Ok, so that title's a bit of a cheat. While Dubai does have traditional bazaars like the kind you'd read about in 1001 Arabian Nights, you'd be lucky to find any games there. That said, of course there are plenty of places to buy video games though – in fact, many stores have dozens of rarer, niche titles that would be virtually impossible to find in Western countries without paying exorbitant prices on import sites like Play Asia.

Looking for the limited-edition version of Theatrhythm Curtain Call? Rhythm Thief? Cave Story 3D? No problem! What about games long out of print in the West like New Super Luigi U, Kid Icarus: Uprising or Ocarina of Time 3D? You don't have to look far.

It's also strange to see that, while Dubai on the whole is all about the modern, hip and new, stores will often stock games a generation – sometimes even two behind. You didn't have to look too hard to find Wii or DS titles, PS2 or PSP games, even GameCube and Game Boy Advance games are still sold, brand new, in some locations.

Whereas other countries sell Nintendo games that conform to a set regional lock (sadly region restriction is a problem that plagues only Nintendo of the major gaming brands these days), in the UAE you can find not only Nintendo hardware and software from multiple regions, but also considerably rare titles and limited-edition variants as well (more on that later). In multimedia stores like Virgin Megastore, the majority of store stock seems to come from PAL territories, but dedicated gaming chains like Geekay Games and Games Mart will stock both UK and USA copies, usually divided between shelves. The cashiers will usually double check which region your system is from before completing the transaction.

Oddly, some of the games are even branded with little labels stating that they're specifically set to the “UAE region” and its surrounding countries, despite the contents of the package usually containing the standard American NTSC versions.

In an interesting side note, Amiibos seem to be sourced from “wherever we could get stock from at the time we placed the order” as they work universally across regions, and it's not uncommon to find a mix of English, Japanese and European languages on the Amiibo packaging scattered around the same store shelf. It's also noteworthy to point out that the harder-to-find Amiibos are in plentiful supply and, as some stores told me, have a few new characters added to the stock each month, rather than in waves like everywhere else. I was able to spot rare characters like Dedede, Ike and Fox without much effort. Characters that were store-exclusive in the States were less common, though I could have sworn I saw a MetaKnight in Dubai Mall's Hamleys toy store once – when I went back later the staff obliviously said they didn't keep track of character names, but what's there is there and there'll be new ones next month. It's a good thing Australia has seen a restock of him since I've returned home!

Probably the most interesting, and perhaps boggling aspect of Dubai game stores is the sheer number of rare, limited variations that line the store shelves. These are the special console and handheld versions that immediately sell out to scalpers in the West, the ones you see peddled on eBay at 400% inflations.

It's virtually impossible to enter any store selling video games in the city and not see items like the Wind Waker HD WiiU bundle, the Majora's Mask New 3DS, or the Year of Luigi 3DS XL. I even found a few of the Wii Mini systems, which never launched in many regions of the world, including my home country of Australia. Like with games in these stores, the region of the system varies between chains and locations, and you'll need to check the package to confirm which games work on which system.

On the side of memorabilia and merchandise, there were a few store chains that had some cool stuff, such as the Zelda Monopoly game and the World Of Nintendo figurine sets, but nothing out of the ordinary for gamer shopping trips anywhere else in the world.

Check the gallery below for more pictures, or click on the chapter pages to the right for more of my Dubai adventure!