Pricefall: Finding Deals for Kingdom Hearts 3D, Scribblenauts, and Other Niche Games

For this week’s Pricefall, games from the Kingdom Hearts series and the Resident Evil series seem to be down in price across the board. This is likely in anticipation for the enhanced HD ports coming from both series in the form of Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD ReMIX and Resident Evil Revelations. Ni No Kuni is also receiving some attention as a couple retailers get into a pricing match, one of which we reported earlier in the week, and is featured below in our price tracking feature to see if we can beat those listings by purchasing the game used.

Active Sales

Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance
$19.99 USD – $10 off at GameStop
Average used price: $16.96 USD

Lumines: Electric Symphony
$14.97 USD – 50% off at Amazon
Average used price: $14.75 USD

Sine Mora
$2.49 USD – $7.50 off at GameFly
You can use coupon code GFDAPR20 to get another 50 cents off this Grasshopper Manufacture game.

Trine 2: Director’s Cut
$9.99 USD – $10 off on the Wii U eShop

Resident Evil 6
$14.99 USD with free shipping at GameFly
Resident Evil 6 Archives is available for $59.98 in limited stock at Amazon (Xbox 360). Resident Evil 5: Gold Edition is also on sale for $16.59-$19.74 USD (PS3, Xbox 360). Last but not least, Resident Evil Revelations is $19.99 on Nintendo’s eShop (3DS).
Average used price: $14.98–$19.96 USD (Xbox 360, PS3)

Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch
$39.99 USD – 33% off with free shipping at Amazon
Also on sale at Target.
Average used price: $34.01 USD

The Walking Dead – Season Pass
$14.99 USD on PSN
You can get it for $10.49 with PlayStation Plus. The first episode of the game, A New Day, is also free on PSN if you want to try it out first.

Scribblenauts Unlimited
$8.99 USD – 70% off at Amazon (PC Download)
Average used price: $19.63–$27.04 USD (PC, Wii U)

Interplay Classics
Games like Earthworm Jim 1+2 and the early Fallout games are 50% off at GOG (PC). Prices range from $2.99-$4.99 USD for each game

El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron
$7.99 USD – 84% off at Amazon (PS3)
Average used price: $7.43–$9.99 USD (Xbox 360, PS3)

PS3 250GB Family Entertainment Bundle
$249.99 USD – 38% off at Amazon
There’s also a 250GB PS3 Hardware Bundle at Toys R Us for $199.99. It comes with Uncharted and Infamous dual-packs, but is available in-stores only.
Average used price: $188.85 USD (250GB console)

This week’s Humble Bundle sale features games from Blendo Games. If you pay $1 or more, you get Flotilla, Atom Zombie Smasher, and Air Forte. If you pay more than the average (currently $3.70), then you also get Thirty Flights of Loving, which was featured in several categories at the 2013 Independent Games Festival.

Free on PlayStation Plus

The Cave
Closure
Demon’s Souls
Disgaea 3: Absence of Detention
Gravity Rush
Joe Danger 2: The Movie
LittleBigPlanet 2
Mega Man 9 & 10 Combo Pack
Mega Man Maverick Hunter X
Tekken 6 PSP
Vanquish
Wipeout 2048

Reported Earlier

Sales

Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch (PS3) $39.99 USD
Virtue’s Last Reward (Vita) Free on EU/AU PlayStation Plus

Pre-Order Bundles

Tales of Xillia (PS3)
Muramasa Rebirth (Vita)

Price Tracking

Suikoden II

Commenter Alexandre Bourque was hoping last week we might find this RPG classic on the original PlayStation complete with its original packaging for less than $100. Many games like this from the 90’s are very rare to find beyond simply the disc or cartridge. I’m happy to say we succeeded… sort of.

The best time to buy Suikoden II in the past half-decade or so would have been toward the end of 2010. From late 2009 through 2011 it appears as though prices stayed steady just under $100 for the game, and has gradually picked back up since then. Keep in mind, however, this includes disc only games as well as the complete package. There was actually an instance of Suikoden II being sold with manual and casing for $90.00 USD recently on eBay (with free shipping no less). So it is possible, if you’re patient enough, but it won’t come easy. The best price I can find outside of an auction listing is for $129.99 USD at Half.com. There are a few eBay auctions still sitting under $100 if you want to try your luck, and the Japanese import is at considerably lower prices.

Lowest recent completed listing on eBay.com: $76.00 USD

Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch

There were sales from a few retailers this week for this game, and I’m interested in finally experiencing it for myself in the near future, but does a sale for a game always mean it’s the best price? You may have noticed we include the average used price under every sale we list on Pricefall, and that’s because even the best prices retailers reach aren’t always the cheapest you can get a game for. For recent games in particular, there’s much less of a difference between buying a game used instead of new thanks to sellers having the courtesy to keep track of the original packaging. In the case of Ni No Kuni, you can get it cheaper used than from retailers that have it on sale, but not by a whole lot.

Lowest recent completed listing on eBay.com: $30.00 USD

DuckTales

It’s no secret at all that we here at oprainfall are excited over the recently announced DuckTales Remastered coming this summer. But for many collectors and fans of retro games, there’s nothing that quite replaces the original game as we remember first playing it. So assuming your original Nintendo Entertainment System hasn’t already begun to decompose, you can get the game for pretty cheap to play as it was meant to be. Prices have spiked in early 2013, and I’ll give you one guess why, but it’s not by all that much.

Lowest recent completed listing on eBay.com: $3.24 USD

Luigi’s Mansion

As the major first-party launch title for the Nintendo Gamecube back in 2001, Luigi’s Mansion wasn’t universally praised, but still left a lasting and positive impression on enough gamers to warrant a sequel. The sequel has been a success thus far, and might have many gamers on the 3DS wondering about playing the original to see how this young spin off series has evolved. Of course, you’d think that, as a major Nintendo-published launch game that was eventually re-released as a budget Player’s Choice title, Luigi’s Mansion would have no problem maintaining a reasonably low price on the grey market. But you’d be wrong, so very wrong.

An average used price of about $40.00 USD isn’t outrageous… until you remember that most other Gamecube games can go for $5.00 or less. The game has been slowly going up in price for a few years, but it was the lead up to the new 3DS game that has made it skyrocket over $20 in a relatively short time. You can still get it for much cheaper with the right timing.

Lowest recent completed listing on eBay.com: $2.00 USD

Wii U

You’re probably expecting either unbearably high prices or low plummeting prices, depending on your view of the new console, but the truth is actually much more mundane. Beyond the very high demand for the Deluxe package late last year, the new Nintendo console has stayed steady in price with a slight drop over time since its initial launch.  You can get either package of the console for about $50 less than the retail price when you buy used, typical of most electronics and recent video game consoles.

Lowest recent completed listing on eBay.com:
$170.00 USD + $15.00 Shipping (Basic)
$200.00 USD + $21.20 Shipping (Deluxe)

Find any of these games cheaper than we did? Know about other sales going on? Want us to find the lowest price for a game you’ve been looking for? Let us know in the comments.

SOURCES
PriceCharting.com
Cheap Ass Gamer
GamerDeals
Steam
Amazon.com
eBay.com
GameStop