Turn based RPGs. I played through Persona 3, 4, and 5 on an elliptical machine in the past few months, and am now on Metaphor Refantazio. Atlus games seem perfect for this, heh. Not your pre-2005 style, but there’s plenty of old RPGs out there.
I also played through most of the Yakuzas on the elliptical too, although on easy difficulty since they didn’t become turn based until very recently.
I have played a few hundred hours of XCOM 2 on my treadmill. But I’ll play anything turn based that I can use a controller with. Steam controller takes care of the ones that need a mouse.
This and Balatro (and probably many rogue-lite deckbuilders I haven’t tried) are perfect compulsive time killers. Even though they’re newer, I would say they deserve serious consideration.
NFL 2K5. It would be a somber, warmly-lit memorial, a pedestal bearing a single copy of the (Xbox version of) the game, with a spotlight shining down on it from above as it rotated. An eternal flame, possibly several, burn nearby. The walls would be digital, montages of all the memories. There would be mournful orchestral music playing, heavy on the clarinets and oboes.
And a screen where it plays YouTubers comparing it to every version of Madden for a decade-plus after. Eventually finding Madden to look better, but always finding Madden lacking in features and presentation.
100% guarantee there are probably still YouTubers doing that in 2025. And you might be surprised how good it can look upscaled to 4K, if you haven’t tried it.
Shadow of the Colossus is the first that comes to mind. I’d probably toss in Final Fantasy VII, Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and DOTA 2 because I’m addicted to it
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