Quality in the Bargain Bin
 

Budget game. To most, those words bring to mind some of the horrors found in Infernal Monkey's journal, but not all budget games are bad. Maybe that game in the bargain bin is from an indie developer, selling at a lower price to attract your attention, or perhaps it's game that wasn't worth full price, but at half off is a fun time waster. In this thread, we discuss quality cheap games that might otherwise be overlooked thanks to the stigma of the discount pile.

Some ground rules: 1) Games must be significantly discounted ($19.99 or lower for portable, $30 or lower for console). 2) The price must be permanent (no sales of the week). 3) The price must be widely available (no posts about how you got Brawl for $15 thanks to a coupon/price mistake).

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My picks:

Patapon

With a $19.99 price at launch, this PSP game is a no-brainer. The art design is reminiscent of Loco Roco, and the gameplay is simple but fun. Customize and control dozens of little eyeball warriors as they traverse 2-D sidescrolling stages, hunting and engaging in battle. The control scheme is what makes this really unique; instead of direct control, you give commands through drum beats. Maintaining a constant rhythm is the key to victory.

WordJong

Most DS budget titles that originated as flash games aren't worth the money, but WordJong is different. The game takes Scrabble tiles and arranges them in stacks a la Mahjong. Sure, the gameplay is simple, but it's a word game, so you don't expect all that much. It's surprisingly addictive, and the game seems to be fair in the distribution of tiles. For $19.99, you get several single player modes, plus the ability to play other folks via wifi. The only drawback can be finding other people online (though it's not as hard as I thought it would be).

WarTech: Senko no Ronde
At its launch price of $59.99, this 360 game was grossly overpriced. Now that it's dropped to $9.99 at places like Best Buy and Gamestop, it's on par with an XBLA title. It's a fun anime/mech fighter that's good for a few minutes of mindless combat (a bit like Virtual On).

Dai Senryaku VII: Exceed - $19.99 new (PS2)
Released in 2005 for Xbox (under the name Dai Senryaku VII: Modern Military Tactics), I picked up the game for 20 bucks. Ported over to the PS2 with some new additions, it's an absolutely fantastic strategy title that has an assload of strategic variables and even logistics to consider. It's definitely one of the harder and more rewarding titles in the genre, let me tell you! Examples:

Total unit types: Over 400
Total terrain types: 26

The game even has depths for each tile (like deep sea, lower atmosphere, upper atmosphere), so multiple units can be stationed on a single tile. Crazy stuff. The game's AI tends to rely a bit too much on copters, but it still puts up a good fight.

As I mentioned before, it was also released for the Xbox (and is backwards-compatible with the 360) and runs about 8 bucks used, so even 360 fans really should try it out if they find it.

Tales of the Abyss: This monster of an RPG is probably my second favorite Tales game and my Wal-Mart has a whole row of them sitting in the PS2 budget titles section unsold. This game is worth the 20 dollar price tag and will suck over 50 hours of your life away. Even if you never played a Tales game before this one is well worth the admission fee.

I totally agree with Patapon. It's a fantastic title, and for only $20, it's well worth it.

Damn, Miles, I was in EB today looking for a copy of Tales of the Abyss, and they didn't have any. I wandered into Wal-Mart too, but checking the bargain bins totally slipped my mind. For some reason, Abyss didn't come across to me as a bargain bin title. Damn.

I haven't played it myself, but I've heard good things about Rogue Galaxy. I picked it up today at EB for a mere $20 and will be checking it out shortly. Will add to this in the near future. :D

It's a nice game. It sports nice graphics and a battle system funnier than most other found in RPGs.

Back to the bargain bin, I found Quake 4 for Xbox360 to be pretty alright for $10. It's your average FPS.

I agree. I found it for $20 at Wal-Mart, along with Tales of Legendia. I took Abyss.

I'm not sorry I did. It's serious, it's funny, it's full of Namco Easter Eggs--my favorite being the Pac-Man belt buckle the one character has...LOL

Rogue Galaxy: I didn't see those other titles mentioned, but I picked up Rogue Galaxy for $19.99 from the bargain section at Wal-Mart just the other day. I haven't even seen it for sale at GS for quite some time (in my town at either store) so it was a good find.

I'm rather impressed with Rogue Galaxy so far. I mean, it looks like it might be relatively linear, but the art style is beautiful, the battle system is nice, and... well, I'm just overall enjoying it. Great find for $20.

I will defy anyone to contest that, when it was first released with a price tag of $20, Katamari Damacy wasn't worth every single penny.

Oh yeah, I completely forgot about the original Katamari. Namco has gotten progressively worse about about pricing with the sequels. The sad 12 levels at $40 on the Xbox 360 version is just ridiculous.

I found Crimson Skies at Gamestop for $2.99., so I imagine its like $5 at most places. Cheaper then downloading! Let's see, I also found The Wind Waker for $12.99 which wasn't a bad price at all.

nutty: I was actually talk to Acer about that game briefly and I was even going to consider picking it up, but when I saw the $39.99 price tag I was like "fuck that".

I remember when Gitaroo Man was $20... Suddenly fell off the face of the Earth and then ended up getting priced $40 when Gamestop suddenly had it used... Thank God I nabbed my copy of it already.

Seconded; I picked this up a couple of weeks back. The only real downside to my knowledge is the inability to create custom victory conditions in free-play mode. Sure, the manual is minimal bordering on skimpy, but that's balanced by an exhaustive tutorial set... and if that's not enough, a good walkthrough can be found on GameFAQs (be advised that it's a work-in-progress).
There's also no shortage of unlockable units, including such surprises as two F-35 variants, the conceptual FB-22...
...and the 'Caspian Sea Monster' (a Lun-class ekranoplan).

Neo Geo Battle Coliseum for $20. Import fighting fans have probably been playing this for awhile, but this is seriously the best fighter I've played in years. Tons of characters from the SNK universe, great controls, enough modes (I usually play a lot of survival), pretty good balance (at least from what I've played) and just good clean fun.

And also Taito Legends 2 (at least if you can't get everything to work on emulation) You get a ridiculous amount of arcade shmups and Puchi Carat (which is like Puzzle Bobble-meets-Arkanoid). Think it runs $12.99 at Gamestop.

I was going to mention the orignal Katamari for 20 bucks, but, it seems I'm too late.

I always thought that the Devil May Cry Anniversary Pack was a good deal. I didn't have any of the games, and, well... buying them together (new!) for 30 bucks seemed to be a great idea. Maybe.

the original katamari being $20 is old news

it's selling for like $35 used at gamestop

Really? What a damn ripoff.

Also, to me, I thought $2 for MSG2 was a great deal. The disc isn't in the best of shape, but I like the game (I know, impossible, right?). The store I went to usually sells it for that much, too...

I believe Shadow of the Colossus also released for $20. Good stuff.

I thought Phantom Dust was a good deal at $20 as well. Play it with a friend for extra awesome.

I'm guessing Greatest Hits games don't count? Those are cheap pretty much because they're good.

You got ripped off.

$4.99 at the Bargain Bin for me.

I personally think my fiance got the biggest treasure you could ever ask for in a bargain bin. She actually found a factory sealed copy of suikoden II at her local zellers for $20. It literally blew my mind that she could of got one of the rarest games in the PS library in a bargain bin, but all the same I'm not that surprised. I remember when I was going to university I came across copies of suikoden II in zellers as well in the bargain bin, but wasn't really familiar with how good the series was.

Me on the other hand, I haven't really came across many quality games in the bargain bin. I've come across a lot of great games but they usually have the greatest hits logo with it, and being the collector that I am. If I own a game it has to be an original.

The only games that I've come across is I got Castle Shikigame 2 for about 8 dollars. It has some of the most horrible voice acting you'll ever hear, but its a fun top down shooter with some insane bosses.

The only other game I've come across the local bargain bin, is I picked up the sega genesis collection for PS2, for about 17 dollars. I've been enjoying the game so far. I got 3 out of the 28 games finished already.

Hoy, some bargains I have seen in my years:

Lunar 1 for the PS1, NEW, for $20.
Lunar 2 for the PS1, NEW, for $20.
Vagrant Story for the PS1, NEW, for $8.
WWE: DOR 1 for the Gamecube, NEW, for $5.
Baten Kaitos for the Gamecube, NEW, for $5.
Legends of Wrestling II, for the Gamecube, NEW, for $5.
Brain Age 1 & 2, for the NDS, NEW, for $20.

I should mention that the WWE:DOR 1 and BK was part of Circuit City's huge 'games for $5' deal a few years back. I got some other games too but those were the ones that really stuck out. Now if only I could get 1) BK 2, 2) Paper Mario, and 3) Mario Kart for Gamecube for a decent price...

I find it interesting that Resident Evil 4 has been $15 for a long while, GC or PS2. In fact, going through IGN's top 100 (yes, I know, but its just for the sake of a quick list), SotC, RE4, Metroid Prime, KOTOR, God of War are all titles I've seen in bargain bins and do great justice to my wallet and satisfaction levels. Although I guess the best I had ever seen was LAST YEAR (Yes, 2007) I found a DREAMCAST game in GameStop. Yoink Phantasy Star Online for $2.99

I once found Final Fantasy Anthology and Chronicles for like 8 bucks each at a secondhand place. It was quite a find, considering you basically don't see PS1 games in Canada anymore.

This place i go to has immaculate prices, with everything starting at 5 bucks, and only going above 30 if you can still find it new at an EB or something. Over half the game i own are from that place and have a price tag on them listing under 20 bucks.

Audiosurf for $9.99. oh yeah i went there.

Also Viva Pinata for like what, $15 new or $10 used these days? I played that game to death.

I purchased DOA4 for 20 dollars brand new in November, definitely a bargain considering I saw it at EB Games for 40 and Wal Mart for 40.

I bought Killer 7 for 15 Dollars used. This was also a year and a half ago, but regardless I would have happily payed 60 dollars. Definitely one of my favorite games of last gen.