Anyone bought a game purely on what they see on the gamebox?

[sj33]

To be fair, unless your as into gaming as us, the back of the gamebox the non-hardcore can base their purchases on. I mean, we just need to look at IGN's Outrun2006 review to know review scores can't always be trusted.

[Fastware]

I brought Ninja Cop on day of release, it looked so wrong from the box art to even the title for a game released in this day and age. I knew nothing about it at all.

But my retro spider sense told me this game was the one I needed to buy.

Damn, I was right on the money.

[ShadowDancer]

I think it might lesson the blow if i did purchase a game that is bad that way.
I used to rent (PAL) sony ps1 games day after day (blindly) and there are so many stinkers on that console alone, i think to tip the balance correctly you would need...

There are good games on the PS1, i'm not going to knock it, but it is pretty disgraceful what was allowed on that sony machine alone.

[Gruce]

When I fianlly got my Playstation to play imports and copies I went down to CEX with a friend to buy some Jap games. We each bought one, mine looked good and was quite cheap (?7 I think), got it home to find it was an RPG and unplayable. The friend had a gundam games, which also was very hard to handle.

[JazzFunk]

There are good games on the PS1, i'm not going to knock it, but it is pretty disgraceful what was allowed on that sony machine alone.

I'm thinking Lone Soldier here.

[Tig]

Silly Putty - Funny story actually - was about 8 at the time, shopping with my parents in GAME, my little sister in my dads arms. Asking parents to lend me a quid or two so I could get it, they said no. Walked out the shop without buying anything, then I remember looking up at my sister to see that she had picked up the game, and managed to smuggle it out over games security sensors. We took it back, but I bought the game the next week. Also not too bad of a game.

I had silly putty as well! That was a delightfully demented little game.


Judging by the screenshots on the back of the box, I was convinced Kirby's Dream Course would be a top-down adventure in the same vein as Super Mario RPG.

When I got it home, I found that the cute isometric visuals concealed a fiddly and arcane control system, filled with gauges and bars and ticking metronomes. What is the meaning of this?!
It was many weeks before I realised how to play it (I was young ok)... and longer still before I realised it was golf

Superb game though, when you get into it

[parkinho]

The 3 games that stick out in my mind are Wizards and Warriors (NES), Snake Rattle and Roll (NES), and Super Aleste (SNES)

All bought based solely on the box, these turned into some of my favourite games for their respective consoles. I'm sure I have bought more games using this method of selection, but I'm glad to say Rise of the Robots wasn't one of them!

[MikeRox]

some of my happiest gaming memories were from the SNES days where alot of purchases were based on the game box and possibly word of mouth, but generally it was the screenshots that did the talking. I do miss jus going down to a games shop being allowed 1 game and trying to choose from all the games availible. But u still generally stuck to the same publisher (in my case more often than not either Nintendo or Konami).

[the_dude]

I've only ever did this once and it was when i had the Master System. The game i bought was My Hero....and what a load of ****e it was too. Never again.

[AdamJW]

I did this once with a game called 'Side-winder' on the spectrum. I was lucky it was an ok side scrolling shooter. Anyone here remember it? It was a double cassette size box and it seemed ok. Nothing amazing or anything.

The most recent time I've done it is with Z.O.E: fist of mars on GBA. I only did it because when I looked at the back it looked like a 'super robot tasien' clone, so I bought it. Its an ok game.

I dont think I've ever done this though then bought a crap game. Its not something i'd make a habit of doing though.

[Distant Cousin]

I've just done it with Children of Mana

[Silvergun X]

The most recent time I've done it is with Z.O.E: fist of mars on GBA. I only did it because when I looked at the back it looked like a 'super robot tasien' clone, so I bought it. Its an ok game.

I absolutely adore/adored that game. Currently plugging my DS's GBA slot and hasn't come out for a while. I've had it since release over here - The soundtrack was sublime in my opinion.

Anyway, back on topic.

PN03 here. I never even heard of it until I saw it in the shops. Bought it, thought it was pretty good.

[Nakano]

The last time I did this was Lunar silver star story for the mega cd, it only became one of my best gaming experience ever!