10 Most Extravagant (Or Just Plain Stupid) Pre-Order Gaming Bonuses No One Wanted

The pre-order bonus; perhaps one of the most frustrating new trends in gaming. Too many games today are released with exclusive offers only available if you're willing to bet your cold hard cash that the game is worth playing months before release. It's even more infuriating when multiple stores offer different bonuses. Is a map pack worth more to you than a few extra weapons? At the end of the day, most of these extras appear on a 'Game Of The Year' edition later. But if you're an early adopter, you may have to have the game drip-fed to you through various different editions to get the full experience. Despite this injustice, pre-order bonuses also have a humorous side to them. I'm talking about the extras that are either misjudged, or just plain lazy. There's nothing more amusing in the modern game industry than pre-order bonuses that are bizarre, unnecessary and/or completely irrelevant. Many of them are extravagant bids for attention, others are more subtle but equally as dumb. We've compiled a list of some of the worst pre-order bonuses that have been offered in gaming for your amusement.

10. Donkey Kong Country Returns €“ A Banana Pencil Case

GameStop (a company that makes many, many appearances on this list) tend to pull out all the stops when promoting their pre-orders. That's why this pencil case should come as no surprise. Okay, we're aware it's not actually a pencil case. When US punters pre-ordered Donkey Kong Country Returns on Wii they were treated to a banana shaped pouch to protect their Wii remote. Although this does have a somewhat practical use, one look at the image above should incite a little giggling at how absurd the concept is as a marketing strategy. I'm not sure about you but I don't think this offer would really put pressure on me to buy the game, unless it was to use as a novelty pencil case.