I Own No DS Games
I’ve been going on another of my periodic possession purges recently, clearing out the clutter on ebay and giving away whatever doesn’t sell. The two DS games I owned — Mario 64 and Project Rub — were both great games, but I’d completed them and they were just sitting there, so off they went.
So now I don’t own any DS games, and I feel bad about that. It’s not that there aren’t any games that I want, far from it — there’s plenty. Pac-Pix, Yoshi’s Touch and Go, Wario Ware, Polarium, Zoo Keeper, Mr Driller, and those are just the ones available now; there’s loads more on the way in the form of Nintendogs, Sonic Rush, James Pond, Animal Crossing and the hysterically-titled Touch Kirby’s Magic Paintbrush. I am clearly being spoilt for choice.
The problem is, they’re just a bit expensive for what you’re getting. I’m sure they’re all excellent games but a lot of them are just very simple, one-note puzzlers, and I don’t want to spend £30 on them. Nintendo had claimed that there would be a price range, with some games available for £20 and some for £30, but so far only Polarium has been seen at the lower price. With the DS still so new, there’s no need to have reduced price games yet so even the online retailers are only knocking a fiver off, and there’s not much of a saving buying via ebay either.
Corporate whores.
High-street retailer Game are being fairly sneaky when it comes to their pricing of DS software; they’ve been putting stickers on the game packages claiming that the games have an RRP of £39.99 (which they don’t), but they have been ‘reduced’ to £29.99 by Game. Well, shucks, aren’t we lucky to have Game, who give us such high discounts? Cheating bastards, I’m sure this sort of behaviour should be illegal, if it isn’t already.
Mind you, Game have always been a bit too happy to claim massive discounts and GRATEST SALE EVAR!!1 in the past so I shouldn’t be too surprised. Their sales are pitiful, always offering the same items for sale — the same items that have been sat quietly with discount stickers on them anyway for the past six months. You know, a dozen copies of Rocky for the Gamecube and a handful of old Need for Speeds for the PS2, and perhaps a couple of dusty old Gameboy Color games they found at the back of the store one evening as they were busy snorting cocaine with rolled-up £50 notes.
But anyway, at least there are games available that I want which wouldn’t be the case with other systems, and I’m sure in time prices will come down — this is just what I should have expected in buying a system, as soon as it came out. In the mean time, as always, all donations to the cause are gratefully received.
Game seems to have managed to cross-breed computer geeks with furniture salesmen from DFS.
Yeah, I had a problem with Game recently. I was experiencing an intermittent fault with my DS (freezing on start-up/refusing to run GBA games) but, as you might guess, the problem refused to manifest itself when I took the poxy thing back to the store.
After 20 minutes spent enduring the patronising suggestions of a store assistant who kept tapping the inert top screen, it was decided that I would not be receiving a replacement for my faulty DS as no fault could be found. When I got home, however, the problem recurred.
To see if I could get any joy from their online customer service centre, I decided to write an email (see below).
***
“On the 24th March I purchased a Nintendo DS from the GAME store at 1** ******** Street and, until recently, it has operated perfectly. Last Tuesday, however, I began to experience trouble with the unit – games would ‘freeze up’, the unit would fail to reach its start up screen and, on several occasions, I experienced distorted sound (cracks, pops and buzzing noises) when using GBA games.
As I have looked after my Nintendo DS and have retained its packaging, accessories and the receipt, I returned with the product to the store, hoping to receive either a replacement or advice as to what my next course of action should be if nothing could be done. I received neither.
The assistant attempted to replicate the problems I have detailed above but, when these did not appear, I was offered the following possible causes for the malfunction:
1) ‘These things tend to operate erratically in the heat’
2) ‘Maybe you’ve been taking the cartridges out while it’s been turned on’
3) (with reference to the distorted sound I experienced while playing Iridion 2) ‘really old game, dude’
I was told that, as the difficulties I’d experienced had not demonstrated themselves in store, nothing could be done. I was sent on my way with no advice whatsoever.
The problem, however, persists.
Currently it seems that GAME expects me to either:
a) Keep returning to the store on a regular basis until the symptoms demonstrate themselves or
b) Be content with a partially-functioning piece of equipment
These options are both unacceptable. The problem is intermittent and irregular and, as I am sure you can imagine, I am unable to return to the store daily in order to receive due attention to my complaint. Equally, I do not find it acceptable that I am expected to be happy with a console that functions erratically – especially as the unit is little more than three months old.
I am, therefore, seeking advice from GAME as to what I should do next.”
***
I still got nothing, so I wrote to their head office. Then, the next morning, I sent an email to their customer service department telling them I’d written to their head office.
That afternoon, someone called to let me know that things were in motion and I would be able to drop in to the store to exchange my knackered DS for a shiny new one. The new one has worked fine, so far, in spite of all the heat and old games I’ve been throwing at it.
I felt quite guilty, when I returned to pick up the new one. However, my guilt evaporated when I remembered that, at the age of 11, some jumped-up Game manager in a Burton suit had scared me half to death with threats of imprisonment…
I’d become so engrossed in a review of ‘Super Mario World’ that I accidentally walked out of his shop with my nose buried in a copy of ‘Mean Machines’. This was perceived as a gross act of theft, even though I had the two quid in my hand when I felt his on my shoulder. I hate Game now, and plan to buy all my hardware/games/ elsewhere before sending copies of the receipts to Game HQ.
I just hope they don’t pimp the old DS out as pre-owned, or something…
Annoyingly I have £7.50 worth of Game vouchers to get rid of, but I just can’t bring myself to buy anything in there, as even with £7.50 off of something it’s usually cheaper to buy on Amazon. But then, isn’t everything cheaper on Amazon?