Want Monthly Retro Games Delivered to Your Door?

I watch a lot of YouTube. Honestly, I watch a little more than I probably should. I cut the cord several years ago and, since then, YouTube has become a primary source of entertainment when I have a little time to kill. Being that YouTube is something I enjoy so regularly and that retro game collecting is a hobby of mine, it makes sense that I follow a handful of retro game collectors (and I have thought about doing a post listing the ones I enjoy watching at some point). One day, while watching some YouTube videos, I saw a video in my feed about Retro Game Treasure. It seems like I actually saw a few videos covering Retro Game Treasure pop up around the same time if I remember correctly. Anyway, my interest was piqued, so I watched a video or two on the topic as I still did not know what Retro Game Treasure was.

Let me go ahead and get this part out of the way. I am not sponsored by Retro Game Treasure, I am not profiting off this post, and they are not even aware in advance that I am writing this post. I am simply a satisfied customer that wants to share their experience and let more people know about this service.

Get Retro Games Delivered to Your Mailbox!

Retro Game Treasure is a service that ships a box to you each month containing 2-5 games that fit within the parameters you set via a survey on their website. The box looks like an 8-bit treasure box and costs you a whopping $35 a month to subscribe.

Upon signing up for the service, you fill in a short series of preferences, add a payment method, add your current library to your profile, then create a wish list. Now you sit back and wait for your monthly shipment to arrive! On the days that I make some more retro game pickups, I simply log into the Retro Game Treasure website and add my new games to my profile, removing them from my wish list if applicable. That’s all the interaction required.

You will receive an email around the 20th of each month letting you know that your monthly shipment is being processed, then another email stating that it has shipped which includes a tracking number. They ship out of Florida via USPS and, from Florida to the Austin, TX area, it takes between 2 - 5 days to arrive (that time will vary depending on your location). Around the first of each month, you receive another email stating that your subscription was renewed once again. That’s an overview of what you can expect from the service.

How is the Service Customizable?

Retro Game Treasure has several options you can change at any time to customize your experience. The first question on the survey is “My Retro Game collecting level is:” and you are presented with three options:

I’m just starting out (the more games the better!)
I’ve been collecting for 1 year or more! (I like a nice mixture of games)
I consider myself a Hardcore Collector (condition is key for me!)

To me, these options read as “gimme quantity”, “gimme a mix of quantity and quality”, and “gimme quality only”. I chose the middle option as my collection is still under 500 games so I am still trying to fill out my collection, but I have started to focus a little more on quality games and conditions too.

From here you will find a list of game genres and are asked to select at least four. I selected all but “Real Sports” and “Strategy”. I am not that into strategy games and I was afraid that by selecting “Real Sports”, I would end up with monthly boxes of NBA Live and Madden games which I care absolutely nothing about.

Similarly, you are then asked to select from a list of themes. These include themes like “fantasy”, “sc-fi”, “anime”, “pokemon”, etc. I really appreciate that they have this section as I don’t care for pokemon, anime, and a few other themes they have listed. After several months of receiving Retro Game Treasure boxes, I have yet to receive a game from one of the themes I did not select!

It only makes sense for the service to ship games from a specific set of consoles. At the next part of the survey, you are asked to select from which consoles on this list you wish to receive games. At first, I only selected a handful of consoles for which I was really interested in receiving games. As the months have passed, I have continued to visit the site and increase my selections to include every console I own that is part of their list. At some point, I realized that I would never seek out a lot of games for consoles I don’t play as much. I decided to let Retro Game Treasure build my collection for those consoles and I have not regretted that decision yet.

Finally, there is a section at the bottom of the survey titled “Bonus Round!” which asks general questions regarding your preferences on game ratings and games for specific peripherals. Do you have a light gun or Menacer? Do you want games that are rated M or E? This is where you can let them know the answers to those questions to fine-tune your experience.

I’m not sure what month I signed up, but I think it was between 6-8 months ago. To this date, I have not received something that went against the answers I have selected in this survey. I even added a note in a text field stating that I have a Japanese N64 modded to play US games so I wasn’t OK with imports in a general sense, but would welcome imports for the N64. I received the Japanese version of Kirby 64 recently. To me, this says they are really reading your preferences each month when they are preparing your order!

Yeah, But Are the Games Any Good?

So far, the games I have received from Retro Game Treasure have been a bit of a mixed bag. I have received games like “Star Wars: Episode I Racer” for the N64 and “Red Steel” for the Wii which were on my wish list and I was happy to receive. I even received a factory-sealed version of “Metroid Prime 3: Corruption” for the Wii! On the flip side, I also received “Bigfoot: Collision Course” for the Wii which is not something I would have ever bought on my own. A couple of months ago I received a PSP for "Killzone: Liberation” that actually contained “WipeOut: Pure” when I opened it up. I would have laughed this off if I didn’t already own “WipeOut: Pure”. The service is not perfect and you will not be receiving any Mario Kart or Zelda games, but remember that you are only paying $35 a month.

The condition of each game I have received would range between the better end of a “fair” rating to factory-sealed CIB. Every game I have tested from Retro Game Treasure so far has worked without any additional action from me. Sometimes the game will come with the original case and sometimes it won’t. While I prefer original cases, I don‘t get upset over this as I always use replacement cases and print covers before adding loose games to my collection (see my post How I Store My Games for more details on that subject). One month they sent my “Yar’s Revenge” for Game Boy Color with the original box which was a very pleasant surprise!

Here’s a list of what game I have received from Retro Game Treasure so far and whether or not they were on my wish list (as far as I can remember):

Operation Wolf - NES - wishlist
Platoon - NES - wishlist
R.C. Pro AM - NES -wishlist
Skate or Die - NES -wishlist
Star Wars: Episode I Racer - N64 - wishlist
Kirby 64 (Japanese) - N64 - wishlist
Soul Calibur - Dreamcast - wishlist
Halo: Platinum Hits - Xbox
Ninja Gaiden - Xbox - wishlist
Project Gotham Racing 2 - Xbox - wishlist
Bigfoot: Collision Course - Wii
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption - Wii - wishlist
Red Steel - Wii - wishlist
Star Wars - Wii - The Clone Wars: Republic Heroes
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed - Wii - wishlist
Army Men: Sarge’s Heroes 2 - Game Boy Color - wishlist (maybe)
Yars’ Revenge - Game Boy Color
Super Mario Advance - Game Boy Advance - wishlist
Daxter (sealed) - PSP -wishlist
WipeOut: Pure (In Killzone: Liberation case) - PSP
Secrent Agent Clank - PSP
Twisted Metal: Head On - PSP - wishlist
Fintal Fantasy XII: Revenent Wings - Nintendo DS

When I look at this list, I realize why I like this service so much regardless of any small complaints I may have. Not only am I receiving mostly quality games every month in my mailbox, I am receiving games I am happy to own but would not have likely sought out specifically at this point in my collecting. I get very focused on collecting for a certain franchise or for a specific console at times so what I go buy out in the wild usually falls in line with those goals. Meanwhile, Retro Game Treasure is sending me games at random that have nothing to do with my current collecting goals, but the games they send diversify my collection in a positive way. I rarely seek out games for my handhelds, and I wasn‘t sure that I wanted RGT to send me handheld games at first either. Since changing that option in my preferences, I have been happy to receive the handheld games they have sent me. It adds balance.

My Final Thoughts on Retro Game Treasure

I know I’ve mentioned that I have received a junk game and a duplicate game that came in the wrong case. Those are two very small complaints of mine and don’t really detract from my overall experience too much. I can look past the occasional junk game or mistake as I realize that nobody is perfect. Also, with literally thousands of junk games out there, I know that I will occasionally receive one here and there and that’s ok. Aside from those complaints, I have a couple more.

I have already collected every Halo game. I made sure they were in my library on the RGT website and none of them were in my wish list. One month I received “Halo: Platinum Hits” for the Xbox. I realize this is a variant I did not have, but I was also content with having just one of each Halo game. One day after this happened, I was entering more games into my wish list and realized what caused this. Retro Game Treasure lists the Platinum Hits, Nintendo Select, PlayStation Classics, etc games as completely different titles. I fear that his means I will probably receive more duplicate games someday just because I don’t have all the variants of that game. As a collector, this isn’t a huge deal. As a gamer, it is a little annoying as that is one less new game for me to play.

Also, the Retro Game Treasure website has Genesis, Super Nintendo, and PlayStation games listed as options, but I have yet to receive games for any of these consoles. I seem to receive a lot of NES games which I really like, but I also get too many Wii games. From a business perspective, this makes perfect sense. Wii games are abundant, easy to find, and not very valuable so it makes sense to send a lot of those games to anyone willing to receive them. Still, my Wii collection is growing the fastest, and it is the console I am the least interested in collecting for at the moment. I can overlook this for now, but I really hope to be receiving at least one game for the SNES, Genesis, and PlayStation in the near future.

Even with my complaints, I still love Retro Game Treasure and would recommend the service to every collector. Whether you are just starting out as a retro games collector or have over 1,000 in your collection, I feel like Retro Game Treasure can be a beneficial service that will add variety to your collection.

If you are interested in signing up for the service, it would rad if you used my referral link: https://www.retrogametreasure.com/refer/Paul-UHPDXPYN