When cheapass purchases go wrong....

[larrytrain]

I practically cried myself to sleep naked in a cold shower yesterday after I *finally* had the time to sit down with a bunch of cheapass purchases I've made over the past few months.

Well, now I know why these games were so f'in cheap...they were so god awful! I think I have a problem as I've started to purchase games on price and not merit...a piece of crap game is a piece of crap game, whether it's $49 or $4.99

My experiences (feel free to add yours):

T3 Rise of the Machines (Xbox) - Horrible, horrible game. Tried to like it for all of 5 minutes, will probably destroy it rather than try to trade in. These developers should be ashamed of themselves.

Mutha Trucker (Xbox) - Stupid game. Not fun. Played with for 30 minutes, will just sit on the shelf from this day forward.

Superman (Xbox) - Just your garden variety garbage game. Fun for 2 minutes, painful for 1 hour. I think I'd rather have midgets ram dildos up my ass than have to play this one through.

Warioworld (GC) - I can't believe Nintendo published this. This seemed to have potential, but the camera angle was not wide enough and I felt like a blind man running through a tunnel. Played for 1 hour as well.

1080 Avalanche (GC) - WTF? Is this a N64 port? I was actually looking forward to this, but I think it's just shite. Played for 2 hours.

Enter the Matrix (GC) - Was it just me, or are the levels in this game dull, sometimes confusing, and the game overall lame???

[Squirms]

You're right just because a game is cheap, doesn't mean that it is worth it. Do a little research before you buy them. Gamespot and IGN give you fairly unbiased reviews, and can help weed through some of the crap.

Being a cheapass is concentrated effort, and requires diligence.

[javeryh]

eh, to each his own I guess - wario world and 1080 are great $10 purchases, IMO. Don't know about the rest...

[tyecko]

I've only played 2 of those but I found Wario Worldto be pretty decent and I loved avalanche. I'd spend 50 for it.

[OILYWATER]

I recently discovered that Blowout is horrid and I should also be ashamed that I purchased Largo Winch//Commander.Sar even if it was 99 cents.

[uniracer45]

You going to sell 1080 Avalanche? I'm sure a bunch of people would be interested in taking it off your hands...

[Tromack]

I agree on the Wario World. While it isn't terrible, its just pretty bland. I was upset that they took the interesting and innovative wario series and turned it into a mindless action game. Enter the Matrix was something of a guilty pleasure. I played it and every minute I thought to myself, "This game is terrible. Why am I playing it?" But I couldn't stop until I beat it. But yeah, just because its cheap doesn't mean it is worth it.

[coolsteel]

Enter the Matrix was pretty much medicore garbage , but the vampire level actually managed to be fun. Why they only got it right on one level boggles the mind. As for the rest of the games, except for Warioworld I think the rest were spit on by reviewers right and left, really gotta remember to browse gaming mags at the grocery store or something so mistakes like that don't happen again.

Perosnally i've only experienced the good god why did I buy this feeling once, X2 Wolverine's revenge, if I hadn't played superman 64 before I would be calling it the worst game i've ever played. It cost me 4.99 so i'm trying t justify it by say oh it was just 5 bucks, but I can't even do that, could have spent that 5 bucks on toothpaste or something.

[dtcarson]

Make use of return policies. granted, once you open it you're out of luck, and sometimes the only way to tell if you will like/dislike a game is to play it, but still. I bought 6 of the CC games, then before opening them went and read a bunch of reviews, saw movies and screenshots, ended up returning two of them.
The others, the way Ilook at it, a rental is 6+ bucks, so 5 bucks is a reasonably amount to spend to 'try' a game. You can always put it on Half.com and probably get at least 5-8$ for them, and recoup your costs that way.
Now, the emotional scarring, that's another story.....

[Grave_Addiction]

Superman (Xbox) - Just your garden variety garbage game. Fun for 2 minutes, painful for 1 hour. I think I'd rather have midgets ram dildos up my ass than have to play this one through.

Bwahahahahaha! You gotta love those midgets!

[epobirs]

As has already been said, just because it's cheap doesn't make it a sure thing. My philosophy is not to waste time eyeballing stuff in the store. If it's a potentially great price secure the item by purchasing it, then thoroughly examine reviews before opening the packages and making them unreturnable.

www.gamerankings.com is a valuable tool for getting this done quickly.

[epobirs]

Seriously though, were you really that upset? You're only in for $30 plus tax. You can get at least 60% of that back easily by selling or trading in the games at a dealer.

[eldad9]

1080 avalanche is really great. Try the slalom; try the coin finding; there's a lot of fun to be had.

Wario world - the camera is your friend. if you don't see in a particular direction, it means there's nothing there. the game is great. i love it. wario rules.

[vanlandw]

1080 avalanche is only beat by SSX3....still a good game though...IMO

[larrytrain]

It's not the money that I care about, it's the time I don't get back. I should send each of those publishers a bill for my billable rate for work.

[WhipSmartBanky]

To each their own...not a rebuttal, but my opinions:

T3:ROTM wasn't anywhere near "good" but it was fun enough to finish. Not like it was all that hard. I think it took me 2 sittings, not more than a couple hours. Not regretting the $5.

Enter The Matrix: I must be one of the few who liked it enough to finish both characters. The vampire level was the best, but I also actually liked running from the agents. I liked the "ohshit ohshit ohshit move move move" aspect of those stages.

Warioworld: I don't see what the problem is with this one. It's easy enough if you just want to play it for the sake of beating crap up, but it's also challenging enough to collect all the pieces. I thought the game had good personality and was pretty fun.

I think the only cheapass purchase I ever regretted was the Buffy GBA game. Shame on Natsume. Horrible controls, graphics, and they didn't even attempt to put any of the show's personality into it, other than in cut-scene stills. No licensed tunes or close approximations of either...

[KingDox]

As has already been said, just because it's cheap doesn't make it a sure thing. My philosophy is not to waste time eyeballing stuff in the store. If it's a potentially great price secure the item by purchasing it, then thoroughly examine reviews before opening the packages and making them unreturnable.

www.gamerankings.com is a valuable tool for getting this done quickly.

yeah, when I got SX superstar from CC I read the reviews and knew it wasn't worth my 5 bucks. I'm not going to waist 5 bucks on some game that I'm never going to play. When I took the game back the lady working there was kinda shocked that someone would return a 5 buck game considering how nuts people went over them. She really made sure I haden't opened it. I also bet she thought I was going to ask for a refund of the sticker price of 29.99.

[rabbitt]

You should have known which games were good and which weren't. Being a cheapass takes wits, cunning, and intelligent decisions. You are not a cheapass.

[Scorch]

I don't care what you guys say, I wanna play T3: ROTM. You guys bash the hell out of Enter the Matrix, but you know what? I'll admit it, I paid full price for it - and I loved the hell out of it. I found it extremely fun. When I was done with it, I traded it in, got 30 bucks for it, and went on about my business.

Funny story, I took my XBox to school the day after Matrix came out, hooked it up on the TV, and stayed in home room playing it until the middle of 5th period. My teacher wrote me an excuse note, too.

[deathcabforcutie]

yeah we always hook up our xboxs and ps2s during 3rd block (2 hours long) we would usualy just end up playing halo or some mindless killing game.. you know, the fun kind :-)

[bignick]

Any $5 is worth it IMO. It will provide me with atleast an hour of entertaiment.

[scooterb23]

Heck, I'm interested in playing almost everything in that list...any you don't want I'll gladly add to my collection...

[Archie Gates]

It's been my experience that once you get below the $19.99 barrier, the crap starts to really outnumber the decent stuff. Usually the reason why a game costs $5 or $10 is because it sucks. Sure, you'll sometimes find a gem like Panzer Dragoon Orta for $10 or BG&E for $10. But buying a game like XIII or Turok just because it's $10 is stupid in my opinion.

You shouldn't look at it like you're buying entertainment time. You need to look at the quality of the entertainment you're purchasing. An hour of crap gaming is a waste of an hour you could have spent playing KOTOR.

Nobody on their death bed ever said, "I wish I would have spent more time playing Enter the Matrix."

[WhipSmartBanky]

It's been my experience that once you get below the $19.99 barrier, the crap starts to really outnumber the decent stuff. Usually the reason why a game costs $5 or $10 is because it sucks. Sure, you'll sometimes find a gem like Panzer Dragoon Orta for $10 or BG&E for $10. But buying a game like XIII or Turok just because it's $10 is stupid in my opinion.

You're reaching. XIII is totally worth the $10.

You shouldn't look at it like you're buying entertainment time. You need to look at the quality of the entertainment you're purchasing. An hour of crap gaming is a waste of an hour you could have spent playing KOTOR.

But what if you've already spent dozens and dozens of hours playing KOTOR?

Nobody on their death bed ever said, "I wish I would have spent more time playing Enter the Matrix."

I seriously doubt anybody ever said, "I wish I would have spent more time playing video games," period.

[Nirvanaguy777]

To each their own...not a rebuttal, but my opinions:

T3:ROTM wasn't anywhere near "good" but it was fun enough to finish. Not like it was all that hard. I think it took me 2 sittings, not more than a couple hours. Not regretting the $5.

Enter The Matrix: I must be one of the few who liked it enough to finish both characters. The vampire level was the best, but I also actually liked running from the agents. I liked the "ohshit ohshit ohshit move move move" aspect of those stages.

Warioworld: I don't see what the problem is with this one. It's easy enough if you just want to play it for the sake of beating crap up, but it's also challenging enough to collect all the pieces. I thought the game had good personality and was pretty fun.

I agree completely with all of that

[jer7583]

I got ETM the day it came out, finished it in about 2 weeks, and traded it back in for $35 credit, and I did really like the game.
Wario World was good but boring quick.
1080 was a really great game.
And im enjoying XIII quite a bit right now, just got it today. Nobody online but british chaps and its laggy, but single player is cool

[Spacepest]

[quote="Archie Gates"]

You shouldn't look at it like you're buying entertainment time. You need to look at the quality of the entertainment you're purchasing. An hour of crap gaming is a waste of an hour you could have spent playing KOTOR.

quote]

Funny, I look at buying video games as buying entertainment time. What else are they for, if not to entertain us? Would you spend $$ for a video game to just use it for a paperweight or a drink coaster? Hell no.

I think of it like this: every hour of fun I have playing a video game is worth me spending $1. So if I spent only $5 on a game and I only played it for 5 hours, ok, no big loss there. Same thing for more expensive games. If I spend $40, then dammit, I expect a couple full day fun gaming sessions out of it. If I'm forcing myself to play the game just to get my money out of it, then it's just not worth it, because I'm not having fun. I feel like I've really scored a deal if I can get a for $20 or less and have over 24 hours of fun game time. I don't expect too much out of $5 and $10 games really.

I suppose an hour playing a crappy video game could be considered time wasted, but you have to spend an hour playing a bad game to really appreciate a good one.

[Xevious]

Funny story, I took my XBox to school the day after Matrix came out, hooked it up on the TV, and stayed in home room playing it until the middle of 5th period. My teacher wrote me an excuse note, too.

Thats good for you although i think thats sounds like a bad teacher.

[rsigley]

Mutha Trucker is fun in the arcade tho, you get the CB Radio and big rig - home systems always have trouble porting over racing games for the arcade (Cruis'N, Daytona USA, etc.)

[dtcarson]

I do the dollars-per-hours thing as well. You can't really quantify how much a game is 'worth' in that regard, it's definitely subjective, but if I spent 50 bucks on a game and got 5 hours out of it, I'd be irked. Unless I resold it for 40, then its 2/hour, which isn't great, but isn't bad.

[epobirs]

Being a serious cheapskate it becomes hard for me to measure the value. I've had some truly great experiences with $10 games and others that after one session had me checking the trade-in value or how it was faring on eBay.

The flood of recent $5 games (just got my Xbox Metal Arms from BB today, yay!, too bad I'm too busy with preparations for moving) makes it harder still. A game has to be universally hated by reviewers for me not to be curious enough to see for myself. Sometimes it's fun to do this, much like seeking out MST3K class films. For $5 I can afford to indulge in a crapfest for its own sake. Chances are I can get back at least 60% of the expenditure.

When in doubt, buy it to secure it but check gamerankings.com before opening it.