Some games are now worth a small fortune: tiny print runs, complete editions in mint condition, regional rarities. This Top 100 lists the retro titles with the highest values in the RomWize catalogue. For each, its re-evaluated score, its versions, their rarity and their estimated collector price, from loose to sealed.
"Snowboard Kids 2 in its Australian edition, one of the most expensive N64 cartridges in the world. Atlus shipped only a minuscule run to PAL Australia, at a point when the N64 was moribund there, and the title never had a standard European release. The combination of a genuinely good game, the peak of the mini-series, and near-zero local distribution pushes the complete value to levels few N64 titles reach."
"European PAL edition of Bandai's fitness title using the Family Fun Fitness Mat, now one of the most expensive and storied NES games in the world. Pulled soon after Nintendo bought the mat license, its tiny PAL print run makes it an absolute grail of NES collecting, reaching staggering figures complete and in graded sealed form. Its documented rarity and early-withdrawal history fuel extreme demand, far beyond the game's actual play value, with each known copy tracked."
"An NTSC adaptation of the SWAT Kats cartoon, this action game is a late end-of-generation SNES release, an era of shrinking print runs that works in its favor. The title sits in the shadow of major licenses, but its scarce NTSC installed base makes it a tough piece for anyone building a complete U.S. set, especially boxed with the manual. The loose cart is already uncommon; a clean complete copy climbs sharply, demand resting on the genuine print scarcity as much as on nostalgia for the animated series."
"Gun Club is an obscure shovelware title from Conspiracy Entertainment with no critical reputation or cult standing. The listed prices, inconsistent between loose and sealed, are a pure market artefact tied to an ultra-rare item that simply saw almost no print run, not genuine collector demand. No documented heritage value supports these figures."
"An Activision open-world action game in a twilight, violent Old West, praised for its atmosphere and its freedom on horseback and on foot. Still common in the West, its interest lies in this western setting little explored on the console rather than scarcity. An affordable piece for fans of open-world and western atmosphere of the PS2 era, accessible on the market."
"MN - Mystic Nights, an action-RPG developed in Korea by GameOn, a rare example of a home-grown PS2 production of scale at a time when the market lived chiefly on imports. Its ambition as a locally conceived action and role-playing game gives it value as a witness to the nascent Korean industry. Desirability rests on this heritage status as an original domestic game and on the scarcity of a distribution confined to the territory."
"North American JVC pressing, shipped in a jewel case with partial English redubbing of the cutscenes. That tonal reworking was long criticized for softening some of Rami's lines, which paradoxically reinforced its cult status. The US version remains scarcer than the European pressing, since distribution was handled by specialist Sega CD retailers only and not by major chains."
"Chikyuu Kaihou Gun ZAS is a T&E Soft vertical shooter that became one of the Japanese Game Boy's grails: its tiny print run and near-total market absence push prices to extreme levels, thousands of euros even loose. The collecting appeal lies not in the game, decent but conventional, but in its extreme physical scarcity, which makes it a recognized speculative object."
"Battle Mania Daiginjou is the Japanese-exclusive sequel to Trouble Shooter via Vic Tokai only in Japan and Korea in extremely limited print. Exceptional collector value: one of the rarest and most expensive Japanese Megadrive cartridges on the secondary market."
"A later US NES release and noticeably rarer than the first entry on the system. The end-of-cycle print, combined with limited marketing exposure against 16-bit heavyweights, turns the US CIB into one of the classic targets among late-NES collectors. Sealed copies hit top numbers on VGA/WATA, and loose cote keeps creeping up for lack of any recent physical alternative."
"Spud's Adventure, an Atlus adventure-action game whose hero is a potato, released in the United States. That zany concept, blending top-down exploration and combat, makes for an endearing and unusual title in the console's catalogue. Its desirability lies in that offbeat originality, a measured North American distribution and the growing interest of collectors in the Game Boy's charming curiosities."
"NBA Elite 11 is the most extreme rarity case in the PS3 catalogue. Cancelled by EA Sports just before its autumn 2010 commercial launch, the title never reached shelves. Only a handful of press and test copies leaked out, pushing the sealed price into the thousands of euros. The value owes nothing to the game, reputedly unfinished and buggy, and everything to its standing as a finished product never sold, a documentary grail of cancelled releases."
"North American adaptation of a kids' ninja movie, thin on substance and print scarcity alike. As an NTSC title it is a routine tie-in whose only upside sits in the sealed grade: an unwarped shrink-wrapped carton, a graded copy. Complete or loose it stays common, of little interest beyond the completist chasing the full US SNES library or the collector of kitsch oddities."
"Ninja Boy 2, the sequel to Culture Brain's action-platform game, released in America and Europe. More fleshed-out than the first game, it extends the young ninja's adventure in the Super Chinese universe with new settings and mechanics. Its desirability lies in its role as a scarcer sequel, fans' attachment to the Culture Brain line and the growing difficulty of finding complete copies."
"The Brazilian release of F1 Racing Championship ranks among the most expensive N64 carts in existence, sealed copies reaching thousands of euros. Issued locally in a tiny print run at the very end of the N64's life, it embodies the extreme territorial scarcity of the Brazilian market, where few secondary PAL games survived intact. Its value has almost nothing to do with the game, a competent but unremarkable F1 sim, and everything to do with near-total unavailability."
"A Japan-only Bandai mecha tactical RPG, ZXE-D ranks among the rarest and priciest PS1 titles, its value exceeding four figures even loose. The game itself, austere and slow, does not explain those heights: genuine scarcity from a tiny print run makes it a grail sought by collectors of Japanese PS1 rarities."
"A Marvel beat-'em-up by Mindscape, this Captain America and the Avengers shows a dizzying complete value for an otherwise plain action game. The driver isn't the content but the extreme scarcity of the complete copy on the US market, compounded by an ever-collected Marvel license. A marked case of speculation: a grail completion piece whose price far outstrips its play value."
"A 1995 Pulse/Klon Super Famicom platformer distributed via Pulse Interactive, Japan-exclusive, released late in the cycle with a drastically short print. The cart is culturally important as one of the last big SFC platformers in actually limited distribution. Intact boxed CIB with cardboard sleeve and illustrated manual has become a serious target for late-cycle SFC collectors, and the cote climbs hard, sustained by physical scarcity and by the game's accomplished 16-bit visual quality."
"StarCraft 64 in its Australian release, one of the absolute grails of the N64 library. The Australian PAL printing ran in tiny numbers at the very end of the console's life, pushing complete and sealed copies to extreme levels, among the priciest in the entire catalogue. A remarkable technical port of an RTS landmark, its value rests not only on territorial scarcity but on the prestige of the Blizzard license."
"The European PAL SNES edition of the peak of the Rare DKC trilogy, often regarded as the technical and game-design summit of the SNES. The Rev 1 fixes several bugs scrutinised by collectors. PAL boxed CIB in the original cardboard box remains a European grail, and graded sealed prices climb steadily, sustained by PAL print scarcity and by the timeless aura of David Wise's soundtrack."
