Gamehog is New Zealand's original games-only rental service, but it has lagged behind in our opinion. If you have an older Xbox or PS2 it's still the best source, however 2008 newcomer Game Kingdom now has much larger inventories for the next generation consoles.
They stock 220 PS2 titles, 240+ Xbox games, 260+ Xbox 360 games, 120+ PS3 games, and 180 Wii games. That said, in the past year we've noticed the inventory has increased less than 20%, so they don't appear to be raking in the new releases. Gamehog divides all games into eight genres, and also have lists like Top 25 rentals for each console.
Gamehog's actual browsing engine is only OK. We were disappointed by the information on each title (perhaps after being spoiled by the loads of information on NZ DVD rental sites). Sure, there are fairly long synopses, a box shot, classification, and the date they added it to their catalogue as you'd expect, but that's it. No information on game producer, one player or two, online, manual info, screenshots, etc. This could be much more useful. That said, they do have member reviews, but the star ratings should be displayed on the initial browsing page when you're looking at lots of games at once, not buried on a page one click past the actual game title page itself. There are some little things two, like listing "Studio" for console, suggesting the DVD rental software used to power the site was ported over to game rental in a hurry, with little things like this being missed. Again, minor points all, but things like that get us concerned.
Even with these quibbles, we were impressed that unlike in many countries where game rental services cost a bit more than DVD rental (game are more expensive, after all), here they are priced quite competitively. Gamehog is a great choice for families who are sick of squabbling over which game to buy and then having to spend $100 for the latest release. Instead, if you rent a game you don't like, you can simply return it. It's this feature, being able to explore some more offbeat titles without having to commit a small fortune to buy it, that is the most useful.
Unfortunately Gamehog doesn't have a customer service phone number posted on the site, which is not ideal as this can be an issue if you have a problem and have to rely on emails. Their freepost envelopes are plain white, and do not even have the Gamehog name on them, no doubt to deter theft in the post. They do have extra like game rental vouchers, an innovative present for a gamer.
Gamehog was launched in September 2005 by Brett Persson and Alastair White. They're the only worldwide DVD or game rental company we know of to call the customer queue of titles to rent "My Trough" (for the hog of course, the Gamehog--neat idea, though we'd expect a pig mascot somewhere on the site...). They also plan a Gamehog forum and player profiles, though these have been a long time in coming since being mentioned at launch. In short, Gamehog is not a perfect service, but a quite good one worth a try.
Prices: Gamehog has a 14-day free trial at the two-disc out-at-a-time level only. They have three unlimited subscription plans, starting at 1 game out at a time for $19.95, 2 discs for $29.95, and 3-discs for $39.95.
They generously allow you seven days after canceling your account to return all the games.
The only games-only rental service; some quirks and smaller than the big DVD companies, but delivers on its promise.
DVD Rental Basics