Bargain Videogame Tips For Holidays?

Thanks to GamerDad for their editorial discussing the multitude of videogames currently flooding the store shelves, and the knock-on effect for bargain hunters. It's pointed out: "With all the new releases comes a shelf space crunch that means a lot of recent games, some from spring and even later, are getting marked down for quick sales." As an example, the column author "...recently picked up Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner, a fantastic action game for PS2, for a measly ten bucks", and he also points out "...a bunch of excellent additions to the Greatest Hits lineup for Sony's machine including Sly Cooper, Ratchet and Clank, Tekken 4 and the brand new Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution." What other cheap console titles can you recommend for a personal early holiday present?

Easy

[Iammadmak]

Gamecube has plenty of Players Choice games that are quite good and don't cost too much. Pikmin, Resident Evil and others are good if you haven't picked up already. I've also seen Timesplitters 2 and Tony Hawk Pro Skater 4 for cheap (30 in Canadian Dollars)

Off the top of my head...

[MMaestro]

MGS2 : yeah the storyline was insane, to say the least, but the AI alone makes the game a must-have if you don't already have a copy. For extended life pick up the Substance edition for the VR missions.

Metroid Prime : unarguably one of the best made games in a long time, and the way it makes jumping puzzles in a 3D game makes a game other developers should work forward to (*cough* you know who you are..)

Advance Wars 1/2 : with a tutorial in both games (AW 2 actually forces players to go through the tutorial by integrating it into the single-player campaign) as long as the player has patience, anyone can learn this game(s) in a hour.

Previously played

[Screaming Lunatic]

Head down to Electronics Boutique and pick up some previously played games.

I just picked up Max Payne for PS2 for $20.

action shooter

[blueskatz]

Check out the shooter Blowout [gamestop.com]. Brand new value title game for $10 for ps2 and $20 for xbox. Gamecube release coming soon as well. I was on the development team that made it.

Contra-like action with metroid/castlevania style levels.

Lesser-Known Fare...

[shadowcabbit]

Xenosaga came down in price recently (I saw it at Wal-Mart for $30), which averages out to a dollar per two hours of cutscene. Good choice.

Also worth checking out is Gungrave for PS2-- should be $20 by now. Excellent "shoot the hell out of everything" game. Perfect if you liked Trigun.

You might have to hunt through the used bin for this, but Skygunner for PS2 really turned out to be a good deal. Think Star Fox with a more cutesy atmosphere and without the corridor-style or space missions. Frenetic dogfights and the like.

Game Boy Advance games, well, you're not limiting yourself to much if you want to go $30; however, I'd spring for the e-Reader and three or four game sets for that. If not, well, Phantasy Star Collection, Advance Wars, and Golden Sun should all be under $20 now.

I can't really think of too many bargain games for Xbox or Gamecube right now, primarily because I haven't had those for as long as I've had the PS2. However, Spy Hunter (Xbox), Tetris Worlds (XBox), Sonic Mega Collection (GC), and Hunter: The Reckoning (GC) all seem like good buys.

Hope that helps some.

Square (not Enix) price drops

[shoptroll]

Square just knocked a bunch of games down in the last few months to the Greatest Hits lists

I believe I read a press release that in Dec, the following games are going to be moved to GH as well.

Xenogears
Final Fantasy Chronicles
Vagrant Story
Final Fantasy Anthology (?)

I know that final fantasy 7 - 10 are on the GH list, and Kingdom Hearts was moved to that as well recently.

This is pretty sweet since the only games that were on this list for a long time where the ones done by Square when Sony was their publisher in the states (before Square EA was formed)