Your most worthwhile XBLA/PSN/Wiiware purchases?

[Fontaine Le Funk]

What, after all the time that these online services have been live, are the games you return to play even to this day? What has your money been well worth?

For me (XBLA only), three months in and I still can't stop playing geometry wars 2. Also the recent CAVE releases, Omega 5, Ikaruga and Epic Dungeon come to mind.

[buzz_n64]

Double Dragon on XBLA! Not available anymore, glad I still have it, love it!

[The 1 2 P]

Double Dragon on XBLA! Not available anymore, glad I still have it, love it!

I really wish they would bring that back so I can buy it.

For me, I've played alot of great games over XBLA but the one I play the most is one that I got for free from either a controller or XBL purchase(can't remember which one) and that would be UNO. It's so simplisticly fun and yet so awesomely addictive.

[GarrettCRW]

Worms 2.

"Don't fall into the water, Betty!"

[Gamevet]

PAC-MAN CE DX (360)
TRON arcade (360)
Pinball FX2 (360)
Wipeout HD (PS3)
ZEN Pinball (PS3)
Super Stardust (PS3)

[incubus421]

All PSN for me:

Trine
Deathspank
Dead Nation
Super Stardust
Fat Princess

[substantial_snake]

Dead Nation on PSN really sucked me in for a while.

That and Super Stardust Portable was pretty good too.

[portnoyd]

Marvel vs Capcom 2. Played easily 1000-1500 matches online. That's worth it. :P

[heybtbm]

Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords. There's no official "time played" statistic in-game, but I'd wager I've played it over 100 hours. Probably closer to 150 hours. When our daughter was born, it was the only game I could play for 10-15 minutes before she needed something. Very easy to play for a few minutes and then tend to the crying baby. Love that game (and my daughter of course).

2nd place: Battlefield 1943.

3rd place: Any of the Konami Wiiware "Rebirth" titles. Castlevania Rebirth, Contra Rebirth, etc.

[8-bitNesMan]

Geometry Wars 1 and 2 on XBLA. Best $15 I ever spent on two games! :)

[kupomogli]

Dead Nation and Ad Hoc Party.

Ad hoc party is free, but it pretty much the best thing available on the entire PSN. The ability to play any non infrastructure PSN game against another player regardless of location. No need to be in the same room any longer. While it is entirely based on your location in comparison to the others, up to a few states away and it's generally usually full speed. Actually had to play Phantasy Star Portable 2 using it due to the fact that I couldn't use infrastructure mode with my current firmware with someone in Japan and it ran at full speed but with a few frame drops. Monster Hunter Freedom Unite ran full speed regardless the amount of people in game and regardless of location.

As for games, Dead Nation is the most fun game I've played on the PSN. Pretty much 99% of all other games just sucked though a few good ones here and there. I'll eventually get Rocket Knight and Pacman CE DX. The demo to both games were really fun.

*edit*

Just purchased Tetris by EA for the PSN. Easily the best version of Tetris I've played.

[Oobgarm]

Super Meat Boy (most played game this gen for me)
Geometry Wars 1 & 2

Those games far exceeded their price in gameplay value for me.

[Nebagram]

Discounting re-releases like Banjo-Kazooie (which I sank a hell of a lot of time into)...

Braid. Easily. To the extent that I actually bought it from both XBL and PSN just so I could complete it twice. With all 8 stars.

Flower would be second. It really is a game everyone needs to at least try once.

Pac-Man CE DX, which is still my go-to game when I just want to sit down and play something for 15 minutes.

I also sank a lot of time into Space Giraffe (still play it even now), FF:CC:MLaaK on Wiiware, Pain on PSN, and Miner Dig Deep and I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES!!!1 on Xbox indies.

[YoshiM]

Castle Crashers (360)
Shadow Complex (360)
Geometry Wars 1 & 2 (360)
Pac-man DX and it's sequel (360)
Epic Dungeon (360 indie)
Avatar Golf (360 indie)
Battlefield 1943 (360 & Ps3)
Flower (PS3)

Probably more but that's all I can think of off the top of my head. I am really getting into the 360's indie titles. May not be the big budget titles but some of the games I've played (Epic Dungeon FTW) have been a lot of fun.

[EDIT: I mistakenly called Shadow Complex Shadow Conspiracy. Whoops!]

[NYLatenite]

I'm going to stick with just newer games here and avoid emulated arcade games, because otherwise the list is going to get long.

If I had to pick the games I've gotten the most use (and fun) out of, I'd say...

XBL
Castle Crashers
Geometry Wars
Geometry Wars 2
Pac-Man: Championship Edition
Pac-Man: Championship Edition DX
Pinball FX2
Plants vs Zombies
Shadow Complex

PSN
Pixeljunk Shooter
Super Stardust HD
Zen Pinball

WiiWare
Haven't bought any

If you want to take a look at the Xbox Live Indie games channel, add the following two...

radiangames JoyJoy
radiangames Inferno

[NoDanaOnlyZool]

Limbo (probably the best current arcade title I have ever played)
Uno Rush

Both on XBLA

[Rickstilwell1]

I'm surprised nobody here likes Vandal-Hearts: Flames of Judgement. It's both PSN & Xbox Live Arcade and is another unrelated prequel to the original Vandal-Hearts, but is more like the original than Vandal-Hearts II was. I noticed if you buy it on PS3, the load times are shorter.

[Rob2600]

Your most worthwhile XBLA/PSN/Wiiware purchases?

I don't know why, but I find Dr. Mario Online Rx on WiiWare extremely addictive. The single-player mode is boring, but I could play online against strangers for hours and hours nonstop. I definitely got my money's worth on that one.

Other highly rated WiiWare games:

And Yet It Moves
Art of Balance
Art Style series
Bit.Trip series
Bomberman Blast
Castlevania The Adventure ReBirth
Cave Story
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King
LostWinds series
Maboshi's Arcade (also known as MaBoShi: The Three Shape Arcade)
Mega Man 9 and 10
NyxQuest: Kindred Spirits
Rage of the Gladiator
Strong Bad series
Swords & Soldiers
Tales of Monkey Island series
Tetris Party
World of Goo

[jonebone]

I don't know why, but I find Dr. Mario Online Rx on WiiWare extremely addictive. The single-player mode is boring, but I could play online against strangers for hours and hours nonstop. I definitely got my money's worth on that one.

Other highly rated WiiWare games:

Swords & Soldiers


You can't go wrong with most of the games mentioned in this thread, but Swords and Soldiers on Wii is f'in amazing. Excellent fast-paced 2D strategy game.

Also highly enjoyed Castle Crashers and Super Meat Boy on X360. Shadow Complex on X360 also gets an honorable mention.

[Collector_Gaming]

if it has to be a XBLA only title

Probably a toss up between Limbo (beautiful beautiful art work and surreal dark atmosphere)

and Trials HD

[Collector_Gaming]

double post

[MachineGex]

Castle Crashers (360) gets a lot of play at my place. My 7 year old son and I have beaten it several times. Great two player game!

[otaku]

castle crashers
marvel pinball
pinball fx2
zen pinball
loads of great games I play as much of these download titles as I do retail releases sometimes more

[incubus421]

I'm surprised nobody here likes Vandal-Hearts: Flames of Judgement. It's both PSN & Xbox Live Arcade and is another unrelated prequel to the original Vandal-Hearts, but is more like the original than Vandal-Hearts II was. I noticed if you buy it on PS3, the load times are shorter.

Thanks for bringing this one up, it slipped my mind and I definitely support this choice.

[Collector_Gaming]

Also forgot "Toy Soldiers"
i am a huge huge history buff. I love history. And this game is a very fun historical look at WW1 through the eyes of a toy soldier! Very simple and easy to do strategy game

if whatever

Then Portal (i know its on the orange box set but i never bought that... and i am glad i got this version cause of the commentary that the orange box version doesn't have!)
Red Alert 3 C&C (the expansion that is completely different in terms of game play then the actual game)

I know theres a few others that are pretty friggin cool!

[Collector_Gaming]

Also forgot "Toy Soldiers"
i am a huge huge history buff. I love history. And this game is a very fun historical look at WW1 through the eyes of a toy soldier! Very simple and easy to do strategy game

if whatever

Then Portal (i know its on the orange box set but i never bought that... and i am glad i got this version cause of the commentary that the orange box version doesn't have!)
Red Alert 3 C&C (the expansion that is completely different in terms of game play then the actual game)

I know theres a few others that are pretty friggin cool!

[kaedesdisciple]

XBLA - Castlevania Harmony of Despair.

I have put waaaaaayyyyyy too much time into this game since its release and continue to remain happy doing so. On the topic, if anyone needs help grinding any level (DLC included), just drop me a line if you can find me on.