Games that offer the most "bang for your buck"
 

I went to Target yesterday and debated on whether to spend my 40 bucks on three Greatest Hits games, or on one Xenosaga game (50 with 10 dollar gift card). In the end, I went with Xenogears, because I have pretty much all the GH titles I originally wanted, and although there are still some great games left, I'd get more enjoyment out of Xenosaga. Plus, at 80+ hours of gameplay, that's a lot of bang for your buck, considering a lot of PS2 titles offer less than 10 hours each.

It got me thinking on recent games that've provided me the most entertainment for my dollar. Of course opinions will vary greatly... for instance, just because a game's long doesn't mean that it's entertaining enough to play until the end. Some games like Shinobi, Zone of the Enders, or Rygar may be entertaining, but all too short. But with the other thread about the lack of game depreciation, I thought I'd try to start a list of games that provide much more entertainment for the price:

RPGs are always a good deal, if you're a fan. When people can complain that dot hack is too short because it only lasts 15-20 hours, you have a time killing genre:

Suikoden III (PS2, 50 bucks): Great game, lots of characters, interesting setup. Easily worth the 50 that it still costs. Easily the best non FF RPG before the recent glut (as a side note, you know there's a glut of RPGs when the latest Breath of Fire mentions as a selling point that it's rated as one of the top ten PS2 rpgs of the year... and it's only march)

Xenosaga (PS2, 50 with 10 Giftcard at Target): Most of the 80 or so hours may be cutscenes, but if you're a fan of rpgs and giant robots, it's a can't miss.

Phantasy Star Collection (GBA, 20 bucks at TRU): The first three Phantasy Star games. I would've paid that much for part 2 alone. I'd say at least 50 to 60 hours of classic RPGs, portable, for 20 bucks.

If you have friends, multiplayer can provide hours of entertainment:

Timesplitters II: I've been playing and playing, and still have only a little over 50% of everything unlocked. Sure, a lot of the characters look the same, but it's a lot of fun (and frustration) trying to get everything.

NFL 2K3: Madden may have sold more, but I'd rate the two games as dead even, and this one's only 20 bucks, online play included.

FIFA 2003 (20 bucks for Gamecube version): If you're a soccer fan, of course.

Super Smash Bros. Melee: Not for everyone, but I got it for free with my GC, and it'll take me a while to get everything.

Virtual Fighter 4 (PS2, 20 bucks): A deep, deep fighter.

Marvel vs. Capcom II (less than 20 for DC version)

Advance Wars (GBA, 20 bucks)

Animal Crossing

Super Monkey Ball 2

The single player took me a few hrs to complete, and the multiplayer has infinite amount of replayability.

Neverwinter Nights -- You could play a different module every day for a year and not play the same module twice. In fact, you'd barely scratch the surface on playing all the available modules out there.

Morrowind -- hours and hours of gameplay, and the game can be replayed in a variety of different ways. Add the expansion packs and the user mods, and you've got an amazing experience.

Civilization 3 (and all the other games in the series) -- no two games are alike, very customizable, and a lot to do.

America's Army -- the game is FREE and hella fun.

Fallout & Fallout 2 -- available as a 2 pack for $10. Incredible deal.

Civilization 1/2, couldn't get into 3, maybe I am burnt out from Civ!

Street Fighter 2 Turbo, Last Blade 2, Mark of The Wolves, King of Fighters 98, Virtua Fighter 2

Quake 2

Morrowind

Iron Storm/Dragon Force (Sega Saturn)

Gran Turismo series

Baldur's Gate series

Even Morrowind on Xbox has a lot of replayability. I beat it in about 100 hours last summer and I estimate I only finished about 1/3 of the different quests. Definitely worth the full $50 I paid for it.

I already have Fallout 2 but I lost my copy of Fallout 1 -- might just get that deal sometime. Someday I'll try a h2h character, but it's always so much fun sniping.

Heroes of Might and Magic 2, 3, 4. I need to pick up 3 or 4 again. I always get a ton of playing time out of the different scenarios -- generally better all around than the campaigns.

Tuan Jim

Everquest, buy it with all the expansions and you will probably find yourself playing hundreds of hours (which is required to get anything done). Even at paying 13$ a month, some people have 4-5 accounts, the game has so much content now that it's impossible to do all the quests and see everything. It's the one game out there that can claim the title of 'homewrecker'

America's Army - It's free and fun, what more could you want.

Civilisation 2/3 - most addictive turn based games ever. Like Lastblade though, I preferred 2 to 3.

Half-Life for the PC (along with all the Blue Shift, Opposing Force, Counterstrike add-ons).

The Sims - PC

Ghost Recon - Xbox

Anything with online multiplayer

So where does one obtain this America's Army game? For free, I can imagine even a mediocre game would give me a lot of bang for my buck.

You can download America's Army here:

http://www.americasarmy.com/downloads.php

Day of Defeat add-on for Half-Life

The reason why I don't think RPGs give you good "bang for your buck" is because their length is artificially lengthened. Things like item management, character/stat building and random battles that are basically just menu commands keep RPGs from being games that you can play over and over again. Very little of the average RPG consists of actual game-play.

Having said that, here is my pick for best buck-bang:
Super Mario All-Stars(the one w/ Mario World) for the SNES
- You get 4 amazing mario games that are infinitly replayable and a bonus, harder, version of the first game all on one cartrige - after all these years, I'm still playing this and it is the only reason I still have my SNES hooked up.

A recent game that has good buck-bang is Ratchet & Clank:
- a $39 game with amazing production values and easly 30 hours of slightly-repetative, but very fun action.

Hands down, Beach Spikers for $10 from Best Buy. Hours and hours of multiplayer entertainment.

i would like to add Tactics Ogre: The Knights of Lodis...one can put some serious hours into it. i enjoy the whole " item management, character/stat building" aspect which adds to the game time. this type of thing may bore you to death so i guess other people's opinions may differ.
i also would highly recommend 'Hitman 2'. it has quite a few missions to take on with different strategies that can be implemented, which is terrific. a lot of replay value and totally worth it.

beach spikers $10
nfl 2k3 $19.99
ssbm $29.99
nba street $19.99
socom even though it's not the cheapest it's $54.99 at walmart

omfg, need for speed HP 2 has provided me with 100s of hours of racing enjoyment, also contra shattered soldier roxorz my boxorz

SOUL CALIBUR!!!
so many moves per character and many differents modes of play

Grand Theft Auto III, especially since Wal-mart now has it priced at $29.96. For the few who have waited for the price drop, get a copy now.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, especially if you got a used copy for $20 at Blockbuster as I did :)

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Still the greatest 2D action/platformer EVER. It looks like they've recently re-released it. I found a copy at Sam's Club for $14 a few weeks ago to replace one I foolishly traded as part of the deal for an XBox (no regrets on the XBox, just on trading SOTN to get it :D ).

Super Monkey Ball
Contra: Shattered Solider

The difficulty and multiplayer options allow for virtually unlimited replay.

Wrestlemania 2000 for N64. It's addictive and some of our 3 way matches went for more than hour. The timer would stop at 59:59. Shows you how much lives we have. Pure fun. So we probably at least played more than 120 hours total.

Crap, I forgot Super Bomberman 1 and 2 for SNES. Best multiplayer game ever.

Sports games.

Franchise/dynasty modes offer an endless single player game and they never get old in multiplayer.

Fighting games are endless multiplayer fun.

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon is pretty good bang for the buck too. ($10, GBA)

With five different modes (vampirekiller, magician, fighter, shooter, and thief), it's good replay values for a great game.

PAL

Advance Wars GBA is now $19.99.

It was the most bang for my buck when I got it for $30, it is a steal at $20.

Sounds like a great deal. What store(s) sell it for $10?

Actually, that was the price that I paid for it, which was around last Thanksgiving. Toys R Us was selling 3 or 4 older GBA games at $9.99 on Black Friday, and COTM of one of them.

Then, later on Target also had a similar sale a few weeks later. More recently, I think KB Toys also had $10 GBA games in January. So that was the few occasions that I could remember.

PAL