How Much Do These Retro Video Games Cost Now?

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For tons of gamers, seeing a CRT TV screen with pixelated heroes like Mario, Link and Sonic running across them brings you back to a simpler time. If you haven't held onto those old games and want to relive the memories on the original hardware, it can be a pretty high asking price for some of them. Even as technology gets better and better, people look back to old consoles like the Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, or Playstation and collect their classic libraries enthusiastically. When selling off old games, having things items like the original manual and game case intact is huge for collectors and will increase the price ex0rbitantly.

This role-playing game series which began in Japan with the name Mother is a cult classic now, though some fans may know the characters Ness and Lucas as fighters in the Super Smash Bros. games. Earthbound stood out from other roleplaying games at the time with its modern setting and satirical elements of the story. As a beloved Nintendo series that hasn't gotten any new entries recently, the old Earthbound game cartridges have a ton of interest around them. This listing had a good condition cartridge with the original instruction manual and box included, and it already has sold at its $600 list price.

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Earthbound - Super Nintendo

$600.00

ebay.com

The Nintendo 64 had plenty of incredible family-friendly franchises, but one cult classic game starring an alcoholic squirrel which picked up an M rating was Conker's Bad Fur Day. This was developed by Rare, also known for excellent N64 games like Donkey Kong 64 and Goldeneye 007. It sold well below expectations back in 2001, but its vulgar humor and occasional violence in the context of a cartoony platform game is still funny, if supremely immature.

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Conker's Bad Fur Day - Nintendo 64

$219.99

Amazon

The Crash Bandicoot series were an early hit by the developers Naughty Dog, who would go onto make the Uncharted and The Last of Us games. These platformers were bursting with personality and even spawned spinoffs like a kart racer and party game, but the originals are still held in high regard with a price-point to match.

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Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back - Playstation

$199.99

Amazon

Here's a case in point of how much a well-preserved classic game can cost. Super Smash Bros. Melee is one of the most loved fighting games of all time, featuring a roster of Nintendo characters from its other hit series. Melee even has active tournament circuits still going today. The packaging and grade is from Wata Games, a company which authenticates and rates the quality of classic games submitted by vendors which helps ensure customers of quality.

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Super Smash Bros. Melee - GameCube

$1200.00

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The Halo games put Microsoft's Xbox console on the map as a real contender alongside Nintendo's GameCube and Sony's Playstation 2. Their single-player campaigns are acclaimed, but most fans have lost many more hours in the huge variety of multiplayer battle modes that were available both online and offline.

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Halo 3 - Xbox 360

$103.99

amazon.com

Everyone has their favorite spinoff game from the Super Mario series, but the long-running Mario Party series has tons of fans with its chaotic mishmash of mini-games and well-designed game boards where you and friends move around and try to collect the most Stars. Early entries in the Mario Party series fetch a high price, since not many of them have been ported to modern consoles.

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Mario Party 5 - GameCube

$153.81

Amazon

Excitebike was an early success for the 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES, and the acceleration mechanics of this side-scrolling racer were later used in the development of the first Super Mario Bros. game. Owning this is truly owning a major piece of video game history!

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Excitebike - Nintendo Entertainment System

$379.99

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There are some excellent Spider-Man games out now, with Spider-Man 2 coming to PS5 later this year. Your friendly neighborhood web slinger has been in some fun games before, though! Along with some well-liked 3D games for the GameCube and other platforms, there were several 2D handheld platformers that came out as well.

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Ultimate Spider-Man - Game Boy Advance

$199.99

amazon.com

This was the first 3D game in The Legend of Zelda series, so sealed editions of this groundbreaking experience for the Nintendo 64 console can name some high listing prices. Ocarina of Time is still somehow fun to play all these years later, and uses the limited technology of the hardware to its fullest potential to craft a world that still lives on in our imaginations today.

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The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time - Nintendo 64

$1500.00

ebay.com

The f0ll0w-up to the incredible SNES Mario game Super Mario World aged the famous Nintendo mascot down to baby age and put the goofy green dinosaur Yoshi in the lead role, tossing eggs and hover jumping in a world with gorgeous pixel art. You can cough up the cash for a refurbished cartridge, but you can also play this and other Nintendo classics with a Super Nintendo subscription to Nintendo Switch Online.

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Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island - Super Nintendo

$102.00

amazon.com

The Grand Theft Auto games are some of the best-selling video games ever, with the most recent entry GTA V being in the top five bestsellers of all time. The games on the original Xbox and Playstation 2 set the foundation for that huge success, though, with San Andres letting players loose in a fictional town inspired by California and Nevada.

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Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - Xbox

$129.00

Amazon

Not to talk down on anyone's spending habits, but this is a pretty staggering price for a gameshow adaptation on the GBA. Who needs Deal Or No Deal reruns when you've got a pixelated Howie Mandel on your Game Boy!

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Deal or No Deal - Game Boy Advance

$600.00

amazon.com

Hideo Kojima's Metal Gear games for Konami are some of the most acclaimed stealth action games, and this remake of the first game in the series' jump to 3D has gameplay that still holds up and an absolutely bonkers plotline.

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Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes - GameCube

$171.30

amazon.com

These timeless trick skating games will let you feel like Tony Hawk even if you can't so much as Ollie. There are a few modern collections of the Pro Skater series on new hardware, but these games are so beloved by fans and have hardly any other equivalents from that era, so they can go up in price on older systems like the Playstation.

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Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2

$149.99

amazon.com

You've missed out if you somehow never tried the Dance Dance Revolution games, which used to be all the rage in arcades and had take-home versions with Dance Mats you can stomp on to your hearts' content. This game featured songs from Franz Ferdinand, Outkast, The Bangles and more.

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Dance Dance Revolution Universe 2 (with Dance Mat) - Xbox 360

$219.99

Amazon

Phantasy Star Online brought online gaming to consoles when it released on the Dreamcast in 2000. PC games like EverQuest and Diablo were known for fostering online communities, but PSO was one of the first ever console RPG's to do so. The game is still regarded as a classic RPG, and fans have established private servers to continue playing with each other after Sega decommissioned the game's official servers in 2010.

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Phantasy Star Online - Sega Dreamcast

$379.99

amazon.com

This is the first entry in the phenomenal farming and life simulation game series which is still publishing new entries today under the name Story of Seasons. The player inherits a farm from their grandfather and has to fix it from a dilapidated states, getting to know the residents and traditions of the town along the way.

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Harvest Moon - Super Nintendo

$525.00

Amazon

Resident Evil Code: Veronica was the fourth installment in the beloved survival horror series, taking place between the events of the second and third games. It expanded the games' fascinating world being brought to the brink when a zombie outbreak spreads from facilities of the mysterious Umbrella Corporation. While the series has spawned several films and even a Netflix series, nothing beats the magic of playing one of these games and fighting for your life. This enhanced edition, titled Resident Evil Code: Veronica X expanded on the original game with more cutscenes.

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Resident Evil Code: Veronica X - GameCube

$292.49

amazon.com

A ton of average licensed video games based on hit movies had soured gamers opinions on the affair, but The Warriors by Rockstar was a notable exception with its solid writing and fun beat-em-up gameplay. Sure, the cutscene animations haven't aged the best, but it still shows the growth of Rockstar as a studio as they continued to develop their GTA games.

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The Warriors - PlayStation 2

$97.49

amazon.com

Yep, you're reading that right, there was a Michael Jackson-themed beat-em-up arcade game, and a home console and computer version that shifted genres to a platformer. Jackson also contributed to a video game soundtrack for the Sega Genesis system, with his songs appearing in Sonic The Hedgehog 3.

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Michael Jackson's Moonwalker - Sega Genesis

$181.00

amazon.com

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