Video Games Worth More Than Your Car

Nostalgia has established itself as a powerful force in the video game industry. Even hyper contemporary games such as Fortnite, which features a constant stream of updates targeting a younger audience, often leans into the nostalgia factor by featuring characters inspired by franchises that originated decades ago.

However, no gaming era receives quite as much nostalgic reverence as the one that spanned the '80s and '90s. The period dominated by the original Nintendo, Sega Genesis, and Game Boy was the birthplace of some of the industry's most iconic mascots and was the origin point for gameplay mechanics still used today. Games that might be decades old — an eternity in the fast-moving world of technology — are still played on retro devices such as the SNES Classic Edition and reimagined Game & Watch controllers.

While the new devices that introduce these games in all their 16-bit glory to new audiences are great, nothing beats the real thing. The pursuit of authentic video games has established a secondary market for vintage, high-quality original prints of some of the most popular games out there. Here are some of the most valuable video games out there — the kind that are so expensive, they might even be worth more than your car.

While Nintendo may have been a dominant force in the 80s and 90s, it was by no means the only console that had gamer's attention. Nintendo's biggest competitor was the aggressively advertised Sega Genesis, which featured the iconic Sonic the Hedgehog alongside well-known versions of NBA Jam, the uncensored Mortal Kombat arcade port, and Street Fighter 2: Champion Edition.

With such a solid library of games, it might come as a surprise to collectors to find out that the title that has generated the most interest is an odd movie tie-in – Michael Jackson's Moonwalker. By any measures, Michael Jackson's Moonwalker is a weird game. The player controls Michael Jackson on a quest to find kidnapped children hidden in closets while defeating Mr. Big and his minions with a mixture of dance moves and magic dust, all set to chiptune versions of Jackson's hits.

Despite Michael Jackson's Moonwalker's oddities, or perhaps because of them, a pristine copy of the game sparked a bidding war perhaps not only with video game collectors but Michael Jackson fans as well. When all was said and done, a highly rated, sealed copy of the game sold for $38,400 in early 2021.

Nintendo demonstrated with games like The Legend of Zelda that consoles had what it takes to put together a compelling RPG experience, but Square took things to the next level in the '90s. Square's signature franchise, Final Fantasy, pushed JRPGs to the forefront of the video game world, and the company produced many other titles that would have a lasting legacy in the industry.

During this period, one of Square's best remembered games was Chrono Trigger, a time-traveling adventure that premiered on the Super Nintendo and PlayStation. While Chrono Trigger never established the same legacy that Final Fantasy or The Legend of Zelda did, the game is fondly remembered for its novel gameplay mechanics and memorable storytelling.

When Heritage Auctions made a well-preserved copy of this excellent game available in 2020, collectors didn't hesitate to put in bids. When all was said and done, the game sold to one dedicated buyer for $48,000, a full 25 years after its original release.

Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! was a relatively short-lived series that left a long legacy for the NES. The Punch-Out!! franchise began life as an arcade cabinet in 1983 created by Nintendo, followed by a sequel, Super Punch-Out!! The cabinets did well, and when Nintendo geared up to launch the NES, they also prepared to port Punch-Out!!

However, there were two significant differences between the arcade version and the NES port of Punch-Out!! First off, the NES had lower hardware capabilities than the arcade cabinets did, meaning Nintendo needed to minimize specific graphic effects for the home version, which resulted in the creation of the famed Little Mac player character. Second, Nintendo arranged an endorsement from Mike Tyson, an up-and-coming heavyweight boxer. Tyson signed a three-year contract with Nintendo, during which time he won the 1986 WBC heavyweight title.

After those three years were up, Nintendo continued selling Punch-Out!! without Mike Tyson's name. As a result, copies bearing Tyson's endorsement are highly sought after in the video game collectors community. When a highly graded copy of the game went up for auction, intense competition drove the game up to $50,400.

Many of the vintage games that have brought in large sums of cash over the years have earned their value as well preserved copies of one of the most popular games in history. Super Mario Bros., Donkey Kong, and Pokemon are all household words, after all, and rare copies of those titles have innate desirability.

Breaking with that mold is Stadium Events: Family Fun Fitness, a game that almost no one has heard of and even fewer people ever owned. Stadium Events is rare because the developers only shipped a few hundred copies before Nintendo recalled the game to rebrand it as World Class Track Meet. No one knows what happened to those copies of Stadium Events after they went back to the warehouse, but one thing is for sure — they are hard to find.

As a result, Stadium Events has been a highly desirable collector's item for over a decade. In 2010, the game made headlines when a copy of the box with the manual sold for $13,000. In 2017, another copy sold for $41,000. The game remains incredibly valuable today — a recent sale on eBay brought in $55,000 while an auction ended up reaching $66,000.

Nintendo products dominate the list of the world's highest video game sales, which makes sense considering that the company was the biggest name in town during the late '80s and '90s. However, part of Nintendo's success was its willingness to push its proprietary products and open up its consoles for outside developers to support an expansive library of titles.

One of the first big franchises that Capcom developed for the NES was Mega Man, released in 1987. The game had been a sleeper hit in Japan, prompting Capcom executives to rush a localization effort to get the game ready for US markets. This resulted in the awkward box art the first game is famous for, which GameSpot called "the ugliest box art of all time." 

However, in the world of vintage game collecting, sometimes bad can be good. When a copy of what collectors claimed to be the last sealed copy of the game's original run in the U.S. became available, around 20 bidders drove the price up to unheard-of levels. When this rare copy of Mega Man sold for $75,000 in 2019, it set the world record for the most money ever spent on a single game.

When it comes to determining the value of a classic video game, there are a wide variety of factors in play. Sometimes a high resale value is the result of extreme rarity. Other times a supply quirk, like a recall or a licensing snafu, can drive the price up. A unique feature like an autograph can also cause prices to soar.

Every once in a while, though, as in the case of the most expensive Nintendo game ever sold, all it takes is a pristine copy of one of the best-selling video games of its era. Super Mario Bros. 3 is a rare game by no means, having moved 17.28 million copies for the NES, and there are so many copies out there that the playable copy by itself is only worth about ten dollars. 

However, when news that a sealed, mint condition copy with a slight publishing variation was circulating, collectors began to pay attention. This particular copy of Super Mario Bros. 3 was shipped with the last word of the title covering part of Mario's white glove. That oddity, alongside the mint condition packaging, sparked a bidding war among 20 collectors that led to a final sale price of $156,000.

While many of the vintage cartridges that receive out of this world offers come from franchises that have significant crossover appeal, such as "Mario" or "Pokémon," sometimes the titles nearest to gamers' hearts are the ones that attract the most attention. This was the case when an extremely rare edition of "The Legend of Zelda" went up for sale.

The first game in the "Legend of Zelda' series was a foundational piece of gaming history that helped introduce the masses to RPGs on the Nintendo. When "The Legend of Zelda" arrived in 1986, it demonstrated that compelling adventure roleplaying experiences were possible on the NES, and an internal save feature meant that gamers didn't have to finish the story in one go.

Pristine copies of "The Legend of Zelda" have been fetching a pretty penny for some time, but one that went up on Heritage Auctions in July 2021 was extraordinary. That copy was produced in late 1987, directly before the more common "Rev-A" variant arrived, and was in pristine sealed condition when it was offered to collectors. Heritage Auctions described it as the "earliest sealed copy one could realistically hope to obtain," and one determined bidder spent a record-setting $870,000 to own it. However, that record would not remain unbroken for long.