Nintendo is one of the most beloved video game companies in the world and has been going strong since the early days of video games. The company’s first console, the Color TV-Game was released in 1977, but Nintendo did not hit its stride until the release of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1985. Since then, Nintendo has released several different consoles and sold over 700 million hardware units worldwide.
In addition to its game consoles, Nintendo has released some of the most iconic games in history. While everyone knows games like Super Mario Bros., Donkey Kong, and The Legend of Zelda, Nintendo has released several lesser known games. Unfortunately, these games sold poorly, which has made them rare today. However, the rarest Nintendo games were special edition cartridges made for various competitions in the 1990s.
As of July 2021, the information on this list is as accurate as possible and will be updated as needed.
- Hagane: The Final Conflict
- Little Samson
- The Flintstones: Surprise at Dino Peak
- Stadium Events
- 1990 Nintendo World Championships Grey Edition
- 1990 Nintendo World Championships Gold Edition
- Sealed Copy of Super Mario Bros.
- Nintendo Powerfest ’94
- 1992 Nintendo Campus Challenge
- 1991 Nintendo Campus Challenge
Release Date: 1994/1995
Console(s): Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES)
Current Estimated Price: copies listed for $950 to $130,000 on ebay; copies sold for $440 to $6,000 in the past
photo source: ebay
Did you know?
One of the reasons for the low sales of Hagane: The Final Conflict were its comparison to the Shinobi series of games on the Sega Genesis, which were seen as far superior to Hagane.
Release Date: 1992
Console(s): Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)
Current Estimated Price: copies listed for $1,000 to $15,000 on ebay; copies sold for $900 to $6,100 in the past
photo source: ebay
Little Samson is another rare Nintendo game that sold poorly and came out late in the NES’s run. The game came out in 1992 in Japan and North America and received very little promotion. The exact number of copies of Little Samson is unknown. Over the past decade or so, Little Samson has become a highly sought after Nintendo game, fetching a few thousand dollars on resale sites. Currently, a highly graded complete copy of Little Samson is listed on ebay for $15,000!
Did you know?
Although Little Samson did not sell well, since then the game has garnered pretty high reviews, with some even naming it one of the best platformers on the NES.
Release Date: 1994
Console(s): Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)
Current Estimated Price: copies listed for $1,190 to $25,000 on ebay; copies sold for $500 to $1,700 in the past
photo source: Wikipedia
The Flintstones: Surprise at Dino Peak is reportedly not a very fun or good game, but it is one of the rarest Nintendo games out there. It was released in 1994 and a low number of copies were produced because it was late in the NES’s lifespan. Although The Flintstones: Surprise at Dino Peak was produced by Taito, a Japanese video game company, the game was only released in Europe and North America. This has added to its scarcity, but copies of the game do come up for sale quite often and go for about $1,000 or so.
Did you know?
There is an ongoing rumor that The Flintstones: Surprise at Dino Peak was released in North America as a Blockbuster rental exclusive. However, this claim has been refuted as the game was sold in regular retail stores.
Release Date: 1987
Console(s): Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)
Current Estimated Price: One copy listed on ebay for $40,000; copies sold for $1,200 to $35,100 in the past
photo source: Wikipedia
Stadium Events is a rather unremarkable game that was released for the NES in North America back in 1987. Somehow, Stadium Events has become one of the most coveted video games amongst collectors. For some unknown reason, video game collectors latched on to Stadium Events, which they believe had a very low production number. No one knows for sure how many copies of Stadium Events was sold, but typically, the standard minimum run for NES games was 10,000 units. However, game collectors are adamant that Stadium Run had only a few hundred or few thousand copies made.
Driving, Stadium Events’ rarity is collectors’ willingness to drop tens of thousands of dollars on a copy. Also, there are some collectors who are determined to snatch up any copy of Stadium Events they come across.
Did you know?
The original run of Stadium Events was made to be used with the Family Fun Fitness mat accessory for the NES. The game was later re-branded as World Class Track Meet for a new mat, the Power Pad.
Release Date: 1990
Console(s): Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)
Current Estimated Price: None currently listed for sale; copies sold for $5,000 to $26,400 in the past
photo source: Price Charting Blog
Although the Gold Editions of the 1990 Nintendo World Championships game are rarer, video game collectors still get excited anytime a Grey Edition of the game shows up. The Grey Edition cartridges were actually used during the 1990 Nintendo World Championships and 90 copies were given to the tournament’s finalists. No one knows for sure how many Grey Edition cartridges were made.
1990 Nintendo World Championships Grey Edition cartridges come up for sale fairly often and historically sold for a few thousand dollars. However, in recent years, copies have been sold for more than $25,000 and some listings even ask for over $100,000, but no copy has sold for this much.
Did you know?
On June 15, 2015, Nintendo held the second Nintendo World Championships took place for the events 25th anniversary.
Release Date: 1990
Console(s): Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)
Current Estimated Price: One currently listed for $1 million on ebay; copies sold for $15,000 to $17,500 in the past
photo source: Price Charting Blog
Over the years, copies of the Gold Edition cartridges pop up for sale, fetching tens of thousands of dollars. Around half of the 1990 Nintendo World Championships Gold Edition games are accounted for. Currently, one copy is listed on ebay for an unbelievable asking price of $1 million!
Did you know?
The 1990 Nintendo World Championships is considered to be the very first major eSports event.
Release Date: 1985
Console(s): Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)
Current Estimated Price: $100,000 to $660,000
photo source: Heritage Auctions
Super Mario Bros. is the most iconic Nintendo game ever released and made the company a household name. While more than 50 million copies of Super Mario Bros. have been sold worldwide since its release in 1985, only a handful of sealed copies of the original print of Super Mario Bros. exist today. The most valuable of these existing sealed copies of Super Mario Bros. are the ones with matte sticker seals that indicate they were printed during the initial test market run.
In 2019, a copy of one of these test market Super Mario Bros. games was sold for $100,000. While that number is very impressive, two years later, another sealed copy broke records when it was sold for a whopping $660,000! This sealed copy of Super Mario Bros. is now the most expensive video game ever sold.
Did you know?
The sealed copy of Super Mario Bros. sold in 2021 is in such good condition that not only is it still factory sealed, it even has its original hangtab and was rated a 9.6 by Wata, a video game collectible grading company.
Release Date: 1994
Console(s): Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES)
Current Estimated Price: N/A – one copy was sold for $12,000 in 2015
photo source: Wikimedia Commons
The Nintendo Powerfest ’94 game is another special cartridge, like the 1991 and 1992 Nintendo Campus Challenge games, that was created specifically for a video game competition. Nintendo held the Powerfest ’94 competition all across the United States and Canada, culminating with the finals in San Diego.
According to reports, about 33 Nintendo Powerfest ’94 game cartridges were made and they were all supposed to be destroyed or repurposed for parts. Two of these games survived and initially only one was known for many years. The first known Nintendo Powerfest ’94 game was picked up by Rob Walters at the goldmine of a garage sale where he also found a 1991 and 1992 Nintendo Campus Challenge game. Walters sold Nintendo Powerfest ’94 and the 1992 Nintendo Campus Challenge games to collector Rick Bruns. In 2015, the second copy of Nintendo Powerfest ’94 was sold to collector J.J. Hendricks, who also previously owned a copy of 1991 Nintendo Campus Challenge.
Did you know?
After J.J. Hendricks purchased his copy of the Nintendo Powerfest ’94, he met up with Rick Bruns to reunite both copies of the game and play a few rounds.
Release Date: 1992
Console(s): Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES)
Current Estimated Price: N/A – one copy was listed for $25,000 on ebay in 2011
photo source: Wikimedia Commons
Nintendo followed up the first Nintendo Campus Challenge in 1991 with another tour in 1992. This was the second and final year for the event. Like the 1991 tour, Nintendo created a special cartridge for the 1992 Nintendo Campus Challenge. However, this time Nintendo chose to use the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) instead of the NES.
Reportedly, there are three 1992 Nintendo Campus Challenge games, but only two definitively exist. One of the games was found by video game collector Rob Walters at the same garage sale where he picked up the 1991 Nintendo Campus Challenge cartridge. This copy of the game was sold privately to video game collector named Rick Bruns. The other 1992 Nintendo Campus Challenge game was found in the attic of a former employee of a company who did projects for Nintendo.
Did you know?
The 1992 Nintendo Campus Challenge cartridges was also used in the French Nintendo Super Tour 1992, and a Scandinavian-based competition the same year.
Release Date: 1991
Console(s): Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)
Current Estimated Price: N/A – sold for $20,100 in 2009
photo source: Wikimedia Commons
The last remaining 1991 Nintendo Campus Challenge game was discovered at a garage sale held by that same ex-Nintendo employee in 2006. The game was found by video game collector Rob Walters, who bought it and sold it to another collector J.J. Hendricks for $14,000. A few months later, Hendricks sold the 1991 Nintendo Campus Challenge game for $20,100 on ebay. Since then, the game has not come back up for sale.
Did you know?
The 1991 Nintendo Campus Challenge cartridge features three minigames from Super Mario Bros. 3, PinBot, and Dr. Mario. Each player had about 6 minutes 21 seconds to clear the minigames and rack up as many points as they could.
