We all know that retro games are worth big money these days, but it's rarer than you might think to hear of someone targeting classic titles when it comes to theft – but that's precisely what has happened in Japan this week (thanks, Alex Kraus).
It is reported that early on the morning of April 3rd, 2023, a 21-year-old university student broke into a used video game store in Sanjo City, Niigata, using a hammer to break the glass window.
According to local police, the suspect was caught with five games worth a total of ¥548,600 (around $4091 USD).
The games in question were:
- The Last Blade 2 (Neo Geo) (¥98,000)
- Savage Reign (new) (Neo Geo) (¥69,800)
- Far East of Eden: Kabuki Klash (new) (Neo Geo) (¥64,800)
- Chinhai (Super Famicom) (¥44,800)
- Mr. Nutz (Super Famicom) (¥74,800)
While some of those titles will be familiar to many people as possessing a high resale value, it's the inclusion of Mr. Nutz which is perhaps the most surprising; the copy in question is worth a cool $558 in US dollars. The low print run of the game in Japan is presumably the reason for its high value.
As a result of the break-in, the store lost several hours of business and had to undertake a stocktake to check if anything else was missing.
Released in Europe in 1993 on the SNES, Mr. Nutz was developed by Ocean and was an attempt by the UK-based company to create a mascot to compete with the likes of Sonic and Mario.
It would launch in North America and Japan in 1994. A Sega Mega Drive / Genesis version would launch in the same year, alongside a Game Boy port. It would later come to the Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance.