Knoxville Gaming Store Review

Below is a review of the gaming stores in the Knoxville area.

GAME HAVEN

Locations: 3

Downtown West - Formerly on Kingston Pike next to Barnes and Noble; Now on Kingston Pike next to Chuckie Cheese

Knox Center - Across the strett from Knox Center Mall (East Town) next to Taco Bell

Maryville - Near Dairy Queen and McDonalds, next to a pool store

Selection by generation

• 3rd: NES (used)
• 4th: SNES (used), Genesis (used)
• 5th: Playstation (used), N64 (used)
• 6th: Dreamcast (used), Playstation 2 (used), XBox (used), Gamecube (used)
• 7th: XBox 360 (new, used), PS3 (new, used), Wii (new, used)

Review - The people there are usually cool, and they won't harass you to buy extras when you're just going in to get a game. I've only had one bad experience there at the old West Towne location, where the guy working the counter was too busy talking to his buddy to check me out. They usually don't get new releases until a day or two after the street release date unless it is something big. They rarely do midnight releases.

GAME CRAZY

Locations: 2 (1 closed)

Oak Ridge - Next to Hollywood Video in the Books a Million shopping center

Maryville - Next to Hollywood Video in the Kroger shopping center

Farragut (closed) - Next to Hollywood Video and across from Blockbuster Video on Kingston Pike

Selection by generation

• 3rd: none
• 4th: none
• 5th: none
• 6th: Playstation 2 (used), XBox (used), Gamecube (used)
• 7th: XBox 360 (new, used), PS3 (new, used), Wii (new, used)

Review - These are usually located in the same building next to Hollywood Video, and you can walk between the stores without going outside. They used to sell NES, SNES, PS1, and Dreamcast games, but they quit selling those one or two years ago. Some of the workers are knowlegable about video games and classics. However, they will bug the hell out of you when you simply want to buy a game.

Usually there are four or five questions they ask:

• Do you want the strategy guide
• Is there anything you need to prebook
• Do you want the "game guard" (I don't even know what the hell that is)
• Do you want the warranty
• Do you want to buy their membership plan

Game Crazy would probably be the #1 place that I would go to if it wasn't for all the damn questions they ask. They make a 2 minute transaction turn into a 10 minute transaction.