Consumer Whoring for the Win

Last week's arrival of my... FREE NINTENDO DS (that's right, free--thanks to the Econ Lady recognizing what a gaping hole my DS-less-ness was creating in my life, and finding an Internet site that actually paid up in exchange for her signing off for some "exciting free offers!!!") set off a long-dormant consumerist time-bomb in me. Not having made a single discretionary purchase beyond beer and fast food all summer, I think I was pretty responsible all things considered. Let's look at the videotape.

1. New Super Mario Bros. (DS)-- I really have to say that I disagree with Nintendo's decision to take out the flying element. Am I supposed to be satisfied with the Koopa Shell instead? It's a hollow, hollow replacement. Although I can tell it's supposed to be an easy game, I'm so out of practice with platforming that it's been a slog. Econ Lady is having trouble getting out of World One, unfortunately.

2. Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (GBA)-- This was actually my first game purchased, having snagged it a couple of weeks ago on Ebay for 15 bucks w/ shipping. I haven't played much of it, but I definitely look forward to exploting backwards compatability in the future. Which segues into...

3. F-Zero GP (GBA)-- old school F-Zero goodness (I really, really love me some F-Zero) that I found for five bucks at Toys 'R Us. I'm definitely thinking that Toys R' Us is a vast and untapped resource for game purchases--each time I've been there, they've actually had games on sale, which is generally not the case.

4. MVP Baseball 2005 (GC)-- I found this for $12 at Sam's Club. The gameplay is an improvement on the already outstanding (and also sitting in my collection) MVP 2004. I'm just hoping that this, the last EA baseball game before 2K Sports' exclusive license kicked in, fixed player progression and off-season AI (ie, in 2004 there was no free agency because every team just resigned their own players no matter what.)

5. Winning Eleven 9 (PS2)-- I ended up paying for this new (see earlier post), getting the last one at Toys 'R Us on the F-Zero trip. Very weird feel to it, but hopefully I'll get better (and hopefully I'll get my memory card back soon, so I can get some real team/player names in there w/o starting from scratch and then go online and get horsewhipped).