phear3d
Nintendo pretty much popularized the whole bundle thing with 2 or more games in one package. Back on the NES days, almost every kid had a Super Mario Bros./ Duck Hunt cart. Of course, this practice would span on newer generation consoles like the Wii or the Xbox 360. It’s that same mentality that Nintendo were so good at that they were able to sell millions upon millions of copies of Wii Sports that were packed in with a new Wii console.
When the GameCube was still in the market, Nintendo wasn’t shy about bundling various games and controllers to entice people to buy the unit. Even though Nintendo halted production of the Gamecube back in 2003, by 2005, there were plenty of them for sure including this Legend of Zelda Windwaker and Metroid Prime game that was bundled exclusively for Best Buy. Back then, you would have had to pay $129.99 for this particular bundle that included a some-what limited edition silver GameCube. Its not a bad thing if you consider the fact that Nintendo not only bundled 1, but 2 blockbuster games in the GameCube library. These days, it’s usually a series/trilogy bundle or some sort of publisher bundle and sometimes you just end up with 1 or 2 games that are good while the rest is just a throw-in. Arguably, some of the best collectible games in 2000’s came from Best Buy here in the states. Sure they have a ton of stores across the U.S. and some parts of Canada, but you can always count on Best Buy to always never have a second printing or a re-issued version of a collectors or limited edition set. Even DVD collector’s know that for sure. Once they’ve had them out, it’s pretty much the only copies they have.
Game pack-in’s usually end up getting used and abused. When they bundle a game with a system, the console makers are always sure that the person buying the bundle is more likely to play either a popular game by choice or critically acclaimed. But very few of them however, end up unused and kept sealed. By 2006/2007, these Legend of Zelda/Metroid Prime bundles were gone from the store. Best Buy and other big box retailers usually don’t keep this kind of inventory at their stores for too long (unlike Walmart – they’ll keep that shit as long as the box is still together). To this day, I don’t think I’ve ever even seen this bundle outside of Best Buy. It is arguably one of the rarest games in the GameCube library (in the U.S.).
The game is listed at $2,400 by a U.K. seller with best offer. Currently, this is the only sealed copy on ebay. There’s been a few listed used over the past month that ended up ranging from $67 to $100 used.
