Unreleased Mario Game for N64DD Surfaces; Collectors Panic, Die

[NEED TO KNOW MORE INTENSIFIES]

This is a copy of Super Mario 64 Disk Edition for the Nintendo 64DD, the ill-fated disk drive for the N64. This is important because this game is the game collecting equivalent of an albino unicorn. This is something that isn't supposed to exist. Super Mario 64 was never commercially released in this form. It was never announced, hinted at, teased, or anything. Now not only are there photos of this discovery, but there's even gameplay footage. Here, watch this and try not to question your beliefs.

WHAT!? UNRELEASED FIRST PARTY MARIO GAMES SURFACING FOR MY FAILED NINTENDO EXPERIMENT?! It's more likely than you think. So far the gameplay seems very similar, if not identical, to the normal cartridge version, but who knows what surprises might lurk in the code. Sadly, the exact story of how this abomination/holy grail came into this collector's hands is a mystery, and it's being kept a mystery by the cart's owner, Jimmy130. The origin may have something to do with this photo that surfaced in late 2013.

what filter should i use i want to look tan

OR WE CAN GO DEEPER. All the way back to Nintendo's Space World 1996, where this game was actually being shown played. I had no idea this was a thing, and it seems to have been developed as just a tech demo for showing off what the N64DD was capable of.

I would put money on this copy of the game originating from that expo, but I have no idea where it has been for the last eight years. Currently, Jimmy is doing his best to document the game and its interesting features here, on his blog.

Collectors are obviously freaking out. I wouldn't put a price on piece so unique, but I would love to see it put out on an open auction, just to see how many thousands of dollars it would sell for. The emergence of this game has elicited many cries of fake and fraud; even I am unconvinced that this is 100% the real deal. I would very much like to hear the whole story before I give in to the hype. This discovery should also give some other fandoms hope that maybe there are some other unreleased N64DD games out there waiting to be uncovered.

Yoshi 3DS XL Good Investment?

Oh, look at this! To celebrate the launch of Yoshi's New Island, Nintendo is releasing a green limited edition 3DS XL complete with Yoshi being followed by five eggs. The selling price is $199, the same as a standard 3DS XL but unlike most other 3DS XL special editions, this one does NOT come with the game it is based on. Isn't that strange? You'll have to buy the game separately. They are already accepting preorders online at GameStop.

Now the question is, will this be a collectible item? Hmm... probably. That might be a little doubtful since Nintendo has been PUMPING out the limited 3DS XL's but I believe this one will be worth buying and storing under your bed. Two reasons:

1. It's Nintendo
2. It's Yoshi

Alright, those are some pretty superficial reasons but I'm gonna back up my claim with some real data that you can see. Let's look at the other limited edition 3DS XL's that have been released in the US.

The Pikachu 3DS XL initially retailed at $199 and $149 (at Target) but now sells for around double at $400 sealed or $300 just for the console itself and it shipped with no games included.

The Animal Crossing 3DS XL initially retailed for $199 and included Animal Crossing: New Leaf and now sells for around $300 sealed or $240 for just the console.

The Pokemon XY Red and Blue 3DS XL's initially retailed at $199 and included no game. They were even available for sale much earlier than either of the Pokemon games they are based on. They sell for around $220 for sealed and $180 for loose.

The Zelda 3DS XL was released to celebrate the release of The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds and launched around Christmas time 2013. It retailed at $199 and as low as $149 in some sales (at Target, again). It now sells for around $230 sealed and $200 alone. It is important to note that a download code for The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds came with the system.

The Mario and Luigi 3DS XL was released to celebrate Mario & Luigi: Dream Team and was part of Nintendo's "Year of Luigi" advertisement campaign. It retailed at $199, $179, and even $149 (at Walmart) during different points but is still wildly available in stores for $199 brand new and you can find used copies for around $180. It came with Mario & Luigi: Dream Team pre-installed.

So what is important to note here is that pretty much all of these have increased in price over time. That is a pretty strong indicator and collecting Nintendo is a huge fad right now. People love Nintendo and people love Yoshi; there hasn't been a Yoshi game produced since Yoshi's Island DS in 2006 and the twin launches of Yoshi's New Island and Yarn Yoshi signal that this upcoming year might be the "Year of Yoshi".

The special edition Yoshi 3DS XL goes on sale March 14th but I wouldn't preorder it or buy it as soon as it came out. I would wait for it to go on sale like many of the other limited edition 3DS XL's. When it does, I know I'll be buying one to sell at a later date... probably.

Nintendo World Championship Cart DOESN'T sell for $99,902

One of the biggest, craziest auctions in a long, long time just ended for the sale of this beat up "Grey" Nintendo World Championship cartridge for sale by Stephen "Muresan" Ross. This cartridge is rare but it is obviously in really bad shape with a bad label and to add insult to injury, someone even wrote "Mario" on the front in blue ink. The history behind this interesting item is that it is one of several special competition cartridges made by Nintendo in 1990 as part of their "world" championship that toured twenty-nine cities across the United States and ended in Universal Studios Hollywood in California. 

These cartridges were played in the competitions and the players with the highest scores moved on to the final rounds. Former Nintendo employee, Howard Phillips, has recently come forward to say that around 150 of these cartridges were made (often mistakenly reported as 116 due to journalists using Wikipedia as a credible source) were made and distributed across the nation for the contest but only 90 of these carts were given to finalists in the competition. The remaining carts were returned to Nintendo and 26 were converted to the "Gold" Nintendo World Championship cartridges that were given away in a mail-in sweepstakes contest found  in the back of the July/August 1990 volume of Nintendo Power. A few of the remaining grey NWC cartridges even made their way into the ownership of various Nintendo employees.

Amusing side note is that they even used special controllers for the event.

The particular history of this rather infamous "Mario" cart is that it was the first NWC for auction and showed up in its current condition on a usenet newsgroup and for about $400 several years ago, was traded to hardcore trader, DreamTR, and was more recently sold for around $5,000 to Muresan. That is a pretty average price for this item; Grey NWC's show up on eBay all the time and usually sell for around $8,000. I've personally seen them for sale at $12,000 at the TooManyGames Convention in 2011.

I love the "Mario" NWC cart. It is so bad.

 The "Mario" NWC cartridge has caught the mainstream media's attention and has even been reported on BBC, cnet, and TIME. Things got really crazy when it became the headline story on AOL. The price SKYROCKETED. It was listed at 5k and ended 328 bids later on Jan 25, 2014 at6:55 PM EST with a closing price of $99,902. I know I'm supposed to be "impartial" but screw that, $99,902 is too much. This beats the crap out of the previous highest price paid for a video game, a sealed copy of Stadium Events for $75,000 late last year.

After the auction ended, things took a turn for the south. At 7:38 PM EST Muresan informed the NintendoAge.com forums that the top bidder had backed out, claiming that their 2 year-old had placed the bid without their knowledge on their account. I wasn't aware that 2 year-olds could enter a bid amount, review, and confirm the bid... on two separate bidding occasions...

Needless to say, things are getting complicated. This means that Muresan now has a chance to offer the other bidders if they want to buy it but that is going to be a long, arduous process as it is likely that several of their 2 year-olds also unknowingly placed bids on the items. Actually, the entire list of bidders, complete with highest bid, feedback, and number of times they bid, was released by JosephLeo with permission by Muresan. Wow, one bidder bid over a hundred times jacking the price up by $30,000.

The long and the short of it was that Muresan got trolled. The unprecedented  publicity spread the word and the wolves smelled easy prey so they pounced. This gets problematic when investment websites pick up on this story and say that this is a "safe" investment, that you are guaranteed to make money on it.

This auction is going to make it to all the news outlets and alter the public's perception of rare games and their value but they aren't going to know the whole story. The fact is that this is just a shill bidders' version of a bad joke. From now on, most people will claim that NWC can fetch as much as $100,000 but in honesty, it is not worth that much. This auction will have long-lasting and far-reaching effects on the game collecting community and market. People looking to make a quick buck will be attracted by the promise of riches and fortune. Demand will increase for these rare items with a limited supply resulting in a spike in price. This is compounded by the fact that people with deep-pockets, sometimes called whales, will begin to turn their attention to the market and be able to make these absurd purchases and have the money to back it up.

My sympathies go out to Muresan and I wish him the best of luck with this nightmare of getting the money.

You can follow the entire thread on NintendoAge.com's forums where I'm sure updates will be posted as they happen.

Luigi's Mansion Diorama Sells Out on Club Nintendo (and then is Quietly Unlisted)

I'm sure you've seen this around. Club Nintendo offered this special diorama for Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon (also known as Luigi's Mansion 2 in every other region) for 1500 coins. This is an expensive item as 1500 coins equals about $1,500 spent on brand new Nintendo games. Sadly, this was a hot item and a lot of people snapped them up and it sold out very quickly.

People quickly turned around and put them up on eBay. They seem to sell for around $150-$200 but I have seen a few go for over $300. The real twist is that, I don't think this item is going to be offered again. Unlike other sold out items like the colored 3DS XL Charging Cradles, the diorama has been unlisted from the the Club Nintendo rewards catalog. While it still can be found on site, it can only be reached through other links. This looks like it is going to be a rare item but I'm really sad that Club Nintendo items aren't more collectible. Game & Watch Collection 1 and 2 are both rare, mail-order only game released exclusively through Club Nintendo and they are both declining in price. I guess many collectors just haven't tuned into the fact that these are rare exclusives that are no longer available through Club Nintendo, just like the diorama. This stuff is rare and collectors should collect them!

Will Super Mario All-Stars Stay Limited Edition?

I was out shopping for Christmas presents this year and saw tons of signs for Super Mario All-Stars Wii at my local Best Buy. Every corner of the game section had a Wii case with Mario all over it, but none of them had the game inside. They only had other Wii accessories and games. The game was all sold out according to the sales clerk.

My local Target, two GameStops, and a Wal-mart were the same way.

I checked online GameStop and they were all out too and so was Amazon.

The game is reselling for $55-60, which is nearly double the $29.99 MSRP. Nintendo must not have made very many copies.

Do you think Nintendo will keep this as a limited edition and not make any more copies or will more Mario All-Stars flood the stores soon after the new year?

Nintendo 3DS, We Should Have Seen This Coming

Sometimes you watch a movie and the ending totally surprises you. But when you watch the movie again, you see all the tell-tail signs and you wonder how you didn't notice Bruce Willis was dead along. Sorry, I should have given a spoiler alert there.

This morning I got a nice little gift that gave me one of those moments. As you may have heard, Nintendo announced early details on their next handheld gaming device, and the world was shocked. But I have to ask you, why didn't we see this coming?



It was right there in front of our eyes the entire time. How did we all miss this M. Night Shyamalan hint?

And if you're interested in these candies for yourself you can get some at Candy Central, Toylet, Groovy Candies or swing by your local Bed, Bath & Beyond.

Club Nintendo Means More Collectibles

Nintendo launched their Club Nintendo service in North America yesterday. It is basically a frequent shopper program for Nintendo products. You buy Wii systems or DS games or anything from Nintendo and you can get coins. You can also fill out surveys and get coins too. Accumulate enough coins and you get rewards. Some of the rewards are pictured below.

Most of these rewards are not sold in stores and will only be available to Club Nintendo users so they will probably be fairly rare. Pokemon Box was only sold at the Nintendo World store and now its one of the more rare and expensive Gamecube games. The Game and Watch Collection for Nintendo DS (600 coins) will probably become a collectors item too (and it could actually be fun while Pokemon Box is not).

Right now the site is pretty buggy. I tried to change my old My Nintendo account into a Club Nintendo account and the website ran very slow. When it finally went through it I would get kicked out of the site and have to log in again whenever I clicked a link. Hopefully Nintendo works out these bugs soon and we can all get some more Nintendo games and collectors items.