For GotGame's Bring it Back feature this week, they take a look at the classic Rare galactic adventure with Jet Force Gemini.
Over the course of the year video game prices have gone through the roof. Nintendo 64 has been hit particularly hard with consoles, games, and accessories all seeing a massive spike in value. This article takes a close look at just what’s happening there.
Depends on the game how popular it is, how good it is, how much demand there is for that game, and how rare that game is also. That goes for any system not just N64 whether the Atari 2600, a Commodore 64, to a PS3.
It's a bit more than just supply and demand. Just about all retro prices have been on a steady increase consistently over the years because of S&D, especially the lower selling systems and titles, but the big jumps lately are more interesting.
I'd group N64 and GCN in the same categories here, and to a lesser extent, Dreamcast and OG Xbox, too.
Good example of the insanity: Pokemon Gale of Darkness on GC. 2015/16, I would find them pretty regularly. CIB prices were $30-40 back then. So if I found one for $5, $10, $15, it was a good deal. Knowing Pokemon always increases a bit in price, I held onto them to use for trades later. Pre-covid, prices had climbed to maybe $50-60. 1 year later, you can get $200 for a complete copy.
The biggest factor(s) have been the pandemic and age of collectors.
Lockdowns and social distancing gave people a reason to stay home. N64 and GCN have a high number of quality, iconic local MP games too. That's always driven up prices a bit compared to some other systems.
Couple this with the age of these systems and the age of its fans though. Nostalgia is a hell of a drug.
For someone around 30 yo, the N64 may have been their first system. 25 yo? GCN may bring back a lot of memories as their first experience.
So when millions of 25-34 yos are stuck at home, have more "free" time, and feel that nostalgia pull, it's going to lead to a interesting retro market.
I'm not complaining, but I feel for those who just want to play some of these games. Dolphin runs very well on an Nvidia Shield if you're curious...
It's never been people at home during the pandemic driving the prices up. No one out of a job is going to pay a few hundred dollars for a copy of kuon. I believe company's like limited run and super rare games sparked the flame that later turned into an all out wildfire when it caught high end collectors eyes that those games were high in value and could be flipped for even more money resold as is or graded and sold. Think about it collectors camped on those sites and the games would be sold out on the first day. 30 dollars a pip for regular about 80 to 130 for limited editions. Later those games would pop up on eBay for twice as much. Once it proved lucrative they thought why stop there let's see what other games are rare or just not so common that people are willing to pay top dollar for. Let's check ps1,ps2,GameCube, n64,etc etc yeah looks good sealed copy of silent hill 3 people are paying 300 for it ill get it have it graded and sell for 1,000. He'll why stop at eBay let's really maximize the profit put on auction at the heritage auction site. Super mario nes sold for 650,000. So you see it's high end collectors with deep pockets driving the market. They are done with comics and baseball cards it's all about rare games. Nintendo even cashed in with super mario all stars taking everyone for fools on that game claiming it was limited when you can still buy them at best buy by the lots. Deep pocket profit seeking collectors are driving regular thrift shop collectors out. It's a whole new ballgame now that was developing since before the pandemic hit.
Man Playing the n64 was the most fun I’ve ever had with video games. I remember playing Mario 64 and thinking there’s no way it gets better then this lol.
Alex S. from Link-Cable writes: "Over the past few weeks we have been talking a lot about video remakes. Which are great, which are bad and whether or not the industry as a whole is better off with or without them. Well today it all comes to a head as we count down the Top 10 games that we would love to see remade! Some of these are classic gems, that are still perfectly playable today while others are games that could definitely use some sprucing up to fix nagging issues that have kept them from reaching the next level but the one thing they all have in common is that we would love these classics to get a fresh coat of paint."
Call me a hypocrite, but I would love to see what MDK could do with optional duck and cover mechanics. With a risk/reward leaning your head over/around the cover whilst sniping, also minecrawlers were inspired, I'd love to see trundling interior city tanks in HD and it would need an equally epic soundtrack. MDK is one of my favourite games of all time. MDK2 was...okay.
Would I like remakes for most of those games on the list? Sure.
Do I trust any of the companies which own those IPs, to make anything even remotely worthy of the original? Not a f****n chance.
Except maybe Zelda II and Kid Icarus for obvious reasons.
says who? did you not see the sales for crash HD? we want old games which are remade/remastered done right. DMC HD collection is a straight up port of ps3 version of HD collection anf doesn't even support 4k or HDR so we don't want but than when a game like SOTC is remade by bluepoint it sold well
we just don't want old games via BC where you have outdated controls instead we want games to be remastered using betters textures, frame rate and overall smoother game. don't get me wrong i want BC as much as the next guy but not at the expense of releasing newer games. that's what MS has done just keep re releasing older games instead of investing in new IP's
and MS fans(which is you from your original comment) keep bring up SOT and PUBG sales to make their argument of having exclusives which are selling while when the sales argument is used by us sony fans we are told it's not about sales. Make up your mind because you can't use the sales argument when it favors y'all and when it's not good for you simply says sales don't matter
just like last gen it was so important for MS to release sale numbers for xbox360 to brag and now they much rather give useless stats like hours played
Old games are old games remasters or not
Sony fans are the biggest hypocrites on the Planet
Red alert or red alert 2 remakes would be amazing but they aren't going to happen as EA completely ruined the franchise. Even if EA decided to remake it, it would have microtransactions and probably have mobile construction yards or something stupid like CNC4 did.
EA ruined this franchise and its a damn shame... We won't see it ever again unless they make a mobile game out of it full of microtransaction goodness.
Microsoft has a rich catalog of diverse, unique, and well-loved IPs that haven't been used in a long time. While new IPs are welcome, Microsoft utilizing the properties it already owns could be the surefire solution to the company's exclusive problem.
Easy answer. Microsoft doesn’t have enough internal developers to manage those dormant IPs.
Maybe i am being to optimistic but I have a strange feeling we will start to hear more about these older unused IP's at some point. Especially since a few of them have become BC for the xbo.
MS knows there is a demand as well as a shortage and I feel they will have to address both sooner rather than later. They have been quiet for quite a while now so they may be getting ready to finally open up about the subject.
@Darth
As much as I like to see a lot of those games make a comeback I doubt a few of them would make a splash today. I don't even think a lot of those games on that list did much when they first released.
It's not enough to bring back an IP, but they have to bring back an IP that has interest and actually looks like a good game a lot of players would enjoy and buy.
But I'm all for an updated 3rd person co-op / online shoot'em up Brute Force reboot.
@zero, why does it have to be E3? They can open up about it any time they want to but they just need to open up. I don't care where or when but they need to address it.
@red, given the current situation with how the 8th gen feels (overall)... I find myself going back to 7th gen on both 360 and PS3 more so than playing my PS4 and XBO. Except for the new GoW... that game is sweet but when I'm done I will go right back to 7th and perhaps even 6th gen stuff.
If MS really sees an interest in those older IP's then perhaps they can realize that yeah... people want those fun games again and can give them not just the bc treatment but real actual continuations for them. I'd love a new Stubbs, Blinx, Brute Force, Quantum Redshift (just to name a few). If Sony can reboot Warhawk (an og PS1 IP) on the PS3 then so can MS with Crimson Skies
They should announce anything they have as soon as they can. They need to rebuild theit customers trust/faith in them when it comes to xbox exclusives. Waiting for E3 (its a month away) is ok for now provided they show some games, preferably ones that will be released this year.
That would require “investments”, that’s not Microsoft’s strategy. Microsoft wants the Xbox brand to become the console ‘Steam’ service. They want to provide the online infrastructure, and collect the royalties from other game developers.
they could license them out to developers, but I'd be cautious since they need a lot of brand new IP's as well. I think make another Fable, Perfect Dark, then try something new a 3rd person heavy story game.
Project Gotham? Another racer MS doesn't need anymore racers but a brand new Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey would be superb. I can picture Blue Dragon becoming Scalebound like in size and scope, except done better.
@angel
Well it's the only race I truly liked on the xbox, so ima need a new one lol.
Easier answer: they haven't figured out how to introduce/justify MTs and/or multiplayer.
You mean with MS money, they can't hire and find developers to work on those IPs?! This has been something I have been wondering for a while and frankly have lost a lot of love for Xbox. They have so much potential and I personally feel like they gave up. They could be doing so much better. I still think the OG Xbox was the better system in terms of games.
Just make a banjo kazooie and banjo tooie remaster. doesn't take a big studio. if they do it to the same standard as crash bandicoot and spyro it's a guaranteed success.
When Microsoft’s own flagship series Halo & Gears of War are on the commercial decline do you think Microsoft would’ve devote much time resurrecting any of their dormant IPs beyond remasters like they did for Voodoo Vince & Phantom Dust? Most of them went dormant for a reason.
The only franchises they revisit seem to be Rare IPs. Killer Instinct was great, that Conker for Project Spark was subpar and its Hololens presentation was horrible, and they seemed to like to bring up Battletoads a lot a few years ago but nothing came of it.
I think the battletoads references were just because rash joined the killer instinct roster
Especially the big ones like Perfect Dark and Banjo Kazooie. Just don't let Rare work on them lol
They should have playtonic games make a new banjo game. THAT would be interesting!
Maybe, I wasn't really a fan of Yooka-Laylee. But they would probably do better than Rare.
Well considering it is all the guys that actually made the first 2 games, yeah I think they would do it better than whoever is currently at rare!
"The original Xbox launched in 2002, and since it was the “new kid on the black”"
That's racist!
Wow thats a blast from the 64 bit past.
Haha, I'm as nostalgic about the N64 era as the next guy, but Jet Force Gemini was a huge pain in the ass.