(USA) NES Rarity & Price Guide (v1.2 - Licensed & Unlicensed)

[ThePhleo | 2,184]

So here's my version of the NES rarity chart. It includes some real changes to the rarity guide including some minor demotes/promotions and a couple major movers and shakers.

 

Let me know what you guys think about it...in summary, here are the biggest movers and shakers.

Demoted by 3 Ranks from R5 to R2

1. Jeopardy 25th Anniversary Edition
2. Jeopardy Jr. Edition
3. Tennis

Promoted by 3 Ranks from R4 to R7

1. Captain America and the Planeteers

Promoted by 3 Ranks from R5 to R8

1. Bucky O'Hare
2. Die Hard
3. Kickmaster
4. Metal Storm
5. S.C.A.T.
6. Swamp Thing

Promoted by 3 Ranks from R6 to R9

1. Dragon Fighter
2. Kid Klown in Night Mayor World
3. Snow Brothers
4. Sword Master
5. Wacky Races
6. Zombie Nation

Promoted by 4 Ranks from R4 to R8

1. Chubby Cherub (seriously, why was this R4??)

Edited November 17, 2019 by ThePhleo

[MrWunderful | 2,926]

I agree with most of it. Still dont know how I feel about LS being a 9. To me it feels like an 8 with a weird price component that makes it harder to find a “reasonable” priced one. Which in itself doesnt actually make sense. Because “reasonable” is subjective. 

[ThePhleo | 2,184]

9 hours ago, MrWunderful said:

I agree with most of it. Still dont know how I feel about LS being a 9. To me it feels like an 8 with a weird price component that makes it harder to find a “reasonable” priced one. Which in itself doesnt actually make sense. Because “reasonable” is subjective. 

I hear you on that one.

I want to mark it as "8.5" because while price isn't the biggest factor in the list, it is a small part and having such a huge price tag on the title does tend to skew the score in the end.

Same goes for Wayne's World. I think it should be an R9 but the price is too "low" for it to make the mark.

Manual adjustments can be made, the vast majority of the list is automated but minor tweaks where price/old rarity are made by hand. For example, if you sort the list by price and THEN by rarity you'll notice that the majority of the "upper priced" games PER RARITY are "fan favorite" titles...this is because I believe that a "crappy" or "unknown" game shouldn't have the same rarity score as a rarer fan favorite game while being similarly prices or more expensive in some cases.

In that vein, Ultima Warriors of Destiny may actually be a 7 instead of a 6 because of the fact that Mega Man 5 is priced cheaper than it...but I feel Ultima is well known enough as a brand of game that 6 is safe. But also, the rule sort of fades away once you hit R6/7 area.

Edited November 16, 2019 by ThePhleo

[Nintegageo | 582]

I was actually thinking Samson as an 8 as well. The game is always available to buy. Glad to see Sword Master at 9, that game was a bitch to locate as even online they tend to just be PAL cartridges.

[guitarzombie | 923]

I gotta look thru this but Volleyball and Ultimate Air Combat a 5?  Volleyball should probably be like a 3 and Ultimate Air Combat a 7.  Its not expensive but its really uncommon.  I think in 7 years ive seen only ONE in a store.

[ThePhleo | 2,184]

10 minutes ago, guitarzombie said:

I gotta look thru this but Volleyball and Ultimate Air Combat a 5?  Volleyball should probably be like a 3 and Ultimate Air Combat a 7.  Its not expensive but its really uncommon.  I think in 7 years ive seen only ONE in a store.

Feel free to make suggestions for whatever stands out. I don’t want to share how I automate most of the list, but there is some going on.

[guitarzombie | 923]

9 hours ago, ThePhleo said:

Feel free to make suggestions for whatever stands out. I don’t want to share how I automate most of the list, but there is some going on.

Ah ok cool.  BTW I feel any of the 'rare' games that got a full page spread in Nintendo Power should be bumped down a bit compared to others.  Here's my two cents on anything that sticks out that should be higher or lower, starting from the rarest:

Swamp Thing - Higher (There was someone that made a list of all the games mentioned in Nintendo Power and this one was one of the few that ever even got a mention anywhere.)

Stanley - Higher

Shadow of the Ninja - Lower

Monster Party - Lower

Volleyball - Lower

Ultimate Air Combat - Higher

Three Stooges - Lower

Space Shuttle Project - Higher

Last Ninja - Higher

Gumshoe - Lower

Championship Pool - Higher (Pretty sure this was a nov 93/jan 94 release)

 

[ThePhleo | 2,184]

Thanks for the suggestions.

Some changes I want to make include bumping up Rollergames one more rank...three ranks down seems too much for that title.

I also wonder how angry people would be if I made this an R1-7 scale...

Ive been tempted to merge 1&2, 3&4, and 5&6 together but I don’t want to alienate the community.

Its really hard to maintain a 10 point scale in a satisfying way. The only difference between an R1 and an R2 for example is you go from being nearly guaranteed to having all of them in a lot of say 50 random games to nearly guaranteed to having all of them in a lot of 100 random games.

[guitarzombie | 923]

I think any scale would be fine if the limits have been defined, like you said. R1 - found in 50, R2 - found in 100, R3 - found in stores, R4 - one or two in stores, R5 - Found in stores once a year, etc.  Something like that.

[NESfiend | 1,514]

3 hours ago, ThePhleo said:

Thanks for the suggestions.

Some changes I want to make include bumping up Rollergames one more rank...three ranks down seems too much for that title.

I also wonder how angry people would be if I made this an R1-7 scale...

Ive been tempted to merge 1&2, 3&4, and 5&6 together but I don’t want to alienate the community.

Its really hard to maintain a 10 point scale in a satisfying way. The only difference between an R1 and an R2 for example is you go from being nearly guaranteed to having all of them in a lot of say 50 random games to nearly guaranteed to having all of them in a lot of 100 random games.

I for one plan on using your list as a go to reference and definitely would prefer if you didn't go down to R1-7. If you do do that, I'd suggest/ask you keep this one available as well. 

I went through R6-9 on your list pretty carefully. Everything here looks really accurate. I have no idea how much work or how long it takes to do that, but I'd love to see one for SNES as well. 

Edited November 16, 2019 by NESfiend

[Hammerfestus | 3,820]

Cool to see someone taking some initiative on these sort of things.  Awhile back I debated working on the PS1 rarity list over on PSA but it would basically be starting from scratch and I’m not so bold as to assume my thoughts on these things are correct.  

[Strikezone1 | 154]

Great stuff @ThePhleo! thanks for sharing.

It does seem that Flintstones Dino Peak is a bit less common than the other R9s. IIRC I think it was the only “8” on the old NA database in the NES licensed NTSC library?

[ThePhleo | 2,184]

29 minutes ago, Strikezone1 said:

Great stuff @ThePhleo! thanks for sharing.

It does seem that Flintstones Dino Peak is a bit less common than the other R9s. IIRC I think it was the only “8” on the old NA database in the NES licensed NTSC library?

The "old" list used to look like the list I posted below...really terrible that we only had one R8, and one R9...and ZERO R10's in the licensed arena. Why even HAVE an upper rarity tier if we aren't going to utilize it?

Dino Peak is certainly a rare game, but with the cache discovered in South America and relative ease to convert it into a USA cartridge, the price rightfully stagnated on it and its relative availability went down. There is no "9.5" or WATA style .2/.4/.6/.8 but if there's demand for it, then it certainly can be added...though its literally splitting hairs at that point and we might as well just go all out on doing a 100% automated list with ebay availability being the only factor.

 

"The Old" list....looks about as archaic as Etlers list IMO. I haven't used it since 2013-14

R7

• Bandit Kings of Ancient China
• Bonk's Adventure
• Cowboy Kid
• Gun Nac
• Little Samson
• Panic Restaurant
• Power Blade 2
• TMNT: Tournament Fighters
• Wayne's World

R8

• Flintstones: Dinosaur Peak

R9

• Stadium Events

[Strikezone1 | 154]

48 minutes ago, ThePhleo said:

The "old" list used to look like the list I posted below...really terrible that we only had one R8, and one R9...and ZERO R10's in the licensed arena. Why even HAVE an upper rarity tier if we aren't going to utilize it?

Dino Peak is certainly a rare game, but with the cache discovered in South America and relative ease to convert it into a USA cartridge, the price rightfully stagnated on it and its relative availability went down. There is no "9.5" or WATA style .2/.4/.6/.8 but if there's demand for it, then it certainly can be added...though its literally splitting hairs at that point and we might as well just go all out on doing a 100% automated list with ebay availability being the only factor.

 

"The Old" list....looks about as archaic as Etlers list IMO. I haven't used it since 2013-14

R7

• Bandit Kings of Ancient China
• Bonk's Adventure
• Cowboy Kid
• Gun Nac
• Little Samson
• Panic Restaurant
• Power Blade 2
• TMNT: Tournament Fighters
• Wayne's World

R8

• Flintstones: Dinosaur Peak

R9

• Stadium Events

Good point. Having only a handful of 7s, one 8, one 9, and zero 10s out of the entire set does make the old formula seem a bit off.

[ThePhleo | 2,184]

5 hours ago, Hammerfestus said:

Cool to see someone taking some initiative on these sort of things.  Awhile back I debated working on the PS1 rarity list over on PSA but it would basically be starting from scratch and I’m not so bold as to assume my thoughts on these things are correct.  

Go for it! PS1 is a HUGE task though and I can't imagine wanting to go after a library that huge.

The only reason I'm confident enough to post my lists in the first place is because I had the courage (can be translated as idiocy as well!) to make mistakes in the past.

 

6 hours ago, NESfiend said:

I for one plan on using your list as a go to reference and definitely would prefer if you didn't go down to R1-7. If you do do that, I'd suggest/ask you keep this one available as well. 

I went through R6-9 on your list pretty carefully. Everything here looks really accurate. I have no idea how much work or how long it takes to do that, but I'd love to see one for SNES as well. 

Thank you. I think I'll hold off on watering the list down...I've also added the "old" rarity guide in there for now for reference, but I do plan on deleting it eventually. It takes a lot of work to make sure the list is fair and there's still a TON of room for improvement...should we have half rankings in the upper tier? quarter or fifths in the 9.0-10 range? what about half rankings for 1.0-2.0? lots of room for improvements.

 

[DefaultGen | 5,397]

Great work. Are the rarities cart, CIB, or a hybrid? I always thought of Chubby Cherub as an available cart but tough box, although my notion may be super out of date since it's been a long time since I ever cared about Chubby Cherub.

[ThePhleo | 2,184]

26 minutes ago, DefaultGen said:

Great work. Are the rarities cart, CIB, or a hybrid? I always thought of Chubby Cherub as an available cart but tough box, although my notion may be super out of date since it's been a long time since I ever cared about Chubby Cherub.

Loose for now, CIB is a little tougher thanks to so many variants. I have a WIP list though.

[NESfiend | 1,514]

2 hours ago, ThePhleo said:

 

Thank you. I think I'll hold off on watering the list down...I've also added the "old" rarity guide in there for now for reference, but I do plan on deleting it eventually. It takes a lot of work to make sure the list is fair and there's still a TON of room for improvement...should we have half rankings in the upper tier? quarter or fifths in the 9.0-10 range? what about half rankings for 1.0-2.0? lots of room for improvements.

 

 

I guess that depends on the strength of your system. I'd say go crazy as long as you are confident its accurate and not debatable/speculative. 

[Quest4Nes | 376]

nice list. I have all but 2 R9s

 

Good feeling for finishing this set eventually. Need to do some work on my unlicensed though

[ThePhleo | 2,184]

13 minutes ago, NESfiend said:

 

I guess that depends on the strength of your system. I'd say go crazy as long as you are confident its accurate and not debatable/speculative. 

There's room to debate within three rankings for some titles, but then there are titles that can solidly fit as a half grade (Samson, BB2, Duck Tales 2)

Even Super Mario Bros. (standalone), and Super Mario Bros. / DH / WCTM can be debated whether they belong in 1, 2, or 3.

[ThePhleo | 2,184]

Just added the initial batch of Unlicensed games.

Can't say I'm happy with what I gave the rarities on them, but it's definitely a start.

I don't view the entire unlicensed library as its own self contained library. Instead, I view each publisher as their own unique library, except for the super-rares like Active/Myriad/Panesian/Racermate/AGCI/Etc.

You might also notice an R11 or two in there....why? Well, who really knows what the hell is up with AGCI Wally Bear, and Sharedata Chiller!