Robot Claw

I have only ever sold two things on eBay. The first was a digital camera (our first ever, a Kodak that took VGA quality images). I recall getting a good price for it considering it was a couple of years old. What about the second thing I sold? Well…

A little over 10 years ago, I walked into a local store called FYE in one of the malls here in Albany. They were in their post-Christmas clearance and I was digging through their goods. Imagine my surprise when I saw they were selling entire, unopened boxes of Japanese Final Fantasy VIII trading cards. Here’s a shot of one of the packs:

There were discounted to a near-unbelievably level, something like sub-$10 per box (although a part of me wants to say they may have even been only $1 per box). Needless to say, I purchased all three boxes they had – which translated to maybe 75 packs of cards in total.

So I took them all home and tore them all open. The pack was a lie! The contents were almost exclusively ‘official card game’ and not much at all of ‘perfect visual collection’. In essence, this was a real-life version of the Triple Triad card game included in Final Fantasy VIII.

Oh well, they were very cheap, so I didn’t care much. I sorted, extracted as close to a full set as I could, and set aside all of my doubles.

Now here’s where things get weird. Often, with card doubles, I just throw them in a box somewhere and attic them, or even discard them. Recently I’ve been known to give my doubles away (often to my brother). For some reason, back in 2001, I decided to put these doubles on eBay since I had just had some luck selling the camera.

Unfortunately eBay doesn’t save data for ever, so I couldn’t look up the auction as it was, but I do have some information myself. Here is the photo I placed in the auction:

I know I would have started the sale at $0.00 (since you had to then to avoid a listing fee) and I doubt I set a reserve (again, to avoid a fee). The auction was probably set at the default of seven days. I don’t remember the listing, although I know I stressed that the piles at the back contained many doubles and all the foils contained in the auction were shown at front.

Interest was immediate, and very high. Recall I paid virtually nothing for these cards (maybe $30, maybe $3) and I had already removed a good portion for myself. I truly considered them to be near-worthless. Had they not sold, I certainly would have simply thrown them all away.

So seven days later, when the auction closed with a winning bid of $293.50 I was astounded. I recall skepticism; suspicion it was a fake bid. But it was not, and I eventually got the money in the mail and sent off the cards. I reckon I danced for joy when I cashed that cheque!

These days the cards still hold value, especially since the game is still being played by enthusiasts. A few days ago when I considered this post there was a ‘buy it now’ on the full set of 182 cards on eBay for a (shocking!) $475, but that auction seems to be gone now. My cards are in deep storage somewhere so I have no idea how much of the set I have. But to think they are worth hundreds of dollars? That’s just crazy!

During my last visit to Australia, I picked up this game for the DS:

I’ve played it, and finished it, and now I’m going to review it.

First things first – this is a game for children. Any review written without this in mind should probably be ignored, because it is clear the developers had a particular target audience in mind and designed the game exclusively for them.

The game tells a story of the Doctor and Amy helping some Earth evacuees leaving our doomed planet. Along the way the Silurians Homo-Reptilicus become involved, as do some Daleks. The story isn’t particularly original, but benefits greatly from voice acting by Matt Smith and Karen Gillan. The Dalek voices are also well done, although the credit suggest they are not the work of Nick Briggs (who does all the voices on the TV show). Overall, I thought the writing was well done and the characterization of the Doctor and Amy in particular were better than I may have hoped.

The game itself is a puzzle/adventure game. You move through various locations helping people and finding objects to assist you in your quest. This is (mostly) done by solving puzzles. The game has about 10 different types of puzzle,  including ‘spot the difference’, ‘jigsaw puzzles’, logic puzzles, mazes and a few sliding puzzles (which I have and always will hate!) as well.

Unless you are a baby, the puzzles are easy. I’ll go one step further, and say you’d have to be absolutely demented to not get a few of them correct in a single second. Even the ‘hard’ ones took me maybe 10 seconds tops. Kid’s stuff, in other words. Even so they are well done and quite creative, and I imagine children will find a lot of challenge and have a lot of fun solving them.

There are a great many as well. Although many are optional, I’d estimate in the vicinity of 100 puzzles requiring a solution to beat the game.

Doesn’t sound too bad so far does it? Especially if you count yourself amongst the sizeable demographic of pre-school Doctor Who fans. But some of you may have had looked at the screens and read the descriptions and had a twinge or two while reading this review. Let me refresh your memories:

The Professor Layton series is one of the most beloved on the DS. With three games to date and many millions of copies sold, it is the worldwide  juggernaut of puzzle/adventure and one of the most successful franchises on any system these days.

Evacuation Earth is a shameless rip-off. Many aspects of the game are identical to the Layton games, and unfortunately in most cases they are not as well done. I didn’t realize this until half way through because – shockingly – I haven’t personally played the Layton games (KLS has them all). But when I started showing her DW:EE she was able to confirm how similar certain elements were.

So in short, EE is a shameless, not-as-good ripoff of a fantastic game. Furthermore it’s far too easy for adults, and therefore shouldn’t even be considered by the serious non-infantile Doctor Who fan. For me therefore, I perhaps could have spent my A$58 a bit more wisely 🙂

Final Score: “One for the collection”