Impulse Gaming

[Moldorm]

Every once in a while I find myself standing in a game shop just to burn a little time. And in the midst of my standing and looking around, I will occasionally take a chance on a game that I know nothing about. If you've ever taken such a chance, then you know the risk involved in such a venture. Odds are you're wasting money on a crappy title, but sometimes the gods smile on you and you select a great game!

Has that ever happened to you? Then announce your selection at once! Did your pick turn out to be a good one , or did you waste your money?

For me, I took a chance back in the PSX days. I purchased a game called Discworld, brand new, just from reading the box and looking at the screenshots on the box. As it turns out, I picked a wonderful game! Discworld is a hilarious adventure game, based on the Discworld novels by Terry Pratchett. In fact, now I'm reading those novels Anyway, you play a wizard named Rincewind who is voiced by Eric Idle, one of the dudes from Monty Python.

 

[Ganondorf]

Never have. I have too little money to not research a game and thoroughly think it through before I buy.

 

[LolGames4U]

I've been working on resisting impulse buys; I'm much better! Recently I bought Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga. Why did I do that? I know it's a good game but I have so many other uncompleted games and now that I have my 3DS I don't really do GBA games.

 

[butterbiscuit]

Same here, I always read up on a game before I make a decision.

 

[LolGames4U]

Yeah! I go to reviews, read them, watch them, find video footage of it on YouTube, and then make a decision. I'm an informed consumer.

 

[Kybyrian]

No! I've never done impulse gaming unless I was renting something. I never blew money buying a game that I knew nothing about. I don't look up reviews on games, but I generally don't buy a game unless I've heard about it from someone else or seen it mentioned somewhere. The only time I've taken chances is when renting a game, as I said. The last game I took a chance on that I rented was Magnacarta 2, and that game was horrible!

 

[Firice da Vinci]

When I first got into gaming, impulse buying was the only thing I did and I still do a bit of it today. Apparently, it turned out well. I got into Mario, Pokemon, Kirby, Professor Layton, Kingdom Hearts, and Golden Sun, which are all very good series in my opinion. I guess I had pretty good luck, since I never picked out a bad game.

 

[blackice_cc]

I've never really bought anything on impulse. When I was young, my brother was the one who bought most of the games, and he got me into series like Mario and Zelda, so I had that groundwork, and ever since I started buying my own games, I've started looking at review and getting lots of info about each game first. I don't have a ton of money around very often, so I really prefer not to risk wasting it.
The closest I came to impulse buying was when I got Metroid Prime 3. I'd ordered a used Wii off of ebay, and I wanted a game to play for when it came. I was at gamestop, looking for something I could actually afford (30$ or less) that would be good, and all I found was a used copy of Metroid. I had heard that it was an awesome game already, but it wasn't a series I was familiar with, and I wasn't too sure about it, but I got it anyways. I'm really glad I did, too, because I loved it.
Other than that, though, I haven't even come close.

 

[fredthehylian]

I do this at the arcades more than the stores. The arcade I go to is a retro arcade, and it's near the Jersey Shore house ;_; BUT The games are usually pretty good. I took out 50 cents on a little known game called "Mr. Do!" And Mr. Do delivered. It's a sort of Dig-Dug-ish game, where you mine through sand, trying not to get killed by enemies. You throw a ball that bounces at 45 degree angles to kill the enemies, or you can lead them under an apple, which can be pushed around to mow down enemies. The goal of each level is to collect all the cherries in the sand. ...And not much else...

 

[Zelway]

I am not an impulsive person.

I would have to go home, go online and go to ign to see if it's a good game or not.

And still after that I wouldn't go right away to buy the game.

 

[darunia]

I took a chance on Banjo Kazooie.
I had heard nothing much about it.
So i took a chance on it.
And im glad i did as its a fantastic game.
its not something id normally do take a chance like this.

 

[Random Person]

I usually use the concept of planning to buy something, but every now and again I switch up. Here are some examples...

Army of Two - I love co-op games because funny and/or cool stuff always happen to me and the Person playing with me. I saw this game, knew absolutely nothing about it, but really wanted it because it was made for co-op. Actually a pretty good game. My brother and I played it over and over. The co-op is unique even for a first Person shooter. Using agro to gain attention away from your partner, coordinated sniping sequence and being able to either congratulate or punish your partner. The story was okay but too complicated for me to really care. Too much cursing for my taste as well. Overall, I do not regret at all getting this game. Had a lot of fun times and laughs. There is a part 2 and I'm considering getting it, but I'm not in a hurry.

Sonic the Hedgehog (PS3) - I only saw the cover of this and though "I have to have this game." The cover was one of the most epic covers for a game. Simple, yet it explained alot. When I asked someone to pick it up for me they said "Do you mean Sonic Unleashed?" When I first put this game in, I immediately went to multiplayer. I was EXTREMELY dissapointed. The levels were almost impossible to beat and the graphics sucked. I stopped playing for a good while. Finally, I came back and tried the story mode. Even though most people hate everything about this game, it turned me around. I loved the concept of playing the same story from 3 different point of views. And as the powers of the characters increased, so did the fun of the game. After getting a lot of powers, I retried the multiplayer, and it was a LOT better now that I could use more strategies. This is one of the worst games, but I do not regret getting it at all. It is because of this game that I fell in love with Sonic the Hedgehog and I still have fun playing this.

Ape Escape 3 - I actually didn't buy this, I only rented it. Still, no regrets. This hyperactive anime game is so addicting. Lots of different transformations, funny jokes, and references to other games like Metal Gear Solid. The worlds are very unique and based off of movie concepts. This makes it so you can't wait to see what world comes next. The only thing you have to do is capture monkeys, but they make it so interesting. When you capture a monkey, everything slows down and you feel this awesome rush like you've really accomplished something. The transformations are as useful as Sora's from Kingdom Hearts 2, influencing the concepts of knights, ninjas, etc. And you get a whole aresenal of equipment which do the most interesting things. All of this simply to capture monkeys!

 

[Turo602]

Before, my bother and I use to do that before back in the 64-Gamecube days. We never really chose bad games, for example; Max Payne, Halo, Metroid Fusion, etc. But later on in those days we started looking at reviews and videos from then all the way to now. Like before we we're even big Zelda fans, like really big, we saw how the Wind Waker was and gave it a shot. We heard it was great and it also looked great. The style, the music, the gameplay, etc. And then I remember seeing how good Metroid Prime looked before we got it. Well that's what I can remember from buying games back in the days.

 

[insanity76]

The closest to an impulse purchase I had was when I first got the Xbox in late '03. It came with 2 games, then I bought a couple others. One of them was NBA Live '04, which I was familiar with having played previous ones, but the other was Splinter Cell. I recognized the name from when a friend of mine a year or so earlier mentioned this game he recently played called "Splinter Cell" which was "a pretty awesome spy game," but that was about all he said about it. The fact it was a Platinum Hit (making it only $20 new) persuaded me to give it a shot. Well, to this day it's in my top 3 all time favorite games along with Goldeneye & OoT.

I suppose it wasn't a 100% impulse buy, but it's as close as I've been to one.

 

[bennyb]

I've done this a few times. In fact I have games that I have never played purely because I bought them on impulse because they were cheap then got home and either forgot about them or was never really in the mood to play them. There was a time when I had close to 50 PS2 games on my shelf and there was probably up to 20 of those that I had never played and I ended up selling on unused.