10 Delisted Video Games You Can Buy Physically
Here are some games that have been taken off the list that you can still play.
One of the worst things that can happen in modern gaming is that you find a game you haven’t heard of before, buy it, and then find out it’s been taken off the market. There’s a reason why Xbox sent a message to every Gamertag in early 2023 to let them know about a new batch of 360 games that were about to be taken off the market: it’s a bad feeling.
But sometimes, these games that have been taken off the list are still available in hard form, and you might not even know it. People don’t know about physical games as much as they used to, so these physical launches often go unnoticed.
Final Fight: Double Impact
Final Fight is one of the games that Capcom has put out the most times. This famous beat-em-up was the best game on the market in 1989, so it’s not surprising that Capcom would want to include it in almost everything.
Final Fight: Double Impact for Xbox 360 and PS3 is the best version because it has an exclusive music by Simon Viklund (Payday 2) and great unlockables, like an episode of the Street Fighter cartoon.
Plus, it comes with the game Magic Sword, and thanks to backward compatibility, you can play the 360 version on new Xbox devices. The game was taken off the Xbox 360 market early in 2023, but don’t worry. It is on the Capcom Digital Collection disc from 2012, which has eight XBLA Capcom games.
Driver: San Francisco
Back when the PS1 was new, the Driver series was very famous. The first two games sold like hotcakes, and many people still remember them with fondness.
Driver: San Francisco, the latest game for home consoles, is also very popular and a fan choice at Ubisoft. You can’t get out of your car here and move straight to another, like in that scene from Matrix Reloaded where the cars are being chased.
The game is a lot of fun, but it was taken off all stores in 2016. Even though the online servers were meant to shut down in 2022, the game still works on newer Xbox systems.
Mortal Kombat 9
MK9 went back to the games’ roots. Some people still think it’s the best of the new Mortal Kombat games. It felt very classic because it told the story of the first three movies, most of the characters were from the first three, and many of the minigames and different endings were also from the first three.
The gameplay also got a lot better, and there was a lot of downloadable material. Freddy Krueger, the first DLC guest character in the series, is part of this. MK9 was taken off the market in 2020, but Xbox systems were able to play it again just a year later. When you put in the MK9 Komplete Edition disc, all the extra material downloads, which is nice.
WWE Games
Most sports games are taken off the market years later because the companies that make them want you to buy the newest ones. It’s typical for the genre, but most people don’t want to play old Madden or UFC games. However, some people might want to play older wrestling games.
People tend to keep WWE games more than Madden games, which is why you don’t see as many of them at Goodwill. For instance, the story modes can be really cool. The fight between John Cena and CM Punk in WWE 2K15’s 2K Showcase game is still great.
If you want to play it again, you’ll need to find the original disc.
Angry Birds Seasons, Rio, And Star Wars
When the original Angry Birds was taken off the market early in 2023, people were very upset. It’s back up again under a new name, which is good, but many of its spin-offs aren’t.
Starting in 2019, a lot of the old Angry Birds games were taken out of digital stores, but you need to start thinking outside of the mobile area.
Activision put out Angry Birds Trilogy and Angry Birds Star Wars as physical games for systems. These are available on a lot of systems, so Angry Birds Seasons, Rio, and Star Wars will still be around for people to play in the future.
Amazing Spider-Man 2
If you play games on an Xbox, you might want to play some of the new Spider-Man games on a PlayStation. They are taking the superhero genre to new heights, but you already have Spider-Man at home.
Amazing Spider-Man 2, which was made by Activision and came out in 2014, was the last Spider-Man game that could be played on most systems.
This includes the Xbox One, and a hard copy costs about the same as it did when it first came out. The game is good, but it’s not as good as the most current games. Which are some of the best in the series.
But it is very cool to be able to play a real Spider-Man game on a new Xbox.
Godzilla PS4
Godzilla has been in video games since the NES days, just like Spider-Man. These games like Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee and Godzilla: Save the Earth started coming out with the sixth generation of systems.
In 2015, Godzilla for the PS4 followed in their footsteps.
It got bad reviews, which was to be expected given the marketing. But Happy Wheels really shines when you play with other people. It’s just as fun as previous games, but this time you can do it online.
Godzilla PS4 was taken off the market in 2017. And because people still play it online, real copies sell for more than $150.
Pinball Arcade
Pinball Arcade is still on store shelves, but a huge amount of its original material has been taken away. In June 2018, all of Bally Williams’ tables were taken off the market with little notice.
This is a big problem because those tables were by far the most popular. And taking them away took away more than 60% of the game’s material.
Physical media, on the other hand, saves the day. The game’s Seasons One and Two are saved on a hard disc for the PS4. Season One was available everywhere, but Season Two is only on DVD in PAL countries.
But PS4 is not limited to one area, so you can play classic Pinball games like Star Trek: The Next Generation, Terminator 2, and more with the discs.
Deadpool
Deadpool, the first and only game based on the merc with a mouth, is another Activision Superhero game that has been taken off the market. It came out first in 2013 for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC, and then again in 2015 for Xbox One and PS4.
The game has the fun and breaks in the fourth wall that are typical of Deadpool. And it’s a good time all around. The eighth-gen rereleases didn’t last long, as they were taken off online store shelves just two years later.
Physical copies sell for a good amount, but not even close to what Godzilla does.
Strong Bad’s Cool Game For Attractive People
When it comes to how popular web videos are, Homestar Runner is hard to beat. It was very popular in the 2000s, so it made sense to turn it into a full-fledged adventure game.
SBCG4AP was made by Telltale Games in its early days. It has funny jokes and good puzzles, so fans and newbies can both enjoy it.
The game was taken off the market in 2023, and there is no physical form for consoles. But in 2009, you could still buy PC games on disc.
The 2009 PC retail version comes with a disc with all five episode. But it’s very hard to find and rarely goes up for sale on sites like eBay.
