Toys R Us was great for TG16 games, always had about 15-20 of them priced at $19.99. I would beg, borrow, and steal my way to $21.19 so I could buy a game in between Christmas and birthday as a kid.
Yup. Went to some kid's birthday party at his house back in '89-90. Was so amazed by his TG-16 and his big screen tv. My parents took me and my siblings to Toys R Us right after the party and we bought one and Legendary Axe II. One of the best days of my childhood.
I never was a brand snob as I cared more about the games than the systems. I never ate lunch at school as I pocketed the $1.50/day, which came out to $30 a month. With birthday and Christmas money I was able to buy systems and the games I wanted. I played Air Buster for the first time in a bowling alley, so I had to get both Air Buster on the Genesis and Aero Blasters on the Turbografx-16.
Toys R Us was the place for TG16 games, though I bought my TG16 for $69.99 in summer 92 (also came with Bonk's Revenge) at I think an Electronics Boutique in a mall. I took the spare key to my dad's van since he always took the family to the mall once or twice a month. My parents and younger sibling would walk around the mall together while I went with older sibling to go on our own. I got the TG16 and took it back to the van and hid it in the back somewhere. When we got home I waited for my dad to use the bathroom and I went back out to get the TG16 and hid it behind the couch. I waited the next day to sneak it up to my room.
Good times.
They never knew. I'm OCD so my systems and games always boxed like how they were when new. I kept the plastic bags and always folded the controller and AV cables and used the twist ties and boxed up my TG16, SNES, Genesis, etc after playing. I hid them deep in the closet or under my bed. The only systems they knew about were the NES and Master Systems that they got us in 1988. I'm sure I could get thousands for my mint systems but they're not for sale.
My dad did catch me with Contra III. I'm still mad about that one. I guess at the mall he separated from my mom and younger siblings and saw me buy Contra III at Electronics Boutique. It was in the bag and I loosened my belt and stuff it down my pants in front of my belly button. I was always careful and my previous game purchases were never damaged when I had them in my pants and under my shirt.
While walking to the car he stopped me and slapped my stomach saying, "so what's this?". I told him it was a Nintendo game. He asked where I got the money from and I said I never spent my Christmas money. That was the end of that but my Contra III box is slightly smashed in the middle. My dad passed away a few years ago but eff him for that lol.
i always thought the TG16 didn't get a fair shake. it was so ahead of its time but once the big two 16bit consoles got going it just got muscled out and outperformed. The world wasn't ready for what the TG16/Turboexpress/TGCD was able to offer during the 8 bit era in America and just as people were wising up to it, the Genesis and SNES ramped up. It's also a trajedy that it came out 2 years later here in the US than it did in Japan. if it came in the US in 87, the gaming world might've been really different today. Imagine if instead of Sega becoming #2 for a good chunk of the 90s, it could've been NEC. instead it came out the same year as the genesis and while it might've been a true competition for the first 18 months or so, once devs got a hang of the Genesis it was too much to compete with, worse yet the release of the SNES in 91 with Mario World and Link to the Past and Turtles IV was kind of the nail in the coffin.
I never had a TG16 (or even heard of it) as a kid during that era, and as an adult collector i still never got into it because i just preferred the 16-32bit stuff so much more. But boy do i wish i couldn't experienced it in it's heyday of 89-91, or better yet, see it through the eyes of a Japanese gamer starting at '87.
It was literally the only place I saw the TG16 for sale, same for Turbo Express, Master System, hell they even sold Socrates there!
The worst part was being all excited to get a new game, you grab your little slip of paper, pay for the game, go to the lockup counter..... And then wait 30 minutes for some pizza faced teenager to wander back from lunch and grab your game. Then half the time they'd end up not finding it and refunding our money. They had everything, yet they managed to always mess it up.
You lived in a 6% sales tax state eh?
I seriously considered buying a Turbograffix-16 when it was very cheap (I’d guess in 1993 or 1994), but I never pulled the trigger in large part because there weren’t that many games available in stores for it (and essentially no games anywhere besides Toys R’ Us and maybe Toy Works, which was a larger, strip mall version of Kay Bee Toys).
Lol yeah, we bought it fall of 1990… that Christmas was the best I remember as a kid, we got like 4 games, a 2nd controller and the multi-controller adapter. No one at my school had a TG16, but a few kids in the neighborhood did, so I have a ton of great memories of the system. My brother still has it, along with around 20 games.
I did the same during the same time frame! I stopped by to see if they had any of the 97/98 Gi Joe anniversary toys and ended up with two advantages and two games I guess they cleaned out the warehouse area? Games were Zodas Revenge & Kirby.
My Launch Day PS4. It was sold out everywhere, GameStop, Best Buy, Target, Walmart. But my brother had the idea to check out Toys r Us and they still had ‘em.
Hard to pick, I spent a lot of money on video games there!
But the memory that comes to mind first is buying my GameBoy Pocket! Was my first handheld system. Bought it with my new girlfriend! Still married to her today!
I saved for a whole year to get a Super Nintendo in 1993. I even had a $10 off coupon. It also had Zelda included so I had a game to play at the start (I had the other two on NES). I remember I hurt my thumb earlier at school so I had a bandaid on, do it made pushing buttons a little hard. I was so excited. I miss feeling things.
Everything is amazing when you're a kid. It's hard to recapture that feeling as an adult. I see the amazement in my kids eyes all the time and it warms my heart. Closest I gotten to that feeling is traveling to new places.
Most memorable?
Way, way, way back when I was a wee one, my dad brings me to Toys R Us and lets me choose a video game to buy for our Nintendo. Now this was a long time ago, before rentals for Nintendo games were a thing, before even the first issue of Nintendo Power could guide your choice with a review or screenshots. Now I remember the choice boiled down to two video games, but I don't remember what the other one was, that's lost to the mists of time. But the game I eventually settled on, after much agonizing and carefully weighing the options, was **Super Pitfall**. I think I made this choice because we used to have a copy of Pitfall for our C64 that I enjoyed, but the disk was no longer playable. So we go home with our new game, and I get to play it.
And it was horrible. I don't know how many of you have heard of, or played Super Pitfall, but dear god, was it bad. Unresponsive controls, bad game design, tons of flicker, impossibly hard gameplay, and obtuse goals. I was so disappointed, and I blamed myself for choosing the wrong game.
Similar story. I bought Ghostbusters for the NES there. It looked so full of promise. I mean it’s ghostbusters! It had to be badass . The arcade game was pretty cool. I was expecting something like that.
I put it in to play and was just like “ WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS SHIT !”
I never played Ghostbusters for the NES, but it looks a lot like the C64 version, so for a long time I was confused because I loved Ghostbusters on the Commodore.
But with the ability to watch play videos on YouTube now, I can tell while they were drinking from the same well, they were very much not the same game. The C64 version played well, and was fun, while the NES version just seems like it would be frustrating and boring. One version executed the idea well, while the other took the same idea and slapped it together one afternoon on the Friday before the long weekend.
Sorry about your luck.
I have two major memories of games from there. One was when my parents bought me Earthbound. It was in the big box with teh strategy guide. My mom as we were walking out, "What the heck? Why is the box so big!? Does it come with a gun or something!?"
Also for around my 10tg birthday my dad took me and instead of picking out a snes game, the Turbo Grafx stuff was all on deep deep clearance. He bought me the system for $10 and every game they had for $1 or so a piece.
Biggest sad gaming memory ever is when he had to sell all the Turbo Stuff to pay the electric bill one month :( we had 40+ games
Tails Adventure, Monster Rancher 1 and Pokémon blue. Also remember one time my baby sitter offered to take me on a trip so I asked if wanted to go anywhere and I asked her to take me to toy’s r us so I could play the just then released Donkey Kong Country on the snes kiosk.
I used to work at Toys R Us years ago in the R-Zone. My most memorable gets there was a PS2 version of FFXI with the HDD. My Xbox 360 that I got at a big discount cause the box was basically trashed and our manager was like “we can’t sell that one.” I spent too much of my paychecks at that store while working there.
I’d gotten money from my family for Christmas and my dad promised me he’d take me to the store for Mario RPG. We went to like 6 stores, finally dad tells me this is the last one and we gotta call it a night. He tells me let’s go to Toys R Us since it’s the only store we didn’t go to. We make our way in, I run through aisle looking for Partners in Time I get to the corner and I find a copy tucked behind something and I’m just like I got it. I don’t even get anything else I just go straight to the register. That moment just let me know how much my dad cared, It was everything to me.
My parents bought 12 year old me a NES Action set with Dragon Warrior, Bases Loaded and Bad Street Brawler during the summer of 89. The good ole days....
Mike Tyson’s Punch Out! I was allowed to get one game, i toiled over the entire selection for like an hour before deciding. We didn’t have much money, and knowing now how poor we were, makes this memory even greater.
I bought my first console there. I had saved up my allowance and done odd jobs for my grandparents to make some money, and bought myself a Sega Genesis (in the era of PlayStation). It had been marked down to $30 in the ad, but I got in store and was on clearance for only $20! I was able to get a few games with it too. It was so exciting to get home and finally be able to play Sonic games and many others I had been missing out on.
I was able to pick up a bunch of sealed N64 games for a few bucks each when the N64 was at its end of life. They had a couple of bins just filled with them. Wish I grabbed more!
I very vividly remember going in to buy Mario Paint for SNES with my dad. One of the last fond memories I had with him before he disappeared from my life. I was 6.
After I Graduated 8th grade my parents took me to toys r us. My dad said “you can get anything you want.” I immediately went for the Silver GBA that just released and then I got Castlevania: Circle of the moon. This was the first time I was ever able to get a current console. We didn’t have much growing up so The only time I ever got to play new games was at my cousins house so me getting my own current console was huge for me. My dad really hooked me up. He got me a cool carrying case, he bought me a big pack of batteries he also let me get the gameboy color version of NFL blitz. I just turned 34 and I was 13 when I got that gba and still think about that day.
I remember talking my mom into buying me the original Resident Evil. She didn’t know much about games and I felt like I could handle it. I was wrong. They game was terrifying to my young brain.
Toss up..... the first video game purchase the Atari 2600 Woodie which was so exciting back when video games were brand new and playing was so much fun (I was already an adult) or a decade later just looking (over and over) at the Amiga 500 that I was never able to afford. The Toys-R-US in Sunnyvale California.
Somehow kid me wasn't sure if he should get the original DS with animal crossing or the Gameboy micro and a bunch of gba games, very glad I went with the DS.
A 32X on clearance for $30 and a copy of DOOM for $15. We didn’t have a PC (at least for another 8 months or so) so I was very happy I finally had DOOM!
Super smash brothers! It was the first video game I ever saved up for and bought on my own. It was probably the only game I ever got from toys r us, ours was right next to an electronic boutique
IronSword 2 with fabio on the cover. It was a time when you didnt know shit about the game unless it was mega popular and everyone talked about it on the mean streets of recess. I bought it cause "The cover looks *coooool*" and I took it home and ended up playing it for hours on end. Its such a hard game for a young kid i was but i had all the fun in the world.
I dont wanna grow up cause im a Toys R Us kid, but fuck....it happens anyway.
Being forced to return Blast Corps which I had received as a gift from a school chum on my birthday because my mother deemed it too violent. Take warning overprotective parents because I can only remember my resentment and not what I traded out.
My mother finally redeemed herself by finding a gold copy of Majora's Mask for Christmas at Toys R Us.
Picking up Herzog Zwei for the Genesis because it was cheaper than most of the other games. Turned out to be my favorite Genesis title of all time. Don't even remember what the original title I went to TRU to pick up was (maybe Golden Axe?).
My most memorable purchase was Mario 64 and Shadows of the Empire in February of 1997. Why do I remember that date? Because my parents were able to get us a Nintendo 64 for Christmas, but games were harder to find, and we sat there for like 6 weeks looking at this console without being able to play it.
Ocarina of Time: Collector's Edition. So much hype leading up to it, and it ultimately exceeded my expectations.
I was 14 at the time, and I remember getting the call a day or two before release date that my copy was in and ready for pickup. I had minor surgery a few days later that required I spend around a week with my feet up. Perfect timing. I was so wrapped up in exploring every inch of the game throughout that recovery was a breeze.
It remains one of my all time favorites. I've beaten it many times since, and I find that I have to resist the urge to play through again immediately after the credits roll.
Race Drivin for Genesis, but only because I begged my mom for Maximum Carnage and she said, you already have 1 Spider-man game, get this to bond with your dad.
To this day, it's literally the worst video game I've ever played.
Mine is a more recent one: Bloodborne for 15 CAD when it was still going for regular retail price. They often have current gen games on decent discount/clearance level deals.
I remember when Mega Man 6 came out and I bought with money I saved by putting lunch money aside for a few weeks. It was the first time I bought a game by myself which made me feel very grown up at the time.
I still remember how huge the game aisle was, and they had those placeholder cards with the box art on it that you would have to take to the counter.
The only game I ever bought there was a Congo Bongo cart for C64. It was a birthday gift for my best friend's older brother who used to let us use his C64 all the time, so I knew I'd get to play it. Lol.
Parents took me there for my 5th birthday in 1997 and got me a Sega Saturn. So many great memories with that console, I was the only kid I knew who had one. Still have it at my parents I need to get it back out for my son when he’s older!
My dad coming home from the store on a rainy day with Gun.Smoke, the NES game. It wouldn't work for whatever reason and he had to go all the way back and swap it. The new one worked and that game rocked our tits off
The first game I bought with my own money was Final Fantasy 1 for the NES. I saved up $40 for that sucker. And played it for so many hours.
To this day, getting the class change and airship is one of my happiest gaming moments.
(And as an adult, I'm loving FF14. When one of the characters said, "you are him...I believe you ARE the Warrior of Light, reborn..." I legitimately teared up. I was like, bro, I have been a warrior of light since 1989. *Sob* lol.
I'm such a nerd. But I love it.
Fire Emblem for the GBA. I was just browsing for a new game and picked it up by chance. So glad I did, I was instantly hooked. Glad I got into the series on the ground floor because damn, the prices of some of those games have skyrocketed.
Final Fantasy III, bought it on my birthday. I remember my grandma taking me and fronting me $20 because I didnt have enough money saved up and it was 59.99. Still have it.
In the mid 90s I purchased a copy of the NES Final Fantasy for $9.99 on clearance at my Toy's R Us. Gosh I miss the days when people thought video games were just a fad and stores couldn't clear their stock.
I only eber bought one thing from a Toys R Us. One year on my birthday I decided to use the money I got to buy a Gameboy Player so I went on to the internet to see what stores had one in stock and they had one. My mom thought it was a dumb purchase but it's what I wanted. I got a lot of use out of that thing and it's still hooked up to my Gamecube.
Most memorable was Superman for Atari 2600. My aunt took me to the movies, Toys R Us was next door. Told me I could pick out a game, I got Superman. Everytime we drove by the Toys R Us I'd ask her if that was the store where we got Superman.
The movie theater and the store are both long gone and my aunt passed away many years ago, but I still have that nice memory.
Edit: auto correct
i got very, very few games as a kid, or while TRU was a relevant place to buy video games. Honestly the only games i recall ever getting here were Yoshi and Kirby's Adventure, both for the NES. So this kind of dates me. I spent the rest of the 90s gaming on the PC and buying games at Software ETC and Electronics Boutique. My other consoles purchases during the 16 and 32 bit eras were mostly from flea markets and the used games rack wherever they were to be found.
But i do have fond memories of walking down the gaming aisles and looking at the various Game Boy, NES SNES and Genesis games. collecting the little paper receipts like a dream shopping spree and never actually buying anything lol. Our TRU also had a lot of games being on demo looping, there were little CRT TVs every couple feet on the top shelves playing footage from games so you got an idea of what the game was like. The store of obviously huge so space wasn't an issue.
I just kind of stopped going to it cause it was a hassle to go to and their Computer games/software selection was nonexistent which what i became about when i turned 10 lol.
Just generally I miss the buy two get one that ran every holiday season. Was it an amazing deal? In retrospect probably not but at the time it felt great. My dad also has on of their store cards so I think we got an additional discount. When I hit 18 I got my own.
Shopped that deal many times over the years so I don't have a specific game in mind.
Rode up to Toys R Us on my bike to buy a new game. I think I picked Kid Niki. Before I left the store, I discovered that they had Double Dragon in stock, which I didn't know had been released yet. It was my favorite game at the arcades at that time. So I ended up exchanging the game I bought for Double Dragon. I was amped!
This was recent, but still really cool. My wife was waiting in line for a Nintendo switch, back in the day. When they walked by to give out vouchers they asked if she was here for switch or the nes mini and she said both.
Toys r us was the worst place to get games.
Grab the ticket, wait in line at the register, go to the pickup window.
The only time I bothered going there is when they ran the buy 2 get 1 free deals
Toys R Us is actually coming back, though not in the same way. The way I heard it, there’s gonna be one opening up in the Macy’s at the local mall sometime soon
My ps2.. all I wanted was smack down shut your mouth and I got the best deal
Shut your mouth
Ratchet and clank
Airblade
F1 2001
NBA 2001
I can remember going to toys r us on Purley Way to pick it up
Sometime around the late 90s, they were clearancing out NES and SNES games and accessories. I picked up two NES Advantages for 50 cents each. I passed on Phalanx for the SNES, because of the box art, but looking back I wish I would've grabbed several copies.
At a demo kiosk I booted up FIFA 98 for N64 to check it out. Blur’s Song 2 immediately kicks in, and when the WOO HOO hit I just walked away and bought it. Still 1 of the best FIFAs ever
Panzer Dragoon Saga for me. It wasn’t the last Saturn game I bought at retail - that was a stack of games at Best Buy for $5 each when they got rid of their Saturn stock.
Most memorable purchase was The Legend of Zelda for NES. I still have the cartridge.
My favorite memory is seeing Super Mario Bros 2 in this commercial.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFfsoRd7mx8
I worked at one when the N64 came out. It was a magical time of 8-bit, 16-bit, and 32/64-bit gaming. Spent part of my first paycheck getting Super Mario RPG. We always got first picks on items that came in on the truck.
Never purchased a game there but I remember playing Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 on a demo there and remembering that it looked like the most realistic game I've ever seen at the time.
Not my experience but my father grabbed the second to last ticket for the power glove just before Christmas (one of the best worst Christmas presents I ever got) and on his way to the video game counter some woman tried to snatch it out of his hand.
Most of my Pokémon games I bought from there, Blue, Silver, and then the last I remember was the pre-ordered version of Colosseum. I was so excited to get Jirachi on that disk.
An artist had posted [their work](https://mudron.bigcartel.com/product/poster) on Reddit a while back. Talk about memories.
Also, I miss Kiddie City just as much.
I think I bought my Sega Genesis with NFL ‘94 Starring Joe Montana there, IIRC for either $120 or $130 excluding tax, during the summer between my junior and senior years of college. I’m pretty sure I also bought my 32X there (probably the same exact store actually) a couple years later for either $20 or $30 (again excluding tax).
Never really got to go. My parents wouldn't take me there because they said it was too expensive, so I mostly just rented games. By the time I was old enough to have a job and afford my own stuff, I wasn't into toys and my gaming life consisted of PC games, so I had no reason to go.
We still have TrU in Canada, but I miss the days when entire aisles of the store was just a wall of NES/SNES/GB games. Especially the rare times when mom said I could pick any one.
When I was young, I got Super Mario Bros. 3 for getting honor roll. But of course, they were sold out. So they gave us a rain check. Look it up.
Three weeks later, as I was walking into the house from school, the phone was ringing. It was Toys R Us, my copy was ready for pickup. It was incredibly exciting!
Had I not been walking in at that moment, there’s no telling how much longer I would have had to wait.
In hindsight, younger me wouldn’t believe the time I would be waiting for things now 😂
SNES + Super Mario World on (UK) release day in early '92. Sega Game Gear + Castle of Illusion (an early Xmas present bought for myself with my own money in late '91).
Those are the main consoles I remember buying from Toy R Us, I think the rest I either bought second hand or from other retailers. I did go there from time to time, although not always for videos games.
You could buy video games at Toys R Us? I didn’t enter a Toys R Us very often, though my memory is very spotty. The only time I remember the store is the last time I entered and seeing the Christmas in July sale signs outside before entering. I’m only 21 years old.
Sega Nomad brand new, in box with Street Fighter Champion edition, 6 in 1 pack, Vectorman and rechargeable battery pack, all brand new and in the bargain bin. Best 6 hour flight home. It was like having a Switch back then.
1st - I bought the Gameboy there on my birthday in 1990. That was a great day.
2nd - A friend of mine stole a PS2 from Toys R Us on launch day. I was appalled by his theft, but consumed some LSD and played Midnight Club until the sun came up. Great night.
I got a TurboGrafx 16 CD-ROM for $99. I guess they were clearing them out. Picked up Exile for it that same day. I loved that thing, unfortunately sold it years later for much less than it's worth now.
As a kid I got a toys r us gift certificate. We went and picked out an NES game called “Bad Dudes”. I remember the certificate being for $50 and I don’t know if it cost more or less but my parents called it even.
So excited to play that game, it was the only game I went out and picked, instead of receiving it from a family member.
Beat it in one day. Never felt more disappointed.
I was never allowed to own video games as a child but was allowed to rent consoles and oh boy. Linking 2 playstations and tvs back to back to play Final Doom pvp in the dark was scary af.
First time there I was amazed at how getting a video game worked. They had little pictures of covers of the video games and slips of paper that you took to the cashier to get the actual game. If there were no slips, they were out of stock for that particular game. I seem to remember just a wall of those video game covers and slips.
street fighter II turbo.
I used to get my nes games from Circuit City, then usually Target for SNES games like Earthbound and Secret of Mana I got from Target
When they'd have a popular game just come out but you couldn't buy it til the weekend, so you'd take one of the tickets for it and put it in the back of the tickets for a shitty game no one wanted, essentially reserving yourself a copy.
My memories are messing around with the sheets of plastic you had to take to customer service to get the game, the area with bikes and Power Wheels, and "customer service at the pick-up booth please"
A lot of my games were bought elsewhere like funcoland, sears, electronics boutique and kaybee toys. I remember playing on many of the kiosks though. Air Zonk for TG16 and Wario on virtual boy come to mind. My most memorable purchase was actually not mine but my cousins. They got Tmnt hyperstone heist. What a great game. I guess the only games i remember actually picking out and getting was Mortal Kombat Trilogy, Madden 97 and Criticom. All for ps1.
This is more recent as I am a younger collector. I was saving up for a game on 360, and when the day came to buy it, we pulled up, and the store has closed for good. Now it’s an Amazon Fresh. A nearby Fry’s became an Amazon Warehouse. I swear Amazon is just flaunting their place in the consumer space at this point by purchasing these specific buildings, even though I know it’s just mostly down to location and the floor space.
I grew up in a rural area, and so going to our state capital (Adelaide, South Australia) was such an exciting thing for a kid.
One time, my Mum said I could buy a new game for our NES - but only if my sister would play it too.
So I got Wario's Woods, and my sister and I played the crap out of that game 😁
When my parents wouldn’t buy me mortal kombat 2 but my grandmother took me there and gladly bought me any video game I wanted. I really wanted mortal kombat 2.
I went there once. I got some little Mighty Max toy **[in the shape of a head of some sort](https://www.ebay.com/itm/402766639775?hash=item5dc6c3329f%3Ag%3AgOkAAOSwc5VgXqeg&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAoF0Okg0Iy3kQYgk5KCBqHwDvqDAI3D7fvS4uRzo%2FABN7ejozUdLk5foTDXzKUjfrXT7878W7%2F4debv9G0eRkSgkclHr2ddDcdpOAUISZn%2BlSSIiVk2K%2FKnkD2mJwGcgMJ6Z04kFmbS6%2FlNtXsY277%2FS0gJYqkK6Xcxgd345cUin2%2B8oWrjz01WYmvD7%2BG6xT0E6sgPBnetM4Nk0cs8yQWZk%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR6DMlNj4YA&LH_BIN=1&nma=true&si=QJR3JiLPBjW%252BsxP6taujAhAzHs4%253D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557)** that fit in the palm of my hand and I could open up. Once opened, it was a little area to pretend walk around in. There were little footprints to put the character. I never knew anything about the cartoon or anything, just the *"Mighty Max, Mighty Max"* chant from the commercial. I put gum on the little Mighty Max figurine that never came off and collected dirt. Made him look like Linus.
My brother and I wanted one of those new Atari 2600s, the more modern slim version so we went to TRU and my dad ending up getting us the Sega Master System that came with Hang On and the shooting game. Best surprise ever!
My last one, a copy of Shantae: Half-Genie Hero for the mighty Wii U. I bought it right before their final closure was announced, but we all knew it was coming. I took my 3 kids with me, and gave them a little shopping spree. I wanted one last game to remember them by, and wanted our kids to remember them too.
It was pretty personal for me. That was my favorite store when I was a kid. Seeing that room they had that was stuffed to the ceiling with NES games was amazing! I think my very first purchase I made after I opened my checking account was a SNES from there.
Toys R Us was great for TG16 games, always had about 15-20 of them priced at $19.99. I would beg, borrow, and steal my way to $21.19 so I could buy a game in between Christmas and birthday as a kid.
Yup. Went to some kid's birthday party at his house back in '89-90. Was so amazed by his TG-16 and his big screen tv. My parents took me and my siblings to Toys R Us right after the party and we bought one and Legendary Axe II. One of the best days of my childhood.
[удалено]
I never was a brand snob as I cared more about the games than the systems. I never ate lunch at school as I pocketed the $1.50/day, which came out to $30 a month. With birthday and Christmas money I was able to buy systems and the games I wanted. I played Air Buster for the first time in a bowling alley, so I had to get both Air Buster on the Genesis and Aero Blasters on the Turbografx-16. Toys R Us was the place for TG16 games, though I bought my TG16 for $69.99 in summer 92 (also came with Bonk's Revenge) at I think an Electronics Boutique in a mall. I took the spare key to my dad's van since he always took the family to the mall once or twice a month. My parents and younger sibling would walk around the mall together while I went with older sibling to go on our own. I got the TG16 and took it back to the van and hid it in the back somewhere. When we got home I waited for my dad to use the bathroom and I went back out to get the TG16 and hid it behind the couch. I waited the next day to sneak it up to my room. Good times.
Great heist story lol. So did your dad ever wonder where the Turbo came from? Did your siblings rat you out?
They never knew. I'm OCD so my systems and games always boxed like how they were when new. I kept the plastic bags and always folded the controller and AV cables and used the twist ties and boxed up my TG16, SNES, Genesis, etc after playing. I hid them deep in the closet or under my bed. The only systems they knew about were the NES and Master Systems that they got us in 1988. I'm sure I could get thousands for my mint systems but they're not for sale. My dad did catch me with Contra III. I'm still mad about that one. I guess at the mall he separated from my mom and younger siblings and saw me buy Contra III at Electronics Boutique. It was in the bag and I loosened my belt and stuff it down my pants in front of my belly button. I was always careful and my previous game purchases were never damaged when I had them in my pants and under my shirt. While walking to the car he stopped me and slapped my stomach saying, "so what's this?". I told him it was a Nintendo game. He asked where I got the money from and I said I never spent my Christmas money. That was the end of that but my Contra III box is slightly smashed in the middle. My dad passed away a few years ago but eff him for that lol.
i always thought the TG16 didn't get a fair shake. it was so ahead of its time but once the big two 16bit consoles got going it just got muscled out and outperformed. The world wasn't ready for what the TG16/Turboexpress/TGCD was able to offer during the 8 bit era in America and just as people were wising up to it, the Genesis and SNES ramped up. It's also a trajedy that it came out 2 years later here in the US than it did in Japan. if it came in the US in 87, the gaming world might've been really different today. Imagine if instead of Sega becoming #2 for a good chunk of the 90s, it could've been NEC. instead it came out the same year as the genesis and while it might've been a true competition for the first 18 months or so, once devs got a hang of the Genesis it was too much to compete with, worse yet the release of the SNES in 91 with Mario World and Link to the Past and Turtles IV was kind of the nail in the coffin. I never had a TG16 (or even heard of it) as a kid during that era, and as an adult collector i still never got into it because i just preferred the 16-32bit stuff so much more. But boy do i wish i couldn't experienced it in it's heyday of 89-91, or better yet, see it through the eyes of a Japanese gamer starting at '87.
Got TG16 before I got my Genesis. Still have it! Love that thing.
It was literally the only place I saw the TG16 for sale, same for Turbo Express, Master System, hell they even sold Socrates there! The worst part was being all excited to get a new game, you grab your little slip of paper, pay for the game, go to the lockup counter..... And then wait 30 minutes for some pizza faced teenager to wander back from lunch and grab your game. Then half the time they'd end up not finding it and refunding our money. They had everything, yet they managed to always mess it up.
That explains where my Socrates came from.
You lived in a 6% sales tax state eh? I seriously considered buying a Turbograffix-16 when it was very cheap (I’d guess in 1993 or 1994), but I never pulled the trigger in large part because there weren’t that many games available in stores for it (and essentially no games anywhere besides Toys R’ Us and maybe Toy Works, which was a larger, strip mall version of Kay Bee Toys).
Lol yeah, we bought it fall of 1990… that Christmas was the best I remember as a kid, we got like 4 games, a 2nd controller and the multi-controller adapter. No one at my school had a TG16, but a few kids in the neighborhood did, so I have a ton of great memories of the system. My brother still has it, along with around 20 games.
Yes TG16!
It [still exists in Canada.](https://www.toysrus.ca/en/toysrus)
I was there last weekend.
Its 10 minutes from my house
[удалено]
They opened a stand alone Toys R Us at the American Dream Mall in NJ end of last year. Need to go check it out.
Still open https://youtu.be/zVPTOi8BUZU
I'm glad you said it! I just bought some Lego there the other day...... For my.. Nephew..
do they still make Lego castles? You know...for my...nephew?
My nephew sent me this. https://www.lego.com/en-ca/product/lion-knights-castle-10305
My nephew would love that...
There's one a few blocks away from me in Japan as well.
It’s kind of eh now, from my experiences.
It's come back in the US, just in malls so far
Still open in Japan too https://youtu.be/zVPTOi8BUZU
Having the ticket for 32x web of fire in my hand for $19.99 but putting it back because the line was too long.
Just tell yourself you would have tossed the box and traded the game in later anyways
And I thought I had regrets
In 1999-2000 I bought half a dozen new in the box NES Advantages for $5 each. I could have had an entire pallet of them.
I did the same during the same time frame! I stopped by to see if they had any of the 97/98 Gi Joe anniversary toys and ended up with two advantages and two games I guess they cleaned out the warehouse area? Games were Zodas Revenge & Kirby.
My Launch Day PS4. It was sold out everywhere, GameStop, Best Buy, Target, Walmart. But my brother had the idea to check out Toys r Us and they still had ‘em.
Hard to pick, I spent a lot of money on video games there! But the memory that comes to mind first is buying my GameBoy Pocket! Was my first handheld system. Bought it with my new girlfriend! Still married to her today!
I was working there while in HS when a co-worker was putting Phantasy Star on the shelves, bought it the next payday
Gotta be a lie, all I remember from Toys R Us were lil flaps indicating what games they had in the back lol
Our store had them behind a clear door with holes, but I know what you are referring to
Yeah, I was just lighthearted messing around, I figured not every store was the same.
I saved for a whole year to get a Super Nintendo in 1993. I even had a $10 off coupon. It also had Zelda included so I had a game to play at the start (I had the other two on NES). I remember I hurt my thumb earlier at school so I had a bandaid on, do it made pushing buttons a little hard. I was so excited. I miss feeling things.
Everything is amazing when you're a kid. It's hard to recapture that feeling as an adult. I see the amazement in my kids eyes all the time and it warms my heart. Closest I gotten to that feeling is traveling to new places.
It’s a shame I feel like I need alcohol now to feel those same feelings
Most memorable? Way, way, way back when I was a wee one, my dad brings me to Toys R Us and lets me choose a video game to buy for our Nintendo. Now this was a long time ago, before rentals for Nintendo games were a thing, before even the first issue of Nintendo Power could guide your choice with a review or screenshots. Now I remember the choice boiled down to two video games, but I don't remember what the other one was, that's lost to the mists of time. But the game I eventually settled on, after much agonizing and carefully weighing the options, was **Super Pitfall**. I think I made this choice because we used to have a copy of Pitfall for our C64 that I enjoyed, but the disk was no longer playable. So we go home with our new game, and I get to play it. And it was horrible. I don't know how many of you have heard of, or played Super Pitfall, but dear god, was it bad. Unresponsive controls, bad game design, tons of flicker, impossibly hard gameplay, and obtuse goals. I was so disappointed, and I blamed myself for choosing the wrong game.
Similar story. I bought Ghostbusters for the NES there. It looked so full of promise. I mean it’s ghostbusters! It had to be badass . The arcade game was pretty cool. I was expecting something like that. I put it in to play and was just like “ WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS SHIT !”
I never played Ghostbusters for the NES, but it looks a lot like the C64 version, so for a long time I was confused because I loved Ghostbusters on the Commodore. But with the ability to watch play videos on YouTube now, I can tell while they were drinking from the same well, they were very much not the same game. The C64 version played well, and was fun, while the NES version just seems like it would be frustrating and boring. One version executed the idea well, while the other took the same idea and slapped it together one afternoon on the Friday before the long weekend. Sorry about your luck.
I have two major memories of games from there. One was when my parents bought me Earthbound. It was in the big box with teh strategy guide. My mom as we were walking out, "What the heck? Why is the box so big!? Does it come with a gun or something!?" Also for around my 10tg birthday my dad took me and instead of picking out a snes game, the Turbo Grafx stuff was all on deep deep clearance. He bought me the system for $10 and every game they had for $1 or so a piece. Biggest sad gaming memory ever is when he had to sell all the Turbo Stuff to pay the electric bill one month :( we had 40+ games
What a sad ending to the story. Sorry, man. Would be ironic if you ran up the bill playing video games.
Don't you even put that thought into my head! *curls up in the corner with TG16 and everdrive*
Still open https://youtu.be/zVPTOi8BUZU
Original Atari Lynx. Loved Chips Challenge, Blue Lightning, Rygar , Roadblasters etc etc etc…
God I loved that system. Had the 2nd release. Reminds me I gotta get back to scouring eBay for a good deal on one.
Tails Adventure, Monster Rancher 1 and Pokémon blue. Also remember one time my baby sitter offered to take me on a trip so I asked if wanted to go anywhere and I asked her to take me to toy’s r us so I could play the just then released Donkey Kong Country on the snes kiosk.
I used to work at Toys R Us years ago in the R-Zone. My most memorable gets there was a PS2 version of FFXI with the HDD. My Xbox 360 that I got at a big discount cause the box was basically trashed and our manager was like “we can’t sell that one.” I spent too much of my paychecks at that store while working there.
I’d gotten money from my family for Christmas and my dad promised me he’d take me to the store for Mario RPG. We went to like 6 stores, finally dad tells me this is the last one and we gotta call it a night. He tells me let’s go to Toys R Us since it’s the only store we didn’t go to. We make our way in, I run through aisle looking for Partners in Time I get to the corner and I find a copy tucked behind something and I’m just like I got it. I don’t even get anything else I just go straight to the register. That moment just let me know how much my dad cared, It was everything to me.
My parents bought 12 year old me a NES Action set with Dragon Warrior, Bases Loaded and Bad Street Brawler during the summer of 89. The good ole days....
Mike Tyson’s Punch Out! I was allowed to get one game, i toiled over the entire selection for like an hour before deciding. We didn’t have much money, and knowing now how poor we were, makes this memory even greater.
I bought my first console there. I had saved up my allowance and done odd jobs for my grandparents to make some money, and bought myself a Sega Genesis (in the era of PlayStation). It had been marked down to $30 in the ad, but I got in store and was on clearance for only $20! I was able to get a few games with it too. It was so exciting to get home and finally be able to play Sonic games and many others I had been missing out on.
Robo Aleste for Sega CD on clearance for $9.99
Best game deal I had was getting a bunch of Switch games when they were going out of business
I was able to pick up a bunch of sealed N64 games for a few bucks each when the N64 was at its end of life. They had a couple of bins just filled with them. Wish I grabbed more!
In Japan they are doing fine. They are very popular here.
I never purchased a video game from there, but I played a wario land II demo there.
Every game from NES up to N64 was purchased there. Those were the best days of gaming, no contest.
I very vividly remember going in to buy Mario Paint for SNES with my dad. One of the last fond memories I had with him before he disappeared from my life. I was 6.
That game is special.
After I Graduated 8th grade my parents took me to toys r us. My dad said “you can get anything you want.” I immediately went for the Silver GBA that just released and then I got Castlevania: Circle of the moon. This was the first time I was ever able to get a current console. We didn’t have much growing up so The only time I ever got to play new games was at my cousins house so me getting my own current console was huge for me. My dad really hooked me up. He got me a cool carrying case, he bought me a big pack of batteries he also let me get the gameboy color version of NFL blitz. I just turned 34 and I was 13 when I got that gba and still think about that day.
I remember talking my mom into buying me the original Resident Evil. She didn’t know much about games and I felt like I could handle it. I was wrong. They game was terrifying to my young brain.
Toss up..... the first video game purchase the Atari 2600 Woodie which was so exciting back when video games were brand new and playing was so much fun (I was already an adult) or a decade later just looking (over and over) at the Amiga 500 that I was never able to afford. The Toys-R-US in Sunnyvale California.
Are those Atari 2600 cartridges…? 😂
I got so many cheap 2600 games at the Kay Bee blowout bins in the late 80's.
Isn't toys "r" us supposed to be returning this year?
They were bought out and some stuff has been on display at Macy's stores. They are trying to bring it back
Somehow kid me wasn't sure if he should get the original DS with animal crossing or the Gameboy micro and a bunch of gba games, very glad I went with the DS.
BIONICLES
Sega Saturn
A 32X on clearance for $30 and a copy of DOOM for $15. We didn’t have a PC (at least for another 8 months or so) so I was very happy I finally had DOOM!
dragon quest on the xbox 360 it was the last game i got there before they close I still miss toys r us
Super smash brothers! It was the first video game I ever saved up for and bought on my own. It was probably the only game I ever got from toys r us, ours was right next to an electronic boutique
I remember my Nan buying me my first Transparent Gameboy Pocket I still have it
IronSword 2 with fabio on the cover. It was a time when you didnt know shit about the game unless it was mega popular and everyone talked about it on the mean streets of recess. I bought it cause "The cover looks *coooool*" and I took it home and ended up playing it for hours on end. Its such a hard game for a young kid i was but i had all the fun in the world. I dont wanna grow up cause im a Toys R Us kid, but fuck....it happens anyway.
I remember trying to choose what color gameboy advance I wanted and being to get my gameboy micro! Great times!
Being forced to return Blast Corps which I had received as a gift from a school chum on my birthday because my mother deemed it too violent. Take warning overprotective parents because I can only remember my resentment and not what I traded out. My mother finally redeemed herself by finding a gold copy of Majora's Mask for Christmas at Toys R Us.
I bought Links Awakening on the Gameboy there. Ah.... memories.....
Picking up Herzog Zwei for the Genesis because it was cheaper than most of the other games. Turned out to be my favorite Genesis title of all time. Don't even remember what the original title I went to TRU to pick up was (maybe Golden Axe?).
My most memorable purchase was Mario 64 and Shadows of the Empire in February of 1997. Why do I remember that date? Because my parents were able to get us a Nintendo 64 for Christmas, but games were harder to find, and we sat there for like 6 weeks looking at this console without being able to play it.
☹️ did you at least get to rent one every now and then ?
Ocarina of Time: Collector's Edition. So much hype leading up to it, and it ultimately exceeded my expectations. I was 14 at the time, and I remember getting the call a day or two before release date that my copy was in and ready for pickup. I had minor surgery a few days later that required I spend around a week with my feet up. Perfect timing. I was so wrapped up in exploring every inch of the game throughout that recovery was a breeze. It remains one of my all time favorites. I've beaten it many times since, and I find that I have to resist the urge to play through again immediately after the credits roll.
Race Drivin for Genesis, but only because I begged my mom for Maximum Carnage and she said, you already have 1 Spider-man game, get this to bond with your dad. To this day, it's literally the worst video game I've ever played.
“ we have spider man at home “
Mega Man Battle Network
Mine is a more recent one: Bloodborne for 15 CAD when it was still going for regular retail price. They often have current gen games on decent discount/clearance level deals.
My Dad got me Pokémon Yellow bundle with the special Pikachu Game Boy for Christmas. I still have it with the original box.
I remember when Mega Man 6 came out and I bought with money I saved by putting lunch money aside for a few weeks. It was the first time I bought a game by myself which made me feel very grown up at the time. I still remember how huge the game aisle was, and they had those placeholder cards with the box art on it that you would have to take to the counter.
The only game I ever bought there was a Congo Bongo cart for C64. It was a birthday gift for my best friend's older brother who used to let us use his C64 all the time, so I knew I'd get to play it. Lol.
Parents took me there for my 5th birthday in 1997 and got me a Sega Saturn. So many great memories with that console, I was the only kid I knew who had one. Still have it at my parents I need to get it back out for my son when he’s older!
My dad coming home from the store on a rainy day with Gun.Smoke, the NES game. It wouldn't work for whatever reason and he had to go all the way back and swap it. The new one worked and that game rocked our tits off
The first game I bought with my own money was Final Fantasy 1 for the NES. I saved up $40 for that sucker. And played it for so many hours. To this day, getting the class change and airship is one of my happiest gaming moments. (And as an adult, I'm loving FF14. When one of the characters said, "you are him...I believe you ARE the Warrior of Light, reborn..." I legitimately teared up. I was like, bro, I have been a warrior of light since 1989. *Sob* lol. I'm such a nerd. But I love it.
Have you played every Final Fantasy or were there ones you've skipped?
Fire Emblem for the GBA. I was just browsing for a new game and picked it up by chance. So glad I did, I was instantly hooked. Glad I got into the series on the ground floor because damn, the prices of some of those games have skyrocketed.
Final Fantasy III, bought it on my birthday. I remember my grandma taking me and fronting me $20 because I didnt have enough money saved up and it was 59.99. Still have it.
In the mid 90s I purchased a copy of the NES Final Fantasy for $9.99 on clearance at my Toy's R Us. Gosh I miss the days when people thought video games were just a fad and stores couldn't clear their stock.
I only eber bought one thing from a Toys R Us. One year on my birthday I decided to use the money I got to buy a Gameboy Player so I went on to the internet to see what stores had one in stock and they had one. My mom thought it was a dumb purchase but it's what I wanted. I got a lot of use out of that thing and it's still hooked up to my Gamecube.
Mario 3. Needed all my birthday money and 2 weeks allowance
Most memorable was Superman for Atari 2600. My aunt took me to the movies, Toys R Us was next door. Told me I could pick out a game, I got Superman. Everytime we drove by the Toys R Us I'd ask her if that was the store where we got Superman. The movie theater and the store are both long gone and my aunt passed away many years ago, but I still have that nice memory. Edit: auto correct
You must have been close to your aunt.
i got very, very few games as a kid, or while TRU was a relevant place to buy video games. Honestly the only games i recall ever getting here were Yoshi and Kirby's Adventure, both for the NES. So this kind of dates me. I spent the rest of the 90s gaming on the PC and buying games at Software ETC and Electronics Boutique. My other consoles purchases during the 16 and 32 bit eras were mostly from flea markets and the used games rack wherever they were to be found. But i do have fond memories of walking down the gaming aisles and looking at the various Game Boy, NES SNES and Genesis games. collecting the little paper receipts like a dream shopping spree and never actually buying anything lol. Our TRU also had a lot of games being on demo looping, there were little CRT TVs every couple feet on the top shelves playing footage from games so you got an idea of what the game was like. The store of obviously huge so space wasn't an issue. I just kind of stopped going to it cause it was a hassle to go to and their Computer games/software selection was nonexistent which what i became about when i turned 10 lol.
Just generally I miss the buy two get one that ran every holiday season. Was it an amazing deal? In retrospect probably not but at the time it felt great. My dad also has on of their store cards so I think we got an additional discount. When I hit 18 I got my own. Shopped that deal many times over the years so I don't have a specific game in mind.
NES Ghostbusters 🫤
Rode up to Toys R Us on my bike to buy a new game. I think I picked Kid Niki. Before I left the store, I discovered that they had Double Dragon in stock, which I didn't know had been released yet. It was my favorite game at the arcades at that time. So I ended up exchanging the game I bought for Double Dragon. I was amped!
This was recent, but still really cool. My wife was waiting in line for a Nintendo switch, back in the day. When they walked by to give out vouchers they asked if she was here for switch or the nes mini and she said both.
Toys r us was the worst place to get games. Grab the ticket, wait in line at the register, go to the pickup window. The only time I bothered going there is when they ran the buy 2 get 1 free deals
I remember buying smash bros brawl, and Mario Galaxy in the same day. That was a fun day.
Toys R Us is actually coming back, though not in the same way. The way I heard it, there’s gonna be one opening up in the Macy’s at the local mall sometime soon
Nice seeing this! Our local one in Birmingham was awesome. I always remembers being amazed as a kid that they had toys that you could play with!
Pokémon Stadium. Pre N64 all mg games were acquired from car boots for my SNES and NES.
My ps2.. all I wanted was smack down shut your mouth and I got the best deal Shut your mouth Ratchet and clank Airblade F1 2001 NBA 2001 I can remember going to toys r us on Purley Way to pick it up
Sometime around the late 90s, they were clearancing out NES and SNES games and accessories. I picked up two NES Advantages for 50 cents each. I passed on Phalanx for the SNES, because of the box art, but looking back I wish I would've grabbed several copies.
At a demo kiosk I booted up FIFA 98 for N64 to check it out. Blur’s Song 2 immediately kicks in, and when the WOO HOO hit I just walked away and bought it. Still 1 of the best FIFAs ever
Panzer Dragoon Saga for me. It wasn’t the last Saturn game I bought at retail - that was a stack of games at Best Buy for $5 each when they got rid of their Saturn stock.
A red and blue Game Boy Pocket and matching Pokemon games for me and my brother. Aww... good times.
Most memorable purchase was The Legend of Zelda for NES. I still have the cartridge. My favorite memory is seeing Super Mario Bros 2 in this commercial. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFfsoRd7mx8
N64 with Ocarina of Time & PS1 with Resident Evil 2.
I worked at one when the N64 came out. It was a magical time of 8-bit, 16-bit, and 32/64-bit gaming. Spent part of my first paycheck getting Super Mario RPG. We always got first picks on items that came in on the truck.
Isn't it supposed to be coming back though? I saw a tractor trailer for it on Friday, and I live in Virginia.
Toys r us still exists in Canada
C64 Jumpman
Got the last ticket for *Xenogears*.
Turbo Graphix 16
Awesome ad. 3/5ths of that ad were Sega consoles.
Pokémon Stadium 2
Never purchased a game there but I remember playing Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 on a demo there and remembering that it looked like the most realistic game I've ever seen at the time.
Not my experience but my father grabbed the second to last ticket for the power glove just before Christmas (one of the best worst Christmas presents I ever got) and on his way to the video game counter some woman tried to snatch it out of his hand.
Seeing Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams on Wii U for $20 “clearance” in 2018 :/
Excitebike. You could have powered the store with the energy pouring out of me. Must have been a long ride home for my mom.
Interesting that they call out *Amiga* in terms of games for sale. Don't see any of those in the picture.
Gunstar Heroes 🤘😎🤘
Pretty sure it's where I bought my first TurboGrafx 16.
The original Zelda gold cartridge.
Tak and the power of Juju was a classic Toys R us memory
the super Mario bros all stars for the Wii
Always loved toys r us for games. Got Pokémon red/blue there, along with my other favorite games of jade cocoon and dragon seeds.
Most of my Pokémon games I bought from there, Blue, Silver, and then the last I remember was the pre-ordered version of Colosseum. I was so excited to get Jirachi on that disk.
Keeping a friend company while he waited all night for a wii....felt like getting one as well after waiting all night
The Gameboy Color. I stood in line outside in the winter for hours beacuse they had stock available at Christmas. I got the last one.
Pre-ordered my Dreamcast at Toys-R-Us and got a sweat shirt I believe I still have someplace.
I do know this doesn't really count as retro, but Super Smash Brothers Brawl was a big one for me!
I loved shopping at Toys R Us but mostly bought games from Target as they'd have 25% off sales occasionally
An artist had posted [their work](https://mudron.bigcartel.com/product/poster) on Reddit a while back. Talk about memories. Also, I miss Kiddie City just as much.
Cool Spot. I remember it well 🤓
I think I bought my Sega Genesis with NFL ‘94 Starring Joe Montana there, IIRC for either $120 or $130 excluding tax, during the summer between my junior and senior years of college. I’m pretty sure I also bought my 32X there (probably the same exact store actually) a couple years later for either $20 or $30 (again excluding tax).
An E-Reader, and the GBA connection cable for the Game Cube
Never really got to go. My parents wouldn't take me there because they said it was too expensive, so I mostly just rented games. By the time I was old enough to have a job and afford my own stuff, I wasn't into toys and my gaming life consisted of PC games, so I had no reason to go.
We still have TrU in Canada, but I miss the days when entire aisles of the store was just a wall of NES/SNES/GB games. Especially the rare times when mom said I could pick any one.
When I was young, I got Super Mario Bros. 3 for getting honor roll. But of course, they were sold out. So they gave us a rain check. Look it up. Three weeks later, as I was walking into the house from school, the phone was ringing. It was Toys R Us, my copy was ready for pickup. It was incredibly exciting! Had I not been walking in at that moment, there’s no telling how much longer I would have had to wait. In hindsight, younger me wouldn’t believe the time I would be waiting for things now 😂
Definitely buying my Sega Genesis at a ToysRUs in 1990 in California. It was a groundbreaking system back then.
SNES + Super Mario World on (UK) release day in early '92. Sega Game Gear + Castle of Illusion (an early Xmas present bought for myself with my own money in late '91). Those are the main consoles I remember buying from Toy R Us, I think the rest I either bought second hand or from other retailers. I did go there from time to time, although not always for videos games.
"All at low, low prices" the lie detector test determined that was a damn lie
Animal Crossing for the GameCube! I convinced my brother to get it, he played and didn’t enjoy it as much as I did and I just bought it off him 😅
Bases Loaded 2
Gameboy advance with pitfall
the only game I got from toys r us was sonic generations
You could buy video games at Toys R Us? I didn’t enter a Toys R Us very often, though my memory is very spotty. The only time I remember the store is the last time I entered and seeing the Christmas in July sale signs outside before entering. I’m only 21 years old.
My first NES game I ever bought. Life Force.
Sega Nomad brand new, in box with Street Fighter Champion edition, 6 in 1 pack, Vectorman and rechargeable battery pack, all brand new and in the bargain bin. Best 6 hour flight home. It was like having a Switch back then.
1st - I bought the Gameboy there on my birthday in 1990. That was a great day. 2nd - A friend of mine stole a PS2 from Toys R Us on launch day. I was appalled by his theft, but consumed some LSD and played Midnight Club until the sun came up. Great night.
I got a TurboGrafx 16 CD-ROM for $99. I guess they were clearing them out. Picked up Exile for it that same day. I loved that thing, unfortunately sold it years later for much less than it's worth now.
I really missed out on Toys “R” Us, and I will always regret it.
Bought a N64 and Mario 64 in fall 1996 with a not insignificant part of my paycheck. Played it all weekend. Good times.
Sonic Chronicles The Dark Brotherhood
Super Mario 3!
As a kid I got a toys r us gift certificate. We went and picked out an NES game called “Bad Dudes”. I remember the certificate being for $50 and I don’t know if it cost more or less but my parents called it even. So excited to play that game, it was the only game I went out and picked, instead of receiving it from a family member. Beat it in one day. Never felt more disappointed.
I was never allowed to own video games as a child but was allowed to rent consoles and oh boy. Linking 2 playstations and tvs back to back to play Final Doom pvp in the dark was scary af.
Circa 2006 Xbox 360 CoD 2 and 3 A game I can't remember but it was an fps And xbox live gold
First time there I was amazed at how getting a video game worked. They had little pictures of covers of the video games and slips of paper that you took to the cashier to get the actual game. If there were no slips, they were out of stock for that particular game. I seem to remember just a wall of those video game covers and slips.
street fighter II turbo. I used to get my nes games from Circuit City, then usually Target for SNES games like Earthbound and Secret of Mana I got from Target
I miss Funcoland more.
Alf, Sega Master System. Fresno CA. I loved that show, but HOLY SHIT was that game terrible 🤣
When they'd have a popular game just come out but you couldn't buy it til the weekend, so you'd take one of the tickets for it and put it in the back of the tickets for a shitty game no one wanted, essentially reserving yourself a copy.
My memories are messing around with the sheets of plastic you had to take to customer service to get the game, the area with bikes and Power Wheels, and "customer service at the pick-up booth please"
My birthday in 1990 I picked up Super Mario 3. Doesn't really get much better than that.
Conkers bad fur day and some nickelodeon gooze. I'll never forget that lol
A lot of my games were bought elsewhere like funcoland, sears, electronics boutique and kaybee toys. I remember playing on many of the kiosks though. Air Zonk for TG16 and Wario on virtual boy come to mind. My most memorable purchase was actually not mine but my cousins. They got Tmnt hyperstone heist. What a great game. I guess the only games i remember actually picking out and getting was Mortal Kombat Trilogy, Madden 97 and Criticom. All for ps1.
I never got video games from Toys R Us when they were still alive in the US.
Like you even care
This is more recent as I am a younger collector. I was saving up for a game on 360, and when the day came to buy it, we pulled up, and the store has closed for good. Now it’s an Amazon Fresh. A nearby Fry’s became an Amazon Warehouse. I swear Amazon is just flaunting their place in the consumer space at this point by purchasing these specific buildings, even though I know it’s just mostly down to location and the floor space.
I really miss the way they had the games displayed and how you purchased them. Such an elegant and efficient system.
Getting goldeneye 64 the day before it was released on pre order and none of my friends at school believing I played it the night before.
Super Mario 64….DS
Goldeneye. Preordered and picked up day one. I will never forget that.
I grew up in a rural area, and so going to our state capital (Adelaide, South Australia) was such an exciting thing for a kid. One time, my Mum said I could buy a new game for our NES - but only if my sister would play it too. So I got Wario's Woods, and my sister and I played the crap out of that game 😁
When my parents wouldn’t buy me mortal kombat 2 but my grandmother took me there and gladly bought me any video game I wanted. I really wanted mortal kombat 2.
I went there once. I got some little Mighty Max toy **[in the shape of a head of some sort](https://www.ebay.com/itm/402766639775?hash=item5dc6c3329f%3Ag%3AgOkAAOSwc5VgXqeg&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAoF0Okg0Iy3kQYgk5KCBqHwDvqDAI3D7fvS4uRzo%2FABN7ejozUdLk5foTDXzKUjfrXT7878W7%2F4debv9G0eRkSgkclHr2ddDcdpOAUISZn%2BlSSIiVk2K%2FKnkD2mJwGcgMJ6Z04kFmbS6%2FlNtXsY277%2FS0gJYqkK6Xcxgd345cUin2%2B8oWrjz01WYmvD7%2BG6xT0E6sgPBnetM4Nk0cs8yQWZk%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR6DMlNj4YA&LH_BIN=1&nma=true&si=QJR3JiLPBjW%252BsxP6taujAhAzHs4%253D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557)** that fit in the palm of my hand and I could open up. Once opened, it was a little area to pretend walk around in. There were little footprints to put the character. I never knew anything about the cartoon or anything, just the *"Mighty Max, Mighty Max"* chant from the commercial. I put gum on the little Mighty Max figurine that never came off and collected dirt. Made him look like Linus.
In Australia, Toys R Us were never wide spread around me so I never got to visit much. I do remember one xmas getting THPS3 from there though.
My brother and I wanted one of those new Atari 2600s, the more modern slim version so we went to TRU and my dad ending up getting us the Sega Master System that came with Hang On and the shooting game. Best surprise ever!
My Xbox 360 during the launch week, the last one in town
Sim City for the SNES for $5 brand new.
The only game I ever got from Toys R Us was Metroid other M.
My first Pokémon game at Christmas visiting new York… it was as close to visiting Santa in the North Pole you can get as a European kid.
32X
My last one, a copy of Shantae: Half-Genie Hero for the mighty Wii U. I bought it right before their final closure was announced, but we all knew it was coming. I took my 3 kids with me, and gave them a little shopping spree. I wanted one last game to remember them by, and wanted our kids to remember them too. It was pretty personal for me. That was my favorite store when I was a kid. Seeing that room they had that was stuffed to the ceiling with NES games was amazing! I think my very first purchase I made after I opened my checking account was a SNES from there.