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I picked up a lot of stuff today.

I sold my copy of Steredenn for the Switch though, so it didn't actually cost me anything. It's one of those low print run games published by Super Rare Games. It's just been sat in my collection since I got it when it came out. I don't care for the game at all and at this point I question why I have been keeping it, whilst the price has seemingly just gone up and up. I really no longer see the point of just having stuff for the sake of having stuff, because "they look nice on the shelf" or they're "rare", even if I derive no pleasure or enjoyment from them. So I sold it.

But then ironically and hypocritically, I used the money on excellent condition CIB copies of Ocarina of Time and Goldeneye for the N64, even though I already own fairly rough cart only copies, because they will look nice on a shelf

I also picked up Bio-hazard Battle for the Mega Drive, Ninja Blade for the 360, Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz for Wii and Viva Pinata: Pocket Party for DS.

January 2025: February 2025: March 2025: April 2024:
Destruction Derby (PS1)
Lair (PS3)
Spikeout: Battle Street (Xbox)
Rayman 3 (Xbox)
Halo Wars (Xbox 360)
Amped 3 (Xbox 360)
Grabbed By The Ghoulies (Xbox)
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64)
Goldeneye 007 (N64)
Bio-hazard Battle (Mega Drive)
Ninja Blade (Xbox 360)
Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz (Wii)
Viva Pinata: Pocket Party (DS)

Markies' Games Acquired List Of 2025!

1. Micro Machines (NES)
2. Luigi's Mansion 2 HD (NSW)
3. Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike (GCN)
4. SteamWorld Collection (WiiU)
5. Fight'N Rage (NSW)
6. Donkey Kong (GB)
7. Syberia II (XBOX)
8. Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga (GBA)
9. Final Fantasy Adventure (GB)



I added Final Fantasy Adventure for the Nintendo GameBoy this afternoon!

Secret of Mana is one of my favorite SNES games, so I have always been interested in trying more of the Mana series. With me being able to finally play Gameboy games, I can finally play the first game in the series. I had always heard good things about the game. However, my Gameboy wishlist is filled with so many exciting games that it kind of fell by the wayside. Recently, it has begun to rise to the top and when I needed a new Gameboy game, I decided now would be the time to finally jump on it. I am very excited to give this one a try and see what the original Mana game was really like!

Realized that I never shared my March pick-ups! Super late, but it was a lighter month for me overall.

Shockman Zero (SNES) - Fun action platformer originally released on the Satellaview add-on. Has some elements that are reminiscent of the Mega Man series, but combat is closer to a beat 'em up. Already beat this one, but would love to try it out with a friend in co-op.

Fight'n Rage (Switch) - Heard good things about this game, so I picked up the reprinted version of it that includes updates. Really fun beat 'em up. My girlfriend and I got all the way up to the final boss, but are having some trouble with the last sequence!

Danish Anwar's Games Acquired List


1. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (PS5 Disc; April 2025)

I bought Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 physical disc for PS5 today. The game has all the elements of being a gem.

• Excellent emotional story

• Classic JRPG FF style combat

• FromSoft inspired artwork

• Multiple difficulty levels

• No ideology

• and most importantly, only $50

Developed by a French - Montpelier based - indie studio SandFall Interactive, the M17+ rated turn-based RPG was released on 24 April 2025 on consoles and PC. It is made by a passionate game dev team of 30 members headed by Brauche Guillaume (Game Director) with Jennifer Svedberg-Yen as lead writer.

The voice actors include such stars like Andy Serkins (Renoir in this game, Best known The Lord of the Rings, Black Panther), Ben Starr (Verso, Best known for Clive Rosfield in Final Fantasy XVI), and Jennifer English (Maelle, Best known for Shadoheart in BG3, Leya in Divinity: Original Sin II, and Latenna the Albinauric in Elden Ring).
The game cast also include relatively new, but talented casts with excellent performance like Charlie Cox (Gustav), Shala Nyx (Schiel), and Kristy Rider (Lune). I especially liked the voice over of Lune that exudes confidence and resilience, two traits I admire the most in real persons.

The fantasy world of Lumière is inspired by the French's own Victorian era known as the Belle Époque (the 'Beautiful Era' that lasted from 1871-1914). The main character is Gustav (Charlie Cox) who along with Lune (Rider), Schiel (Shala Nyx), Maelle (Jennifer English), and others go on an expedition to destry the Paintress.

Once a year, the Paintress awakens and paints her cursed number on the monolith.
And everyone of that age turns to smoke, fading into nothing.
With each passing year, the number falls. More are erased. Soon, she will wake and paint “33.” And we will embark on our final mission—to destroy the Paintress and end her cycle of death, forever.
We are Expedition 33.

This is the game we all need, and not AAA bloated games from greedy corporations with millions of budget that fail to deliver. This game shows that what the game industry today needs is a passionate team, and not greedy developers focused on pricing and profit (looking at Nintendo and Ubisoft), or ideology (Naughty Dogg, Ubisoft, Square Enix, etc.). I hope we see more such games from indie developers with small teams - games that actually look good, and not just a 16-bit era game that appeals to only a few.

I picked up this very lovely Metroid Fusion. It was only £45, which seems very good for a copy in this condition (CeX sell a copy with manual for £62, for comparison, and that's just a standard condition copy that could be wrecked, since they don't really grade).

I am really into the Metroid games as of late (been replying Dread), so was happy to come across this copy of Fusion. I want to pick up Samus Returns for the 3DS and Zero Mission some time.



January 2025: February 2025: March 2025: April 2024:
Destruction Derby (PS1)
Lair (PS3)
Spikeout: Battle Street (Xbox)
Rayman 3 (Xbox)
Halo Wars (Xbox 360)
Amped 3 (Xbox 360)
Grabbed By The Ghoulies (Xbox)
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64)
Goldeneye 007 (N64)
Bio-hazard Battle (Mega Drive)
Ninja Blade (Xbox 360)
Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz (Wii)
Viva Pinata: Pocket Party (DS)
Metroid Fusion (Game Boy Advance)
Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb (Xbox)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Xbox)
Dead or Alive 4 (Xbox 360)
Under Defeat HD (Switch)

April update:
April
Daytona USA Saturn
Tenchu: Stealth Assassins PS1
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 PS1
Tales of Graces F Remastered PS5
Shin-Chan: Shiro and the Coal Town Switch
Chicory: A Colourful Tale Switch
Pokémon Puzzle Collection 2 Pokemon Mini
Suikoden PS1
Total: 8 games

Some big games this month. Daytona, Tenchu and Tony Hawk's were fairly cheap pickups from a local shop, whereas Tales of Graces was a bargain bin pickup from a warehouse clearance sale at Game, which is a retail store chain here in the UK. Shin-Chan and Chicory are Limited Run orders from last year. The biggest two pickups are definitely Pokemon Puzzle Collection, which one of the Japan-only games released for the Pokemon Mini. It's my 6th game for the system, out of 10 total - so I have 60% of the library now . The other big pickup was Suikoden - it's missing a manual and someone has drawn the letter 'P' on the front cover insert, but I don't mind too much - I'm glad to have the game available to play. I picked up Suikoden 2 last year, so I plan on playing through them together an carrying over my save data from 1 to 2 soon.

alienjesus wrote: ↑Fri May 02, 2025 6:02 pm it's missing a manual and someone has drawn the letter 'P'

Ah the infamous 'P' that plagues so many of our retro games here. Electronic Boutique, GAME and Gamestation all used to write that on pre-owned games, as they were all gutted and stored behind the counter. I think GAME did it the most, maybe as GAME owned all three different chains at some point is why all three have done it. Usually they just did it on the disc and manual.

It's the same with the four numbers you often see on the barcodes of a lot of games. The first two numbers were a console library code and then the second two numbers are what they paid for the game and gave to the customer. So 7708 would mean they paid £8 for the game and 77 would be a way of identifying the console library, so N64 or something..

Great pick ups. I saw a Suikoden without the manual recently too and was tempted. I might pick up the HD remasters some time instead, assuming they are decent ports.

Suikoden I & II Remastered (Switch).

My pick ups so far in May are Silent Hill 3, PaRappa the Rapper and Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga. All three were ones I had wanted, but had just been sitting back waiting for the right deals to crop up. All three were very good prices and significantly lower than the normal market value.



January 2025: February 2025: March 2025: April 2024: May 2025:
Silent Hill 3 (PS2)
PaRappa the Rapper (PS1)
Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga (Game Boy Advance)

Breath of Fire IV (GOG)