Latest Haul: F-Zero, The Lion King, and More

What’s this?  A post to The Retro Review Project?  I know, I know, I’ve been lax lately (okay, really lax), but sometimes gaming just takes a back seat to life.  But I’m starting to feel the pull of the old consoles again, so here I am.  The last four months have been slow, but I’ve made a couple trips lately to my favorite store in the world (Pre-Played on the west side of Madison, WI… Used games for systems dating back to the Atari, plus used DVDs, CDs, and books.  What more could a geek want?).  Here’s everything I’ve picked up since my last update in September:

• The Lion King (Genesis): I saw this, along with Aladdin and Mickey’s Castle of Illusion.  I was tempted to get all three, but decided buying all those Disney games at once might seem a little fruity!  Instead, I just went with The Lion King.  This is one of my girlfriend’s old favorites, so I figured we could geek out together and play it.  For $2.99, I couldn’t pass it up.  Unfortunately, Aladdin and Castle of Illusion were gone the last time I went  back to the store.  Oh well, I’ll keep an eye out for them in the future.
• Dogbone Controller (NES): I’ve been wanting to pick up one of these controllers for a while, but never saw any outside of eBay.  Once I started playing my NES more, I realized how awful the sharp corners on the standard NES pad really are.  The store had a mix of standard, Advantage, and Max controllers, plus this one dogbone.  I quickly snatched it up for $4.99.
• Nintendo Power Mints (Swag): The one thing on this list that didn’t come from Pre-Played, this is a clever little stocking stuffer my girlfriend got me for Christmas.  It’s a tin of mints in the shape of an NES controller with the Nintendo Power logo.  Apparently, Urban Outfitters carries them.  I may use it as a DS game case once I’m done with the mints.
• F-Zero (SNES): I had F-Zero X for the N64, F-Zero GX for the GameCube, and F-Zero: Maximum Velocity for the GBA, but never had the orignal SNES launch title.  That’s now rectified, at a reasonable $6.99 (cart-only).
• The Wizard (DVD): I normally just check out the game section when I go to Pre-Played, but last time, I took a look at the DVDs, as well.  When I saw this on the shelf, my eyes got really wide, and I just said “Oh, woah!”  I couldn’t resist — especially since I’ve been thinking about reviewing some old game-related movies for this site.  I bought it with little hesitation, for $7.99.

I also picked up Soul Calibur for the Dreamcast, but since the DC doesn’t fit my definition of a retro/classic game console (yet), I’m not going to include that in my official list.  This was a replacement for a copy that I lent a friend back in college, which I never got back!  I also bought Final Fantasy (NES) and an FC Twin, but those were Christmas presents for a friend, so they don’t quite count for this list, either.  Anyway, stay tuned… I should have some impressions and reviews on the way.