet, buy digitally or you buy on Amazon, Ebay, Facebook market whatever it is to get physical copies mailed to your house.
As a kid, from the NES -> to the end of the PS1 era... I rarely knew any kid/teen who had more than 4-8 games any generation. We all just rented and borrowed stuff (occasionally making trades) because games used to be prohibitively expensive even for middle-class kids. Those few games you owned were often the odd 1-2 you got a year from Birthday and Christmas (often the result a parent using layaway). If you got lucky a parent took you to a pawnshop or yard sale, and you found some games for $10-20.... or K-Mart was clearance some stuff. It's one of the reasons I have issue with when every-time anyone is brave enough to discuss modern games being 'too expensive" a bunch of younger people pop in and say _"nuh-huh, games used to be $80 and more if you account for inflation!"_ Well, in those days, most people did not BUY games that often (especially at full price)... it just wasn't common... everyone rented for the most part, and rentals were dirt cheap. These days we are *forced* to by a game if you want to play it, and even demos are a thing of the past. It's why F2P and cheap subscription games are so dominate now.... People just want to experience these titles, and not drop that kind of money. Many people CAN'T drop that kind of money. Heh.
King Kong for the Atari 2600. I was such a Donkey Kong fan that even clones were on my radar, but ONE level??? I was around ten years old when I bought it and wow I was not impressed. It was on sale for something like $15 but that was hard earned money! I still want it back!
Goblins 2 is an insane game all about moon logic and insane. It's all about figuring out the environment with what your characters can do, strengths and weaknesses. I was able to get a few levels in, but not finish it until Gamefaqs in the mid 90s.
My saddest purchase was paying $29.99 for the game Marauder on the Atari 2600. The box art looked so cool, but the game was just you shooting tiny triangles in a maze. I tried to pretend it was a Star Wars game, but that did not work very long. It was one of the main reasons I sold a bunch of 2600 games in the Recycler and bought a Vectrex. I agree, Full Throttle was a really great game. The only Lucasarts game I ever finished.
Mortal Kombat Mythologies Sub-Zero. I traded in six games I liked to buy it. I knew it was bad as soon as I realized you had to press a button to turn around.
Played a ton of Carmageddon. My pc at the time was not powerful enough to run Carmageddon 2. So i waited and waited for Carmageddon 64. I finally saw it at the rental store. Rented it, knew it was kinda crappy but kept telling myself it was fun. Returned the rental and spent $100 on a new copy, way more than any other 64 game, they were usually $70. Brought my new copy home, loaded up my save from the memory card and.... beat the game in 15 minutes. I was on the last level and didn't know it. This was as a kid before i had a job, so that was xmas and bday money wasted.
@Birdman621 I think I had just played Blitz so much that I got sick of it, and wanted something different. The screenshots of Nitro looked decent, but man that game plays like shit. Haha! I should have actually played Nitro before I made that trade.
I'm fairly young, a big one for me, the first time I've ever felt like "oh god, I wasted good money on this" was Street Fighter x Tekken. I went back to just alternating between Super Street Fighter 4 and Tekken 6 real quick, because I owned both anyway, but man, a crossover between two fighting game juggernaughts? Couldn't resist as a 12 year old. Even worse, that is the first game I had ever purchased on launch day. What a burn that was.
Phantasmagoria is one of my favorite games. Bought it like a decade after its release (I couldnt find it on its day). Love the story, the graphics. Its a piece of history you got there.
I felt a similar regret with Phantasmagoria. I had played Gabriel Knight 2 prior and liked it, so I expected a similar experience with Phantasmagoria. It didn’t live up to my expectations. Also, the pre-rendered 3D backgrounds in Phantas looked really bad compared to the photographed backgrounds used in Gabriel.
Speaking of buying an extra controller for your friend. I wonder what game on each console was responsible for selling the most additional controllers. I remember having the 4-port for SNES, but can't remember why I got it.
As a kid I saved up my money for Road Runner's Death Valley Rally on SNES. I pretty much instantly regretted it when I played it. I don't know if it was Nintendo power or EGM that had me convinced the cartoon like graphics were going to be amazing.
I am going to say Nintendo Power, as they did a cover feature on it. Thankfully we could not afford to buy many games, but that issue did make me rent it, and regret it
A Boy and his Blob for NES. I was 7 and had no clue what I was supposed to do right out of the gate. It was sort of fun trying out the different jelly beans, but that wore off real quick.
Arcade's Revenge was a weekend rental by my sister and me, which was odd because we weren't really big into Spiderman or X-men in those days. All I remember of the game is the first stage with Spidey, then a stage that had Gambit running away from a giant boulder or something. We didn't play very much before popping Mario World back in. Probably the game I regretted buying the most was putting down sixty bucks for that awful South Park N64 game. I don't even think I made it past the turkey levels.
Pat buying The Three Stooges isn't surprising. We didn't know if games were good or not bad then. So we picked stuff that was recognizable. That's why every game store has 50 copies of Top Gun. How great would it have been if licensed games ever turned out good? Duck Tales was probably the first good one...and one of the only good ones.
King Arthur the animated series on SNES . It was glitched, couldn't save the game. 100 dollars Canadian for an rpg you couldn't save, made it to the Viper boss once and was swiftly dispatched to once again start from the beginning 😢
I remember buying DBZ ultimate battle 22 for the PS1 I bought it because I was a die-hard Dragon Ball fan but those game controls were clunky as hell but at least it was better than GT final bout. I remember Spider-Man X-Men arcades revenge that was brutal Spider-Man stage isn't too bad it's just the X-Men stage especially Storm's!
I also bought DBZ UB 22 brand new, I think it was a super late release in like 2002 or 03 and instantly hated it lol. Graphics like a GBA game, almost no combos, and unfitting music. Also CPUs were way too difficult.
Back to the Future, Ghostbusters, and Who Framed Roger Rabbit, NES, are the ones I remember the most. As a kid with no internet we really didn’t know how terrible those games really were. Then as a kid you waste your birthday game or your Christmas game on one of those three, as a child, it was devastating. Like the movies are so cool you just hope the game is fun, and then games like Ghostbusters really aren’t.
I think the only game I regret having as a kid was Ikari Warriors. A few years ago I played Heavy Barrel on the NES for the first time. I wish I had had that instead. 😢
The first game I purchased full price as an adult without reading reviews with full confidence it would likely be fun was Sonic and the Secret Rings on Wii. Buyers remorse is brutal.
I'm struggling to remember games I regretted getting or buying. One that leaps out is the Ps2 game Shinobido: Way of the Ninja. I got so hyped cos it was the original Tenchu team that made it and I hated it so much. One of the few games at the time that I stretched to buying new. I bought most games second hand, so I didn't regret much. I hated Chakan, but the aesthetic has inspired some of my own writing ideas. Even a bad game can be a good experience or give you ideas. If I bought modern games these days I'd probably have a longer list, but the games are so expensive and I am so cagey about buying modern games that they make the handful of scammy games I played in my youth look like high art.
I'm younger than most of the people here, maybe? But I got The Bigs on the Wii for my birthday as a kid and played it one time and just didn't like it at all. I even made a catch over the fence to rob a homerun and still just wasn't feeling it.
Lol I tried to play a full season of Baseball in Bases Loaded for NES over a period of time.... Got to bout 12 games or so & didn't make it any further than that.
Not a purchase, but the burn feels just as real. Traded my copy of A Link to the Past to one of my mom's friend's kids for a weekend. The game he had to trade? Congo's Caper. I never saw A Link to the Past again because my mom guilted me into the trade.
So many…..Vagrant Story on PS1, Final Fantasy Crystal Thingee on GameCube, Crazy Taxi on GameCube, Zone of the Enders PS2, Grandia 2 PS2 and the Game Genie on NES
I relate to Gobliins (think that was the spelling). The first game was great, but the 2nd game I found confusing. Puzzles didn't seem to make any sense. But the graphics and animation were fun.
Off topic from this video but I just started watching the tales from the game store play list and I had a question for Ian there or more of a complaint about retro game stores and I’m curious if his store was like this. But my complaint is about retro game stores cleaning their games and consoles before they put them out for sell. I know that it is a lot of work and you would almost need a designated employee for it but I feel that’s a big issue at retro game stores. Scrubbing off old grime and dirt and stickers and sharpie where people put there names on the cartridge. I mean enjoy cleaning them up but when I buy something I kinda just want it in its best condition at the time clean wise.
Thought I was renting "Ape Escape" at Blockbuster but because I didn't understand the difference between display cases and the white boxes behind them on the shelves which is what you'd bring up to fill and rent-- I ended up with Star Wars the fighting game on PS1 😭
Back in the 80's & 90's where no internet existed or it was at a very poor stage, I regret buying majority of my games whether they were good or bad. I didn't have a lot of games as a kid cuz games costed $80-$100 then on release date etc. I regret buying my games for $80 each when I could have waited for them to be on sale or just rent more of them at a local video Rental store to play them. I remember when I bought Mortal Kombat 2 & that game is rated mature, I had to show id proving I was 17 years old at the time. That game was $80. It was good when I bought it, however I felt I could have waited for that to drop down to $30 or maybe lower at that time.
There were a fair amount of PC games I bought as a young adult that I regretted. Hyper Blade was one that comes to mind. It looked like such a cool sci fi death-hockey game but it was random garbage.
I was so glad I rented Arcade's Revenge to see how bad it was. It would be bad enough just having to do that intro every time before getting to play the actual game. I was always worn out by the time I got to the actual game. Then the stages made you play some of the worst video game tropes possible. I think the intent was to make the player feel the actual pain of the characters, to make them survive stages that were tailored to their personal phobias. It's one of the most sadistic games ever.
Another big regret was Burnout Dominator. I was a massive fan of the crash junctions, it was easily my favourite part and they removed it from that game and it didn't come back until the sort of similar version on Burnout Paradise.
2 Things #1. Xenophobe NES - I was 8yrs old and not the best reader, I had seen Super Contra in the arcades, and the Alien on Xenophobe's cover looked almost exactly like the aliens during Super Contra's arcade intro cutscene/demo. So I thought they were the same game, and had my parents get me Xenophobe for my brithday.. biggest disappoint ever. I kept the game the entirety of my NES life. #2. Atari Jaguar - In 95 I traded my Turbo Duo for..... an Atari Jaguar. I kept the Jaguar for like 2-3 weeks and then traded it in.. wait for it.. for Phantasmagoria for the PC and a handful of other games. I actually really like both Phantas games.
There's only one game that comes to mind every time this subject is brought up: Pit Fighter for the Super Nintendo. It was supposed to have been Street Fighter 2 however the game didn't come out until August. So, I ended up with this game to tide me over until then. Such a janky, horrid mess
I don't remember the name, but I liked beat em ups on the NES. I was going to buy one and my parents asked why I'm buying a game I played that I could borrow from a friend, so I got a different one that I never played before. It sucked and I think my copy had a bug because I would just randomly die a bit into the 3rd level and never be able to get past there.
I used to constantly return pc games to CompUSA. We had a compaq presario, so half the games I bought never ran well. I'm dad made me go to the counter and I'd ask to exchange it for something else. They'd always let me
Oh god. I too had the same experience with Arcade’s Revenge. I was so amped up when I had enough to afford it. Bought from KayBee. Played it for five minutes and muttered “I got ripped off” over and over again for like an hour. I got a Game Genie for this game specifically and none of the codes helped. In fact, it made the damn game harder.
A quasi regret. I treated myself for a complete copy of Capcom's _Haunting Ground_ as a birthday gift. $212 and it's the most I've ever spent on a game. I was a bit upset at the time but now it goes for over $400 so I don't feel as bad.
Cinemaware games were more popular on the Amiga. I had Rocket Ranger and surprisingly the box had a popcorn smell to it which was clever they did that. Loved Gobliins 2, another Amiga classic. Phantasmagoria was the start of Sierras downfall and cost them millions.
I feel that as a kid I just had to grow to like a lot of the games I had. I didn't own very many nes games but I definitely regretted renting Total recall. I don't think I made it past the first stage. I regret buying Wayne's World in Snes even though it was a bargain bin game. I think I had Eternal Champions on Genesis and thought it really sucked. I think my biggest regret from back then was the Sega CD as a whole. My dad probably spent so much on that piece of garbage. All the fmv games looked great in magazines but the controls were awful. I had two consoles fail on me and then I was done. I guess I wish I still had the Corey Haim game just to put on a shelf but I would never care to play it again.
A little too late now but back in the day you could just return a game to the store if you didn't like it. I did it dozens of times and even with games I had no receipt for had had for months.
I had lots of bad luck, asking for games for Christmas, receiving them only to learn the hard way they sucked. Back To The Future, Bart Vs The World, X-Men, WWF King Of The Ring 🤮
It could be possible out of all the games I played as youth not a single one was bought by myself unless it was at GameStop on clearance in the 2000's. The games I played were gifted, rented or traded for from friends. Paying 70 bucks on non-computer games knowing that most those older games could be beat in mere hours no way were they worth the asking price of 50 or 60 bucks new. Huge titles were of course exceptions but most games were not huge titles.
I regret borrowing the SNES port of Pit Fighter from my cousin. The Three Stooges arcade game is better than the NES game!!! A Puzzle of Flesh is an ugly sequel to the colorful original!!! The interface is a joke compared to the original!!!!
Pit Fighter for SNES is really terrible. It was never a great game to begin with, but at least the Genesis and Arcade versions are playable and kind of fun.
NHL Stanley Cup hockey was especially disappointing because the Rangers won the cup that year and were the best team in the game. However, you couldn't tell they were better than any team. The gameplay was too clunky, and every team controlled similar.
Deadly Towers on the NES. The only joy I got out of this game was trolling my friends by letting them borrow an actual good game only to find out that I had swapped the board with this awful one. This was back when all you needed was a phillips head screwdriver to take a cartridge apart.
I had Dino Rikki as one of my few games I actually owned. I eventually mastered it, and loved it. But only after being forced too, since I only had 6 games to my name.
3 stooges is a great rental. Actually spent a lot of time w it on the C64. I went back and played Phantasmagoria recently and rather enjoyed my playthrough
![I.N "HALLUCINATION" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/n5B5q1Hwt_U/mqdefault.jpg)
What games did you reget getting as a child, either as a purchase or gift? I'd love to hear your painful stories.
When I was younger and FF3 (FF6) for the SNES was coming out, I wanted my dad to take me to Blockbuster to rent it. He was late, and the last one was rented out. I got to rent Pilotwings instead.
I hate that game to this day.
Robocop 2 on NES is a big regret. Such a bad game, but i thought it was a good idea that Robocop could now jump. If time travel only allowed us to send petty messages to the past, I'd tell myself to ask for a G.I. Joe TMNT toy instead.
So many... But in one load, used, I got both Ikari Warriors and Wizards & Warriors. In the same purchase, I also got Spy Hunter and Zelda. So... 50% awful, 50% amazing. That was all of my Christmas money that year. To this day, I think those are the only two games I've ever sold. 😂
I actually got A Link to the Past as a gift and regretted it because I found it too easy, I must've been 6 or 7 at the time and beat it in a day. I brought it back to the store and complained, to which they exchanged it for Battletoads/Double Dragon and told me good luck, I had fun but never beat it lol.
I had a mod chip installed in my PlayStation just so I could import Ranma 1/2: Battle Renaissance. My god, what a piece of crap. I imported a few more Japanese games in the days to come. Some were great (Tobal 2, Street Fighter Zero, Sexy Parodius, Fighter's Impact) but many were garbage (DBZ Ultimate Battle 22, DB GT: Final Bout, Poi-Poi) PLUS the chip significantly shortened the life of my PlayStation.
But yeah, that initial investment of $200 just to play Ranma 1/2: Battle Renaissance... still makes me angry thinking about it, 25+ years later.
I'll never forget when I asked for the legend of Zelda on nes for Christmas and what did I get? Where's Waldo...
They should've went to jail for a couple of days for that.
Yeesh.
Damn
Ouch
Don't be upset. Your parents didn't know any better lol
Our parents bought us 2 games for Xmas
1994. I remember getting Donkey Kong Country for the SNES, while my older teenage brother thought it was too kiddy, so he chose Rise of The Robots.
Donkey Kong Country is a lot better probably top 10 Snes games of all time too on people's list.
I remember playing it at a Toys R Us kiosk while I was supposed to be shopping for presents lol
Accessory purchase I regret: Wii HDMI adapter. Rather than making games look better, it somehow makes them look worse.
I loved Phantasmagoria! That was and still is my favorite big box PC game from that era. I also loved the 7Th Guest as well!
I love Phantasmagoria 1 and 2, my favorites FMV games.
Storm being underwater is one of the few comic accurate things in Arcade's Revenge. In the comics Arcade trapped her in a flooding room and she had to overcome her claustrophobia to escape.
And that makes for an awful video game level. Water levels suck.
@@jimjo8541 The Cyclops and Gambit levels were worse.
That stage would give me ptsd flash backs of the tmnt water stage 🫤…appreciate the accuracy though, didn’t realize that..
I was BIG into Renting as a kid too! Couldn't afford too many games growing up so this was how I got my gaming fix on the weekends.
Got to experience a LOT of games on the NES and SNES that I otherwise wouldn't have due to Renting from my local Ma & Pa Rental shop.
Yes, renting was awesome! But for me it was Genesis, Sega CD, and 32X games. If a game turned out to be meh, no big deal.
80's local mom & pop shops
90's Video rental stores.
Every weekend I wud rent a new Nintendo game I only owned maybe 6 games! Rampage on nes is a game I did buy because I loved it!
Renting Gamecube, PS2, Xbox 360 & Wii games will NEVER be forgotten for me
I'll never forget the day I came home from school, my mom met me at the door and said "we bought a new game." It was NHL Stanley Cup, which the local rental place sold off. What a whiplash of emotion that was. I was never into sports games, but I put time into it anyways. It's one of those hockey games where the goalie is an untouchable tank, but it also lets you take the goalie out like halfway across the ice. So me and my cousin had fun just taking our goalies out and bulldozing all the players and dragging their bodies around while the crowd booed until the penalty was called.
Back then, you had to rent games. It saved me from buying so many bad games.
But...Phantasmagoria is awesome :(. You're hurting Roberta Williams, Ian.
All 7 CD's worth LOL
Such a great game. The second one was even better (unpopular opinion, I know).
@@Aragorn7884 8 if you are playing the Sega Saturn version!
@@HernasRoomI've only watched through playthrough of both games, but based on that, I also like the 2nd game better
Right, I'll take his copy of Phantasmagoria if he doesn't want it.
Spiderman and The X-Men in Arcades Revenge has a super killer soundtrack by Tim and Geoff Follin though! Especially Gambits theme.
Why did the Follin Brothers get stuck with the _crappy_ games!?
It was a strange game. I had it. Not really one I disliked but was very odd.
I don’t have a specific regret but I have these horrible memories of whenever my brother would pick out a game he would always pick the worst ones on the shelf… he legit picked dark castle on genesis instead of sonic 2
Oh man, knowing that you used the money you saved up as a kid to buy that Three Stooges game. That's just absolutely brutal. I never actually heard a personal story about that one. I hope the kid inside finds consolation in the fact that you have such a great story to tell people now.
When I purchased NES Playaction Football over Tecmo Super Bowl...
Ouch dude
This is a great point. People complain about game prices these days. But they’re way cheaper than the 90s due to inflation. TOTK actually was much cheaper than Majora’s Mask.
Easy one for me, hands down
Kasumi ninja for the jaguar.
Mortal Kombat was all the rage and I wanted to flex the power of the jag.
This was a turd right outta the box. 😅
Spending $70 + tax on Pokémon Stadium only to almost immediately realize you did and saw everything in 30 min.
My mother brought home Cybernoid for the NES for me. I really appreciated her thinking of me and I still smile when I think of that day but there is nothing anyone can do to make me ever want to play that game again. Not even for charity.
I remember renting Westlemainia(nes) when I was like 8 and going back to the rental store and asked them if I could get something else because this sucks lol. Not kidding.
Cool.
I literally did the same thing! I got _Wreslemania (NES)_ off the shelf because Hogan was on it and I was a little Hulkamaniac.... only to find out it was god awful. It's funny that pat mentioned Arcades Revenge, because I had the same EXACT issue a few years later with _Spider-Man vs X-Men: Arcades Revenge (SNES)!_ I was a huge fan of the Spider-man TAS and X-Men TAS on Foxkids, and picked it up purely on the cover-art... to have my mom drive me back to the rental store the next morning and demand they trade it for something else, and give me my day back. lol. The guy at the counter even knew it was bad! Luckily I was smart enough to chose _The Adventures of Batman & Robin (SNES)_ as it had just been returned, and my bad start to the weekend was saved. 😅
I liked Phantasmagoria at the time. However... I worked at a software vendor so I got an employee discount through Sierra and I _think_ I only paid $12.50 for it (and Police Quest Swat, and The Beast Within). For $12.50 in 1996, it was a great game. That said, I have never once had the urge to replay it.
Gabriel Knight is the best!
Time to feel old, the 20th anniversary remake is already 10 years old.
Cant believe its been 30 years since the first GK.
Police Quest SWAT is one of my favorite PC games ever. Sierra always made games that had hilarious ways to lose/die and that one was no different
Sadly, I never really got into playing either of the other two. They didn't immediately set the hook in me, but Warcraft 2 did and that was that. I don't know how many thousands of hours I spent playing that game with buddies. 😂
@TheBrokenTech Warcraft 2 was awesome too, so was the expansion pack
My guys starting to look like my dad and grandpa. Didn't seem that long ago that we were all young men together.
I bought the Simpsons arcade game for pc and the sf2 pc port on vacation with my own money. The entire trip home I was holding onto those boxes and just dreaming of how much fun I'd have. Man was I disappointed!
paid actual cash money for world heroes on the genesis. sold it back to the game shop the same day then they turned my copy into their rental copy.
I can remember every NES game I bought as a kid. Here's the list: Gunsmoke, Duck Tales, Pro Wrestling, SMB3, Rygar, Ice Climber, Final Fantasy, Zelda, Metroid, Popeye, Rad Racer, Wild Gunman, Ninja Kid, Commando, Bayou Billy, Gradius, Castlevania, Excitebike, Ikari Warriors, Karnov, Monster Party, 1942, Tiger Heli, and Base Wars
I played through Phantasmagoria last year and it's still alright even if there isn't much replay value. The first half of the game is kind of dull and in one case managed to breeze through a chapter in a few minutes just by taking the right path. The last half, it got better, with its hidden passages and secret rooms. It's something to play when you are sick and have your computer hooked up to the TV, wrapped up in a blanket in a recliner. I mean, there's not much replay in Space Quest games but that doesn't stop me from playing those again.
Phantasmagoria was amazing… I remember picking it up at my local computer store… I played through all 7 disc maybe around 50 times…
Phantasmagoria was the first game that really freaked me out when i like 5 or 6, just seeing the thumbnail brings nostalgia
Bart vs. The Space Mutants.
I don't want to talk about it. 😑
I don’t think I ever bought or received a bad game. We rented a lot of games back in the day and the ones that I did like we did end up buying.
Back in the day. So 80's or 90's?
@@tonyp9313 late 80s and 90s. At least for me.
I usually did the same. Unfortunately I got FF Mystic Quest assuming it was a much longer game. Had cleared like 85% of it as a rental. Sure it was simple but I expected something as long as FF 2/4.
Sadly the arcade version of Bloody Wolf/Battle Ranger was two players but the TG-16 added and took out a few features.
MLB Baseball on the NES. It was way too easy. The second day I had it I won a game 135-0! Took it back to KB Toys and they let me exchange it for RC Pro-Am because MLB was a birthday present. Nobody did that back then. Once it was opened it was yours.
That was the most boss of boss moves. RC Pro-Am rules*.
*second only to Rock n' Roll Racing on the SNES.
This is why i rented or checked the games out in magazines and ive very rarely bought anything i didnt like.
Way harder to do that back then compared to now. Also it costs a lot more to buy Magazines, get a lot of info & renting costs more money & more effort is put in too.
Now I look up things in the internet, buy digitally or you buy on Amazon, Ebay, Facebook market whatever it is to get physical copies mailed to your house.
As a kid, from the NES -> to the end of the PS1 era... I rarely knew any kid/teen who had more than 4-8 games any generation. We all just rented and borrowed stuff (occasionally making trades) because games used to be prohibitively expensive even for middle-class kids. Those few games you owned were often the odd 1-2 you got a year from Birthday and Christmas (often the result a parent using layaway). If you got lucky a parent took you to a pawnshop or yard sale, and you found some games for $10-20.... or K-Mart was clearance some stuff.
It's one of the reasons I have issue with when every-time anyone is brave enough to discuss modern games being 'too expensive" a bunch of younger people pop in and say _"nuh-huh, games used to be $80 and more if you account for inflation!"_
Well, in those days, most people did not BUY games that often (especially at full price)... it just wasn't common... everyone rented for the most part, and rentals were dirt cheap. These days we are *forced* to by a game if you want to play it, and even demos are a thing of the past. It's why F2P and cheap subscription games are so dominate now....
People just want to experience these titles, and not drop that kind of money. Many people CAN'T drop that kind of money. Heh.
King Kong for the Atari 2600. I was such a Donkey Kong fan that even clones were on my radar, but ONE level??? I was around ten years old when I bought it and wow I was not impressed. It was on sale for something like $15 but that was hard earned money! I still want it back!
Goblins 2 is an insane game all about moon logic and insane. It's all about figuring out the environment with what your characters can do, strengths and weaknesses. I was able to get a few levels in, but not finish it until Gamefaqs in the mid 90s.
My saddest purchase was paying $29.99 for the game Marauder on the Atari 2600. The box art looked so cool, but the game was just you shooting tiny triangles in a maze. I tried to pretend it was a Star Wars game, but that did not work very long. It was one of the main reasons I sold a bunch of 2600 games in the Recycler and bought a Vectrex.
I agree, Full Throttle was a really great game. The only Lucasarts game I ever finished.
I think Rambo and Karate Kid were the two biggest let downs in my childhood NES library.
Bill Elliots Nascar Challenge and Target Renegade come to mind as far as games from my early childhood, but I still have a love for both..
Mortal Kombat Mythologies Sub-Zero. I traded in six games I liked to buy it. I knew it was bad as soon as I realized you had to press a button to turn around.
Played a ton of Carmageddon. My pc at the time was not powerful enough to run Carmageddon 2. So i waited and waited for Carmageddon 64. I finally saw it at the rental store. Rented it, knew it was kinda crappy but kept telling myself it was fun. Returned the rental and spent $100 on a new copy, way more than any other 64 game, they were usually $70.
Brought my new copy home, loaded up my save from the memory card and.... beat the game in 15 minutes. I was on the last level and didn't know it. This was as a kid before i had a job, so that was xmas and bday money wasted.
Defender of the Crown was a really good entry level sim/conquest game, and it hurts me when people dismiss it as being only a graphical showpiece.
I regret trading NFL Blitz to my friend for WCW Nitro for PS1. I got burned on that deal haha!
I get drunk at Dave n busters and play NFL blitz, to this day.
@Birdman621 I think I had just played Blitz so much that I got sick of it, and wanted something different. The screenshots of Nitro looked decent, but man that game plays like shit. Haha! I should have actually played Nitro before I made that trade.
I'm fairly young, a big one for me, the first time I've ever felt like "oh god, I wasted good money on this" was Street Fighter x Tekken. I went back to just alternating between Super Street Fighter 4 and Tekken 6 real quick, because I owned both anyway, but man, a crossover between two fighting game juggernaughts? Couldn't resist as a 12 year old. Even worse, that is the first game I had ever purchased on launch day. What a burn that was.
Phantasmagoria is one of my favorite games. Bought it like a decade after its release (I couldnt find it on its day). Love the story, the graphics.
Its a piece of history you got there.
I felt a similar regret with Phantasmagoria. I had played Gabriel Knight 2 prior and liked it, so I expected a similar experience with Phantasmagoria. It didn’t live up to my expectations. Also, the pre-rendered 3D backgrounds in Phantas looked really bad compared to the photographed backgrounds used in Gabriel.
Mine was Terminator 2 judgement day I thought it was the first person shooter like the arcade but its the other side scrolling one it's horrible.
Worst driving controls ever.
Really wonder how I even managed as a kid to get past those stages…
Speaking of buying an extra controller for your friend. I wonder what game on each console was responsible for selling the most additional controllers. I remember having the 4-port for SNES, but can't remember why I got it.
As a kid I saved up my money for Road Runner's Death Valley Rally on SNES. I pretty much instantly regretted it when I played it. I don't know if it was Nintendo power or EGM that had me convinced the cartoon like graphics were going to be amazing.
I am going to say Nintendo Power, as they did a cover feature on it. Thankfully we could not afford to buy many games, but that issue did make me rent it, and regret it
@@ninjasec I'm pretty sure 12-year-old me had wished I had rented it as well.
Cartoon like graphics isn't the problem, the gameplay is.
@@callak_9974 yeah, the gameplay was just horrible. It's the cartoon graphics that suckered young me in. :)
We were all tricked by that game’s graphics
A Boy and his Blob for NES. I was 7 and had no clue what I was supposed to do right out of the gate. It was sort of fun trying out the different jelly beans, but that wore off real quick.
Was the PC game 11th hour sound right?
or was it like 7th guest..
I got Arcade’s Revenge on SNES for Christmas one year. I eventually traded it in to Funco Land.
Still have a soft spot for Phantasmagoria…the end chase in Disc 7 with that amazing score still gives me Feels.
The three stooges is fun
My dad bought it for me because we watched 3 stooges together. I liked the game too. 😊
Arcade's Revenge was a weekend rental by my sister and me, which was odd because we weren't really big into Spiderman or X-men in those days. All I remember of the game is the first stage with Spidey, then a stage that had Gambit running away from a giant boulder or something. We didn't play very much before popping Mario World back in.
Probably the game I regretted buying the most was putting down sixty bucks for that awful South Park N64 game. I don't even think I made it past the turkey levels.
Pat buying The Three Stooges isn't surprising. We didn't know if games were good or not bad then. So we picked stuff that was recognizable. That's why every game store has 50 copies of Top Gun. How great would it have been if licensed games ever turned out good? Duck Tales was probably the first good one...and one of the only good ones.
Zelda 2 (instead of 1) and The Rocketeer.
I beat the Rocketeer a couple years ago, and while not spectacular, I enjoyed its simple shooting
Zelda 2 is still my favorite Zelda game. To each their own.
King Arthur the animated series on SNES . It was glitched, couldn't save the game. 100 dollars Canadian for an rpg you couldn't save, made it to the Viper boss once and was swiftly dispatched to once again start from the beginning 😢
I remember buying DBZ ultimate battle 22 for the PS1 I bought it because I was a die-hard Dragon Ball fan but those game controls were clunky as hell but at least it was better than GT final bout.
I remember Spider-Man X-Men arcades revenge that was brutal Spider-Man stage isn't too bad it's just the X-Men stage especially Storm's!
I also bought DBZ UB 22 brand new, I think it was a super late release in like 2002 or 03 and instantly hated it lol. Graphics like a GBA game, almost no combos, and unfitting music. Also CPUs were way too difficult.
Atleast final bout is worth money unless it's the remake.
I _PRE-ORDERED_ DBZ Ultimate Battle 22 (Kmart)! ....Imagine my horror. lol. Luckily it was only $20.... but I still wish I could have that back. 😅
Superman 64 and Power Rangers: Light Speed Rescue on the n64
Back to the Future, Ghostbusters, and Who Framed Roger Rabbit, NES, are the ones I remember the most. As a kid with no internet we really didn’t know how terrible those games really were. Then as a kid you waste your birthday game or your Christmas game on one of those three, as a child, it was devastating. Like the movies are so cool you just hope the game is fun, and then games like Ghostbusters really aren’t.
I think the only game I regret having as a kid was Ikari Warriors. A few years ago I played Heavy Barrel on the NES for the first time. I wish I had had that instead. 😢
Your experience with Goblins 2 is like my experience w the Dizzy games... Could not get past the first few screens as a kid.
I rarely got games as a kid but there was one day my mom let me get a game while we were at Walmart and I chose dragon's lair on the NES nuff said
I liked the arcade version tho.
The first game I purchased full price as an adult without reading reviews with full confidence it would likely be fun was Sonic and the Secret Rings on Wii. Buyers remorse is brutal.
I'm struggling to remember games I regretted getting or buying. One that leaps out is the Ps2 game Shinobido: Way of the Ninja. I got so hyped cos it was the original Tenchu team that made it and I hated it so much. One of the few games at the time that I stretched to buying new. I bought most games second hand, so I didn't regret much. I hated Chakan, but the aesthetic has inspired some of my own writing ideas. Even a bad game can be a good experience or give you ideas. If I bought modern games these days I'd probably have a longer list, but the games are so expensive and I am so cagey about buying modern games that they make the handful of scammy games I played in my youth look like high art.
I'm younger than most of the people here, maybe? But I got The Bigs on the Wii for my birthday as a kid and played it one time and just didn't like it at all. I even made a catch over the fence to rob a homerun and still just wasn't feeling it.
Lol I tried to play a full season of Baseball in Bases Loaded for NES over a period of time.... Got to bout 12 games or so & didn't make it any further than that.
yes Pat, Arcades revenge was one I was glad I just rented...
Not a purchase, but the burn feels just as real. Traded my copy of A Link to the Past to one of my mom's friend's kids for a weekend. The game he had to trade? Congo's Caper. I never saw A Link to the Past again because my mom guilted me into the trade.
So many…..Vagrant Story on PS1, Final Fantasy Crystal Thingee on GameCube, Crazy Taxi on GameCube, Zone of the Enders PS2, Grandia 2 PS2 and the Game Genie on NES
I relate to Gobliins (think that was the spelling). The first game was great, but the 2nd game I found confusing. Puzzles didn't seem to make any sense. But the graphics and animation were fun.
Picked up Three Stooges for $5 at my local rental spot circa 1997 - thanks for making me remember I wasted that money. 😅
*Hot Take:* A Boy and His Blob on NES 😬
I love A Boy and His Blob for about 10 minutes, then I'm good. lol
@@audrianaonline 9 minutes too long 😅
That game sounds like the definition of a "strategy guide is mandatory" kinda game, and you didn't have internet guides back then!
@@gamerguy425 literally, tell me about it 🙄
I played ABAHB a lot as a kid. But I never made it that far.
Off topic from this video but I just started watching the tales from the game store play list and I had a question for Ian there or more of a complaint about retro game stores and I’m curious if his store was like this. But my complaint is about retro game stores cleaning their games and consoles before they put them out for sell. I know that it is a lot of work and you would almost need a designated employee for it but I feel that’s a big issue at retro game stores. Scrubbing off old grime and dirt and stickers and sharpie where people put there names on the cartridge. I mean enjoy cleaning them up but when I buy something I kinda just want it in its best condition at the time clean wise.
Thought I was renting "Ape Escape" at Blockbuster but because I didn't understand the difference between display cases and the white boxes behind them on the shelves which is what you'd bring up to fill and rent-- I ended up with Star Wars the fighting game on PS1 😭
Back in the 80's & 90's where no internet existed or it was at a very poor stage, I regret buying majority of my games whether they were good or bad. I didn't have a lot of games as a kid cuz games costed $80-$100 then on release date etc. I regret buying my games for $80 each when I could have waited for them to be on sale or just rent more of them at a local video Rental store to play them.
I remember when I bought Mortal Kombat 2 & that game is rated mature, I had to show id proving I was 17 years old at the time. That game was $80. It was good when I bought it, however I felt I could have waited for that to drop down to $30 or maybe lower at that time.
There were a fair amount of PC games I bought as a young adult that I regretted.
Hyper Blade was one that comes to mind. It looked like such a cool sci fi death-hockey game but it was random garbage.
I was so glad I rented Arcade's Revenge to see how bad it was. It would be bad enough just having to do that intro every time before getting to play the actual game. I was always worn out by the time I got to the actual game. Then the stages made you play some of the worst video game tropes possible. I think the intent was to make the player feel the actual pain of the characters, to make them survive stages that were tailored to their personal phobias. It's one of the most sadistic games ever.
Another big regret was Burnout Dominator. I was a massive fan of the crash junctions, it was easily my favourite part and they removed it from that game and it didn't come back until the sort of similar version on Burnout Paradise.
2 Things
#1. Xenophobe NES - I was 8yrs old and not the best reader, I had seen Super Contra in the arcades, and the Alien on Xenophobe's cover looked almost exactly like the aliens during Super Contra's arcade intro cutscene/demo. So I thought they were the same game, and had my parents get me Xenophobe for my brithday.. biggest disappoint ever. I kept the game the entirety of my NES life.
#2. Atari Jaguar - In 95 I traded my Turbo Duo for..... an Atari Jaguar. I kept the Jaguar for like 2-3 weeks and then traded it in.. wait for it.. for Phantasmagoria for the PC and a handful of other games.
I actually really like both Phantas games.
Gabriel Knight: the beast within was an awesome game! I'll even go as far as saying the best in the GK series
There's only one game that comes to mind every time this subject is brought up: Pit Fighter for the Super Nintendo. It was supposed to have been Street Fighter 2 however the game didn't come out until August. So, I ended up with this game to tide me over until then. Such a janky, horrid mess
I don't remember the name, but I liked beat em ups on the NES. I was going to buy one and my parents asked why I'm buying a game I played that I could borrow from a friend, so I got a different one that I never played before. It sucked and I think my copy had a bug because I would just randomly die a bit into the 3rd level and never be able to get past there.
I used to constantly return pc games to CompUSA. We had a compaq presario, so half the games I bought never ran well. I'm dad made me go to the counter and I'd ask to exchange it for something else. They'd always let me
If Ian does a Let’s play of Phantasmagoria I’d watch that.
Oh god. I too had the same experience with Arcade’s Revenge. I was so amped up when I had enough to afford it. Bought from KayBee. Played it for five minutes and muttered “I got ripped off” over and over again for like an hour. I got a Game Genie for this game specifically and none of the codes helped. In fact, it made the damn game harder.
I rented Arcades revenge and was still pissed I lost a couple bucks on it
A quasi regret. I treated myself for a complete copy of Capcom's _Haunting Ground_ as a birthday gift. $212 and it's the most I've ever spent on a game. I was a bit upset at the time but now it goes for over $400 so I don't feel as bad.
Cinemaware games were more popular on the Amiga. I had Rocket Ranger and surprisingly the box had a popcorn smell to it which was clever they did that.
Loved Gobliins 2, another Amiga classic.
Phantasmagoria was the start of Sierras downfall and cost them millions.
I always liked Spiderman and X-Men on Sega. Variety is always a positive in games
I feel that as a kid I just had to grow to like a lot of the games I had. I didn't own very many nes games but I definitely regretted renting Total recall. I don't think I made it past the first stage. I regret buying Wayne's World in Snes even though it was a bargain bin game. I think I had Eternal Champions on Genesis and thought it really sucked. I think my biggest regret from back then was the Sega CD as a whole. My dad probably spent so much on that piece of garbage. All the fmv games looked great in magazines but the controls were awful. I had two consoles fail on me and then I was done. I guess I wish I still had the Corey Haim game just to put on a shelf but I would never care to play it again.
A little too late now but back in the day you could just return a game to the store if you didn't like it. I did it dozens of times and even with games I had no receipt for had had for months.
Rastan on sega master system was really good
I had lots of bad luck, asking for games for Christmas, receiving them only to learn the hard way they sucked. Back To The Future, Bart Vs The World, X-Men, WWF King Of The Ring 🤮
It could be possible out of all the games I played as youth not a single one was bought by myself unless it was at GameStop on clearance in the 2000's. The games I played were gifted, rented or traded for from friends. Paying 70 bucks on non-computer games knowing that most those older games could be beat in mere hours no way were they worth the asking price of 50 or 60 bucks new. Huge titles were of course exceptions but most games were not huge titles.
I regret borrowing the SNES port of Pit Fighter from my cousin. The Three Stooges arcade game is better than the NES game!!! A Puzzle of Flesh is an ugly sequel to the colorful original!!! The interface is a joke compared to the original!!!!
Pit Fighter for SNES is really terrible. It was never a great game to begin with, but at least the Genesis and Arcade versions are playable and kind of fun.
I liked arcade Pit Fighter. SNES version blew for sure.
NHL Stanley Cup hockey was especially disappointing because the Rangers won the cup that year and were the best team in the game. However, you couldn't tell they were better than any team. The gameplay was too clunky, and every team controlled similar.
Deadly Towers on the NES. The only joy I got out of this game was trolling my friends by letting them borrow an actual good game only to find out that I had swapped the board with this awful one. This was back when all you needed was a phillips head screwdriver to take a cartridge apart.
T and C surf design. Only liked one level
And Dino Rikki ... Was too hard
I remember how shitty surfing was on T&C Surf. I never figured it out until my 20's when I started game collecting.
I had Dino Rikki as one of my few games I actually owned. I eventually mastered it, and loved it. But only after being forced too, since I only had 6 games to my name.
Fatal Rewind on the Sega Genesis was the one I got swindled into buying based on cover art and back of box description...game was so underwhelming.
3 stooges is a great rental. Actually spent a lot of time w it on the C64. I went back and played Phantasmagoria recently and rather enjoyed my playthrough
Asking for Shadowrun genesis vs Super Metroid. Later as an adult I would appreciate the Shadowrun game but I knew F’d up as a kid