I’m not sure how discounted video games are supposed to help you get ready for the upcoming school year, but Best Buy’s annual Back to School sale is marking the end of summer with some pretty decent deals on some great games.
Console gamers who have somehow gone this long without buying a 360 should be happy to learn that the system’s Darksiders II/Batman: Arkham City bundle has been marked down to a reasonable $249.99. Both Darksiders II and Arkham City are great games, so it’s a decent bundle to kick off your 360 collection with. Certain 360 controllers have also been marked down to $40 ($10 off) as well.
Other highlights from the sale include BioShock Infinite for $40 (it’s definitely worth it; it’s one of my favorite games of the year so far,) Square Enix’s Tomb Raider reboot for $30, Battlefield 3: Premium Edition is also $30, as is the recently released Dead Island: Riptide. Assassin’s Creed 3 has been marked down to $20 as well; while it’s not the best game in the series, it’s still decent enough to warrant dropping an Andrew Jackson on it. Kirby’s Dream Collection has been marked down to a ridiculous $7.99. You should definitely get it, as outside of a few regrettable omissions, the Dream Collection is one of the best retro compilations that I’ve ever played.
There’s also some decent handheld discounts available as well: Pokemon Conquest, Nintendo and Tecmo’s bizarre but strangely entertaining Pokemon crossover, has had its price reduced to $14.99. Nintendo’s boutique simulator Style Savvy is on sale for $9.99, and I know I’m going to get a lot of shit for saying this, but it’s honestly a pretty great game. Perhaps I’ve just been watching too much Project Runway lately, but Style Savvy is a genuinely enjoyable shop simulator in the vein of Recettear and other economically focused sim games. I bought it on a lark a few months ago and ended up sinking over 25 hours into it, so if you’re looking for a new 3DS game and want to try something different, you should definitely give it a shot.
Best Buy’s sale runs until this Saturday, but it seems like a lot of the best games are already sold out online, so you might want to rush to your local store before they run out as well.
Meanwhile, I’m going to spend the rest of my day lamenting the end of my summer vacation: I planned to do so much with all this free time, but I ended up wasting the last few weeks playing Torchlight II and watching Girls’ Generation videos. Actually, now that I think about it… I regret nothing.
