A History Of Terrible Gaming Gifts

Every year millions of children across the country rush to the Christmas tree on Christmas day to unwrap their gifts, and every year, inevitably, a few of them break into tears? Has this ever happened to you?

When I was nine or ten, I rented a game called Ninja Crusaders. This was a side scrolling action game for the NES where ninjas picked up different weapons, and each new weapon allowed your ninja to turn into a different animal. Back then I was thrilled to no end with being able to turn into a bird and fly over my enemies.

My brother and I had rented this game only once and we couldn’t wait to get our hands on it again, so we asked our parents to buy it for us on Christmas. The only problem was that, back then, we couldn’t remember the name of this mysterious ninja game, so we just told our parents that we wanted the ninja game where you could turn into animals and considered that good.

That year, there was only one game-shaped box under the tree. I remember opening it fully expecting to find the Ninja animal game that I’d been dreaming about for months. Instead, I found Shinobi III. Now, Shinobi III is a great game, but I didn’t know anything about Shinobi at the time, other than the fact that it didn’t feature any ninjas turning into birds. Naturally, I was upset. I may have thrown a fit. Parents just can’t get it right, no matter what they do.

Once I finally sat down to play Shinobi III, I discovered that it was far superior to Ninja Crusaders.

Too bad I’d already blown it. My parents would never buy me another video game for Christmas ever again.

Let that be a warning to those younger than me.

I’d like to think I’m not the only one who’s made this mistake. What about you? What is the most memorable gaming gift you’ve received? What’s the worst? What gift were you been disappoint to receive that actually turned out to be good?