Your Best/Worst Impulse Purchases.

[UnscathedFlyingObject]

In case someone doesn't understand the title, I'm referring to games you've picked up on a whim and turned out much better than you expected. Please don't post your long list of "favorite games."

Best:

Einhander (I was the first time playing it)
Gradius Gaiden (It was an impulse before becoming a necessity)
YS: The Ark of Napishtim (Quite a good action RPG with very few puzzles)
Resident Evil 2 (It is one of my fave games for the PSX)
Resident Evil 4 (I read a lot about how great it was, but in the end, I picked it up only because I found it for 35)
Time Crisis 3 (It turned me into rabid gun fan)
Fatal Frame I (Gold game if it wasn't for all the backtracking)
Viewtiful Joe (Another game that made me go the first time)


Worst:

Shinobi (It feels very thrown together)
Ninja Assault (I was expecting more from this, not bad though)
R-Type Final (Pretty meh compared to its predecessors and other horzies)
Time Crisis: Crisis Zone (Not half as good as TC3)
Neo Contra (I should've waited for a price drop)
Katamary Damacy (I bought this on release day 'cause of all the hype around here. Sold it a week later.)

I'll post more as they come to mind.

[landshark]

Most of the impulse buys I've had, have been very disappointing. A few have turned out better than others.

Good:
Maximo: Ghosts to Glory - this game was tons of fun
Silent Hill 3 - love the ambience
Time Crisis 3 - excellent game
Gradius Gaiden - fantastic game

Bad:
Shooter Something or other (PSX) - just god fucking aweful
Castlevania: Lament of Innocence (PS2)- bored
Manhunt (PS2) - bored out of my mind
Shinobi (PS2) - bored

In Between:
Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow - the constant loadings get on my nerves and I get bored


On a non-game note, I'm very spontaneous with buying things. The worst has to be when my buddy and I were going out to buy a $.99 outlet or something (wiring the basement). I said "Hey, wanna stop at the dodge dealer?"

20 minutes later I said "I'll take it" and I drove home with a pickup truck... we never did get that electrical part.

And 3 weeks ago at the gun shop I asked to see a bushy M4. About 30 seconds after it was in my hands, I said "I'll take it" and 24 hours later I had a nice spankin' new M4.

Got my T/A the same way, but I actually intended on buying that.

[The n00b]

Best:

Rallisport Challenge
Total Annihilation
Deus Ex


Worst:

Border Down
Sega GT2002

[BulletMagnet]

Good:

Skies of Arcadia (DC): I knew nothing about this when I bought it, but it turned out to be a really great RPG. Supposedly the GC release was even better, but I haven't played that yet.

Geki-Oh Shooting King: Hardly spectacular, but for the less than 10 bucks I spent on it it was quite nice.

Bad:

Night Raid: I'd heard that it wasn't that great, but found it new for relatively cheap and decided to see for myself; in so many words, what I'd heard was right.

[Tomtom]

Best:

Star Ocean 2: found it for $10, played the living hell out of it. I'm not really into RPGs anymore, but this one was sure in my PSX for a while.

Valkyrie Profile: See above, but for $35. Tri-ace was quite a developer.

Radiant Silvergun: though I was in some serious financial pain for a while due to this on top of school tuition and not many hours at the time (yes, ramen does taste great RAW!), it was a good buy. I actually sold it about 6 months later, and didn't regret it, but while I was into it it was quite a fun game.


Worst:

Metroid Zero Mission: the Metroid game with no soul. Actually, it wasn't that bad, but after the brilliant Fusion I was expecting more, I guess.

Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure: actually, I'm just bitter because I traded this away for a few bucks in store credit and later saw it on Ebay for $150. Not really my kinda game, but ya gotta admit, the music's quite adorable.

Katamari Damacy: I'm sure this is a great game, but I don't know why I bought it when I DON'T EVEN HAVE THE SYSTEM IT CAME OUT ON. *slaps forehead* You know I'm going to get Mushihimesama too.

[alpha5099]

Hmm, I'm pretty good about planning purchases out ahead of time, but I do buy things spontaneously often:

Good Ones:

Grandia II (DC) - I had just checked in on my local EB, as I often do when I'm in the area, not expecting much. I was shocked to find a used copy of Grandia II, which was obviously quite newly arrived. I had rented it once before, and wasn't too impressed, but I knew that I probably never get a chance to buy it again like this, the copy would probably be snatched up pretty quickly. I bought it, and like many of my used game purchases, I was very anxious about breaking that damn seal EB puts on everything. Luckily for me, once I started playing the game, I was hooked. I didn't get very far that first night, but the next day, Friday, I got home from school and played the game until about 1 in the morning.

Gradius Galaxies (GBA) - I've been hunting for GG for years, I've never seen a used copy. When we were on our way up to visit Middlebury, we stopped in some small strip mall in New Hampshire to get lunch in a Subway. Next door was an EB. My gut told me I had to go in and look. I went in with the singular goal of trying to find Gradius Galaxies (which probably precludes it from being an impulse buy, but I'll pretend like I don't care). I was amazed to find GG sitting there, waiting for me behind the second or third GBA game I checked. I mulled around the EB, looking at what else they had (some great stuff, if I'm ever there again, I'll be sure to raid it, several DC games I wanted but I couldn't buy at the time).

Dynamite Cop (DC) - I went to EB a few weeks ago looking to buy some beat 'em ups. I was hoping I could find Final Fight One, Double Dragon Advance, or River City Ransom EX. They did have RCR, but it was 27 dollars, more than I had on me, and it was cart only, a rip off I felt. What I did find was Dynamite Cop. I didn't really know much about it, aside from being the sequel to Dynamite Deka, and remember seeing one glowing recommendation of it in the beat 'em up thread. I was apprehensive over it, and immediately read some reviews when I got home before I broke the seal. They weren't unanimous, but about what I expected for a game of this type. Once I put the game in my Dreamcast, and the intro came up, and I heard the phrase "Modern day pirates' and the final boss with his crazy headgear showed up, I knew I would love the game.

Bad decisions, oddly all GBA games:

Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance - I loved Circle of the Moon, which happened to be my first experience with the series. I hated Harmony of Dissonance. I was very disappointed in the follow up to one of my favorite games. I consider it one of those defining moments where I just couldn't stand the mainstream anymore, because I had heard so much praise for this tripe. I'm still scared to play Aria of Sorrow, I don't know if I'll like it.

Advance Wars - I had heard great things about this. Obviously turn-based strategy isn't my bag, as I was bored to tears.

Tactics Ogre: Whatever Its Subtitle Is - Maybe I don't like strategy RPGs, maybe TO isn't my style. I'm really not sure, as its really the only game in the genre I've played. I plan to give the genre another chance though, but I'm not holding my breath.

[Skyline]

Best:
-REZ: Anyone who's played this before...yeah. I don't really need to go into how good it is. Plus I kind of had a joygasm during Area 3, with me liking Ken Ishii's work and all.
-Technic Beat: being a IIDX nut, I was right at home with this one. Even though the timing is strict as FUCK, some of the characters are useless, and some of the songs are damn near impossible. ^_^
-XIISTAG: Bought this from Psikyo along with with Shiki II, VERY nice game this is. Very low-key as well, which is always appreciated. It's about gameplay after all.
-SkyGunner: This was $10 at GameStop's bargain bin, grabbed it. Very nice game overall, the slowdown isn't really as bad as people say it is. This is also the only game I've ever seen which has hand-drawn screenshots in the instruction manual.
-Sanvein: It's a 5-buck game! What I didn't expect though was how sweet the presentation looks, aestetically this game has a better feel than most other games that cost five times more. Although the "Select Floor" BGM gets a bit annoying after a while.
-The Dreamcast: I bought it at a pawn shop, if not to shut my best friend (at the time) up. He'd go on and on about how this system is the best thing since sliced bread. Turns out he wasn't too far off.

Worst:
-Stretch Panic: This is ignorance, to be honest. I figured "3D platformer by Treasure, it's gotta be good right?" Fucking wrong. I returned this after 3 days of playing....no 3 days of forcing myself to enjoy the game.
-Super Monkey Ball Deluxe (PS2): I won't lie, the game itself isn't all that bad. It's Monkey Ball! It's fucking addictive. It's just that the PS2 port is sort of half-assed. I was VERY dissapointed about how many corners this port cut, especially when rolling next to walls and seeing shit like this. Is this supposed to be a PS2 texture?
-Tony Hawk 2 (DC): I just never clicked with it.
-Night Raid: I heard about the shoddiness of the port, but I was willing to give Takumi the benefit of the doubt. And while the game's play mechanics are actually quite interesting on paper (with me being a score-a-holic and all), it plays like fucking ass. Factoring in the ratio of enemies/bullets onscreen, fucking Sanvein has more accurate control than this game.

...I wouldn't mind though, in the rather distant future, plunking down the cash for the G-NET version. Unless an accurate source can tell me that version is also poo. :/

[BrianC]

Best:
Roadblasters Genesis (excellent port of the original, better than I expected. Found at yard sale)
Addiction Pinball (I got this becuase I heard Team 17 made some good games and I saw Team 17 on the box. It turned out to be surprisingly good pinball game with great physics and cool tables. It even has a Worms themed table. Found at yard sale)
Coca-Cola Kid (surprisingly good Sonic like game, found at ebay auction for cheap with three other games)
Puyo Puyo Tsu Game Gear (bare bones version of the game, but very good gameplay and graphics. ditto Coca-Cola Kid)
Magic Knight Rayearth 2 Game Gear (great VMU like game where you try to build the stats of your characters. ditto Puyo Puyo Tsu and Coca-Cola Kid)
Super Off Road Genesis (good port of the original, found at yard sale)
Monopoly Genesis (better than I expected it to be, found at yard sale)
Metroid Prime 2 (found a brand new one for cheap at a poorly managed wal-mart)
Shadow Dancer Genesis (I got this not knowing much about it and it turned out to be a cool Shinobi game. Found at what used to be Funcoland)

Worst:
Magic Knight Rayearth Game Gear (very simplistic RPG that is way too easy, but can't complain too much since I got it with Rayearth II, Coca-Cola Kid, and Puyo Puyo Tsu Game Gear)
Mortal Kombat Game Boy (terrible port of the arcade game. Purchased without knowing much about it)
Mortal Kombat II Game Boy (not nearly as bad as the first one on GB, but not that great either. Again, another blind purchase)
Shinobi NES (turned out to be a lackluster port of the Master System version with some annoying changes. Found at what used to be Funcoland)

[Specineff]

Good. My Hi-Minidisc. Capture card. Thunder Force V. Cannon Spike. Turbo Grafx 16 with CD.

Bad: Two other MD players I don't touch even. Dragon Force and Steel Empire.

[Vexorg]

Good: Fire Shark (Genesis, found really cheap in a used bookstore\
My Nomad (Garage sale purchase)
Worms 2 (spent hours playing that one.)


Bad: The Sims (This would have been merely mediocre if not for the fact that my sister got a hold of it, and spent hours and hours and hours playing.)
Meverwinter Nights (not my kind of game. At least I got $25 in trade-in credit on it though.)

Really bad impulse buy narrowly avoided: Spending $300 on a Beanie Baby on eBay back during the fad. (long story, don't ask. I don't know what was worse, being willing to pay that much for a stuffed animal, or getting sniped on it at 2 in the morning.)

[Herr Schatten]

Best: Keio Yuugekitai - Katsugekihen. I just bought it because I saw it on eBay cheap and in good condition and I loved the artwork in some screenshots I had seen. In the end it turned out to become one of my favourite platform games ever.

Worst: Viewpoint (Mega Drive). I wouldn't mind the slowdown and I think it's impressive how the developers squeezed the huge NG game into a Mega Drive cart, but there's no excuse for the messed-up controls which render the game pretty much unplayable.

[iatneH]

Best:

Gradius gaiden - I wasn't really into Gradius games, and I was talking to my ex on the phone at the same time, and of course she'd rather I buy something for her instead, even though I had just bought her a buttload of stuff and would soon spend around $860 HKD to express mail it to her... geez. Thank God those days are over.

Worst:

Gungrave - I was so hyped up for this game hearing how Yasuhiro Nightow was involved. This was a while after it was released, yet before the massive price drops. So basically I went on a hunt through town and paid $80 CDN for it.
Timestalkers - I just saw it for a few bucks while browsing through EB. I played it for about half an hour before it made my head hurt so much I had to stop, and I haven't touched it since.

[Sly Cherry Chunks]

Best:

World of Warcraft. I'm having fun with this, even though traditionally I don't like these types of games.


Worst:

Vic Viper metal figure
Gameboy Advance
Gamecube

[SheSaidDutch]

Best-

Gradius Gaiden(My first import)
Raiden project(It was still at the store after a week)
Deus Ex(2001)


Worst-

HalfLife
X-2
Tenchu 1-2
Bushido Blade payed £30 on e-bay last year
Loads of PC games ranging from £5-£10 e.g Gunlock,Hitman, etc
GigaWing(not my thing really) somethnig feels missing IMO

[roushimsx]

Best:

Katamari Damacy - Saw some screenshots and decided to take a chance on importing it. Ended up loving it and trying like hell to tell other people about it but it's wasn't easy getting people to actually sit down and try the game Did a monster thread on SomethingAwful about it and ended up buying 3 US copies of it

Panzer Dragoon Saga - Both times I bought it, it was an impulse buy. The first time I found out about it being rereleased the next day, so I stayed up all night to be the first one to grab a copy. Second time I was on ebay, it was on ebay, and 3 days later it was on my saturn and I had added ebay to my HOSTS file so as to never piss off the wife again.

Worst :

Pro Rally (Gamecube) - I needed a Rally game. I didn't get one. What I got was a fucking mess composed of shitty controls, shitty graphics, and physics that make as much sense as pigs with wings. Terrible racing game. I'll make videos sometime.

Scorcher (Saturn) - Yes, it really IS that bad. I'll make videos sometime.

Battle Bomb Poi Poi (PS2) - I thought it might pan out and not suck. I was wrong. I have no further desire to acknowlege this game exists, that I own it, or make videos of it. Ever.

[llabnip]

I make very few impulse purchases... I love to research a game to death before I buy it Seriously... I scour for reviews, screenshots, bits and comments in the newsgroups, etc. By the time I buy a game, I pretty much know what I'm in for... and since most of my games are imports, I feel it's worth spending the time researching (and I enjoy that aspect of it... though sometimes I spend too much time thinking about buying a game and not enough time buying and playing it!).

But I have picked up a few games just because they were in the bargin bin... The only game that comes to mind that turned out really good was ... um... I can't think of any. Luckily I don't impulse buy often

Last year I do remember picking up Sydney 2000 for the Dreamcast since I loved Decathlete and Winter Heat for the Saturn and Virtua Athlete for the Dreamcast and figured another 4P Olympic type game would be great... I paid $3.99 for it new and that's money I'll never recover. The game is dreadful. At least I got a good CD case out of it.

[Minzoku]

Best: Hurm... I don't think I've impulse-bought any game that I love. Certainly Animal Crossing, but I borrowed a friend's copy before I bought it.

I guess the closest that counts is the Atari Anniversary I bought recently, since I hadn't planned to get it but did. Not sure I "love" it, though. Like, yes.

Worst:

Actually, I was interested in MGS2 until I went out and bought a copy, then I never touched it. I learned after watching a friend's friend play MGS3 that I would love to see a MOVIE of it but not play the game.

DDR Ultramix, too, which was poor because 1. DDR is hardly an endangered series now and 2. what XBox?

Dishonourable mention: Sonic Adventure 2, so I could play as Shadow--it made me so motion sick, though.

[PsikyoPshumpPshooterP]

worst:

dj wars saturn..paid 30 for a piece of shit
brother in arms..i wasnt too fond of it..aiming system did not appeal to me
halo 2...spent 60 bucks on it and now im gonna trade it for like 20 credit bucks


best:

battle garegga..60 bucks shipped...i liked it alot..like it so much i sold it for $70..

sengoku blade...i played this game so fucken much on the saturn

men of valor xbox...my favorite FPS of all time..catch me on XBL all the time on it

tetris world xbox..my first XBL addiction..staying up till 6 am playing tetris

Outrun2...quite an arcade experience for the xbox

[FRO]

I'll second BrianC's worst with Shinobi for NES. I hold on to it because I still pop it in once in a while to remind myself why I own a PowerBase Converter for my Genesis, and to make sure the torture isn't handed down to some other poor sap.

Also in the worst category are:
Ninja: Shadow of Darkness (PSX) - this game was so freakin' hard I couldn't even beat it with invincibility cheat. The overhead perspective was all wrong for intensive platform jumping, and some of the enemies were absolutely punishing. Utter crap - avoid at all costs.

Siberia (Saturn) - I know this game has been released on a number of different platforms. My question is: why? I played almost completely through it and was so frustrated with the limited play toward the end that I traded it in so I could buy a good game. One of only about 5 or 6 games I've ever traded away.

In the best category:

Lightening Force (Genesis) - TF4, as you all know. Kinda funny that one of my fav games ever was an impulse buy when my family was on a shopping trip to the big city.

Silhouette Mirage (PSX) - I was in a town that had a game shop I frequented during my short stint of living in North Carolina, and I had some cash and wanted to buy a game. I had read about the game on this forum and thought it looked good. I had liked all the Working Designs conversions of games I had purchased so far (Lunar 1 & 2, Raystorm, Raycrisis), so I plunked down the cash. I got a heck of a deal for $15 on a game that spent quite a bit of time in my PSX about 2 years ago.

[captain ahar]

Steel Batallion $200.

this was one of the rare times i pre-ordered. it really is an incredible experience, and beyond that i enjoyed playing it, but i had to move a desk into my room just so i could set it up. takes up more space than i can convey.

incidentally, i am selling my copy.

XII Stag
bought the korean release off play-asia, cause i really wanted to see it/play it after hearing about the mechanics. terrible disappointment when playing with a controller. i'll keep it around until i can find a joystick to see its true colors.

not my purchase, but my brothers gf bought him a copy of Gitaroo Man as a "surprise" gift. she paid an excess of $100 for it. frickin great, and i cannot emphasize the "great" enough. really bloody hard too. i can't wait until i can send away for my $20 japanese copy. haha

[Damocles]

The Good:

My Dreamcast - 'nuff said.

Vigilante 8: Second Offense (DC) - Good stuff, giving me my Twisted Metal fix.

Enclave (X-Box) - Not so much an impulse, but a blind buy. The premise and screens appealed to me.

Castlevania 3 (NES) - Way back when. My final choice was between Total Recall and this one. I made a good choice there.

Baldur's Gate (PC) - Waaaaayyyyy too much time spent on this one.

The Bad:

Breakdown (X-Box) - Everyone loved it....except me.

Star Wars: Demolition (DC) - Once again the twisted metal craving kicked in, only to be filled by a lackluster game.

Rainbow Six: Covert Ops (PC) - Didn't know it was the equivalent of a trainer. Stupid me.

[sjewkestheloon]

best:

almost everything gamingwise that i own as i never intend to get anything but get it anyway because I AM WEAK

worst:

well recently it has to be xenon 2 on the megadrive. booted it, laughed my ass off at the jerky crap and then turned it off. it will forever sit in the box from this day forward.....

[OmegaFlareX]

This is also the only game I've ever seen which has hand-drawn screenshots in the instruction manual.

A lot of Konami's US releases for the NES have shitty-looking, b&w drawn "screenshots" in the manuals. Castlevania II immediately springs to mind. I used to color them with markers to look like the real thing.

Best:
Lunar SSSC: I subscribed to PSM during the PS1 years. I noticed a small blurb on the side of the page (where they put the "oh, by the way" news) that said Lunar wasn't going to be made anymore after December. It happened to be December, so I rushed out and bought it. Incredible RPG (except for the battle system), and an all-time favorite to this day.

Spriggan and Dracula X (PCE CD): I'm listing these two together because they're impulse buys based entirely upon price. $30 for the former and $65 for the latter. Both are spectacular games, and I'm very pleased to acquire them for cheap (compared to what they usually go for, which is about double in both cases).

Worst:
Rockman X3 (Saturn): Saw a sealed copy for $30 on ebay, and snatched it up. Turns out the port isn't so hot, what with the Saturn's inability to properly display SNES resolutions. I re-bayed it shortly thereafter.

Various NES and SNES carts from FuncoLand: I had a 25% employee discount, and no bills to worry about at the time, so I went nuts, snatching up carts that had interesting covers and/or titles. Jesus, some of the games I bought were bloody fucking awful. Black Manta, Xardion, Bayou Billy, Puss 'N Boots (omg wtf), Inido, King's Knight, Mortal Kombat 3, and Stealth ATF are some highlights to this pile of shame. Nearly all the shit I bought at that time was ebayed a couple years ago.

[jp]

Best:
Radiant Silvergun - Bought it upon release because it was made by Treasure, it was the first import I ever got for the Saturn and I'm oh so happy it was.

Shinrei Jusatsushi Taromaru - Got it back when it was worth $80 because it was a 2D side scroller and, despite everyone's complaint about it not being Shinobi, I love the shit out of it.

Mars Matrix - Picked it up for 19.99 at an EB while I was visiting my cousin. Its probably the sole reason I'm on these boards today!


Worst:
Time Bokohan - Ugh. Good music and decent graphics, but otherwise a boring game. And I think I paid way too much for it since I somehow got caught in a bidding war for it on Ebay, despite the fact that I know better dammit!

Polarium - Boring and the controls sucked. I took it back the next day. DS titles getting released is rare enough, lets not make GOOD DS TITLES GETTING RELEASED even rarer.

[judesalmon]

Best - My Sakura Taisen Dreamcast.

Worst - Driver 3. Honestly.

[FRO]

Best:
Lunar SSSC: I subscribed to PSM during the PS1 years. I noticed a small blurb on the side of the page (where they put the "oh, by the way" news) that said Lunar wasn't going to be made anymore after December. It happened to be December, so I rushed out and bought it. Incredible RPG (except for the battle system), and an all-time favorite to this day.

I would have said this, but it was not an impulse buy for me - I had been planning on getting. A fav of mine as well.

Black Manta, Xardion, Bayou Billy

I'm gonna have to disagree with you on Wrath of the Black Manta. Is it as cool as Ninja Gaiden or Shadow of the Ninja? Not by a mile. But, it did have cheesy "Just Say No" dialogue (gotta love it), and it had an interesting ninja abilities system.

However, I agree with you on Xardion (awkward), and Bayou Billy (WAY too hard to be fun).

[MadSteelDarkness]

I try not to do much impulse buying, but occasionally, I get weak...

The Good:

US Dreamcast - Back in 2001, when the price plummeted to $50, I picked one up completely on a whim, along with Shenmue and Armada. When I got home, I realized that someone had left a copy of Soulcalibur inside the machine.

Giga Wing and Mars Matrix - A couple of weeks later, I was looking for cheap games to go with my newly acquired console. I found these two for a combined $25, and picked them up, knowing absolutely nothing about them. My first taste of true manic joy.

The Bad

Vampire Hunter D (PSX) - Guys, if you've seen this one around, and were curious because you're fans of the anime....you've been warned. A game so broken, it's ridiculous. I was lucky, and sold it for more than I bought it for a couple of years later. It was...errr... rare, supposedly.

Bio Freaks (PSX) - The less said the better, although the ripping off limbs part was sort of fun. Truly terrible, but I managed to sell it for only a couple of bucks less than I paid for it.

[OmegaFlareX]

When I got home, I realized that someone had left a copy of Soulcalibur inside the machine.

Wait, so you bought a used DC and found a game inside? That's incredible luck for you, and at the same time, completely flabbergasting that the game store employee who took in the system didn't fucking bother to open the lid before putting it up for sale. That's just... wow.

[cigsthecat]

Japanese LE Xbox at launch. Oh man.

[Neon]

Recently I got an Xbox...made 2 impulse purchases along with it for $40 each

Best: Outrun 2. Fucking great, don't listen to the reviews.

Worst: SVC Chaos. $40 for this turd...why, Jesus tap dancing christ WHY did I buy this...