Nintendo is the oldest intact video game company to be around. For as many years as it's been producing video games, some of those games have gotten to the point where they have become rare commodities. These games can go for hundreds of thousands of dollars if not millions. Out of all of the other types of consoles, Nintendo also has a lot of the top contenders for the most expensive games in general.
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The games presented will be Nintendo games that sold for the highest value in auctions. Every single game will only be mentioned once. A lot of the same games were sold for around similar market values.
10 10/10 Final Fantasy III ($96,000)
On Heritage Auctions' website, a copy of Final Fantasy III sold for $96,000. This copy was graded by WATA games at a score of 9.4 out of 10. What that means is that the game's box was in pretty good condition. WATA gave the seal score an A+ which is the second highest seal score after A++.
The lowest score of a seal is C which means the seal is damaged or torn. This game in this condition is extremely rare. This game is also extremely loved and some people's favorite Final Fantasy adding to its large price value.
9 9/10 The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past ($96,000)
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past was sold for $96,000 on the Heritage Auctions website. It has an extremely rare seal score that makes it so valuable. The game lands itself in a WATA 9.2 A+ sealed rating. It also has additional factors that add to its rarity like the fact that this is one of the only copies known to be above the 9.0 WATA rating.
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This is the third game in the series so it having been released a while ago in 1992 adds to the value of the game. This is a piece that should only increase in value over time if kept in this condition.
8 8/10 Contra ($150,000)
Contra had a total selling price of $150,000 on Heritage Auctions' website. Contra had a WATA score of 9.8 A+. There was only one other copy that was known to be almost as rare as this variant. It came from what is known as the Carolina Convention.
That version of Contra has a WATA 9.6 A++ sealed rating so only .2 points lower than this one. This 1988 game is one of the most classic side-scrolling shooters. A lot of people are also unsure if this might be the only copy of a 9.8-scored version of Contra.
7 7/10 Super Mario Bros. 3 ($156,000)
Super Mario Bros. 3 sold at auction for a total of $156,000 on the Heritage Auctions website. The game has a WATA 9.2 A+ sealed score in its rarity. What makes it stand out is the type of variant that it is. If people look at his left hand they will see that it's underneath the "BROS." text on the box. Most copies contain that word in between Mario's hat and the "RIO" in the Mario text.
This also might be one of the highest WATA-scored Super Mario Bros. 3 copies that are in this variant form as none other have passed through other auction houses.
6 6/10 Final Fantasy ($204,000)
The Heritage Auctions website sold a copy of Final Fantasy for $204,000. It has a WATA 9.8 A++ sealed rating. This is probably the most pristine copy of Final Fantasy to exist. Even the company that sold it has some trouble deciphering why this was a 9.8 and not a 10 on the WATA scale as the game looks frozen in time.
As the first Finally Fantasy to come out with a 1990 released date that puts this game back into the past. That increases its rarity and causes more people to want to be able to get this piece.
5 5/10 Mike Tyson's Punch-Out ($312,000)
Mike Tyson's Punch-Out sold on the Heritage Auctions for $312,000. In that exact year in April 2021, there was a 9.6 A++ WATA scored Mike Tyson's Punch-Out sold, and no one expected there to be another copy as rare as this one. Then, not too long after, in October of 2021, this WATA 9.8 A++ sealed copy revealed itself and was sold.
This copy does not look like a game that was made in 1987. It looks like it was made yesterday. Whoever had this game did a great job at preserving it and because of that got quite a bit of money.
4 4/10 Super Mario World ($360,000)
Heritage Auctions sold the popular Super Mario World on July 9, 2021. The game is scored at a WATA 9.4 A+ sealed. The reason why this specific version referred to as the non-Player's Choice copy is so rare is that every Super Nintendo came with a loose cart of this game.
According to many collectors finding any type of sealed version of this game is extremely rare. The importance of this game also boosted its value as it provided something that felt original to the Mario series.
3 3/10 The Legend of Zelda ($870,000)
The Legend of Zelda was sold at Heritage's auction for $870,000. The WATA score was at WATA 9.0 A sealed. This might not seem like too high of a score but for a variant this old that was only out for two months this is phenomenally rare.
This is a No Rev-A cartridge. That means this cartridge has 5 screws in it instead of 3. There is one variant of the game that is known to be rarer than this copy. It's a variant that has an "NES R" instead of the "NES TM" rating that this box has. The thing is most collectors only believe one "NES R" copy still exists. This has not been proven though so it is up in the air making this probably the most well-preserved earliest available version of the game.
2 2/10 Super Mario 64 ($1.56 Million)
The Heritage Auctions' website sold Super Mario 64 for $1.56 million at auction. The game is at an immaculate WATA 9.8 A++ sealed score. That is only two points away from being a perfect score and to the untrained eye, this looks like an untouched version of the game.
Part of the reason the game was sold for so much is because of what Super Mario 64 did for the 3D platformer genre. This is a part of video game history that has been maintained to keep its original look from when it was first created.
1 1/10 Super Mario Bros. ($2,000,000)
This is one of the few games that was sold on the Rally website which allows multiple people to invest in a game and then sell it. There was an anonymous buyer who ended up buying it for $2 million. This was something that the investors who originally had the game had to vote on. Some of the investors, 25% of them, voted against selling the game, but with the majority rule, the game was after all sold.
This Super Mario Bros. is a rare variant of the game with a WATA rating of 9.8 A+ sealed. The game has so much history in how it revolutionized the side-scrolling platformer genre. It is also one of the earliest variants of the game available.