With recent talk of the perceived value of games like Returnal and its $70 pricing, Skyward Sword and its $60 pricing, and various compilations and collections being released with varying degrees of effort and tweaks (some feeling lazy and others putting in the work), I was having the conversation of which game purchases out there really made you feel you got a satisfying bang for your buck.
This is highly subjective, as I know I'm someone who would rather pay $60 for a super-strong, linear, 7-hour action game over $10 for a super-dull, boring, vast, open-world experience offering hundreds of hours of gameplay, but I know many people who value a high playtime or completion time per dollar ratio. It was one of the arguments I recall EA mentioning for their loss of interest in a franchise like Dead Space, which were often sub-10 hour linear experiences and they felt gamers demanded more bang for their buck, but that meant more open-world games or games with higher replay value.
For compilations, I would be hard-pressed to answer definitively, but I think the gold-standard might just be the Rare Replay collection. It's not just the sheer amount of the games they included, but that so many of them are considered definitive, genre-defining classics all on their own. I remember happily spending $60 on cartridges for Perfect Dark or Killer Instinct or Banjo-Kazooie, and here the vast majority of their best efforts are all bundled together at a ridiculously affordable price. I still boot this up.
And as an old-timer, I felt the same for the Sonic's Ultimate Sega Genesis Collection.
Again, it's not just the sheer amount of 48 games included, but that so many of them are bonafide classics, from the original Sonic trilogy to the epic Phantasy Star or Shining Force RPG franchises to beat-em-up legends like Streets of Rage. It has more hits than misses, by far.
But it's hard for me to disagree when I hear people mention The Orange Box or Halo: The Master Chief Collection (after updates). I also still pat myself on the back for nabbing Metroid Prime Trilogy for a measly $25 at Target right before it became harder to track down.
I've found it amusing reading comments on something like the Mass Effect Legendary Edition, with many comments saying the $60 is too much for three games that all nearly a decade old, but you also see others mentioning that it includes nearly everything - and that current market price for the DLC along often tops $100 in total, and that these aren't just upscaled ports but real effort being put into modernizing and streamlining the experience across all three games. I think that's a great value, but I can't find a comment section that doesn't have someone mentioning they don't think it's worth it, especially if they have the PC versions and can mod them.
When people complain about stuff like ports of Skyward Sword being released at full-price with no mentioned additions or tweaks (that we know of), I do remember acknowledging that there are some games that are just so good that I felt the value of the asking price was still fair.
Skyward Sword may not be my choice, but when Nintendo remastered Xenoblade Chronicles, I jumped right on that, despite having played and beaten the original on both Wii and 3DS, simply because the game is just so big, vast, and rewarding for me to run around in. To me, that's the single game that I almost felt I underpaid for.
And that's the other thing too. Some games may not offer the value you want at $60, but if you pick them up at $10 and really enjoy it, then your value purchase may be significantly higher than someone else's who paid the premium price.
So what game gave you the most Value, in your eyes?
This is highly subjective, as I know I'm someone who would rather pay $60 for a super-strong, linear, 7-hour action game over $10 for a super-dull, boring, vast, open-world experience offering hundreds of hours of gameplay, but I know many people who value a high playtime or completion time per dollar ratio. It was one of the arguments I recall EA mentioning for their loss of interest in a franchise like Dead Space, which were often sub-10 hour linear experiences and they felt gamers demanded more bang for their buck, but that meant more open-world games or games with higher replay value.
For compilations, I would be hard-pressed to answer definitively, but I think the gold-standard might just be the Rare Replay collection. It's not just the sheer amount of the games they included, but that so many of them are considered definitive, genre-defining classics all on their own. I remember happily spending $60 on cartridges for Perfect Dark or Killer Instinct or Banjo-Kazooie, and here the vast majority of their best efforts are all bundled together at a ridiculously affordable price. I still boot this up.
And as an old-timer, I felt the same for the Sonic's Ultimate Sega Genesis Collection.
Again, it's not just the sheer amount of 48 games included, but that so many of them are bonafide classics, from the original Sonic trilogy to the epic Phantasy Star or Shining Force RPG franchises to beat-em-up legends like Streets of Rage. It has more hits than misses, by far.
But it's hard for me to disagree when I hear people mention The Orange Box or Halo: The Master Chief Collection (after updates). I also still pat myself on the back for nabbing Metroid Prime Trilogy for a measly $25 at Target right before it became harder to track down.
I've found it amusing reading comments on something like the Mass Effect Legendary Edition, with many comments saying the $60 is too much for three games that all nearly a decade old, but you also see others mentioning that it includes nearly everything - and that current market price for the DLC along often tops $100 in total, and that these aren't just upscaled ports but real effort being put into modernizing and streamlining the experience across all three games. I think that's a great value, but I can't find a comment section that doesn't have someone mentioning they don't think it's worth it, especially if they have the PC versions and can mod them.
When people complain about stuff like ports of Skyward Sword being released at full-price with no mentioned additions or tweaks (that we know of), I do remember acknowledging that there are some games that are just so good that I felt the value of the asking price was still fair.
Skyward Sword may not be my choice, but when Nintendo remastered Xenoblade Chronicles, I jumped right on that, despite having played and beaten the original on both Wii and 3DS, simply because the game is just so big, vast, and rewarding for me to run around in. To me, that's the single game that I almost felt I underpaid for.
And that's the other thing too. Some games may not offer the value you want at $60, but if you pick them up at $10 and really enjoy it, then your value purchase may be significantly higher than someone else's who paid the premium price.
So what game gave you the most Value, in your eyes?
