Those looking to find out about some of the oddest games ever released should look no further than the video game collection market. Games that saw limited physical releases are often relatively unknown to the general market, but when they're still circulating, they can be worth a ton of money. Nintendo's NES has some of the most iconic and rarest cartridges of all time, though some of these games are iconic for some infamous reasons.
What makes an NES game rare is less about directly how much it's worth and more about how many are in circulation. There are some NES games out there that only have one known copy produced while others had an unknown number produced, making them even more of a commodity to collectors. These five NES games are some of the rarest ones out there, even when they aren't sold in mint condition.
5. Stadium Events
Stadium Events may be more well-known by American audiences as World Class Track Meet, though it's understandable if it still isn't familiar to most Nintendo fans. The game utilized an often forgotten add-on for the NES called the Family Fun Fitness Mat, which was similar in function to a Dance Dance Revolution game mat. Players would run on the mat to run in the game, though reports of the game's functionality are less than positive.
While copies of World Class Track Meet are priced fairly standard for old NES games, a North American copy of Stadium Events is much more expensive. This is because very few copies of the game were sold before Nintendo rebranded it as World Class Track Meet, making the versions titled Stadium Events valuable collector's items that usually sell for about $35,100 USD. This game is considered by many to be the rarest NES game ever, though it has far more copies in circulation than later games on this list.
4. Cheetahmen II
Cheetahmen II gained online infamy after the Angry Video Game Nerd episode covered the first installment, Action 52. The original Cheetahmen game was just one of the 52 other games included on the Action 52 cartridge. Cheetahmen's sequel was actually never fully completed and thought to have never been fully produced. However, in 1996, 1,500 copies of Cheetahmen II were found in a warehouse and subsequentially sold.
This version of Cheetahmen II is fairly unplayable, with a serious number of bugs preventing players from experiencing most of the game without utilizing a ROM of the game and fan-made patches. Despite the game's unplayable nature, copies of it have sold online for a maximum of $11,000 USD, with their rarity making them a collector's item. A fan-made update to the game, Cheetahmen II: The Lost Levels, restores the game's playability and even added some new content.
3. Nintendo World Championship (Gold)
Nintendo fans have more than likely heard of the Nintendo World Championship event that was held in 1990 and later revived in both 2015 and 2017. While the grey Nintendo World Championship games used for the tournament are fairly rare in their own right, the special gold ones are considered to be even rarer. Only 27 of these were produced and were given away by Nintendo Power as part of a separate competition to the 1990's Nintendo World Championship.
The gold Nintendo World Championship cartridge usually sells online for around $15,000 USD and is an incredibly hard-to-find collector's item. The game itself is identical to the grey-cartridge variant, containing special versions of Super Mario Bros, Rad Racer and Tetris. While this was thought to be the most valuable video game of all time, there are actually two other Nintendo event cartridges that are far rarer than this legendary NES game.
2. Test Launch Super Mario Bros
This isn't exactly a unique version of the original Super Mario Bros since the content of the test launch cartridges and the full-release cartridges in identical. What makes this release of Super Mario Bros so special is that it was an early version sold during an event in New York and Los Angles before the game officially hit the market. Nintendo wasn't confident that there was a market for video games in North America, so they held a limited release of the game before shipping country-wide.
A single sticker is what makes this version of Super Mario Bros unique from the regularly released version. The box for the test launch version of the game is sealed with a sticker rather than plastic wrap. Only one CIB copy has ever been sold online for well over $100,000 USD, though it's likely that more copies of this game exist in a far less valuable unboxed form. The game itself is, again, identical to the full release version of Super Mario Bros, though there's still plenty of value in a sealed normal copy.
1. Nintendo Campus Challenge (1991)
There is only one copy of Nintendo Campus Challenge that is known to exist, easily making it the rarest NES game out there. The Nintendo Campus Challenge game was used for a competition that took place at various American colleges in both 1991 and 1992. Three of the 1992 versions are known to exist, but the 1991 version is far rarer. One of the 1991 cartridges was sold on eBay in 2009 to a collector for $20,100 USD.
The 1991 version of Nintendo Campus Challenge had versions of Super Mario Bros. 3, PinBot and Dr. Mario. Winners of the 1991 Nintendo Campus Challenge were given a round-trip to compete in the 1992 Nintendo Campus Challenge. While it's more than likely that more of these cartridges exist, there is only one that's managed to surface online. This easily makes the 1991 Nintendo Campus Challenge cartridge the absolute rarest NES game out there.