The Messenger

As a demon army besieges his village, a young ninja ventures through a cursed world, to deliver a scroll paramount to his clan's survival.

Leveraging players expectations as a core game design ingredient, The Messenger is first presented as an 8-bit action platformer with a simple story, that unravels into an epic time traveling tale, eventually revealing itself as a 16-bit Metroidvania game packed with replay value and deadpan humor.

Released in 2017, the Nintendo Switch became one of the best-selling consoles of all time thanks to its hybrid handheld/docked design. Its cartridge-based physical format (as opposed to discs) has made complete-in-box collecting popular again, with certain limited print runs and Nintendo-published exclusives already commanding a premium on the secondhand market just a few years after release.

Gamevaro tracks The Messenger for Nintendo Switch with separate market values for loose, complete-in-box (CIB) and factory-sealed copies, sourced from real eBay sales. Prices also vary by region — PAL, NTSC-U and NTSC-J releases of the same game often sell for different amounts due to print run sizes and regional collector demand.

Adding The Messenger to a Gamevaro collection takes seconds — search by title or scan the box barcode, and the app fills in cover art, release details and current pricing automatically. This NSW release dates back to 2018.

Market insights

Only a handful of market sales have been tracked for The Messenger, suggesting it doesn't trade hands very often — a sign of relative scarcity compared to more common Nintendo Switch titles.

Complete-in-box (CIB) copies typically command a premium over loose cartridges/discs because the original box and manual are more fragile and get discarded or damaged over time — fewer complete sets survive.

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