As gamers, we've all made purchases we regret. Whether it's a much-hyped game that failed to meet expectations or a peripheral that didn't receive much support, there's always something in our gaming histories that led to us searching for a receipt. Read on to hear about some of the worst purchases made by the Game Informer staff.

State of Emergency

In the early days of the Playstation 2, Rockstar firmly established itself as a triple-A developer with the trailblazing Grand Theft Auto III. As a high school student that spent hundreds of hours in Liberty City, I couldn't wait to see whatever Rockstar had up their sleeves next. While State of Emergency wasn't developed by Rockstar (it was handled by Vis Entertainment), all I cared about was that R* logo on the box. I read tons of previews and hyped myself up for what would surely be a controversial, action-packed title that would do the Rockstar name proud. The publisher pushed impressive numbers - 185 missions, 250 characters on screen at once, etc. Unfortunately, the missions were bland and repetitive, and those 250 characters did little more than run around mindlessly. I tried to return it within a couple of days, but was unsuccessful since I had already opened it.  -- Dan Ryckert

The Wii Zapper

When Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles hit the Wii in 2007, I was excited. Three years had passed since Resident Evil 4 and I was hungry for something new from the series. Additionally, the Wii was being touted as the perfect console for an FPS thanks to it’s lightgun-like Wii remote. With that in mind, I wanted to have the best experience possible with Umbrella Chronicles’ on-rails shooting. Supposedly that meant buying the Wii Zapper. The piece of molded plastic allows players to dock their Wii remote and nunchuk and hold it like an SMG. Using the contraption was as stupid as it looked. I used the worthless hunk of plastic for one round of Umbrella Chronicles before ditching it and never looking back. Oh yeah, it was also packaged with Link’s Crossbow Training, which had all the imagination and beauty of a Wii Sports mini-game. -- Tim Turi

Winter Games

When you're a dumb kid, you don't yet have a firm grasp of universal truths like "gravity always wins" and "never buy an Olympics themed video game because they are complete garbage." During the hype of the XV Winter Olympics in 1988, my brother and I foolishly chose Winter Games among the dozens of titles available at Toys 'R' Us. It only took us one playthrough of the game's four events to realize we made a horrible, irreversible decision. After selecting a country to represent, the relatively fun freestyle skiing event started things off in the right direction. But the following speed skating, figure skating, and bobsled events were each horrible, unplayable messes that should have been classified as crimes against entertainment. A disaster of gameplay, graphics, and user interface, Winter Games is still the worst game I've ever purchased. As we approach yet another season of Olympic sporting events, remember to try before you buy. Don’t make the same bone-headed decision I made. To watch myself, Reiner, Dan, and Tim suffer through this travesty of a video game, check out our "lost" Replay I posted on my blog a couple years back. -- Matt Bertz