Top 10 Video Games That Are INCREDIBLY Hard to Find
Pepsi had a video game? We prefer Coke. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for those physically pressed games that are either rare, pressed in low quantities or otherwise difficult to acquire.
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00:00Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for those physically-pressed
00:11games that are either rare, pressed in low quantities, or otherwise difficult to acquire.
00:23Number 10 – Barbie, Groom & Glam Pups
00:30One of the pitfalls of video games existing as downloadable content is that players are
00:34at the mercy of those platforms that make these games available.
00:37Barbie, Groom & Glam Pups was originally released in a physical format for Nintendo Wii and
00:42Nintendo DS back in 2010.
00:44It was also reissued for the 3DS in 2013, but the game is currently unavailable for
00:48download since Nintendo's eShop closure.
00:57Second-hand copies are pricey commodities, as well as just the 3DS cartridge alone selling
01:02for over $700 on certain second-hand sites.
01:05Oh, and if you want the box to go along with the cartridge, well, that's gonna cost you
01:09over a grand to make that happen.
01:16Yikes.
01:21Number 9 – Wrecking Crew
01:22There's both good news and bad news when it comes to the Wrecking Crew for the Nintendo
01:32Entertainment System.
01:33Firstly, the actual game itself is easily attainable as downloadable content on various
01:38platforms.
01:40However, actual physical copies of this embryonic Mario can be challenging to obtain for collectors.
01:50There's also good news on this front since Wrecking Crew was bundled with the original
01:53NES console packages and saw many different packaging modifications within subsequent
01:57pressings.
01:58That said, if you're seeking out any of the racer variants of Wrecking Crew, such as stickered
02:02hand-tap pressings or Canadian variant pressings, then you're likely looking at a few hundred
02:07bucks on eBay.
02:13Number 8 – Pepsi Invaders
02:22Video games were steadily gaining in popularity, yet the influx of subpar, rushed cash-in products
02:27was about to help usher in the video game crash of 1983.
02:30Pepsi Invaders was one of these games that were rushed to completion by corporations
02:34in order to capitalize on this hot new trend.
02:42As a result, Pepsi Invaders isn't really too fun to play, but it's even less fun to try
02:47and track it down in the modern day.
02:49That's because the game wasn't made commercially available, but rather given to Coca-Cola salespeople
02:53at their 1983 convention.
02:55Pepsi Invaders may just be a rip-off of Space Invaders, but copies have still sold for over
02:59a grand on eBay.
03:07Number 7 – Poopslinger
03:13The long and frankly confusing story of Poopslinger could take us all day to explain, but the
03:18CliffsNotes version is this.
03:19Yes, this is a real game.
03:21It also may be one of the most elaborate, or at least elaborately out-of-hand April
03:25Fool's jokes ever committed, since this was the coincidental release date of the game.
03:35Eighty-four copies of Poopslinger were reportedly mailed out to customers that pre-ordered it
03:39for the PlayStation 4 back in 2018.
03:41The website VG247.com details the story of how Twitter was used by a company called Limited
03:46Rare Games – no relation to Limited Run Games – to push the one-day sales of this
03:51strange new game, after which the company apparently closed up shop.
04:01Number 6 – The King of Fighters 2000
04:06SNK's The King of Fighters franchise possesses legions of fans around the world, and this
04:14installment from 2000 can be played today.
04:17It's just the original Neo-Geo cartridge that's tough to find.
04:21This isn't a surprise, really, since many games for the home Neo-Geo consoles were published
04:25in limited quantities anyway, making them extremely valuable.
04:28The King of Fighters 2000 was developed around the time SNK was entering bankruptcy proceedings,
04:32and fans estimate that perhaps only 100 cartridges were actually published for the Neo-Geo.
04:43The release focus of The King of Fighters 2000 was instead turned towards the Sega Dreamcast
04:47and PlayStation 2 consoles, making an OG Neo-Geo version worth anywhere from $3,500
04:52to $5,500.
05:01Number 5 – Xertainment Mountain Bike Rally Slash Speed Racer
05:04A myriad of companies have tried – and failed – at bringing new peripherals to the Nintendo
05:14market, but we gotta give the Xertainment system points for originality.
05:18The idea was to combine bike riding and physical fitness with gameplay, and it resulted in
05:22two games being designed specifically for this purpose.
05:25Mountain Bike Rally and Speed Racer were released separately by Xertainment, but were also combined
05:29with a single cartridge for the Super Nintendo.
05:37These cartridges only worked if you owned the exercise bike, which sold poorly, but
05:41the combo cart had become increasingly rare.
05:44These copies have been known to sell for nearly $4,000 factory-sealed, while boxless cartridges
05:48can go for over $1,500.
05:57Number 4 – Stadium Events
06:05The Xertainment system wasn't the only Nintendo peripheral designed with physical fitness
06:08in mind.
06:09Enter Stadium Events from 1987, one of the two games that were developed to work with
06:13the short-lived Family Fun fitness mat by Bandai.
06:21Some of these mats were included inside copies of other games in the series, Athletic World,
06:25while all three pieces of this strange Nintendo puzzle can go for a lot of money on the second-hand
06:30market.
06:31Specifically, Stadium Events once sold at auction for $12,000.
06:34Meanwhile, PAL-formatted copies from Europe, where the game was more successful, can easily
06:39sell upwards of $3,000 today.
06:42Or you could just play Nintendo's revamped version for their Power Pad, titled World
06:46Class Track Meet.
06:54Number 3 – Nintendo World Championships
06:56Today's video game championship tournaments didn't come to exist in a vacuum.
07:06Championships have existed practically as long as video gaming itself, as evidenced
07:10by this rare duo of game cartridges.
07:12Both the Nintendo Powerfest game from 1994 and especially the Gold Nintendo World Championships
07:17cartridge from 1990 are worth some serious bucks.
07:20The latter in particular was developed for a marketing tour and competition, and contained
07:24three games for contestants to play.
07:34Grey versions of this cartridge have been listed for big bucks, but the Gold iteration
07:38of which reportedly only 26 were made was listed on eBay back in 2021 for a staggering
07:44million dollars.
07:51Number 2 – Gamma Attack
08:02The story of Gamma Attack is another long, strange trip and dates back once again to
08:06the pre-videogame crash of 1983.
08:08The Gamation company decided to develop Gamma Attack to sell alongside its Atari peripherals,
08:13but advertisements from the time have led gaming historians to believe that very few
08:16copies of Gamma Attack actually sold.
08:24The game did make news headlines when a copy was listed on eBay for $500,000, while the
08:29website RacketBoy had estimated surviving Gamma Attack cartridges between $20,000 and
08:34$50,000.
08:35This is due primarily to the scarceness of its unsold copies and the low likelihood that
08:39many will surface, other than the one that currently resides in the collection of gamer
08:43Anthony DiNardo.
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09:08Number 1 – Tetris
09:15The gaming historian has published a fascinating story on the brief history of game developer
09:20and publisher Tengen that we highly recommend, and it was in this story where the rarity
09:24of Tetris comes into play, or at least the rarity of one particular version of Tetris,
09:29the recalled and cancelled version for the Sega Mega Drive.
09:40Sega voluntarily cancelled their version of Tetris due to Nintendo's license of ownership.
09:45Only 10 copies of the product were allegedly completed and all were reportedly destroyed.
09:49That is, until one of those copies that were given to the game's developers, signed by
09:53Tetris creator Alexey Pajitnov, was uncovered and listed for a cool million bucks.
10:05Think you'll ever find one of these games in your parents' attic?
10:07How about at a yard sale or flea market?
10:10Let us know in the comments.
10:19In the mood for more awesome gaming content?
10:21Be sure to check out this video here on Mojo Plays.
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