Favorite rental games?

[Waffles]

I'm not sure how many of you used to rent games back in the day, but it was a huge thing where I am... to the point of accounting for more than half of people's gaming libraries (and this lasted all the way to the PS2 era).

I remember scanning shelves and racks on my local video store every Friday (after my homework was done, of course ) looking for those elusive games everyone seemed to know about but couldn't quite get their hands on.

My favorite one? Desert Strike on Genesis.

Rented it once after being told for the umpteenth time in as many weeks that the Sonic games were already taken and just... really liked it.

What about you?

 

[MajesticSiN]

Rentals were the main way I played games for a long time. That's how I decided if I wanted to buy a game or not.
Honestly I rented so many games that I can't recall one that I rented the most.

 

[DunkeyKong]

This is like playing a demo but it's not a demo...huh, neat

 

[Duwen]

Game rentals weren't really a thing here in the UK (at least near me) until around the Playstation/Saturn era.
My first experience of the Saturn was when one of my friends rented the system and a couple of the initial release titles for the weekend a week or two after its release. Fun times playing Daytona and Virtua Fighter!

 

[VampireLord1024]

I mostly rented Nintendo 64 in the early 2000's, like Clay Fighter 63 1/3, Harvest Moon 64, Mischief Makers, Banjo-Kazooie, Donkey Kong 64, Blast Corps, Gex 64. Glover, Fighting Force, Super Smash Bros., one or both of the BattleTanx games and maybe some other ones.

 

[Waffles]

Excellent replies, everyone. Thank you.

I forgot to mention that, during the tail end of the internet cafe era, you could rent a PS2 right on the store and play it with friends for an hour or so.

This was extremely popular, and the number one choice for those looking to kill an hour between the end of the regular classes and when gym class was scheduled to start.

 

[TheDuke_11037]

It was probably Mega Man 8, the local video renting place still had their older games collecting dust. Eventually they ended up putting them on sale so I bought it and a couple other titles.

 

[sandogma]

Oh yeah, rented a lot of games back in the Blockbuster Video days.
One game I had so much fun with over a weekend with friends was Road Rash 64. It wasn't the best racer ever or anything, but being that it was an N64 game, it supported 4 player split screen. We had so much fun racing and hitting each other or trying to push each other into traffic. There would be intense moments where we would all be grouped together hitting and kicking each other, only for a semi-truck coming from the opposite direction plow through half of us, watching the hilarious rag doll physics as my friends get jettisoned into the air. Literally brought tears of laughter it was that funny

 

[Waffles]

@sandogma: Duuuude... I rented the HELL outta Road Rash 3 on Genesis. My friends and I used to have proper bloodbaths with it through split screen and co-op. We even made it to the final level once, with the AC adapter approaching meltdown. It was THAT hot XD

It was such a blast, I ended up buying the whole thing XD

 

[Smiley Cat]

Rentals were never really a big thing where I live. The only time I saw them was in "Blockbuster". But the problem was the price of renting was about half the cost of buying the game 2nd-hand.
So most people would rather just buy a used copy and keep it, rather than pay half that amount to rent it for 2 days.
So renting never really took off here (at least not in the same way it did in some other countries).

The only game I ever remember renting was Yoshi's Island.

 

[Don Patch]

I'm not sure how many of you used to rent games back in the day...

Any one who has GamePass is still renting, lol

But moving on, we used to get movies from Blockbuster and we'd always get Mega Man X when we did as well. We could always pickup where we left off because passwords

But that was mostly older sibs. By the time I had a really big interest in games the scene was more about used trade-in than renting. At least where I was.

 

[VampireLord1024]

Oh yeah, rented a lot of games back in the Blockbuster Video days.
One game I had so much fun with over a weekend with friends was Road Rash 64. It wasn't the best racer ever or anything, but being that it was an N64 game, it supported 4 player split screen. We had so much fun racing and hitting each other or trying to push each other into traffic. There would be intense moments where we would all be grouped together hitting and kicking each other, only for a semi-truck coming from the opposite direction plow through half of us, watching the hilarious rag doll physics as my friends get jettisoned into the air. Literally brought tears of laughter it was that funny
View attachment 1648

A fun game and so was Road Rash: Jail Break on the PS1.

 

[Waffles]

Any one who has GamePass is still renting, lol

But moving on, we used to get movies from Blockbuster and we'd always get Mega Man X when we did as well. We could always pickup where we left off because passwords

But that was mostly older sibs. By the time I had a really big interest in games the scene was more about used trade-in than renting. At least where I was.

Yoooo! That's completely right. I had forgotten about GamePass and all that other BS lol

Strangely, Blockbuster wasn't the place to rent where I am, unless you were an early Nintendo 64 user... then you were golden. I still remember the absolute gold rush that happened when they launched their closing shop sale of leftover stock. People were coming from all over the place to get N64 games on a heavy discount.

 

[gerorisuto]

I think I never rented a game??? My family was in a very good financial position back then so whatever console game I wanted they bought it for me.

I do remember playing Counter Strike and GTA at the ciber. It is one of the very few still standing today and the smell kicks you out of the place, just like back then. Wonderful.

 

[It's Thinking 2]

Was never allowed to rent games as a kid. I did however rent movies.

 

[stealthRUSH]

hoo boy where to start. Renting games was my primary way of playing them back in the day. Let's see... Blaster Master (NES), Street Fighter Alpha 2 (SNES), Night Warriors (SAT), Twisted Metal 2 (PS), Grandia 2 (DC) off the top of my head.

rented games for NES, SNES, (played Genesis at my friends home), the few Saturn games available. I remember really wanting to play Dragon Ball GT in '97 was one of the main reasons why I asked my parents to buy PS1. One time I rented N64 with Bomberman 64, it was alright I guess.. had more fun playing Mario party and Kirby 64 at my friends home with my buddies.

besides Blockbuster Video, I remember renting Dreamcast games from Hollywood Video. Eventually PS2/GC which at that time I was becoming less interested in gaming for whatever reason.

 

[spectresfrommercury]

I am 100 percent sure lot of my games i get from used gamestores were at one point rentals from blockbusters that used to be in my area like some of my ff games on the ps2 case in point or clock tower 3.

 

[sarkwalvein]

I rented many Famicom and Megadrive games back in the day, I would be trying all kind of different games every week. There were some games, though, that I rented several times, so I guess they were my favorites, perhaps? Those were:

• Megaman 5 /s (actually some kind of Darkwing Duck bootleg with Megaman sprites overimposed, but in a yellow color shade... yeah, they also rented bootlegs back home when I was a kid)
• Captain Tsubasa 2 (this one even had a three kana password that gave you all kind of abilities carved into the cartridge plastic cover)
• Battletoads (I guess I loved dying on the flying motorbike level way too much as a kid)
• Castlevania Bloodlines (this one... it was the soundtrack I guess... and finally when I bought it I got New Generations instead... pfff... Bloodlines was so much better)
• Fatal Fury 2

I don't remember renting anything after I got a PS1 though.

 

[kingofdragons]

most of the games I played back in the day were rentals. Looking back it did save me from investing my savings into poor developed games, or games that I found I wasn't interested in despite the heavy advertisements. Most were flavor of the week mascot games like bubsy, or the monthly movie tie-in which were usually awful. The best times I had were renting arcade conversions or fighting games you could play with friends or relatives and get the most out of.

 

[retro8s]

chip 'n dale : rescue rangers (NES). it was my fourth rental game and become my favorite since.