Purchases on a Whim

I don't think this happens much anymore because information is easily available but what are some purchases you've made where you had no clue about the game but it looked cool?

Two really good ones come to mind for me:

Mario Kart - this was more of a gift and I had never heard of the game (living in Italy at the time probably didn't help the fact) but after playing it for a few minutes I knew I would play it for a long time.

Suikoden - It was my birthday and my parents took me to CompUSA and told me we weren't leaving until I picked out a game. I saw the box art for Suikoden, looked more interesting then Beyond the Beyond and bought it (along with a copy of EGM2 that had a guide by coincidence). Now it is in my top 5 games I've ever played.

As a kid? Probably every game that wasn't Mario or something familiar. I didn't get magazines for the most part. Now? I know something about everything I buy (but not necessarily that much).

Definitely Ys Book I & II for the Turbo CD. Ys ended up being my favorite series of all time.

I think the last great impulse buy I made was probably Nier.

I can't remember the last time I had a blind buy. Probably Ninja Gaiden Black in 2005 and I really ended up enjoying it.

I bought Project Altered Beast last night on a whim.
I know its not very good, but ...i had to.
I was looking at the Overworks wiki and saw it listed. I had completely forgotten it existed. A few clicks later, it was purchased.

Most of my unresearched purchases are little download titles that look cool. Mutant Blobs Attack on Vita was pretty awesome, and I just got Liberation Maiden on 3ds which is good, but makes my hand cramp.

The arcade board of Gamshara, it looked neat and was cheap. I still haven't hooked it up due to a combination of laziness and finding a monitor that would support it (mostly the latter causing the former)

First blind game buy was Xenogears because I loved the cover and saw it was a Square game, that turned out amazing. Others that worked out well: Risk: Factions, Guilty Gear XX #Reload, Dust :aEt, Rygar (ps2), Magic 2012: DotPW... I've bought tons of shit on impulse but those jump to mind first.

Ones that proved to be poor to terrible decisions: Beyond Good and Evil hd, Islands of Wakfu, Voltron (I blame Josh), Patapon, Bangai-O Spirits, again just first that come to mind.

I bought a Sega CD with both Lunars, Snatcher, and popful mail (along with a few terrible games) with x-mas money one year. It was all on clearance at TRU and I didn't know anything about any of it. I just knew that for about $150 I was getting a new system with new games on fancy new CDs.

Best x-mas ever!

Well done.

I bought Blue Dragon on a whim - I knew the gamer consensus was that it was boring, but Akira Toriyama and Mistwalker had me convinced to give it a go. Same with Last Remnant - it was $10 and I thought sure, why not?! The original previews were all I saw, the aesthetic felt kinda like FF12, and I was sure to install the game to save so much loading pain.

As a kid, I only got games as gifts so I was always sure to study up on stuff I wanted. When I got my first job at 16, all best were off! I bought so much impulse crap, like Star Ocean 2, Valkyrie Profile, One Piece Mansion, Super Magnetic Neo, Red Dog, MDK2...games I had next to no knowledge about at the time, but the back of the cases made them look interesting!

The two that immediately come to mind are Fester's Quest and Final Fantasy on NES. I think I got them both at Babbage's with birthday money or something similar. I actually liked them both, though Fester's Quest was brutal. After that, I typically at least had seen games in magazines before biting. I took a flyer on a lot of Lynx games based solely on the marketing booklets that Atari used to put out though. I also recall Thunder Force III being a flyer soon after I got my Genesis.

I didn't have many NES whim purchases. There was a local joint that rented games for 50 cents each per week. I'd take $2 every Sunday to get 4 more games.

The place had a huge library and I at least tried everything they had. Which turned me into the kid everyone asked about Nintendo on the playground.

What's funny is I used to rent NES too, but it was similar to how I treat demos now. I almost never rented anything I had any intention of buying. I can't explain why that is.

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Originally Posted by Yoshi

What's funny is I used to rent NES too, but it was similar to how I treat demos now. I almost never rented anything I had any intention of buying. I can't explain why that is.

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I'm the same way. If I did rent something that was way better than I expected, I wouldn't play it anymore until I'd bought it for myself haha.

There were some games I'd rent for weeks on end because I liked them so much.

I didn't have the money to buy my own games (outside of the occasional yard sale find) so I had no real desire to own them. I think I got about $15 a month for my allowance and $8 of that went to rentals.

Although between my 2 siblings, myself and my mom we owned about 80 NES games by the time the system was dead.

As a kid, I was faced with my first buying decision: Mega Man 2 or Silent Service. I chose Silent Service because, y'know, SUBMARINES! Thank God the store had a lienient return policy. After that, I made lots and lots of purchases on a whim in the Genesis era. Some were so good, but StormLord was probably the worst at that time. I thought I was getting a Ghouls n Ghosts-style game, but I was really buying a shitty shitty game. Fuck Stormlord.

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Originally Posted by Some Stupid Japanese Name

I bought Project Altered Beast last night on a whim.
I know its not very good, but ...i had to.
I was looking at the Overworks wiki and saw it listed. I had completely forgotten it existed. A few clicks later, it was purchased.

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How much? I have a Japanese PS2 with no games, and PAB would be good for a hands-on for Sega-16. I need to get Thunder Force VI too.

The Dreamcast was the last console where I made blind buys a lot, and that was because it always paid off. Jet Set Radio, Shenmue, Chu Chu Rocket and so many others - all awesome.

I've made a few this gen, but they've all been $20 purchases, and many of them have stunk.

I bought Jaws and Athena based on their cover art. Jaws was obviously a hit since it's rad but Athena was the worst game of all time.

It was $23 shipped. Pretty sure i saw another listing for about the same.

It's been yeaaaars since I've bought anything without having info on it.

"Purchases on a whim" for me these days are more like purchases I decide to jump into despite being on the fence. Stuff like the ZoE collection, I guess.

I haven't made a blind purchase since the early nineties.
The most pleasant surprises that I recall would be Castle of Illusion for Genesis, and Shadow of the Beast II for Amiga, and Pugsy for Sega CD.
These days I won't even download free games without googling them first.

I don't remember how or why I bought Super Monkey Ball but I'm glad I did. One of the best games of all time.

No such thing since the NES days.

Last time I did something like that was like ten years ago with a CD with kittens on the cover. Can't even remember the band's name now. Wasn't very good.

I would be disappointed if it wasn't the jingle cats.

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Originally Posted by kedawa

I would be disappointed if it wasn't the jingle cats.

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Weren't they outsold by the Jungle Bunnies?

racist

Piano Magic. I remembered.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_4kbBtb1KHK...rth+Weight.jpg

http://www.freecodesource.com/album-...rth-Weight.jpg

I think that's the Slowdive font on the back which probably subliminally nudged me towards the cash register.

Aww, those kittens are adorable.

I have never heard of this PS2 Altered Beast game. Wow! Entertainment

The games that I remember most fondly from when I was a kid were purchased on a whim by looking at cover art. Game Gear games come to mind immediately: Popils and Dragon Crystal. PATIENCE GAMES.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifBi2e0McO8

I can't remember the last time I did that. I don't know if I ever did.

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Originally Posted by Hero

As a kid, I only got games as gifts so I was always sure to study up on stuff I wanted. When I got my first job at 16, all best were off! I bought so much impulse crap, like Star Ocean 2, Valkyrie Profile, One Piece Mansion, Super Magnetic Neo, Red Dog, MDK2...games I had next to no knowledge about at the time, but the back of the cases made them look interesting!

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Crap? SO2, VP, Super Magnetic Neo, Red Dog, and MDK2 were all good-to-great games.

None of them were made by Nintendo for Nintendo machines, so how could they be?

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Originally Posted by Pineapple

Ones that proved to be poor to terrible decisions: Beyond Good and Evil hd, Islands of Wakfu, Voltron (I blame Josh), Patapon, Bangai-O Spirits, again just first that come to mind.

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You didn't like Beyond Good and Evil HD?

@_@

Hey, as someone who loves the game, you have to admit: that port is ridiculously buggy. Crashes on me all the time.

I really can't recall the last time I bought a game on a whim. I do that all the time for books and music, but rarely games.

Bomberman Live. Fuck TNL. Fuck you all.

I only buy things impulsively. To buy them any other way is dishonest.

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Originally Posted by ChaoofNee

Hey, as someone who loves the game, you have to admit: that port is ridiculously buggy. Crashes on me all the time.

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Ahh didn't know it had that problem.

Usually know what I'm looking for, the only exceptions that come to mind:

1. Buying 8/16 bit games on pocket change, feel no regrets in whipping them to a garage sale pile after a playtest.

2. The Dreamcast era. First time I frequented message boards and picked up shit on random opinions.

3. Portables. Thankfully this is rare but there are times I'll zoom by a PSP/DS section and grab something I know jack about. Jikandia and Magician Quest come to mind, Where the Wild Things Are was actually a nice surprise found this way.

Lollipop Chainsaw was a whim purchase. It goes solidly in the "horrible decision" pile.

Except for Killer 7, I keep buying Grasshopper games when they hit $10 and I regret it every time. You'd think I'd learn, but I'm probably going to eventually end up with a copy of Lollipop like some kind of beaten wife.

It was reminiscent of when I hunted down a copy of SotD for a few months just to finally find it at $60 and realize it's a terrible fucking game. Now they will both be stuck sitting on my shelf, waiting in a vague hope that they will increase in value and I can get rid of them. At least they have each other to stare at and compare who is worse.

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Originally Posted by ChaoofNee

Hey, as someone who loves the game, you have to admit: that port is ridiculously buggy. Crashes on me all the time.

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On which platform? The PS3 version worked for me with zero problems.

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Originally Posted by Pineapple

Lollipop Chainsaw was a whim purchase. It goes solidly in the "horrible decision" pile.

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what exactly did you hate about it?

Sure, it isn't dead rising or Left4Dead, but I thought it was ok for a hacknslash