Judging games by their title and cover is a bad idea

[Bwigdahl]

Luckely you have internet these days, so finding out what a game is like is easy  .

Finding out what every game is like is still not easy. Too many games.

You can usually find videos of any game you want on youtube. At least on the main consoles, maybe some more obscure stuff is hard to find, but if I'm not sure of a game I usually just type it into youtube and i can find multiple videos of at least the first few levels... However, sometimes when I'm out I'll just pick something up I've never heard of just to try it out. I did it with a game called Battle Blaze on SNES. Sounded cool and looked cool but it just turned out to be a pretty shitty fighter (which aside from Street Fighter, I'm not really into that genre).

[soera]

Luckely you have internet these days, so finding out what a game is like is easy  .

Finding out what every game is like is still not easy. Too many games.

Well, I cant imagine anyone alive has experienced every single game made. But in your instance, it really only was one game ... which is basically about a 1-2 minute scenario online. I dont want to sound like the broken record here but honestly, just type in the game name on a search engine and watch a little game play. If you can not find a video of something, Id be fairly shocked.

[burningdoom]

I remember when I was young there was a certain magic about blind buying a game just by the art. I remember doing it with VHS tapes anyway mixed results ah.

It wasn't as convenient as today with the internet, but it wasn't completely blind either. There were plenty of gaming magazines with both professional reviews and fan reviews.

[dashv]

I've never blind bought or traded.

And now with VG collect I have my wish list with me everywhere. Be it a flea market, retro store, forum post, whatever. I consult my wish list. Keeps me from buying crap I already ruled out. Keeps me from buying gems I've forgotten I have already!

I regularly surf, post, ask, watch, and read to find out what new and old stuff should be in my wish list.

[argyle]

I remember when I was young there was a certain magic about blind buying a game just by the art. I remember doing it with VHS tapes anyway mixed results ah.

It wasn't as convenient as today with the internet, but it wasn't completely blind either. There were plenty of gaming magazines with both professional reviews and fan reviews.

Eh, not so much in the NES days.  There was Nintendo Power, but even as a kid I got the impression that they were fairly biased.  I did do some blind buying in my younger days, but I was also less picky so I guess it evened out somewhat.  But some of my best purchases I made in those days (Mega Man, Gun Smoke, Zelda, Metroid, Punch-Out!) I made based on those awesome Nintendo demo units that used to be in every department store.  Honestly, that's one of the few things from that era of gaming that I'd really love to have in my collection, but I'm sure they go for far more than I'd be willing to pay. 

I'm not going to say I've never bought a game based on its title even today, but not a game I'd be paying very much for.  If I'm at a yard sale / flea market and I see an interesting game I've never heard of before for $5 or less, I'll buy it.  Most recent one I can think of is Rayman Rush for the PSX - of course I'm familiar with Rayman, played it since the original, but somehow I had never heard of this racing game spin-off. 

[burningdoom]

I remember when I was young there was a certain magic about blind buying a game just by the art. I remember doing it with VHS tapes anyway mixed results ah.

It wasn't as convenient as today with the internet, but it wasn't completely blind either. There were plenty of gaming magazines with both professional reviews and fan reviews.

Eh, not so much in the NES days.  There was Nintendo Power, but even as a kid I got the impression that they were fairly biased.  I did do some blind buying in my younger days, but I was also less picky so I guess it evened out somewhat.  But some of my best purchases I made in those days (Mega Man, Gun Smoke, Zelda, Metroid, Punch-Out!) I made based on those awesome Nintendo demo units that used to be in every department store.  Honestly, that's one of the few things from that era of gaming that I'd really love to have in my collection, but I'm sure they go for far more than I'd be willing to pay. 

I'm not going to say I've never bought a game based on its title even today, but not a game I'd be paying very much for.  If I'm at a yard sale / flea market and I see an interesting game I've never heard of before for $5 or less, I'll buy it.  Most recent one I can think of is Rayman Rush for the PSX - of course I'm familiar with Rayman, played it since the original, but somehow I had never heard of this racing game spin-off.

More than just Nintendo Power. There was also Electronic Gaming Monthly, GamePro, and Game Player's. There was even GamePro T.V. back then. But that's still not as easy as typing in a game title and getting 100s of different reviews on the internet.

But I too bought a bad game or two based on the cover back in the day. LJN being the biggest offender for me since I was a comic fan.

[argyle]

Well those all popped up pretty late in the NES' lifespan (1989 for the first two, 1988 for the last but I don't know that I've ever heard of it before - certainly not back then). 

[burningdoom]

Well those all popped up pretty late in the NES' lifespan (1989 for the first two, 1988 for the last but I don't know that I've ever heard of it before - certainly not back then).

Oh man, check them out then. Game Player's was like the best game magazine back then. They covered EVERY system, not just Sega and Nintendo. And their magazines were always crammed full of stuff with tons of pages. They also put out these awesome buyer's guide and strategy guides that were high-quality and before strategy guides were a thing:

[burningdoom]

Sorry about the size of those, I can't seem to find a decent sized one on Google Image Search.

EDIT: Nevermind, found some here on VGCollect that weren't so gargantuan-sized.

[90snostalga]

Well those all popped up pretty late in the NES' lifespan (1989 for the first two, 1988 for the last but I don't know that I've ever heard of it before - certainly not back then).

Oh man, check them out then. Game Player's was like the best game magazine back then. They covered EVERY system, not just Sega and Nintendo. And their magazines were always crammed full of stuff with tons of pages. They also put out these awesome buyer's guide and strategy guides that were high-quality and before strategy guides were a thing:

Yea Im with argyle.  Back when I was a kid, the only and I mean ONLY video game magazine I ever seen in a store was Nintendo Power.  I never even heard of Electronic Gaming until the PlayStation era.  But hey, I was a kid.  Yes almost every game I wanted was based on the cover lol.  Who didnt?  Games were like books to me because thats the only reason I ever got into Goosebumps as a kid.  Those freaky scary covers HUAUAHAHHAAUUUAHAHAH!!!!!   

[90snostalga]

I would like to add that the "Tales Of Symphonie" that I just got for the Wii was simply because I think the cover looks very cool