Best Bang For Buck Replay Value Game You'd Take To A Desert Island For The Rest Of Your Life While Tooting Your Ganja In The Hood...

[PII | 1,883]

So you're relegated to a desert island for the rest of your life, alone.  It's just you and the sand and an indestructible solar array hooked up to a console with your 1 game of choice.  You spend your time procuring food, patching the leaf roof on your hut, swimming and relaxing with your one and only game chosen on the merit of best possible replay value.   GO!

...Also, my inspiration for this was beating Mighty Bomb Jack a couple of days ago.  I won't bother trying to explain all the rules here, but it sure is a dynamic game.  There are so many ways to accomplish your goals as you venture ever deeper into this labyrinthine maze and so much hidden stuff you could easily be at it every day for years before figuring out every last trick and jabberwocky that this strategic nightmare has to offer, including a 45-room grid microcosm of a maze squirreled away within the greater maze, just to acquire a single item so that you can access a couple of rooms later in the game.  Whew!  It seems to present a nearly endless array of    "Now, just how am I going to avoid all of the enemies coming at me in this rooms set up?"       -type situations.  So if you ever want to get some practice at that kind of thing, look no further.  

I also noticed that Jack's cape/floating ability (Tap "A") would seem to be a precursor to Mario's flight/floating with tail/cape...

 

Edited June 3, 2022 by PII
Self Grammar Policing

[Dr. Morbis | 2,088]

It would have to be some sort of strategy/sim type game with a ton of different options for replayability.  Action games are out, so are most adventure games.  Even RPG's start to get old after you've beat them a few times.  Chrono Trigger only has so many endings; Final Fantasy only has so many party combinations...

So my pick is going to be Romance of the Three Kingdoms II on NES/SNES, because I've played it a million times and still don't get bored.  It's got 6 scenarios with dozens of Rulers to choose from to start out, and you can actually kill off your Ruler on purpose at any time and choose any one of your followers to be your new Ruler for what seems like endless possibilities in who you beat the game with.  You can go slow and build up provinces, or be a war-monger, or pretty much do anything you want.  The only real constraint in the game is that if you were to drag out a campaign for decades, eventually all of your dudes would die of old age.  But if I had nothing else at my disposal, I could easily play ROTK II for years...

[doner24 | 1,195]

GTAV

 

[Kguillemette | 1,542]

Minecraft.

[DarkTone | 984]

Animal crossing. 

[twiztor | 847]

Diablo II

[zeppelin03 | 314]

Probably an Elder Scrolls.  You can create so many different builds and set up challenges for yourself.  I want to say Morrowind but would probably just go with Skyrim.  Since I can somehow power my PC on a deserted island I will assume all the mods I want are already one the SSD as well.

[RH | 4,889]

Let's see...

My short lists for learning to speedrun/time attack would be:

Super Mario 64

Mario Kart

GoldenEye

Ridge Racer V

Arcade games I can play and play:

Ms. Pac-Man

Galaga

Games with points that I played until I wore out the disc:

Tony Hawk 1, 2 & 3

 

So which would I pick from that list...

Super Mario 64!

Nah, it's not my favorite game, but I think it has the best balance of having the most stuff to do, greatest level of challenge plus it'd be fun to work on speed running levels. This choice is purely a function on replayability when there are no other honest but, to be honest, there's not a single game I wouldn't get bored with if it were my only option.  Even a game like Tetris I could probably go back to again and again for my entire life, but there would be large stretches of time (weeks probably) that I'd go before picking it up if it were my only option.  A game like SM64 has various reasons why I might want to play it. So it'd probably get more use.

 

Edited August 5, 2020 by RH

[Tabonga | 2,313]

I would go with Nectaris for the  PS1.  There are a 108 scenarios and unlike most strategy games you can replay any single one of them to try different strategies or simply because you like a particular scenario(s).  The game has some unique mechanics that make if fairly challenging.

[Aguy | 771]

6 hours ago, DarkTone said:

Animal crossing. 

You're already on a deserted island, so you bring a game about living on a relatively deserted island? 

[TDIRunner | 2,721]

Question.  If you pick a game with online functionality, does the online functionality work?  

[Reed Rothchild | 9,504]

...and to answer the question, I guess Heroes of Might and Magic III.  It includes an entire campaign editor.  Or actually, Myth II since it has Fear and Loathing (which lets you mod and create pretty much ANYTHING).  Yeah, that one.

[Tanooki | 4,929]

I'd need something with an insane amount of variable difficulty and choice so it doesn't even after 100, 1000 hours get moldy.  One that pops to mind would be either Sim City Classic or the 2000 follow up.  Away from the construction style planning sim stuff, a puzzle, instant choice would be Tetris as it never really stops and you can always with application inch yourself ever so a bit better, and not the foofy gimmes and cheats style, but the early raw one that will toss you under the bus with nothing but the one NEXT box warning and that's 1989's Gameboy version.

 

 

I'd want to think something from the action variety wouldn't get stale, liked that comment about Diablo 2 and I kind of want to agree, but eventually being stuck on an island with online not a choice, re-running those same maps time and again would get really boring eventually even with the change in class and build choices you can do.  Same can be said for Animal Crossing, because once you get from any version all the collectible holiday stuff (hidden NES games in the 1st) and the limited year spread out list of fish, bugs and the rest it would just get old.  It would have the benefit of having some kind of sanity saving relationship making there but I'd think you'd start re-running the same comments into boredom.

I do like the idea of Super Mario 64 though.  While it's finite, you can attack those stages so many ways and with so many things to do it really would take quite a long time to knock out all the stars, every coin, etc and in the many multiple ways of attempting to do just that, not to mention trying to see how fast you could nail it down after exploration gets a bit old.

[Aguy | 771]

Civ 5 Complete, ultimate replayability.

[DefaultGen | 5,393]

Path of Exile. It's like Diablo II designed for lifetime-length grinds.

[DarkTone | 984]

6 hours ago, Aguy said:

You're already on a deserted island, so you bring a game about living on a relatively deserted island? 

You're right. I'll bring a console, tv and stereo to plug into the dirt, and play a real game. 

[PII | 1,883]

On 8/5/2020 at 8:54 AM, TDIRunner said:

Question.  If you pick a game with online functionality, does the online functionality work?  

Good question.  Here is my best answer:  Everyone may presume to have all that is necessary to play their one game of choice, however, in this case although you have online functionality, let's also presume that you only have a very few other online folks to play your game with; they are also each on their own separate desert island with the same one game you've chosen.  Also, said folks are totally unwilling to converse with you in any regard beyond the basic necessary game play, for you sir, or ma'am possess the "wrong" political beliefs.  In other words, you are totally isolated w/o any significant human contact and your game of choice should still be chosen based on best possible replay value, and  not for the purpose of maintaining a real connection with other human beings.

Also, no assumption of being able to acquire infinite downloadable add-ons every week/month/year etc. for your game as that would totally refute the concept of isolation from the world and the selection of 1 game for REPLAY value.

While running a gaming console or computer on a desert island is perhaps not the most practical fantasy, I came up with it to try and best emphasize total isolation from the world and people in order to highlight replay-ability over "all time favorite game" consideration etc.  If anyone would prefer to imagine themselves in a prison cell for life with a staff that for some reason allows prisoners to possess a gaming console and one game, that would also serve the purpose.  For that matter if you'd prefer to be on a mountain top or a ship at sea or a floating island in the sky or the planet boo-ga-loo or another dimension entirely, it's all good to me; whatever you like.

Lots of great answers/explanations so far as well as games that are yet unexplored by yours truly !

 

Edited June 3, 2022 by PII

[T-Pac | 7,511]

If not, I'm gonna go with Animal Crossing.

-CasualCart

[mbd39 | 2,017]

Nintendo Tetris!

Maybe within my lifetime I could finally get a maxout.

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,104]

Super Punch Out. I could play the time attack mode forever.

[TDIRunner | 2,721]

35 minutes ago, PII said:

Good question. 

 your game of choice should still be chosen based on best possible replay value, and  not for the purpose of maintaining a real connection with other human beings.

 

So much for my plan to use the online functionality to call for a rescue.  

[PII | 1,883]

@CasualCart

Sure, it's a program run on a console and or computer; and as long as you're prepared to defend/describe how it is a game to you (not asking, I totally get it.)  Only other contingency is that your intention is not to somehow produce a grand-scale flashing S.O.S. sign to signal passing ships or planes for your rescue so that you do not have to spend the rest of your life playing just one game, lol.

@TDIRunner

Nice try; you are hereby awarded 1 Special-Imaginary-Coin Point for your efforts to think outside the box.  Keep up the good work !

 

Edited June 3, 2022 by PII

[PII | 1,883]

@TDIRunner

P.s. ¡ Props on the Giorgio De Chirico Avatar !

[captmorgandrinker | 1,649]

GTA IV Complete Edition.    So many things to do in it.

[Makar | 1,946]

Assuming we don't have WiFi, I'll go with Yu-Gi-Oh 2011 since that's the newest Yu-Gi-Oh game I've played. Pretty sure I've sunk 300+hrs into it over the years. Every duel is different and this game has well over 50 computers with different decks so that keeps it fresh. Now this could change once I play the newest one on switch but we'll see.