How lucky are the themed retro video game lucky bags from this shop in the Tokyo boonies?

Love, conquest, existence, and gatherings.

When it comes to shopping for retro video games, you might think your best bet is to scour the back alleys of Tokyo’s Akihabara or another one of Japan’s major urban city centers. However, some of the best bargains are hidden way outside of downtown, out in the countryside-adjacent suburbs of Japan’s sleepy commuter towns. With fancy leisure options fewer and farther between than in the big cities, there’s a voracious appetite among locals for all sorts of entertainment media, including video games, and the result is massive second-hand shops, such as the chain Guruguru Daiteikoku.

Guruguru Daiteikoku sells used books, manga, trading cards, and even clothing. It was their game selection, though, that brought our Japanese-language reporter Takuya Inaba to their branch in Hachioji, on the Tokyo outskirts, More specifically, it was Guruguru Daiteikoku’s used retro game fukubukuro, or lucky bags, that had drawn him there.

Like with the other lucky bags sold by retailers in Japan at New Year’s, each one contains a secret assortment of merchandise, with the promise that the total value of the items is more than the price charged for the bag. In the case of Guruguru Daiteikoku, though, there’s an additional disclaimer, which says:

“Only purchase this bag if you’re the sort of person who won’t get upset no matter what’s inside, and who can appreciate the contents as a fun conversation piece. No complaints will be accommodated or returns allowed. Contents may be visually damaged and lacking instruction books.”

▼ The disclaimer. And yes, there was a time, not too long ago, when it was accepted as a matter of course that games, when purchased new, would come with instruction books.

When Takuya got to the shop, the staff told him that there’d been a lot of demand for this year’s lucky bags, but there were still four types left. Each was labeled with the number of games the bag contained and which system they were for, and also bore a mysterious single kanji character designating some sort of theme. Takuya decided to buy one bag for each theme, and once he was back home he started by opening the “Love” (愛) bag, which had cost 550 yen (US$3.60) and contained eight games for Sony’s original handheld system, the PSP.

Takuya pulled the cases out one by one…and didn’t recognize any of them.

While the phenomenon didn’t necessarily happen overseas, for several years there was a pattern in which handheld video game systems in Japan, in the later years of their lifespans, received tons of female-focused romance games. In the case of the PSP, this coincided with a major surge in the rekijo, or “history girl” phenomenon, when women in Japan showed a spiking interest in samurai and other gallant historical figures, and those aesthetics and narrative themes showed up in a lot of the for-girls dating simulators of the time.

▼ Some of them, like the Hakuoki franchise, even had a few titles that saw overseas releases.

Next up was the “Conquer” (射) bag, containing 10 PlayStation 3 games for 1,100 yen.

Once again, the naming was spot-on, with seven games from Koei Tecmo’s Warriors/Muso franchise. Representing China’s Three Kingdoms era of military conflict were Dynasty Warriors 5, 5 Empires, 6 Empires, while Japan’s Sengoku period is the setting for Samurai Warriors 3 Empires, Z 3, and 4.

Developer Capcom also had a few of its Sengoku-set games in the Conquest bag: Sengoku Basara 3, 3 Utage, and 4, giving Takuya opportunities to raise an army and crush his enemies’ forces 10 times over.

Things got a little more mysterious, though with the “Ari” (有) bag.

Sure, Takuya knew it was going to contain five Nintendo DS games for 880 yen, but “ari” is kind of a vague concept, with a baseline meaning of “have” or “exist.” Any confusion, though, was cleared up as soon as Takuya saw what was inside.

Mario Kart DS, Yoshi’s Island, and Final Fantasy III are all considered classics by fans around the world, and while puzzle game Puyopuyo 7 and video board game Momotaro Densetsu DS Tokyo & Japan might not be so famous overseas, in Japan both franchises have huge fanbases. Another meaning of “ari” is that something is recognized as being a sufficiently high-quality option, and all five of these games are good, solid fun.

That just leaves the “Gather” (集) bag, with six Wii games for 1,100 yen.

This turned out to be a collection of titles that are perfect for get-togethers with friends and family, regardless of whether or not they’re hardcore gamers.

Wii Party and Mario Party 8 are all about fun, quick mini games that anyone can enjoy and have a chance of winning at, and while PokéPark 2’s main game is a single-player affair, it’s also got a bunch of multiplayer mini games. Pokémon Battle Revolution allows for spirited but light-hearted multiplayer competition too, while Mario Galaxy’s unique teamwork mechanic allows one player to control the famous Nintendo star while another spots and picks up on-screen collectible items.

And last, the bag also had a copy of the 25th Anniversary Super Mario Collection Special Pack. This contains the original Super Mario Bros., both the Japanese and U.S. versions of Super Mario Bros. 2, and Super Mario Bros. 3. While none of the games have co-op or simultaneous multiplayer modes, they’re all such influential and popular titles that anyone with any interest in video games at all will want a turn, making them perfect titles for passing the controller back and forth between levels/lives.

As an added bonus, the soundtrack disc and retrospective pamphlet that were included with early copies of the game were in the bag too, and unsealed to boot!

In total, Takuya walked away with 29 games for just 3,630 yen (US$23.75). That works out to a mere 125.2 yen each, or about the cost of a bottle of tea from a vending machine. That deal felt even more incredible when he did some checking and found a major online second-hand retailer offering the same games as were in his lucky bags for sale individually, with their total price if purchased that way coming to 18.320 yen, about six times what he’d paid!