Sudden Impact

I’m very glad that the salesperson at Game Stop told me about Sudden Impact. It’s a small place but packed with many great retro game consoles and handhelds.
I was greeted right away by the owner of the store Dom. He was very helpful as I told him I was looking for a gameboy with Tetris. Dom had large selection in games and colors of gameboys. I decided to buy two gameboys with Mario, Donkey Kong, Batman, and Tetris. Dom even give free batteries with the gameboys.
I bought the gameboys a few months ago and I still bring them to every flight we have. I will be back soon to buy more games and possibly a Super Nintendo with Mario.

The owner Dom does not treat all his customers the same. I saw him pick on a non-​white customer with offensive racial overtones. This is not acceptable and truly shows how he does not respect other cultures and people. He even called someone a bad name twice. Good selection, but prices are a bit high. Dom needs to be friendlier and approachable to minorties. This would help his business tremendously.

This Place is Geek Heaven i thought this Place sold just toys boy i was wrong if you grew up as a 80’s kid playing the original Nintendo or Sega Genisis you Wall love this place. He has all The old school games & Consoles.

This store is pure awesomeness!
The owner is great, and knowledgeable. The store is packed with stuff! He even has new old stock parts for lots of games. We got a new screen and battery cover for a couple of GameBoys that basically made them like new! Thanks Dom!

I got some stuffed animals here that I’ve seen elsewhere for three fold. The owner knows what is on the shelves and is genuinely passionate about games. I’m not a Nintendo girl, but I had a great time visiting this store. This is an adorable shop that had me feeling like I was a kid again. There’s a lot to look at, so get yourself through the door.

Hands down this is the best store selling classic video games that I have come across, It’s selection of consoles and games is both wide and deep, selling all of the classic consoles from 1979 to 2000, even my favorite console, the Magnavox Odyssey 2. Will be sure to be going there again soon! Gotta love Winthrop :-)

Great little store loaded with older systems and games. Sold a functioning Game Boy Color and some old Xbox games found cleaning out my parents house and the owner Dom gave me a good fair price. He even threw in $ 5 for gas when he learned I drove down from the North Shore!
Well worth the trip from the city or North Shore if you like your vintage gaming or have one to sell.

Overwhelming selection of games and accessories at this place ! :-)
The prices are excellent and the owner is a great guy who will meet your needs.
SUPPORT LOCAL BUSINESS !!
A couple of the comments on here are unfounded and don’t make a lot of sense to me… How can consumers complain that things are pricey when they have not been to the store? People DO have to make a living and pay rent on the business.
Do they realize how much overhead goes into running a business ?? I say let the complainers try and run their own store and see how it works out for them.
Sudden Impact will be getting my return business :-)

Awesome shop, awesome owner, awesome deals! So excited to find a place in the area that is dedicated to old school gamming!

Over the years I have given business to many different video game establishments offering new and older games/​systems. But nestled in the center of Winthrop is a gem of a store, packed to the rafters with videogames of all kinds and origins.
Sudden Impact is a small shop that is big on retro and vintage gaming. If you are looking for some more obscure games, this is definitely the place you should go. The store is owned by Dom, and he is very knowledgeable about games. A very friendly man, he will talk with you about just about any game or system, which is something you won’t find if you go to Gamestop. Mention older stuff to the kids working there and watch their eyes glaze. But if it’s older and you’re looking for it, odds are Dom will have it in his shop. He has games and systems that were Japanese market only, and more importantly, he has the games and systems many of us grew up with.
I have both bought and sold games/​systems with Dom in the past, and he makes the process easy. Today I sold him two Nintendo 64 games I no longer wanted, and we agreed on price very quickly. About three months ago I bought a new N64 system from Dom when my old one died, and his prices are very reasonable. For both systems and games, you will be hard pressed to find a place that has more reasonable prices. Dom is also willing to share his knowledge about how to maintain older games, including the delicate process of cleaning them. His wealth of knowledge is rare, and not seen a lot these days.
Dom does his best to make Sudden Impact your friendly neighborhood video game store, and this is a task he is very successful at. If you are at all curious about this little shop, you need to check it out. You will not be disappointed. You may even walk away with a little piece of your childhood.

LOVE this place. If you are in or around Winthrop come check it out! The owner, Dom is a super nice guy who really knows what he’s talking about. He’s very helpful and knows what you want by just describing what you like to play. Great little store, with some amazing games and finds!
If you’re looking for something special or the older games, come in and check it out!
A MUST SEE for any gamers or anyone who wants to relive their childhood!

I wanted to check out this place for a while, but didn’t know what to expect (whether I’d be buying a lot, or being lost in Winthrop).
Anyways, I went to Sudden Impact, which is near the police station and on a bus route from Orient Heights. It reminded me of an old school game shop, with see-​through counters where you can see the games and other electronics.
It’s a colorful and festive atmosphere. A small place, but there’s plenty to see and check out. There are some of the newer systems, but concentration falls mostly from the Xbox/​PS2/​Wii generation and before, which is refreshing.
Dom was pretty helpful in helping me find what I and my friend were looking for. I even got to try out the game in the store before I bought it. He was knowledgeable about games and is friendly.
I would say the only caveat is about inventory and pricing. Things come and go fairly quickly, from what I understand, so you might not find what you’re looking for. Prices may be slightly higher than what’s on the internet too, but overall I was fairly satisfied with my experience. I would check it out again if it wasn’t so far from me.

Sudden Impact, in my opinion, is one of the two best video game stores in MA (the other being Games Underground in Framingham).
The sheer amount of games and systems that fit in the small store space is incredible. The owner, Dom, obviously cares about games and his store, which really comes through when you talk to him. His game selection will appeal to collectors as there are the rarer items in the glass case up front, or gamers looking at the more bargain titles on the walls surrounding the store searching for that hidden gem.
Dom makes sure you don’t walk out of the store feeling cheated and will work with you on a happy medium price-​wise (something that Game Zone in Salem could definitely take a tip on). Personally, i’m a Dreamcast collector/​gamer and feel that the price points on the games are fair. The majority of prices are in line with middle-​of-​the-​road Amazon and eBay pricing (and sometimes on the lower end of that pricing also) and brick and mortar stores need to charge a little more anyways to (a) stay in business and because (b) you get to inspect what you plan to purchase before pulling the trigger.
Sudden Impact really reminds me of the cool neighborhood record store where you search through the records looking for THE ONE. The store is relatively organized but not to the point where you don’t feel like you could still uncover something special and feel good about it. Still takes a little digging to look at everything for your desired console.
If you’re a vintage gamer of any sort, Sudden Impact is a priority stop. I’ve been to all of the game stores from Worcester to Boston and Sudden Impact is quite impressive. Support your local video game store!

Sudden impact was one of my stops on our «Geek Tour» where we try to hit up as many retro video game and comic shops as we can in a day. The store has many old systems from the past and many game for them as well. So it can be a one stop shop if you feel like getting and old Nintendo and a set of games for it. We were greeted as we entered the store and was asked if we need help with anything. We were just browsing so there wasn’t much help needed. Because we were browsing we had to kinda poke at everything.
The problem with this store is that it’s very cramped. It’s not a browser friendly setup during the weekends. It was more designed for people who kind of know what they’re looking for. This is not the owner’s fault as he worked with the space he has.

This place is phenomenal. My friend and I visited last Saturday as we had heard and read much about it. It blew my mind as to how many cool and interesting things were there. We spent well over an hour in the store checking things out and it seemed like every time I would look again, I would find some other treasure on the shelves.
Perhaps the best compliment I can pay is how the owner treats his customers. Many young kids frequent Sudden Impact and the owner gives them great advice on games to play and is very patient with everyone. You can tell that he establishes personal relationships with his customers. It is great to see so many younger kids playing and enjoying the games that I did when I was younger (I’m almost 30 now.).
Prices are reasonable and the selection is vast. Although some of the really rare/​popular games sell quickly! My one suggestion would be that it would be great if somehow Dom could put is current inventory online, but at the rate games come in and leave, it’d be a bit difficult. :-)
Definitely pay Sudden Impact a visit!

Walking into Sudden Impact is like stepping into the metaverse of videogaming. Just about every system is accounted for in hardware and software. For a time it seemed like the retro game store would ironically be a thing of the past but Sudden Impact is among a few other stores in Massachusetts that have been on the forefront of preserving the history of video games to those who would care to study it. Prices are reasonable. Hey you can even trade in your old games for cred toward a new one. Not bad at all. The NES is my thing BUT whatever your taste I’m almost certain you can sate it at Sudden Impact.

The best place in New England for video games both old and new. Also a great selection in video game, movie and sports merchandise. Great owner too, he’s the best. Overall amazing experience at Sudden Impact!!!

In my crusade to hit every retro gaming store in this area (Gaming Underground in Framingham you’re next!), I finally got around to checking out Sudden Impact in Winthrop just yesterday. I wouldn’t say I was thrilled with my whole experience (like at Replay’d), but I felt like I was treated fairly, and that’s what’s important for stores like this.
The place is jam packed with retro gaming swag, from Atari related things all the way up to Playstation 1. The owner seemed like a fair guy, who obviously knows the business he is in. All the loose carts were priced at what you’d expect the «fair market value» on them to be, so don’t come into here looking to pull the wool over his eyes. Having said that, this place is heads and tails better then The Game Zone in Salem, mainly because the prices (although market-​value and not low by any means), are negotiable. The owner, upon realizing I was there to spend some dough, made me a deal with what I was looking to buy, and I ended up spending around 200 $ for a (holy grail of the SNES) Earthbound, tons of loose carts and a boxed SNES game.
Will I be back? Yes, more then likely. Will it be as often as I plan on returning to Replay’d? No.
Worth checking out.

This store is just awesome. My friend, my girlfriend and I took the drive out here from Allston on Saturday afternoon after hearing good things about the store on Unilocal and we had a great time. My friend went in looking for one specific N64 game and ended up buying 4 or 5. I was interested in buying an N64 but ended up leaving with an FC Twin (aftermarket console that plays NES and SNES games) as well as a few games.
Dominic, the store’s owner, was a big help with everything and just an all around good guy. He threw in two free NES games with our console and gave my friend a free copy of Donkey Kong 64 to go along with his purchase.
The store can seem a little overwhelming at first but you’ll quickly grasp the layout if you’ve got 5 – 10 minutes to be looking around. Each game console has it’s own section along the main wall for games and all consoles are in the back. There are even some test consoles set up for you to try out the cartridges.
Dominic knows a TON about games. He had information on games ranging from Atari, Jaguar, NES, SNES, N64 all the way up to the current generations. I was even surprised to see that there are some sealed current gen (ps3, wii, xbox 360) games in the case available for sale as well. I want to start coming here for all my gaming purchases.
Overall, I thought everything was a pretty good value. Some things are priced a little higher than you may find online, but everything seemed to be at least a little negotiable and you can’t beat the convenience of walking into a storefront and picking out an NES title off the shelf like you could do 10 – 15 years ago.
Overall, I can’t recommend this store enough. It’s truly a family operated business and you don’t feel like just another customer when you shop here. Dominic is personable and friendly and takes care to make sure you’re getting what you want. I even saw him make a call to his supplier to acquire a game for another customer while we were in the store. How many game stores can you say that about?
I can’t wait to go back.

I’ll start by saying I made a Unilocal account to write this review.
I’m not romanticizing when I say that this store singlehandedly makes the case for small business in the US. It’s hard to do much more than add to what other reviewers have said. I was in Sudden Impact for an hour after the official closing time last night and the owner had no qualms about keeping it open late to help out a couple customers. He’s incredibly knowledgable, friendly, and offers great deals on anything he sells. He honestly wants to help people reconnect with their childhood video games.
He’ll call you if he doesn’t have a game in stock and you want to wait for it. He offered us free delivery on anything we found we’d forgotten to buy. As some others have pointed out the prices here are very, very reasonable. Of course they don’t compete completely directly with E-​Bay or Amazon sellers but as the owner would be quick to point out that’s simply not a realistic expectation. They’re very, very, close but if you buy game at this store you’ll get a 90 day guarantee on returns if something doesn’t work and you can actually see the quality of the game you’re buying before you buy it.
Can’t say enough about the store or the owner, will certainly be going back soon and often. I dropped $ 270 the first time I was there and left with a well worth it box of my childhood.