Shack Chat: If you could only play one game for the rest of your life, which would you pick?

There are so many good games out there. And we’ve certainly had our share of questions like… What would you have on a deserted island. But a game that you consider one of your favorites isn’t necessarily the game you’d play for the rest of your days, is it? So this week, we ask a very specific question… If you could only pick one, and had to abandon all others, what game could you literally take into the rest of your days and never get tired of? The Shack Staff opines.

Question: If you could only play one game for the rest of your life, which would you pick?

Hearthstone - Ozzie Mejia, Senior Legend

I'm amazed that I'm at ten years and counting with Blizzard's card game, but I'm still making sure to consistently get my daily quests in for Hearthstone and adapting to the new mechanics every season. Whether I'm playing an old-school Murloc deck or diving into the new StarCraft cards, there's something about Hearthstone that will always keep me coming back. As long as challengers remain, I shall be around to throw down.

(And this is without even talking about Battlegrounds, which also has a tendency to get its hooks into me.)

Deadlock - TJ Denzer, Senior Shiv Main

JohnnyChugs on Cortex

If I want a game I’m pretty sure will be around for an enormous amount of time, that I already enjoy, and that will continue to improve, expand, and grow, I’m pretty confident in Valve to make it. Deadlock is a game that’s in its infancy, but one with the potential to be something I’ll play for more than a decade easily. It’s in early access, with Valve working hard on expanding it into what would even be a Version 1.0 state. It’s also a MOBA, which means it will almost always continue to grow and feature new mechanics, characters, and content as seasons come around. Being a live-service game in general also just means I’ll get to enjoy it as long as Valve wants to keep supporting it, and if you look at games like Team Fortress 2 and Counter-Strike as evidence, I’m not concerned about Deadlock going away anytime soon.

The Long Dark - Bill Lavoy, Shackmaps Overlord

Everyone will be shocked to read this answer, but I’m going to elaborate with what will be my longest Shack Chat response ever.

It was close between Red Dead Redemption 2 and The Long Dark, but what it really came down to is which of the two worlds I could spend forever (playing) in. While I’ve spent over 1,000 hours in RDR2, things almost always play out the same way. The quests will lead you down a path that will lead you to either a light or dark ending. The open world is massive, detailed, and wonderful to explore, but once you’re tired of exploring and questing there’s no point being in it. Exploring in RDR2 is optional. You don’t need to explore to beat the game. While the replay value is incredible, I’m not sure it could carry me through the rest of my life.

While The Long Dark has Challenge modes and the Wintermute story that I adore, its Survival mode is where you could spend endless time as a gamer. The world is massive, gorgeous, and peaceful, but it is also crucial to your survival. You must explore to live, because most of the resources are finite and staying in one place will see them run dry. As I sit here writing this I have a fresh, casual run on my PS5, and I’m pondering if I want to go to Hushed River Valley for a Moose Hide Satchel, or Ash Canyon for the Technical Backpack and Woodworking Tools. Or, should I hike all the way to the Far Territory to start questing my way to some great gear? I will visit all of them, but each decision in The Long Dark is influenced by what you need and what you are capable of at that moment. Those two factors are ever changing, creating an endless gameplay loop set in a thoughtful and stunning environment.

F-Zero X Death Race - Asif Khan, Best in the universe

the man with the briefcase on Cortex

While F-Zero 99 is my favorite video game, it still lacks one of my favorite game modes from the franchise. F-Zero X Death Race is definitely a game mode that I can play until the end of time. A high score (low clear time) chase that is never-ending sounds like the perfect game for this scenario.

Minecraft - Sam Chandler, Crafting Love

The beautiful thing about Minecraft is that it is a new and glorious world every single time you start an adventure. No two seeds are the same and your journey through the game will be different each time.

But for me, the real joy comes with the fact that this is a game my wife and I love to play together. We played it when the game was still in its infancy, as our own relationship was starting. And just as our relationship blossomed, so did our love for Minecraft and exploring all of the mods on offer.

Given the range of mods out there, if I could only play one game for the rest of my life, it’d have to be Minecraft. It presents the best bang for my buck, a world that can constantly change. Plus, I get to play it with my wife.

Elden Ring - Dennis White Jr., Infinite Elden Lord

I know that between the hundreds of builds I can have in Elden Ring and the mixture of challenge runs and speedruns that I could take on, I could be challenged for a lifetime and love every minute of it. That soundtrack also still hits me in the feels. The exploration and ways I can do things completely differently while still feeling like I can use the skills I’ve already sharpened is just something that most other games can’t touch in my opinion.

Minecraft - Donovan Erskine, Herobrine

I usually try to change my answers up when I see that a colleague has already chosen it (shout out to Sam), but I just can’t pick anything other than Minecraft here. It’s the true sandbox game, delivering a singular experience every time you generate a new world. It’s excellent alone, and great with friends. The vanilla game, by itself, is packed with content, secrets, and emergent gameplay moments that’ll keep me entertained until I’m old and brittle, and with mods, I’ll never even scratch the surface of all there is to experience. Minecraft already is a game that I’ll be playing for the rest of my life, and it’d be the only one if I had to pick.

Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars - Steve Tyminski, Tough one this week!

If I could only play one game for the rest of my life, which game would I pick? That is an interesting question because I can pick several different games to play for the rest of my life. I could go with Super Mario RPG as I have to play this game at least once a year. The same could be said for Super Mario 3 as I never get tired of playing that game, either. I also never get tired of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time as I try to play that game once a year, too.

It’s very close between The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past or Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. I think for this question, I’m going with Super Mario RPG. Let me be clear here that there are several games that I could play for the rest of my life and not get sick of it. It’s almost time for a Super Mario RPG run on The Stevetendo Show and the fact that I’m coming up with another Super Mario RPG run for The Stevetendo Show should be all you need to know about me. Super Mario RPG is the game that I would pick to play for the rest of life.

And there you have it. Those are our picks for this week, but what are the games you’d play for the rest of your life? Let us know in the comments below!

Shack Staff

Shack Staff stories are a collective effort with multiple staff members contributing. Many of our lists often involve entires from several editors, and our weekly Shack Chat is something we all contribute to as a group.