Era has a cool best and worst rentals of all time thread, the responses are such a nostalgia trip. Since most of you are around my age we all have some experience with the joys of a rental store, picking out games based on box art alone. I made a big post about my history with rentals and I figured I would share it here as well, feel free to share your rental stories.

So my childhood rental spot was a Phar-Mor near my house that had cheap as hell rentals so my parents would go almost every weekend and I could pick out a game. I still vividly remember where in the store it was, the how the isles looked, the rows and rows of colorful NES covers and later Genesis/SNES covers.

I had many games that I rented so many times that it felt like I owned them. I owned most of the big Nintendo games so almost all my rentals was weird third party stuff. Games like Wizards and Warriors, Fabio and non Fabio editions, were go to games to rent. A random Mega Man game was always a good rental, they just kept making more of them lol. Bart vs the Space Aliens, I have no idea why but I would rent that game a bunch of times, usually when there was nothing else I wanted, it’s not even a good game but something about it kept me coming back. Castlevania 2, that’s the one they had and it was a pain in the ass but something about that game kept me coming back. Oh and the ever mysterious Golgo 13 which was so cool and edgy to a small kid.

Then there was the shit, the horrible licensed  games like Total Recall, Untouchables, Back to the Future 2 and 3, Friday the 13th, Ghostbusters 1, X-men Spider-Man Arcade revenge. There were some good movie tie ins though, Willow was a go to rental. Gremlins 2 was another cool Zelda like game.

During the 16 bit era I had a Genesis so my rentals were for that, major titles I would rent a ton of times were Ecco the Dolphin, Streets of Rage 1 and 2, Toe Jam and Earl, Spider-Man (the Kingpin one), and some Hulk game. I would experiment and try games I normally wouldn’t, I was not an RPG guy so I tried one of the Phantasy Star games and I played for like 30 minutes and just gave up and returned it. Crue Ball! Oh man that was a fun go to rental when nothing new was out. Luckily I didn’t waste money on Sonic Spinball, I just rented it.

By the 32 bit era Phar-Mor had closed down and I was left with Blockbuster video, rentals became much less common as my parents wouldn’t really go to BB all the time. Right as the PS1 was coming out my older brother wanted to try the PS1 so we rented the entire system and a few games, it was so much fun and with mindblowing graphics. I ended up with a Saturn (Sega fanboy), he got a PS1 for Christmas, within the year I was playing his PS1 waaaaaay more then my Saturn. So most all my rentals were PS1 games and some of my favorites included Gex, Rayman, Alien Trilogy, Die Hard Trilogy, Doom (which included both Doom games), Jumping Flash, and probably the best rental I ever got SOTN. I always liked Castlevania but never suspected to fall in love like I did with SOTN, I never played super Metroid so that style of game was fresh to me. It blew my mind, one of the only games I ever rented, beat, and still bought.

By the DC/PS2 era I had some of my own money so there was a summer where BB had a rental game pass, pay a fee and rent as much as you want. I went to town; and I had some all time favorites come from just trying out a bunch of games. Deus Ex I played on the PS2 and it instantly became one of my all time favorites. I played Half-Life on the PS2 as well (I think you can tell I was not a PC gamer), another classic. I remember renting James Bond games, Headhunter, NOLF2, and a bunch I’m probably forgetting. During this time a friend lent me their N64, I was a Zelda fan who had missed out on years of Zelda games so I played OoT on it and it became my favorite of all time. Then I rented Majora’s Mask, kept it for over a week and it was the best week of gaming I could remember, it became and still is my favorite game to this day (of course now I own it a bunch of different ways).

Later in life rentals became selective, games I didn’t want to pay full price for but still wanted to play. It’s not the same as it was, just perusing the covers of many games, making choices based on a cool cover or blurb in the back.

To answer the question of the topic though

Best game I ever rented: Zelda Majora’s Mask. SOTN runner up

Worst game I ever rented: Total Recall, couldn’t get past the first 10 minutes or some crap. Total garbage.

travo said:

Section Z was my very first rental.  What a shit game.  A game so awful I remember the experience over thirty years later. I'm not sure if this is my favorite rental but I vividly remember renting the Japanese version of Super Mario 2 from my local video store. It even came with an adapter. I thought it was cool that my local mom and pop store had it but no other place did.  This was years before Nintendo released The Lost Levels game that we all know of today.

robio said:

Playing Harvest Moon actually started off kind of as a rental experience for me. The original SNES version was wickedly tough to find. I went to one of my local video game stores asking about it, and the guy behind the counter insisted the game was never even released in america. I'm sure he would eventually go on to be a GameStop manager.


Anyway, after a lot of searching I finally found a Hollywood video in store with a copy for rent. I also want to point out that I was living in Dallas Texas at the time, so it's not like I was in some tiny rural community. It was just that hard to find because it was released very much at the end of the SNeS' lifespan.


So I happily play the game a week at a time and then I would return it back to hollywood. A few days later I would go look forward again it was gone. Apparently someone else had snatched it up. But I pop in a few more days later and eventually it was returned. Naturally my fear is that my save file is gone and I'm going to have to start over. This was not a quick game after all. However, the other guy who rented the game was very polite and used the other save slot (there were only two).


This very polite stranger and I would end up sharing the game for about 2 months or longer. I would rent it for a week and use my save slot, and then when I return it he would run it for a week and use his save slot. Two gamers respecting each other and cooperating to share a game and not ruin the experience for the other. As I think back to what most gamers would probably like on message boards, particularly in the late 90s, this is a very special experience.

That is so cool. I tended to not rent very long games that I knew I wouldn't be able to beat in a rental time.

I remember my rental store always had Platoon for NES available to rent. Even as a kid I understood that it was extremely strange to have some rated R movie have a game for kids. I never rented it, never played it partly because of that.

Ravenprose said:

I just remembered the time I rented San Francisco Rush (N64) from Blockbuster Video. I intended on returning after work, so I put it under my car seat so it wouldn't get stolen. I remember returning it too. About 10 days later, Blockbuster sent me a large bill stating I will continue racking up late fees if I don't return it. I was fuming mad at their incompetence; I knew I returned that game on time and I wasn't about to pay their BS late fees. Then I remembered to check under my car seat, and there it was  *facepalm* Needless to say, it would have been cheaper if I had just bought the game instead of renting. That soured me on renting anything for a long time.

I rented a game from Blockbuster  and laid on top of some mail in my passenger seat. Next thing I know, I accidentally dropped into a mailbox. The box said that the mail would be picked up at 10am so I got there at 9:45 and waited on the mailman to open the box. I explained my situation and he pulled the game out for me. I never played the game.

I would be pissed Robio, that's messed up.

BTW your avatar was a key fixture of my rental store. How could you miss the cover with glorious Fabio.

Shortly before my local Blockbuster shut its doors an employee there suggested that I rent a bunch of games and just keep them because they were going to be closed anyway. I never did take them up on that offer though.