by majormitch
I started writing this list months ago, and then, well, some *things* happened at this website. I abandoned the list idea once I thought the site was going under, but after its miraculous buyout by The Jeffs, what better way to celebrate than to get back to writing! I for one am extremely happy Giant Bomb is now independent, and that the new co-owners get to make cool stuff for us directly. And just as importantly, that this community can continue to live on. I’ve been here since day one, and while my own writings have dwindled over recent years (due to my own life circumstances, not Giant Bomb itself), I’d like to correct that as much as I can.
To that effort, here’s my first writing on the newly independent Giant Bomb. I’ve been thinking about and organizing my video game collections more as I’ve gotten older, which has led to me reflecting on games I used to own, but sold. When my brother and I were younger, with less money, it was common for us to regularly sell a batch of our games in order to buy new ones. We fortunately kept our favorites, but deciding where to draw that line wasn’t always easy, and I’ve realized we (or just I) sometimes got it wrong. I have repurchased some of those sold games since then, but there are others I haven’t for various reasons. This list is for the ones I regret selling (and haven’t repurchased) the most.
So, here’s to those fallen games. And here’s to a new era of Giant Bomb! Thanks for reading, and have a great day :)
Showing 1-10 of 10 items
At risk of being burned at the stake, the Tellius duology have never been my favorite Fire Emblem games. I have owned every Fire Emblem game released in the West in some form, and have kept most of them. But I nearly sold both Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn, fortunately keeping the former as the better of the two. Radiant Dawn, then, is far and away the game I regret selling the most, for multiple reasons. First, it’s not a bad game. As a fan of the series, I enjoy the lesser Fire Emblem games too, and it would have been nice to still have the complete set. Second, I have little faith that Nintendo will ever re-release this game in any form, given it wasn’t received all that well at the time; at best it may end up on an NSO-like service eventually. Third, and perhaps most importantly for this list, it’s prohibitively expensive to buy today. Second-hand copies go for over $100, which makes the $15 I sold it for over a decade ago sting that much more. So I probably won’t ever own Radiant Dawn again, a fact I have plenty of regret about.
In a similar vein to Radiant Dawn above, Order of Ecclesia was never my favorite game in a series I otherwise like a whole lot. Yet Order of Ecclesia is still a good game I enjoyed, and as time goes on I find myself wishing I had kept all of my Castlevania games (even if there are a lot of them and they are fairly similar). Also like Radiant Dawn, Order of Ecclesia is worth a good chunk of change today, much more than the paltry amount I’m sure I sold it for. Its saving grace, and the main reason it’s not in contention for #1 on this list, is that Konami has re-released Order of Ecclesia via the solid Dominus Collection (which includes all the DS Castlevania games). That reduces the pain of selling it, but it still stings to not have my original cartridge.
Rocket Slime was a fun little gem that never got a lot of attention. Was it an amazing game? Not really. But it was super charming and unique, the kind of offbeat trifle that defined a lot of the original DS’ appeal. I thoroughly enjoyed playing it, and given it’s not a widely celebrated game, I doubt there’s much chance of a re-release in the foreseeable future. It’s also not super cheap to re-buy today, so I probably won’t bother getting another copy. But it’s a game I wish was still in my library nonetheless.
I was a huge fan of the first two Rogue Squadron games, and Battle for Naboo was a nearly-as-good iteration set in the prequel era. I sold it because it was very similar, and not *quite* as good as Rogue Squadron. But it was close enough that I wish I had kept it, and the chances of a re-release at this point feel very low.
Yo they made a Pokemon tactics game that went completely under the radar. Pokemon Conquest is very much a light “my first tactics game” situation, very simplified in a likely attempt to appeal to younger Pokemon audiences. But it’s still a Pokemon tactics game! That counts for something to me, and I enjoyed it more than enough to wish it was still in my library. Chances of getting a re-release? Seems low.
For whatever reason, Golden Sun did not fully win me over when I first played it. It came out at the peak of my JRPG era too; maybe it was simply a matter of finding other contemporaries more impressive. Regardless, as I’ve grown more nostalgic for both the GBA and JRPGs over time, both Golden Sun games are ones I wish I had in my collection. And they’re not likely to get a re-release beyond their NSO inclusion.
Soulcalibur 2 is my favorite fighting game outside Smash Bros. (if you even count Smash Bros.). Still, I’ve never been a huge fighting game guy, hence selling this in the first place. But over the years I’ve come to realize that Soulcalibur 2 does have importance to me, and it would be nice to have a more permanent version of it than simply being on NSO. This is one I may actually pony up to re-buy someday, specifically the GameCube version, which is what I originally had.
Specifically the SNES version, Aladdin was a childhood favorite. It’s not the best platformer of the era by any means, but it was a competent one based on my favorite childhood Disney movie. I played it a ton, making this one I would mostly like to have for nostalgia’s sake. Fortunately it did get a re-release in the Disney Classic Games collection, so I have a modern way of playing it, even if the cartridge holds more nostalgic value.
This is perhaps heretical, but The Knight of Lodis is the only Tactics Ogre game I’ve played to completion. And I liked it! It’s a good tactics game in the same way as its more popular predecessor, and I liked having it on the GBA at the time. There’s certainly a time and place factor in my affection for The Knight of Lodis; it’s a period I remember fondly, and wish I still had this cartridge. The chances of a re-release also feel slim.
I’ve never been the biggest Animal Crossing fan; I enjoy the games up to a point and then fall off relatively quickly. But the original GameCube version (in the west) was such a unique and interesting new game from Nintendo that I wish I had kept it. It also had a ton of collectible, and fully playable, NES games in it. That was cool! Not much chance of a re-release of this outside of NSO, and buying a disc today is quite pricey.
