This all started out innocently enough... my friend, who I'll call Juice, and I talk a lot about video games as we are both hopelessly addicted to them. We've been talking a lot recently about what games to procure this holiday season as there are like, 4.2 bazillion options available. GTA: San Andreas, Killzone, Need For Speed Underground 2, Ace Combat 5, MGS3: Snake Eater... so many choices, no where near enough scratch to get them all.

He mentions to me on October 25th that Ace Combat 5 is supposed to be available (I was a big fan of 4 and I've mentioned that AC5 was on my "have to get" list) and while I'm very interested 1) the reviews of it were somewhat mediocre and 2) I can't find it anywhere. So I kinda let it go, figuring I'll rent it sometime and check it out.

Now on November 17th, Juice sends me this:

Hey man,

I am told that Sears has a misprint in their Fri-SAT newspaper ad for AC5 for $4.99 as part of their big "Saturday Only Sale". Sears probably won't honor the misprint, but the geniuses at WalMart apparently will match any advertised price. I am going to pickup Friday's paper and give it a try at WalMart on Saturday night. It's worth a shot...

I procure the ad on Friday and sure enough, there's a section mentioning "value games" for $4.99 and among them is a picture for Ace Combat 5. Clearly, this should have been Ace Combat 4, but that's not my problem.

Saturday morning, I awake at 6am, get ready and head to the local Sears, arriving right at 7am when their doors open. Seeing as how this was the weekend before Black Friday (the Friday after Thanksgiving), I was about the 50th person in the door... shopping freaks. Anywho, I make my way to the electronics department to find the games and make my play. What do I find? A damn zoo. People crawling over each other for $99 portable DVD players and $50 20" TVs. It's not even organized chaos. It's insanity.

I find the games section and look for the "value games" mentioned in the ad. I find them in a cardboard display at the end of the isle and, of course, Ace Combat 5 isn't among them (Ace Combat 4 is, however). AC5 is in the locked up glass display case... which starts with C and that rhymes with T and that stands for "I'm boned".

I stand there for a few minutes as I watch a snot-nosed 12-year-old paw through the cheap games, grab one of each, then sit down in the middle of everyone to start looking at them. My first thought was "damn, did I look/act like that when I was 12?". My second, "There's no way I'm going to get that game out of the case". But I decide to try anyways... I figure I'll just show them the ad, say "I want this one" and see what happens.

But the aformentioned zoo is now completely out of control. There's at least 200 people in this small 5 isle area, people are lugging around 10 TVs at a time, yelling at each other, trying to get cuts in the checkout line which now 40 people deep. I want to ask for the game, but there's no one around that can help. All the salespeople are busy... or hiding. So while this situation probably lends itself to be the best possible environment for pulling this off, I leave. I hate the "Christmas Swarms" that form at these sales and I was getting irritated by all the shoving, yelling, and snot coming out of that kid's nose.

On my way to the car, I debate going to Wal-Mart. There's no way that they are going to pricematch a $50 game for $5. But I had time and I really wanted AC5, so I went. I get to Wal-Mart and it's pretty dead (it's like 7:20am at this point in time and they aren't having a sale). I make my way to the Electronics section, find the games, and verify they have the game. They do. Now... to formulate the strategy.

I come up with that I'll ask if they still pricematch and if they do, do they have Ace Combat 5 and Pac Man World. I figured this would bring a little less suspicion to myself if I asked for two games instead of one. So I go hunt someone down. And in grand Wal-Mart fashion, there's no one around. Just me and some other guy looking for some help with the portable DVD players. (I debated telling him that Sears was having a sale, but I was on a mission... no time to help the unfortunate).

We finally get someone to page for help and a 20-22 year old lady, short and overweight, but with a overly-sunny disposition for 7:20am on a Saturday morning comes around the corner. I tell her that the other gentleman was here first and that she should help him. As she's doing this, she asks me what I need. I ask "So, do you still do pricematching?" She says yes, but only for the same product listed in the picture in the ad, and the ad has to be current.

"Interesting, my picture says you need to give me this game for $5" is what I thought. What I said was "Ok, do you have these games?" and pointed to Ace Combat 5 and Pac Man World. In what I later recounted to my wife and Juice as "the moment my fishing pole jiggled at little", the girl says "Oh! I don't know if we have Ace Combat 5, but I hope we have Pac Man World... it's GREAT! You get to play... blah blah blah". I really didn't hear anything she said, all I knew was that I could keep her talking about Pac Man World instead of how much the discount on Ace Combat 5 was going to be, I might have a chance.

She tells me to check if they had those games and that she'll be right with me. So I walk over to the games again, half looking for Pac Man, half debating my next move. I don't find Pac Man (which, in retrospect, was probably a good thing as it would have been $15 tops... and would have sent off a red flag), confirm that AC5 is still there (it was) and go back to find my 20 lbs bass finishing up with the other dude. She asks if we had the games and I said "Oh, just this one" and point to AC5.

We walk over to the display case, she starts talking about Pac Man and how she wants to perform fellatio on him or something, who knows, I wasn't listening and she takes AC5 out of the case. The fish is now on the hook... now to set it. She looks at the game, then the price tag, then at me, then the game and says "Wow... $5... that's really cheap. I didn't think Ace Combat 5 had been out that long." I say "Uh, I don't really know". She closes the case and we walk over to the counter with the game.

At this point in time, I'm having a poker moment. If you play Texas Hold'em, you know what I'm about to describe very well. It's when you've got a pocket ace and 3 offsuit and the flop comes ace-ace-3. Your heart rate shoots to like 14000, hands become shaky, and you're trying like all hell to not show you've got the nuts. This is exact feeling I was having as we walked back to her counter. 90% off, here we come.

Then she says "Oh, I can't do this here, it's too much of a discount. We'll need to take it up front and have a manager use their key." Uh oh. My aces full of threes aren't lookin' so good anymore. I figure someone's going to call me on this and say it's too much of a discount and not honor the ad and I assume this manager will be the one to do it.

We walk to the front of the store with the game and all the while she's talking about Pac Man and how I should go back to Sears and get it, if they still have it. Sure honey, I'll get right on that. We find an open register (one of only two, which is important in a little bit) and she hands the game to the lady and says "He's got an ad that says the game's $5. It's a $50 game". This new lady is 4 days away from her 219th birthday and her 19th smoke break of the day. She wheezes "Wow, that's cheap", takes the game, and asks to see my ad. My Pac Man Girlfriend then leaves to return to her post. It's just me and Wheezy now.

Wheezy verifies the game is the same that's in the ad, hands me back my ad, scans the game, and tries to do the discount. My poker feeling is back, aces over threes!! Wee!! Crap, she can't do it without the manager's key... and I think "You're not the manager!??! Damn you, Pac Man Queen, you pawned me off so this'll be on someone else's head." Wheezy grabs the manager who's standing about 10 feet away. She hands Ms Manager the game and says "It's a $50 game and he has an ad that says he should get it for $5". The manager does not look pleased. She asks to see my ad. I show it to her and she looks at it, then the game, then Wheezy, then the ad, then says "I can't find the ad date on here". I tell her it's for today and find a date on the ad (which, after getting home, I looked at and it was the control date used by the printer of the ad... no matter, it sufficed).

Ms Manager then asks why I couldn't get the game at Sears. I said "It was a zoo there... plus, they were out of the game". A little truth + a big fat lie = Poker, and I really want my aces to hold up here. She looks at me for a bit, then the ad, and just as she starts to make a motion like she's going to *NOT* honor the ad, the final help from the Great Gaming Gods comes... and it's in the form of some dude with a shopping cart full of shit who starts to unload onto the conveyor belt thinger.

Ms Manager looks at Wheezy, who's probably jonesin' like a banshee at this point in time, then at the dude filling up the conveyor belt, then at the other vacant registers, then at me. She sticks her key in, punches in some numbers, hands me my ad and walks away.

Aces win!

Wheezy rings me up and I'm shaking so badly I can barely put my pin number in. I do the deed, she hands me the game and the receipt and I'm out. I walk just as normally as I can, showtunes going off in my head, singing about 90% off pricematches. I get outside and immediately call my wife. I giggle and squeal like a 6-year-old schoolgirl who's just won the entire line of this year's Anorexic Barbie's Beachside Condo and Dexatrim collection. My wife, while happy for me, is far less excited than I am. She plays the "So, you successfully stole your game?" card. I tell her no one likes her and that I'll be home in a little bit... to call Juice so I can tell my story to someone that'll care.

PROLOGUE
Juice went to a different Wal-Mart later and didn't have any problems getting the game for $5. Another friend of ours went to the same Wal-Mart I went to and got told "the discount is too much, we can't honor the ad". Glad I went when I did.

There were others on the internet that said Sears sold the game as advertised and others that had Sears who printed new ads to correct the oversight.

All in all, a great experience. I love Ace Combat 5 and it was well worth the effort. Now to find a cheap copy of Pac Man World and I'll be set.