The past few weeks have been pretty boring for me, in terms of gaming pickups. Since Christmas, I actually haven't bought any games or accessories. In fact, the most exciting, and only thing, I've got related to gaming, since Christmas, was the February edition of Game Informer. Although the past few weeks have been pretty boring with pickups, I did manage to get some gaming in, finally, over the last week. I have three games that I hope to be able to finish in the next few days, I'm shooing for the end of the week, but I have a feeling that isn't going to happen. I'm glad I finally got some gaming in because I've been wanting to play for so long, but between all the stuff for the holidays, family visiting and everyday tasks, there just wasn't any time. I managed to get a decent amount of gaming in last week and a really good amount over the weekend. I love the holidays and spending time with my family, but I was very happy to get to play some of my new games as well

But anyway, back to the pickups. I still didn't manage to get anything that great last week, but I did get a few things, so here is what I found:



New Play Control Pikmin $4.99

I've been wanting to get Pikmin for a while, especially since I heard Little Kings Story has some of the same elements, I'm interested in Little Kings Story, but not sure if I would like the game. I was watching my Target to see if they would mark it down to $14 or whatever a lot of Target's had been doing, but they never did. So, thanks to some great CAG members who reminded me about Best Buy's coupons, I was able to pick it up for $5. I always forget to check the coupons at Best Buy and whenever I would remember they either had nothing I was interested in, or the games I liked were cheaper elsewhere. So, I was pretty happy to find a decent deal on my first use of the coupons... I'm hoping to be able to find Sudoku Ball Detective this week, but it looks like its selling out pretty fast, so I probably won't get to pick that one up. I'm not sure if they will restock the game and if they do how fast it will be, but I would definitely like to pick it up for free

I wasn't too sure if I would like Pikmin because it just didn't seem like the type game I would normally want. But, I wanted to give it a try eventually and couldn't pass the price up. I tested the game and spent about 24 minutes playing it. I was really surprised how much fun the game actually is. It took a few minutes for me to get used to the controls and understand how it works (of course I didn't open the instructions!) but once I understood what I was doing, I had a blast. I never expected to like this game, but now that I've played it and got to see what it really is, I love it. I can't wait to really start playing it.

As many of you may have read in my Christmas blog, I got a Nintendo 64 for Christmas. I really like the system, from what I've played so far, but I only had one game, the system and the controller. So, I had to get some more things for it. I wanted to just get the stuff and not deal with auctions and such, so I decided to just buy the stuff from the Play N Trade I visit. So, I went and picked up:



Nintendo 64 Memory Card $9.99
Nintendo 64 Rumble Pak $4.99
3 In 1 Power Adapter $9.99

They had new and used memory cards for the N64, the used ones were in pretty bad shape and I found the new one, that matched my system, for $10 and just decided to get that. I'm really happy I finally have the memory card because I can actually save my game instead of playing the same thing over and over I had been considering getting a Rumble Pak as well, so when I went to Play N Trade, I asked for one and they had one, but it was $7.99 and I just decided I would rather get a game instead. So, when I was looking around the store, I found another one for $4.99 and decided I would get it. I wanted to have the rumble and I figured it was worth $5. They had one from Nintendo and one off-brand, I was going to get the Nintendo, but noticed you would have to take the rumble pak out to put the memory card in, so I just went with the off brand... I still haven't gotten any more games for the system, I'm waiting for Play N Trade to have the 50% off again until I buy anymore. Since they have that special on and off all the time, it just seems kind of dumb for me to pay full price when they will be on sale soon anyway... I'm thinking I may get some on eBay eventually, if I can get some good deals, maybe get a lot or something.

I've not played my SNES in a few years, after I got my newer systems, I just never played it much. But recently I've been wanting to get back into some of my older games. I really never solved games before and I would only play them for a while and never go back. So, most of my games, I have no idea what goes on after the first few levels and have no idea how it ended, so its pretty much like playing a new game. I went to set my SNES up a while back and could not find the power cord. I searched everywhere, and since it was after I moved I waited until I checked all my boxes and couldn't find it. So, I finally decided it was gone. I had checked at Play N Trade before and they didn't have any, so I just waited. I was going to buy one on eBay and just haven't got to it. When I was looking around, I found some generic power cords for NES, SNES and Genesis. It was $10 and I decided I would get it so I could finally play all my old SNES games. I've played a lot of SNES over the past few days since I got it and had a lot of fun. I kind of consider it to be a good deal because I spent $10, but now have the ability to play all my SNES games, so its like getting all the games again.

I always check the website for Play N Trade to see what specials they have going on so I know if there is anything new happening. When I went the other day to see what was going on, they had a big notice on the homepage. It was to inform everyone that this coming weekend will be their last in the location they are currently in, that they are moving, but to watch the website to see the new address. Its a little disappointing to hear because the current location is where I go all the time, its located by an area that has everything I need, groceries, office supplies, gas, food, etc. So, I'm there a few times a week and I'm easily able to run into Play N Trade and see what they have. If they move, I'm assuming it won't be too far, but it will now have to become more of a specific trip to go there, rather then running in since I'm in the area. It could be worse, but I just liked being able to go several times a week.

After reading it, I just assumed that they were just going to open the Play N Trade in a new location, most likely because the cost of a space in the shopping area is pretty expensive and they found somewhere that costs less. However, once I got to the store, I'm beginning to think that may not be the case. First off, a lot of the merchandise was already gone. Since they haven't had any good sales, it looks like they already have started moving into the new location. So, that's not really a big deal or anything. While I was shopping, I started seeing some price tags for a store with a different name. At first, I didn't think much of it, it was all newer merchandise and I just assumed that he was trying to bring more stuff in that he didn't carry before, specifically, more retro stuff (i.e. old power cords, memory cards, even NES controllers) and that he bought it from another store and just left the price tag on, but oddly, didn't put the Play N Trade price tag on. Finally, I started to notice that all of the Play N Trade price tags had the PnT's blacked out. So, I'm beginning to think they are moving to a new location that isn't going to be a Play N Trade and instead is going to be a store the owner is going to open on his own, without the Play N Trade franchise. I Iooked the name up online and it doesn't seem to be a franchise and I can't find a store by that name listed in the yellow pages or anything, so it doesn't look like it is from a store that already exists. At first, I was a little concerned, thinking that this could be a bad thing (i.e. different policies, possibly not carrying the same stuff, different specials, etc.). But then I realized that he has a lot of things in the store that he never carried before and the prices on the things that did have both stickers were lower at the other store. So, I'm hopeful that the new store will be just as good as his old Play N Trade, but with new stuff and lower prices.... Anyway, this Sunday is the last day at the current location, so, I will update as soon as I know what is going on.

So, that's it for this weeks pickups. Nothing too great, but all stuff I'm happy to have, a game I was surprised to like, accessories I've needed since Christmas and the power cord for my old favorite system, it turned out to be pretty good. I don't plan to pick anything up this week, so it may be a few weeks until my next pickup blog. I'm working on the final touches for another blog and hope to post it tomorrow or Thursday.

Until next time