Often times it's very easy to find fault with corporate owned game stores. The main complaint with these places usually seem to be their admittedly terrible trade in values and their sometimes inability to fill pre-orders. But, there is a flip side to the coin as well. It's not uncommon that you'll turn up that game you've been looking for forever at a pretty reasonable price. Or you might find a game that you got rid of a while ago and wished you hadn't. And sometimes, if you're really lucky, you'll stumble across a game you didn't even realize you wanted, but the price makes it impossible to turn down.

Last week, my friend Clint and I went to our local Gamestop during lunch so I could pick up a copy of the God of War II demo. Sitting at the end of an aisle was a large stack of Nintendo bongo controllers and at the bottom, two brand new copies of Donkey Kong Jungle Beat with bongos included for $15. Clint immediately snatched up a copy and headed to the counter to pay for it. After we got back to work, I was kicking myself for not picking up the other copy, but I figured I could check out Clint's at some point. The next day, my friend Greg showed up with a copy of Donkey Konga, also with the bongos, that he found for $15. Being the kind soul that he is, he offered the game to me and said he could go pick up his own since the store is right by his house. I took him up on his offer and found myself thoroughly enjoying the game.

By now, my interest was piqued in the bongo department so, as I mentioned in my Night Note, I headed to Gamestop yesterday and grabbed a copy of Jungle Beat and a second pair of bongos (Donkey Konga can actually be played by multiple players on different sets of bongos at the same time). After playing a bit of Jungle Beat, I was totally hooked and found myself playing and clapping well into the night much to the chagrin of my neighbors.

So in the end, for less than the price of a new Wii or 360 game, I was able to get two great, brand new, never been opened games and two specialty controllers. Sure I took a chance, but the point is that games like this are out there just sitting on the shelf, waiting for you to find them. If you're willing to take the time to do a little digging, you may just uncover that special hidden gem amongst the dreck. Flynn De Marco