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Well-Intentioned but Misguided Game Gifts

I had a Sega Genesis back in the 90s and for my birthday my dad accidentally bought a couple of Game Gear games instead of Genesis games. I had hoped this meant I could get two Genesis games instead of 1 (per normal), but I think I only ultimately got 1. I remember being disappointed at seeing these two games I had no way of playing.
 
HhHir1Y.jpg


A collector's edition of the original Rez. Comes complete with a washable cover!(seriously)

Best not to buy this one used.
 

CJCW

Member
Ty the Tasmanian Tiger was WONDERFUL! I had it on Xbox and it was charming, great mechanics, funny animations, and wonderful soundtrack. I'd say you got a pretty sweet deal.

I'm much more concerned that child anyone asked for GTA and got GTA. Still boggles my mind to this day. I suppose they could have bought you "Manhunt."
...my parents bought me GTA. They let me rent Manhunt too.

I swear I'm well-adjusted.
 

Boss Doggie

all my loli wolf companions are so moe
my parents always asked me what game I want back then so I never had this problem

usually it's non-game stuff that was a surprise
 
It was christmas. I was really young at the time, to the point where I didnt take notice of what present was from who. I didnt really play many games at the time, and most were shitty movie licensed games because I didnt know what was good. My brother got me devil may cry. I didnt care about it at all, 0 interest and had never mentioned it to him at all. After present opening was over, I turned to him and asked where our sister got it from so I could return it. He stared at me a second and said "thats from me, but its ok you can return it". It was like my heart plummeted and time stopped. I felt so fucking bad, and I still cringe out of my skin thinking about today.
 

Malakai

Member
My older sister brought me Final Fantasy Tactics because it was on sale at a K-Mart like 14 years ago. I struggled a bit with that game until it finally clicked. Loved SRPGS ever since.
 

xealo

Member
The incident that stands out the most is when I got a game I already had, although the name escapes me.

Well intentioned for sure, but feels like there was a communication breakdown somewhere between my mom and my aunt.
 

Mozendo

Member
I got one of those Xbox 360 fans/coolers for Christmas from my sister..
I rather would have gotten a game, or honestly nothing. I never used the thing.
 

robochimp

Member
My parents asked me which game they should get my younger brother for his birthday, the first option being Super Mario Brothers 3.

Our friends had it and we had been playing it a lot. So I told them to get ...

Fester's Quest

Oops.
 

Camjo-Z

Member
For years my mom would buy my brothers and I the most awful games as birthday and Christmas gifts. Some of the gems we received:

- Nickelodeon Guts (SNES)
- Nickelodeon Party Blast (GC)
- Super Bubble Pop (GC)
- Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection (Wii - which wasn't a bad game per se but none of us really like pinball)
- Casper (GB)
- The Rugrats Movie (GB)
- Bionicle (GBA)
- Xiaolin Showdown (DS)
- Hasbro Family Game Night (DS)

...and those are just the ones I can remember off the top of my head. Thankfully these days she's learned to just ask what we want and doesn't try to surprise us with licensed garbage.
 

-hadouken

Member
What are you talking about? Tetrisphere is great.
And it has awesome music, too.
Where did I say it was a shit game? It was a moderately entertaining puzzle game (not my kind of thing - hence misguided.) You'll have to forgive my disappointment at not receiving Ocarina of Time.
 

PyratRum7

Neo Member
My dad new I was into shooters and got me this one year:
iu

It was trashed critically so I knew what I was in for. But I love my dad, so I played through the whole thing.

It was pretty bad for the most part but every once in a while a certain set piece or mission would come along that would make me think it could have been a good game given more development time. It was also disappointing because I genuinely enjoyed the Area 51 game from 2005 that this was a loose sequel too.
 

mhayes86

Member
My parents got me Metal Gear Solid 4 for Christmas back in 2008. I didn't have a PS3, or get one that day. I ended up returning it and bought Okami, which was totally worth it, but I did end up getting MGS4 when I got a PS3 the following year.
 

Wood Man

Member
It wasn't the worst game but my dad got me Power Rangers for the SNES. It came out right on my B-day. Sure, I watched the show and my dad saw me watching it a few times thinking I was a fan. Besides I was 14 at the time and getting away from kiddy stuff. I remember I beat the game on my first playthrough. It's a very easy game. Only went back to it a couple times after that. It was kind of a waste of a purchase since this was more of a rental type game.

34605-Mighty_Morphin_Power_Rangers_(USA)-5.jpg


What I really wanted was:

34284-Killer_Instinct_(Europe)-1459060298.jpg


Which I later got for X-Mas. So it's all good.
 

BlakeofT

Member
For years my mom would buy my brothers and I the most awful games as birthday and Christmas gifts. Some of the gems we received:

- Nickelodeon Guts (SNES)
- Nickelodeon Party Blast (GC)
- Super Bubble Pop (GC)
- Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection (Wii - which wasn't a bad game per se but none of us really like pinball)
- Casper (GB)
- The Rugrats Movie (GB)
- Bionicle (GBA)
- Xiaolin Showdown (DS)
- Hasbro Family Game Night (DS)

...and those are just the ones I can remember off the top of my head. Thankfully these days she's learned to just ask what we want and doesn't try to surprise us with licensed garbage.
Bionicle on DS is actually pretty damn sweet, or at least it was for the time.
 
My dad ended up giving me this weird tank game on GBA as a kid and it was boring as fuck. I don't even remember the name. I think the label might have been torn off.
 

Sami+

Member
My older sister was visiting after having moved to Arizona with her husband. Asked me what I wanted for my birthday, and I went on and on about Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 2 because I was a huge fanboy at the time.

The day of my birthday I woke up to find this on my dresser.
 

ASaiyan

Banned
People figuring out I was interested in a game, but buying the 360 version instead of the PS3 version (I don't own a 360).

Or worse, buying the GameBoy Advance version of something instead of the GameCube version, which would quite literally be a completely different game.
To be fair, the only games that came out cross-platform like that were crappy licensed games, so it's not like kid-me was getting anything good either way, lol.


Growing up with ulcerative colitis, I've been to the hospital a few times in my life. Once when I was in the third grade I was in the hospital for two weeks. Constant cramping, couldn't stop the bleeding, couldn't eat anything and I could barely drink any large amounts of fluids. It was pretty awful for my parents to watch. That was until my father discovered I stopped complaining completely once I started playing video games. My dad brought over my N64 from the house and bought almost every used game our local Blockbuster was selling for the console. (Back then the games were insanely inexpensive) Not only did I get about 30+ games that day, including classics like Glover, Super Mario 64, Chameleon Twist, and SSB 64, the doctors were so amazed at my immediate turnaround in pain tolerance they convinced one of the local Tampa Bay Buccaneers players to buy a few dozen N64s for the entire children's ward at the hospital.

Back then I was just getting into gaming and I owe so much of my early tastes to that moment. And needless to say I'm glad I was vicariously able to help out other sick kids at St. Joseph's Children's Hospital in Tampa.
What a small world that I happened to come across this post. I have UC too and my PSP got me through multiple colonoscopies when I was a suddenly sick and very scared preteen. Tried to give that gift back later in life by doing events for Child's Play.

I can't even imagine what it would be like going through all that that young. Keep on keepin on, man.
 

Mr. F

Banned
It was christmas. I was really young at the time, to the point where I didnt take notice of what present was from who. I didnt really play many games at the time, and most were shitty movie licensed games because I didnt know what was good. My brother got me devil may cry. I didnt care about it at all, 0 interest and had never mentioned it to him at all. After present opening was over, I turned to him and asked where our sister got it from so I could return it. He stared at me a second and said "thats from me, but its ok you can return it". It was like my heart plummeted and time stopped. I felt so fucking bad, and I still cringe out of my skin thinking about today.

This makes me feel bad/sad even with the disclaimer of you feeling bad lol
 

Triteon

Member
My grandparents got me contra and tmnt on nes.

I didnt own a nes any more, i owned a snes.

I didnt blame them though.
 

Meowster

Member
This game wasn't bad but nothing will beat me being gifted Star Wars: Starfighter three times on the same Christmas Day lmao. You'd think the family might have coordinated this a little bit better. I didn't make a scene about it though.
 

wtd2009

Member
Around the time the N64 came out I was deciding between that and the PS1...when my brother bought me this for Christmas.

PO'ed%20[U]%20[SLUS-00097]-front.jpg


We werent close so it was a pretty big deal and actually solidified my choice for a PS1. The game itself is pretty shit though. Its a Doom clone with goofy weapons and enemies. I remember one enemy was a pair of legs attached to an ass and nothing else. It would shoot, what I assumed was, dookie projectiles.

omg i remember this game! never got to play it, but i looked up game play of this game...wow.
 

ProtoSound

Neo Member
My younger brother got me the original Grand Theft Auto for the Playstation as a random Christmas present. I didn't own a Playstation at the time.
 

MadeULook

Member
Actually, my only occurrence of this was quite recently. My birthday was a couple weeks ago and my grandpa knew I was into this weird thing called anime and that I was also into video games. The day comes and I open up my present from him which is Sword Art Online Hallow Realization for the PS4.

I realize grand pappy had good intentions, but I don't even like SAO and don't own a PS4 yet. My dad and sister held back some laughter and I put on a fake smile and excitement. I told him a Steam gift card would work from now on though.
 
Looking back, I find my experience with this weirdly good. I LOVED arcade racing games as a kid, so I had my parents buy me basically any arcade racer I could get my hands on, even the shit ones.

My dad (who doesn't even like video games that much) told me one Christmas that he was sick of buying me racing games so despite my whining and protests he ended up buying me two games I'd never heard of, which turned out to be Half-Life and Tomb Raider 3. I might've been a bit too young for both at the time, so it took me a while to realize he'd done me a solid.
 

Izuna

Banned
Christmas 2014... I got my girlfriend the board game version of Carcassonne and she immediately burst I to tears like a fucking toddler.

I was a little bit pissed off and had to pretend the gift later that evening was the real gift (fuck me was it expensive).

But it didn't make sense to me. We would play the XBLA version all the time because she wanted to. She'd sometimes play online on her own. I wanted her to have a version of the game we always play together when for when she returns to Japan.

Turns out she thought about how she didn't have anyone to play it with...

Two years later after some micro breakups and fights, I went to Japan for Christmas and we played with two of her American girlfriends and they loved it :D

Then MS made it BC for Xbox One. Thank you MS.
 
Scaler-Pal-Front-Cover-75225.jpg



Mom one day: You like lizards and you're 12.


Still played it an appreciated the thought.



around the time of the wrath of the lich king's release was my birthday, so naturally i asked for it from my parents

but instead of this

250px-Wrath_of_the_Lich_King.jpg


i got this

250px-ROTWK_packfront.jpg


which ironically i already had as i really liked battle for middle-earth


I'm sorry but this is hilarious lmaooo. The covers are even pretty similar.
 
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