Game(s) that you have got the biggest bang for the buck from?

[Rick Dangerous]

Sometimes you pay $250 for a game and it just sits on your shelf. Other times, you get something for $3 at a yard sale and sink hundreds of hours into it. What are your top few "bang for the buck" games from over the years.

 

My top three:

 

1. Super Mario Bros 3. (NES)- I paid some kid $10 in middle school for this game and have played it a LOT over the years

 

2. Goldeneye (N64)- True, I paid the full $50 for this one, but my friends and I logged countless hundreds of hours on this one..

 

3. Wii Sports (Wii)- Came free with my Wii in 2007, had many a good time, both sober and drinking with friends and family playing this one..

 

 

Non-nintendo (hadn't intended my top 3 to be Nintendo titles

 

1. Tempest 2k (Jaguar)- I don't think I paid more than $40, but this one gets lots of play and play when friends are over as well

 

2. Lemmings (3DO)- Paid $15, have sunk many, many hours into this..great game

 

3. Streets of Rage (Genesis): I think I paid $20. My go-to multiplayer beat em up when friends are over. Awesome graphics, awesome music.

 

 

[RJ]

Right now I can only think of PS2 Champions of Norrath: Realms of Everquest. I was in a local GameStop (back when this was OK) & found it used, only a week or so after its actual release date, & being used, marked way down. I said "this just came out last week!" & the half-interested clerk said "yah, I guess they didnt like it much."

 

The game has 5 character classes, each with male or female characters, & though the plot/areas are the same, they're randomly generated every time. The graphics are incredible too. Plus there's multiplayer, a la Gauntlet.

 

I've played thru it 5 times, using different characters, & never will get rid of it. Worth every discounted penny I paid. Years later I still cant believe someone ditched that game, prettey straightforward what kind of game it is. Maybe some girl sold it out from under her b/f.

[+GoldenWheels]

Multiplayer: Mario Party 1 and WCW/NWO Revenge. My friends and I put an obscene amount of hours into these games. COD 2 and 4, and BFBC2 on PC, which is more that lonely kind of MP.

 

Single player: Civ 3+4, COH2, Joust for 7800.

 

(Everything here but Joust was bought at full price)

[Torr]

Shadowrun of Sega Genesis comes to mind first.

 

Got this for $24.95 not long after the PSX came out and 16-bit titles were getting discounted.

I couldn't count how many times have I played this through; how many team configurations I've used; playing as each of the 3 starting classes; mapping out all the matrix layouts; etc.

 

I still play it fairly regularly. It's nice in that whether you wanna sink a lot of time into it or just beat it fast and dirty; you can easily speed run it and win with some bare minimum stat ability scores; you can solo it or build a team and have that team bare minimum stats, or be a stomping crew just leveling anything that comes near you... Time to play again I think!

[carlsson]

Premier Manager 1 for the Amiga. I bought it at full price in 1992 or perhaps 1993, and played it almost daily for half a decade, and still to this day - more than 20 years later - every now and then load it and get stuck in front of the Amiga for a few evenings in a row.

 

However, I've briefly tried demo versions of PM2 and PM3, but didn't like those very much although the changes and fine tuning are rather small compared to the first game, so despite I've had multiple chances of picking up those two cheap over the years (and of course obtain through other means), I have never bothered. For similar reasons, I have never bothered with Championship Manager or any of the newer football management sims. For me, football management is either The Boss (Soccer Boss) on the C64 etc, or Premier Manager 1 on the Amiga, I suppose it could also be played on a PC or likewise.

 

(And no, I'm not very fond of Kevin Toms' Football Manager for the ZX Spectrum, C64 etc. Much too few things to control, and not even FM2 did it for me)

[+pboland]

Pretty much all of these were bought new with one exception OD2 Attack of the Timelord!. Played new back in the day because a friend had it. Didn't get my copy until 1998. It was in a lot of 20 games with system for $40.00. Here's the list:

 

OD2 - Attack of the Timelord!, K.C. Munchkin!

SMS - Phantasy Star, Alex Kidd in Miracle World, Ghost House

Genesis - Starflight (lots of Starflight), Altered Beast, Rambo III

Jaguar - Tempest 2000, Zero Five (unfortunately I no longer have these titles)

3DO - Star Control II (only game I really liked on that system and I played the heck out of it)

Dreamcast - LoonyToons Space Race (I got quite good at this game).

Wii - Sports

 

For those that don't know, if you like Star Control II for the 3DO you will probably like Starflight for the Genesis (and vise versa). They are very similar play mechanics.

[Cobra Commander]

Sometimes you pay $250 for a game and it just sits on your shelf.

Never ever.

 

Probably Galaga in the arcade. After a while a quarter could go for a good bit, and them other fools can just wait, watch and get a lesson. The satisfaction of finding a random machine and having some fun used to be great.

 

Currently for free, OpenTTD http://www.openttd.org/en/

[Austin]

DOOM, Quake, Wolfenstein 3D, Painkiller-- all run 'n gun first person shooters I've sunk hundreds of hours into (each). Those should definitely be at the top of my list, none of them cost much at all and the amount of game time I've gotten out of them is absurd.

 

Any classic AAA NES action game I still come back to again and again should qualify as well-- Ninja Gaiden, Castlevania, Super Mario Bros., the first Double Dragon, etc., etc. I can't even begin to count the amount of time spent with these.

 

Honestly, thinking about this, there are too many games to list. I've been gaming for a long time, so.. there are a lot of games I've been playing for 25+ years that sort of automatically qualify for this list.

 

In modern times, Xenoblade Chronicles has proved to be an excellent purchase, even at the $65 or so I had to pay. I've clocked upwards of 130 hours into it now which is crazy for me (I don't play many RPGs these days). I can't think of any other modern game I've come close to sinking that many hours into recently.

[Rick Dangerous]

I agree austin, Neither Wolf 3D nor Doom owe me any money that is for sure....

 

I can't beleive I forgot it but Banjo Kazooie, the epic fetch quest for N64. I've completed that game 100% at least 5 times. Each save slot of that right now is at 100% for me... Love that game. Almost bought an xbox 360 just to play it in HD. I'm going to try to have my N64 RGB modded instead at some point..

[high voltage]

The Gold boxes on C64.

First I played Wizard's Crown on A8, played that for many, many hours/years, then Pool of Radiance came out on C64 and I had to play it from beginning to end within one week, and then I played through it again with my up to the hilt powered characters.

After that I bought all of the C64 Gold boxes (when released), and many golden gaming hours were assured.

Edited January 13, 2015 by high voltage

[icemanxp300]

nes- Mario 3

genesis- sonic 2

n64- Mario kart

 

however pc Medal of honor allied assault by far take the prize. 10 years of multiplayer almost every day sometimes I played more than I slept. I literally worked/slept/Mohaa. I think it was $40 new.

[BassGuitari]

Hard to say, I don't really have a metric for how long or how often I play specific games. I kind of flit from one system to the next.

I suppose I'd have to say the NES games I still have from when I was kid. 20+ years' worth of bang for my parents' buck.

[+save2600]

Not sure i have anything too exciting to report on the bargain<>play value front, but off the top of my head:

 

2600 Pengo, reclaimed (had it BITD) from a Salvation Army in the late 90's for a buck or less. Might have been $.49 come to think of it. While I lost track of my original throughout the years, this game *still* gets regular play almost every time I fire up the 2600.

[Blazing Lazers]

The games that have the most bang for the buck are the ones that a person has never stopped playing ever since acquiring, no matter how long they've had them for.

[imstarryeyed]

For me it's definitely super Mario Kart 8 and super smash bros both on wii u.

Paid full price new (wanted Nintendo to get paid for these), and my friends and I have not stopped playing them since. We love the amiibos and using them in smash.

[+save2600]

The games that have the most bang for the buck are the ones that a person has never stopped playing ever since acquiring, no matter how long they've had them for.

 

That's how I really feel about it too, but figured since the subject seemed to focus more on cost<>value, left it at that.

 

As for games with the best true value at any price, those would be some of the latest homebrews for systems such as the 2600, 7800, TI-99/4A, Intellivision and Bally Professional Arcade!

 

At the pace I've been purchasing and playing, homebrews are quickly going to overshadow what I used to consider as the original "must haves"!

[Bixler]

While not technically a game that would fit the "classic game discussion" forum criteria, most certainly Neverwinter Nights. Picked it up in 2003, and probably put about at least a couple thousand hours into it over the years. Lots of entertainment for $15.

[Manoau2002]

I played the crap out of Mario 1 and Mario 3 on the Nes. (But I paid full price for those games) I played Monopoly for the Nes a lot as well I think I paid five bucks for it at a video rental store. In more recent years I have played the fallout games a lot. (3 and new Vegas) I bought them during steam sales for less than five a piece.

[cncfreak]

The Pokemon Games of course. With the "Gotta Catch em all" mantra, I spend hundreds of hours per game.

Dragon Warrior Monsters 1: 300+ hours

Dragon Warrior Monsters 2: 400+ hours

Dark Cloud 2: 115+ hours

 

Forgot my favorite game of all time:

Wizard's Crown and it's sequel Eternal Dagger: Hundreds of hours in both. I still pickup and play Wizard's Crown from time to time

Edited January 22, 2015 by cncfreak