Feature Set:  

Like most online game rental companies, Game-Rentz includes free shipping, no late fees and no due dates. They also provide the option to keep or purchase any rented game at a used price.

Like our #1 service, GameFly, Game-Rentz has secured a deal with the postal service to reduce shipping times through electronic tracking. When the USPS scans your returned game, Game-Rentz will immediately send you the next game on your request list before the returned game reaches their warehouse. This is a great system few game rental services have implemented thus far.

Game-Rentz also has an incentive program where they convert 25 percent of your membership fee into Rent-to-Own bucks that can be used toward the purchase of used games. Think of it as an automatic savings account for video games. It’s a fun system and a unique one. Few companies out there actually pay you to use their services.

Although Game-Rentz is forging ahead quite nicely with these distinctive programs, we are a little disappointed with the amount of information that is displayed on individual game pages. Game-Rentz tries to display descriptions, screenshots, reviews and online instructions where available, but we found that most of these features were absent, most frequently the instructions.

We also discovered that Game-Rentz doesn’t display a game’s current availability, a feature that is standard among other services of this nature.

Video Game Selection:  

Game-Rentz is the only service we reviewed that limited its game selection to seventh generation consoles like Wii, 360 and PS3. They do not have rentals for older consoles or current handheld platforms like PSP or DS.

We don’t know exactly how many games Game-Rentz has in its inventory, but their limited console support makes us suspect they can’t have more than  one or two thousand games total in stock and that’s speculative assuming  they have the same number of seventh generation titles as our #1 service, GameFly.

Search Capabilities:  

We had no real problems looking for games on the Game-Rentz site. You can search by console, genre, popularity or newest release. You can also use the search box in the upper right corner for specific game searches. However, we would have liked to see a “display all” function for general browsing.

Additionally, a little more TLC needs to be put into the search function. Although games we were looking for were accurately found, they were just displayed as a simple hyperlink to the games’ homepages, but you’re on your own if you misspell a title.

Video Game Arrival Time:  

Average delivery time for Game-Rentz games is 2-4 days depending on the postal service. This also depends on your proximity to California where Game-Rentz is located.

Available Plans:  

Game-Rentz has three membership plans at competitive prices.

• $14.95 for 1 game at a time
• $21.95 for 2 games at a time
• $28.95 for 3 games at a time

They also offer a promotional new member price at $7.95 for your first month.

Game-Rentz online video game rental is a new kid on the block, but they seem to have the potential to become real players in this industry if they put a little more love and attention into their individual game pages and get a few more distribution centers. 

To read about our top three online video game rental services see, GameFly, Gamerang and GottaPlay.