0 to Z of Playstation 1 Games - Aconcagua

       

Aconcagua is a single player survival horror/action adventure game that was released exclusively in Japan for the Playstation 1, the game was developed and published by Sony Computer Entertainment and was released on June 1^st 2000, the game was scheduled for a North American release in late 2000 however the release never came to pass, it was also reported by IGN that Sony developed this game in an attempt to break into the Argentinian games market.

In Aconcagua the player takes control of a Japanese journalist named Kato along with four other playable characters, who’s job along with Pachamama is to guide survivors down the mountain, with the game organised into a series of missions in which the player must complete the game is et in a 3^rd person perspective, the game also features various problem solving and survival aspects using various items that were left from the plane crash, the game also has over 80 minutes of cinematic cutscenes that help progress the story.

The games setting is in a fictitious South American country called Meruza which was named after the Argentine province of Mendoza, the country is in the midst of a political upheaval which has split the country with half wanting independence.

One of the leading activists named Pachamama goes on a flight as part of a politically motivated independence tour however during the flight a bomb is detonated and the plane crashes with only five survivors.

The game also has a multiple outcomes and endings both are of which are dependent on the choice the player makes during the game.

Impossible to find and reviews for this game so we head to GameFAQs for their user reviews in which there are 10 in total with this survival horror game averaging a 4/5 with a minimum user rating of 3/5 the majority of users rated this game a 4/5 with a couple rating of 4.5/5 with one maximum rating of 5/5 for this game so a very well received game, lifespan wise the game has clocked in at an average of just over 10 hours.

This is the part of 0 to Z where is visit five online retailers and see what the availability of the title is, and what price you would be looking at if you wanted to pick this title up, the sites that I will be using for this are Amazon.com,  eStarland.com, retrogames.co.uk and Gamedude.com I know the last one is very location specific but from a podcast I listen to and  I have heard they have a huge stock of older games, I will also be including Ebay.com as well

So lets get down to business with Gamedude who along with Retrogames.co.uk and eStarland.com don’t stock this game used or new so another quick trip to Amazon for this game, now the game is listed on the site, only the one copy however it is listed as currently unavailable, so I decided to head over to the amazon.co.jp version of the site where the game is available used and new.

Starting with the used copies the lowest price you are looking at for a copy at ¥124 with a ¥340 shipping charge, the ¥124 converts to $1.14 in North America, around 87p in the UK, 96 cents in the EU region and $1.44 in Canada.

A new copy of the game will set you back a minimum of ¥3.600 which converts to $32.98 in the US, in the UK it would set you back £25.35 while in Euro countries it will set you €27.90 and in Canada you will be looking at $41.82, prices for a new copy of the game go as high as ¥8.800.

Ebay.com has a few copies on sale with an imported version of the game from Japan which comes with free international shipping will set you back $20.89, another couple of copies on sale come with quite hefty shipping costs which push the price up to $30 and $72 while there is a very good quality copy up for sale at $233.93 which also costs an additional $8 for shipping.

Written by

P J Gibbon