Games are not cheap. When somebody purchases one, they want to be sure they get as much value as possible out of it. This is why developers might load up a title with side quests or even encourage players to do multiple playthroughs. New Game Plus is a simple enough way to make another go around on a campaign fun and engaging.
However, the games below all go to another level of ingenuity when it comes to more exciting new playthroughs of a game. These range from new ways to go through the same game to more cerebral methods of enticing gamers to keep playing. With a couple of these, one can hardly even say they beat the game if they haven't gone through it two or three times.
8 Undertale: Multiple Endings With Multiple Messages
Toby Fox's subversion of the RPG genre is a lot shorter than its peers. It is also immediately evident from the battle system that Undertale is not like other games. However, the ending reveals more about the plot and its intended message. After beating the game, players can then restart the title and beat it without killing any enemies for a different ending.
Then, they can go through the title again, killing absolutely everything for a dark and tragic conclusion, really hammering home its message about gamers' thoughtless indulgence of violence in the medium.
7 ICO: Unlocking Multiplayer
The incredible visual leap from the PS1 to the PS2 is extremely evident in ICO. The gorgeous graphics are accompanied by creative puzzles and an emotional story about a young boy with horns helping a princess escape a castle. The title is notably short, however, running just a few hours assuming players do not get stuck at any moment.
After beating the game, players have the ability to go through the story again with another player now controlling the princess. The second player is still fairly limited in their abilities, so it is best to let someone less experienced with games take control of her.
6 Resident Evil 2: Two Campaigns For Two Protagonists
The first Resident Evil let players pick between Jill Valentine and Chris Redfield for the story, but there were only minor variations in the experience. Resident Evil 2 came on two discs, with each of them holding separate campaigns for Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield.
The game takes the two-protagonist concept a step further by having decisions in one campaign affect the other hero's playthrough. Some events play out differently depending on which campaign players do first, making for a total of four different ways to play through Resident Evil 2.
5 Bastion: Uncovering Lore
Right from the start, Supergiant Games proved themselves to be innovators in video game storytelling. Bastion's omniscient narrator takes the story of a hero rebuilding his destroyed home to another level. The ending of the game also does not mean the end of the story.
Playing through the game again reveals more details about the world through the narrator's descriptions. The developer would take this idea even further with Hades, which provides a seemingly endless stream of dialogue and plot details as players go through different runs of the popular roguelike.
4 The Bouncer: Choose Your Fighter
While visually impressive, Square's early PS2 brawler The Bouncer failed to make an impact in the way other early titles for the console did. Yet, it still is notable for its unique narrative hook. Every fight has players pick between the three protagonists. Whichever character they choose for the battle affects the cutscenes.
Players can go through the campaign and choose who they want for each bout, or decide to do the whole story with one character. Though the story is short, players will go through it at least three times to see every cutscene from each protagonist's point of view.
3 Nier: Automata: Unlock Every Ending
Once players reach the end credits of Nier: Automata, the journey is far from over. There is certainly a sense of finality, but the game clearly intends and encourages players to start a new game. The second playthrough starts off in a similar fashion, but events go off the rails quickly.
There is even another ending before starting a new game yet again. It would be unfair to reveal more details here for those who have not played it because it is best to discover this unique story on one's own.
2 Super Mario Galaxy: The Second Mario Brother
Luigi often gets the short end of the stick in the main Super Mario series. He is not even a presence in Super Mario 64. Super Mario Galaxy makes up for this slight by including him as a playable character. After collecting every star in the game, he is unlocked and the game's UI presents itself as Super LuigiGalaxy.
Players then have to collect every star again to discover the game's true ending. Luigi plays somewhat similar to Mario with some minor differences. The stars themselves are also the same, but it is a good way to play the game again after some time has passed.
1 Spider-Man: What If Mode
The PS1 Spider-Man game by Neversoft fully embraced the character's wacky side. The main game itself was filled with humor and winks toward the audience. If players knew a certain cheat code, they unlocked the What If mode. This playthrough changes numerous aspects of the adventure, adding dozens of jokes and references in the levels.
It is impressive to think the developer put this much work into a mode most would never see, but knowing the type of humor Neversoft put into their Tony Hawk's Pro Skater games, it is not too surprising.