Remember being able to go to a garage sale and having your pick of just about any NES game on hand for like a quarter a piece? The Gamer remembers. Now, even one of the most common video games of all time— the Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt combo cart— one that almost every human being on earth who was born before 1995 has owned at least one copy of in their lifetime,🐈 can be found going for upwards of 20 or 30 bucks at retro shops.

Yes, we all have to accept the realit🐽y that retro game collecting has become a costly hobby, and anyone who doesn't just want to go the pirate route in reliving classic games shoulꦕd expect to pony up some serious cash to amass any sort of sizable retro collection.

What constitutes a game's "value" is a combination of various factors— how many copies exist, the demand for the game, if it's on a platform peoℱple want to collect for, and so on— and prices on old games can fluctuate on an almost-daily basis. It also matters what condition the game is in, if it does or doesn't include the packaging, and of course, whether or not it's still factory sealed. Ultimately, though, games are only "worth" what you can find some🦋one to pay you for them, so it's all a bit subjective anyway.

For this list, we looked at the current market value as stated by online pricing guides, considered the mid-range of what each game is typically actually sold for, and went with the value of a complete-in-box (when applicable) but not brand new copy.

30 Metroid Prime And Wind Waker Combo — GameCube ($400) ✨

On their own, Metroid Prime and The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker for GameCube aren't especially valuable, and certainly a🐷ren't rare. But put them together into this extremely limited-edition combo pack, and it's a whole diffe𒁏rent story.

Combined for a special GameCube bundle for just one particular Christmas season, the Metroid Prime/Wind Waker combo disc is a tricky and expensive pr⛄oposition for GameCube completionists, who are really the only ones who will even think this release is speci🐼al in the first place.

29 𝕴Hyrule War﷽riors: Limited Edition — Wii U ($500)

Both Hyrule Warriors and Mario Kart 8 got special limited edition sets that were ꦯsold exclusively at the Nintendo World Store in New York Ciꦑty. And in both cases, they were sold out in no time thanks to long lines that formed for hours in advance.

The Hyrule Warriors set is the more valuable of the two, currently fetchiꦿng around 500 bucks in the after market. Of course, with extremely limited numbered items like this, half the battle is finding someone who evꦚen wants to part with theirs in the first place.

28 ꦏ Earthbound — SNES ($700)

The SNES used to have a number of games that could easily fetch hundreds on eBay, and in most cases, their resale value dropped significantly when the games— typically RPGs  like Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy III— e🐓ventꦬually got ported to and re-released on other platforms.

Earthbound, however, has seemed to largely retain its value, despite now being available on both t💯he Wii U and the SNES Classic. The cart-only version doesn't sell for as much as it used to, but complete with box and hint book, you can still expect to pay handsomely for the SNES original.

27 Panic Restaurant — NES ($900) 🐻

Many of the priciest NES games are titles that were released very late in the system's life, and therefore only saw a small prinဣt run before being discontinued as stores at the time were more eager to give that shelf space to SNES and Genesis games.

Panic Restaurant got strong reviews and is considered one of the best-looking games on the NES. But alas, it was a weird-looking game released in 1992 which meant most people didn't pay aౠttention to it. As a result, few copies were made and the ones that do exist are fought ovཧer by retro collectors.

26 Batman Forever Woolworth's B🍃ox Set —  SNES/Mega Drive ($900)

There are a lot of really rare, really valuable games that aren't very good, and only command top dollar due to their scarcity. However, some of history's most expensive games are downright terrible, as is the case with Batman Forever for SNES and Genesis.

But the game itself isnꦦ't rare— what collectors are looking for is this exclusive, limited-edition PAL set that was sold at now-defunct retail chain Woolworth's. Why such a terrible game got such a fancy gift set is a mystery worthy of The Riddler.

25 Star Fox "Super Weekend" Competition Cartridgeꦛ — SNES ($1,0ꦏ00)

One theme that will recur throughout this list is games that were part of competitions and were either given out to participants, or were never meant to enter public rotation at all. Among the cheaper of these competition cartridges is the version of Star Fox that was used for Nintendo's Super Weekend event in 19ಞ93 that was m༺eant to promote the game's release.

One of the reasons this competition cart is cheaper than most is it was actually available for sale to the public for a limited time follo📖wing the event via mail order catalog. Remember those?

24 𒁏 Amazing Tater — Game Boy ($1,000)

You might have never heard of Amazing Tater, but you're likely aware of the game it's a sequel to: Kwirk, whose character was part of the short-lived Video Arcade TV series. In fact, both games are in the franchise known as Puzzle Boy in Japan.

Amazing Tater is a reasonably fun little game, but it's not one that anyone would've thought about much after 1991 if it weren't for how rare and valuable it wo﷽uld become to Game Boy collectors a decade later. Another game in that series just might show up later in this list...

23 Bonk's 🐻Adventure — NES ($1,000)

Not to say that the TurboGrafx-16 didn't have some great games, but for the most part, NES owners didn't really have much reason to be jealous of its library beyond the added  graphical horsepower. Bonk's Adventure was one of the few games that made NES kids feel like they were missing something by not having a T🐈G-16.

As the TG-16 faltered, H🎶udson decided to share Bonk with other platforms— but 1994 was a little late for an NES game. Again, this meant a low print run and a high resell value for future collectors of the technically-impressive port.

22 Super Mario Bros. Game & Watch, Special Edition ($1,000) 💦

Nintendo existed as a company for almost 90 years before it tried its hand at elect﷽ronic gaming. And it first made a name for itself in the "video game" space with its series of Game & Watch devices that are exactly what they sound like.

Collectors are happy to get their hands on any of the old Game & Watch titles, but one in particular is definitely the most desired. Only given away to participants of a contest in Japan, this rare variant of Super Mario Bros. is only this valuable if it still has its special character c🌄ase.

21 🤪 Snowboard Kids 2 (PAL Version) — N64 ($1,100) 💯

Though it has settled a bit after its outrageous peak a few years ago, collectors are currently paying top-dollar for complete-in-box N64♔ games, making it perhaps the most overall expensive to collect for mass-market console at the moment.

Among the games that are hardest on the wallets of those looking for complete PAL N64 sets is Snowboard Kids 2, which can set you back over a thousand bucks. The North American version is much cheaper, but still typically sells for around $150 complete. All for a game that isn't half as good as 1080 Snowboarding.