Come For The X Stay For The Y / Video Games

• In general, especially these days, video games as a whole can be considered a case of come for the graphics and atmosphere. Stay for the gameplay and/or story.
• Steam: Come for Valve's amazing games, stay for the wealth of other games you never would have heard of otherwise.
  • Come because your new game requires it, stay because "holy crap did you see those sale prices?" and for the community support.
• GOG.com: Come for the DRM-free games and/or a game launcher that synchronizes with your other launchers, stay for the classic computer games of yesteryear and new ones that may interest you.
• itch.io: Come for DRM-free games, stay to discover indie gems.
• Killer apps do this for their respective systems. People come for the must-have game, stay for all of the other fun games available on the system.
• The Nintendo Entertainment System did this intentionally because The Great Video Game Crash of 1983 made consoles very hard to sell on their own: Come for R.O.B., stay for Super Mario Bros.
  • Some gamers' reasons for owning a Nintendo console: "Come for Mario, stay for all the other Nintendo all-stars".
• Speedruns: Come to see your favorite game beaten quickly as possible, stay for all the tricks you never thought were possible.
• Nintendo Switch: Come for the portable/console hybrid concept, stay for all of your favorite games' ports.
• Akatsuki Blitzkampf: Come for Akatsuki and/or Blitztank, stay for the other strange and unique characters (one of which has the ability to make a fish fall on you every time you jump).
• Asuka 120%: Come to see school girls fighting, stay for the tight gameplay (depending on the game) and cool soundtrack.
• Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout: Come for the heroine's thighs, stay for the complex, engaging Item Crafting mechanics and well-written characters.
• Azure Striker Gunvolt: Come for the "Mega Man Zero spiritual successor with Psychic Powers" premise, stay for the involved story and world-building, electrifying and challenging gameplay, and the cyber divas' music.
• Azur Lane: Came for Enterprise, stayed for the History Lesson and the Fanservice.
• Batman: Arkham Asylum: Come for Mark Hamill as Joker, stay for the awesome gameplay and atmosphere.
• Batman: Arkham City: Come because it's an open-world Batman game, stay because it averts The Problem with Licensed Games with its storyline, the rogue's gallery, and the environment.
  • Come just to be Batman and beat up all the bad guys from the comics, stay for the gameplay and the bonus challenges.
• Bayonetta: Come for the titillation, stay for the boss fights, Serial Escalation, and the million and one shoutouts.
  • Alternatively, come for the combat, stay for the spectacle, try and figure out the plot, end up really loving how the main character manages to be both a Shameless Fanservice Girl and engaging and well-written.
• BEMANI: Come to see the memetically hard boss songs, stay for the massive variety of in-house and commissioned music.
• The Binding of Isaac: Come for the odd plot and gross visuals, stay because you really want to find all the items now.
  • Alternatively: Come for the modern "roguelike" qualities, stay because you REALLY want to get Polyphemus and Technology 2 again.
• BioShock: Come because you heard it was System Shock's spiritual successor, stay for the story, the plot twists, its haunting atmosphere, and all the cool powers you can wield.
• BlazBlue: Come for Guilty Gear in HD, stay for BANG INSTALL.
  • Come for probably the closest thing you'll ever get to another 2D Guilty Gear, stay to find out why the bug guy can't talk.
  • Come because you heard it has some interesting characters (one of which does REAL SOVIET DAMAGE!), stay because it has a lot of interesting characters. In a very complex and interconnected plot.
• BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle: Come because they put a tank in a fighting game ^*that you've heard of, stay because that's only the start of the crazy things this game lets you do.
• Bomberman: Come for the cutesy cartoony robots blowing things up, stay for the simple yet engaging gameplay, colorful cast of characters, catchy music, and the multiplayer.
  • Bombergirl: Come for the sexy and cute anime girls based off Bomberman and Konami's other properties blowing up each other's clothes off, stay for the hectic MOBA-styled take on Bomberman's gameplay, silly comics, upbeat music, colorful cast of girls, dressing the girls up in various outfits, and blowing up each other's clothes off.
• Book of Mario: Thousands of Doors: Come for the nonsense that comes out of characters' mouths, stay for the weird consistencies that imply and add up to a new lore in the middle of craziness.
• Bookworm Adventures: Come for the gameplay, stay for the increasingly compelling plot.
• Borderlands: Come for the guns. Stay for the humor and Shout Outs.
• Bunny Must Die: Come for the absurd plot, stay for the equally absurd bosses, Metroidvania gameplay, and off-the-wall humor.
• Call of Duty: Come for the multiplayer. Stay because the single player never ceases to amaze.
• Celeste: Come for a Nintendo Hard platformer, stay for the protagonist's depression, Lena Raine's engaging soundtrack, and strawberries.
• City of Heroes: Come for the character creator, stay because you're a superhero.
• Civilization: Come to win the games in different endings, stay for the leaders.
• Clash of Clans: If you go to your Capital Peak in the game's Clan Capital and you tap the "Info" button for the Clan House, the last sentence of the description reads "Come for the view, stay for the spectacular Raids."
• Command & Conquer: Somewhat subverted in the "General's Challenge" mode in the Zero Hour expansion pack - one of Dr. Thrax's taunts is "You'll come for the toxin, but you'll stay... because you're dead!"
  • Come for the invention of the RTS genre's gameplay style, stay for the awesome story. As Kane puts it in Tiberian Sun, "Come for the sunshine but stay for the people!"
• Crypt of the NecroDancer: Come because you like Roguelikes and/or Rhythm Games, stay to rage on Aria's campaign.
  • Alternatively, come to dance on a soundtrack (re)composed by one of your favorite musicians, stay to dance (and slay) on all the others.
• Cuphead: Come for the 1930s cartoon aesthetic and the jazzy soundtrack, stay for the challenging boss fights.
• Dark Souls come for the legendary difficulty stay for the intrigated lore.
• Dead or Alive: Come for the fighting, stay for the girls... or the other way around.
• Deltarune: Come because you loved Undertale and because Gaster is implied to be behind every mystery, stay because it subverts this game you know and love and because of the main character's reliable struggles as the other reindeer.
  • Chapter 1: The Beginning: Come for Ralsei, Lancer and Jevil, stay for Susie's Character Development, Rouxls Kaard and Starwalker.
  • Chapter 2: A Cyber's World: Come to get the banana, to be a BIG SHOT and for our pal Nubert, stay for the Realism-Induced Horror behind the antagonists' schemes and the teenagers' psychology, and to see a socially awkward deer girl grabbing an insufferable blue bird by the coat.
    • Or come for the music and the memes, stay to realize by yourself that the Snowgrave route is not a creepypasta.
• Devil May Cry: Come for the epic action. Stay for the epic action, cheesy dialogue, and unforgiving challenge.
• Diablo: Come for the Dark Fantasy Hack and Slash, stay a while and listen.
  • Come for the action, stay for two weeks without a break.
• Disgaea: Come for the Level Grinding, stay for the titillation.
• DeusEx: Come for the conspiracies, stay for the Shakespeare/John Milton/Khalil Gibran references.
• DJMAX Technika: Come for the interesting gameplay, stay for Platinum Crew (or to painfully wait for the day your arcade gets it).
• Doom:
  • Doom: Come for the bloody demon-slaying action and the rockin' music, stay for the gameplay that helped popularize the FPS genre and to find all the secrets.
  • Doom II: Come for the Super Shotgun and the new monsters, stay for the faster gameplay and because you can't find the exit to the next level.
  • Doom 64: Come for the classic Doom gameplay, stay for the darker atmosphere, creepy sound effects, and eerie soundtrack.
  • Batman Doom: Come to play as the Dark Knight in Doom, stay for the craftsmanship built on the Doom Engine alone.
  • Doom (2016): Come because you're a fan of the original Doom and for the over-the-top Testosterone Poisoning, stay for the renewal of the old formula and Mick Gordon's soundtrack.
• Dragon Age II: Come for Dragon Age: Origins 2, stay for the intense drama of the morally gray plot, Hawke's tragic story and the Video Game Caring Potential of your True Companions.
• Dwarf Fortress: Come for insane architecture stay for the... is it really tracking where all of the teeth landed and... are those guts? Did they just get... wow, I didn't even know bones got bruised.
• Dynasty Warriors: Come for the foe tossing, stay for the World of Ham.
• EarthBound: Come for the horrifying final boss, stay for the cute and funny rest of the game!
  • Or, alternatively, come for the cute and funny characters and Affectionate Parodies of American life and various RPG cliches, stay for the increasingly weird and unsettling plot twists leading up to the epic Nightmare Fuel of the last dungeon and boss.
• In The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, if you visit Sanguine's shrine, one of the worshippers will tell you "I came for the parties, and stayed for the parties."
  • The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim: Come for the mods, stay for the intricate plot of each faction.
    • Come for the mods, stay to find out how badass your Player Character could get.
• Eldritch (2013): Come for the Minecraft-like graphics, stay for the stealthy, fun, and surprisingly tough and scary FPS. Or, come for the Cosmic Horror Story, stay for the ability to punch penguins and Deep Ones, summon Shoggoths, and hold the souls of eldritch abominations.
• Eternal Fighter Zero: Come for the Key/Visual Arts characters, stay for the fights, and the countless references to other fighting games.
  • And the opposite can be true as well: come because it's a Fighting Game, stay for the Key/Visual Arts characters, the multiple references to the original visual novels and the heartwarming concept of having them fighting and doing something different for no particular reason. Bring tissues? Not this time.
• Euro Truck Simulator 2: Come to to see what all the fuss is about, stay for the relaxing gameplay and customization.
• Fallen London: Come for the intriguing Lovecraftian setting and the great writing... and because you're wondering what this whole "Seeking Mr. Eaten's Name" thing is all about; stay for the lore and the addictiveness (just what intrigue will your character get into next?).
• Fallout: Come for the ludicrously gleeful amount of gore, stay for the equally gleeful deconstruction of every 50's future-tech optimisms ever.
  • Fallout 3: Come for the Fatman, MIRV, and Alien Blaster, stay for the weapon schematics, unique weapons, sidequests, Bobbleheads, and drop dead gorgeous landscapes.
  • Fallout: New Vegas: Come for the people, stay for the sunshine.
• Familiars Io: Come for the fact that the developer fit the whole game in a tweet video embed, stay for the deep metagame.
• Final Fantasy: Come for the RPG gameplay, stay for the complex storylines, large ensemble casts, and epic compositions.
  • Final Fantasy VI: Come for Kefka, stay for an excellently-made game in general.
  • Final Fantasy VII: Come for the story, stay for the characters, sidequests, high level of customization, and the Gold Saucer.
  • Final Fantasy X: Come for the laughing scene, stay for the character development, storyline, and the beautiful environments.
• First Encounter Assault Recon: Come for the awesome slow-mo action, stay for the surreal atmosphere and the Nightmare Fuel.
  • For the first game: come for the Artificial Brilliance, stay for Alma.
• Fire Emblem: Come because of that blue-haired sword-dude in that fighting game and stay for the mentally stimulating strategy, lovable characters, and intricate stories.
  • Fire Emblem: Awakening and Fire Emblem Fates: Come for the strategic gameplay and stories, stay for the waifus and husbandos.
• Five Nights at Freddy's: Come because you saw other people play it and who have been scared of Ugly Cute robots screaming on their faces, stay to realize that the game is legitimately frightening, to uncover the hidden lore of the game, and to make your own crazy theories.
• The Force Unleashed: Come for the gratuitous Force usage, stay for the plot.
  • For others... Come for the plot, stay for the insane amount of ways to SLAUGHTER your enemies.
• Gears of War: Come for the rifle with a chainsaw for a bayonet and OTT violence, stay for the tactical combat.
• Ghost Trick: Come because it's the Spiritual Successor of Ace Attorney, stay for the plot twists, smooth animation, plot twists, deep mysteries, plot twists, and plot twists.
• God of War: Come for the over-the-top violence, stay to find out which God Kratos is going to kill next.
  • God of War (PS4): Come for the announcement of a new God of War game, stay for the heartwarming story about Kratos raising his son and atoning for his acts in the previous games.
• Goddess of Victory: NIKKE: Come for the beautiful android women and their well-animated 2D Jiggle Physics, stay for the surprisingly good gameplay and gut-wrenching storyline.
• Groove Coaster: Come for the Touhou Project remixes and VOCALOID songs, stay for MASAKI and to spam That One Boss chart until you Full Chain it.
• Guild Wars: Come for the lack of monthly fees, stay for the lack of grind (and the Scenery Porn).
• Guilty Gear: Come for the 2D fighting revival, stay for the insanely whacked out characters.
  • Or, come for the insanely whacked out characters, stay for the incredible background music.
• Halo: Come for the tactical combat, stay for the plot and the soundtrack.
• A Hat in Time: Come for a cute Collect-a-Thon Platformer, stay for the snarky humor, Queen Vanessa, bosses' tragic backstories and the soundtrack.
• Hearts of Iron: Come for the strategy, stay for the mods.
  • The New Order Last Days Of Europe: Come for the Alternate History, stay for the weird mix of dread and hope.
  • Equestria at War: Come for the ponies, stay for the horrors of war and surprising amount of effort.
• Hollow Knight: Come for the cute bug-like characters, stay for the lore and the beautiful ambient soundtrack... and because you got lost again.
• Hotline Miami: Come for the ridiculous amount of gore, stay for the Jigsaw Puzzle Plot and killer soundtrack.
  • Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number: Come for more of the same, stay for even more awesome music, an utterly insane plot, and because you keep dying.
• HuniePop: Come for the fanservice, stay for the engaging Match Three Puzzle gameplay.
• Ikaruga: Come because you heard it was Radiant Silvergun's spiritual successor, stay for the jaw-dropping scenery, epic soundtrack, relentless difficulty, and its simple yet elegant game design.
• Ingress: Come for the GPS-oriented gameplay, stay for the friendship-building, Anomaly events, lore treated as if it were reality, and to discover new points of interest around your area.
• Jewelry Master Twinkle: Come for its resemblance to a Dating Sim, stay for hours.
• KanColle: Come for Shimakaze and her Iconic Outfit, stay for just about any other ship girl that you end up interested in.
• Katana ZERO: Come for the Rocket-Tag Gameplay and techno soundtrack, stay for the PTSD and Mind Screw.
• Kid Icarus: Uprising: Come for Pit from Brawl, stay for the lovable characters.
• Killer7: Come for the bizarreness and uniqueness, stay for the genuinely interesting plot.
• Kingdom Hearts: Come to see the spectacle of Square Enix crossing over with Disney, stay for the deep, complicated plot, memorable characters, and addictive gameplay.
  • Alternatively: Come to see what the fuss was about, stay to see what insane plot twist the writers pull next.
• Kingdom of Loathing: Come for the humor, stay because you're addicted.
• Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords: Come because you want more KOTOR, stay for Kreia's teachings and the Genre Deconstruction.
• Last Scenario: Come to see if the storyline gets better than it begins, stay for the tactical and balanced battle system, get hit in the face by some Plot Twist and finish the game for the improbably gorgeous story to understand what happened. And also for the surprisingly deep philosophical undertones and excellent writing.
• League of Legends: Come to see what the fuss is all about, stay for the interesting gameplay, enormous variety of champions whose abilities and characters make you want to unlock them and the lighthearted, good-natured development team.
• Left 4 Dead:
  • Come because your friends said it was the best zombie game ever. Stay because it is the best zombie game ever.
  • Come for the Gorn, stay for the Gorn. And the multiplayer. And the survivors' interactions.
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • Twilight Princess: Come for Link, Zelda, and Ganondorf, stay for Midna.
  • A Link Between Worlds: Come for the ALTTP references, stay for the fun and amazing gameplay.
  • The CD-I games: Come for MAH BOI, stay for the Over Nine Thousand other Memes.
  • Breath of the Wild: Come to see why people were so excited, stay because that un-summitted peak on the edge of your vision is a challenge to your honour.
• LittleBigPlanet:
  • People who Play: Come for Sackboy, stay for the community levels.
  • People who Create: Come for the character customization, stay for doing whatever you want in Create Mode.
  • People who Share: Come for the level editor, stay because you really want that pink ribbon.
• maimai: Come because the cabinet looks like a washing machine, stay to record yourself playing it (if the on-cabinet cameras are there).
• Mass Effect:
  • Playing as a female Shepard: come for the lesbian alien sexual tension, stay for Jennifer Hale's voice acting.
  • Either Shepard: Come for the alien sexual tension, stay because of the Character Development, True Companions, and because Bioware got you right in the feelings.
• Max Payne: Come for the John-Woo bullet-time gun play, stay for the metaphors and noir.
• Mega Man: Come for the goofy/cool Robot Masters that you can fight in any order, stay for the challenging gameplay and addicting music.
• The Messenger (2018): Come for the excellent Ninja Gaiden-style platforming, stay for the in-depth lore, Awesome Music and goofy humor.
• Metal Gear: Come for Solid Snake, stay for the gripping storyline, well-developed characters, and treasure trove of Easter Eggs.
  • Metal Gear Solid: Come for the Stealth Action, stay for the complex story (or the other way around).
  • Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater: Come for a Mind Screwdriver for Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, stay for the fascinating relationships between Snake, The Boss, Ocelot, and EVA.
  • Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance: Come for PlatinumGames, stay for the gameplay, awesomeness and Raiden. Or: Come for the memes, stay for the deep political debate behind them.
• Metal Wolf Chaos: Come for "the most American game ever made" from the same guys that brought you Otogi: Myth of Demons and Armored Core, stay for the B-Movie-tier story, cheesy voice-acting, over-the-top action, the assortment of cool guns you can play with, and the massive amount of destruction you can create.
• Metro 2033: Come because it's from the same team that did S.T.A.L.K.E.R., stay for the story, characters, and tough combat.
• Metroid: Come for the Best Known for the Fanservice Trope Namer for Samus Is a Girl, stay for her Dark and Troubled Past and all-around asskicking. Also, the plot, gameplay, Alien homage, and music.
  • Come for that cool monster everyone wanted in Super Smash Bros., stay for the complex duality between him and Samus... and for the other monsters.
• Mighty Gunvolt: Come for the retro-styled crossover of Gunvolt, Mighty No. 9, and Gal*Gun, stay for the simplistic retro gameplay.
  • Mighty Gunvolt Burst: Come for the revamped crossover of Mighty No. 9 and Gunvolt ft. Gal*Gun, stay for the classic Mega Man-styled gameplay, addicting Burst Combo system, the robust weapon customization system, and the wide roster of characters to play as.
• Mighty No. 9: Come for a new Mega Man-styled game from Keiji Inafune and Inti Creates, stay for the colorful characters, catchy music, and the arcade-styled, high-speed take on Mega Man's classic gameplay... or not.
• When Minecraft was just starting to get popular it was: Come to see what all the fuss is about, stay because it's more addictive than heroin.
  • Or: Come for the building, stay for the survival.
  • Or: Come for the survival mode, stay for the exploration and creator mode.
• Monster Hunter: Come to see the huge monsters, stay because you want to carve those monster parts needed for all the awesome-looking equipment and so you can have a jolly old time beating up said monsters with your friends.
• Mushihime-sama Futari: Come for the True Final Boss, stay for Black Label.
• NetHack: Come to see what the fuss is about, stay because "this shit won't beat me."
• Nights of Azure: Come for the Yuri, stay for the characters, the story and the cute romance.
• Pac-Man Championship Edition DX: Come because, well, it's Pac-Man, stay until you S-rank all the stages.
• Palworld: Come for the "Pokemon with Guns and slavery" memes and the many controversies surrounding it, stay for the surprisingly fun interactions with your Pals, base building, exploration across gorgeous landscapes, and great soundtrack. And the guns.
• Panel de Pon: Come for the adorable artstyle, stay for the addictive gameplay.
• Panzer Dragoon: Come for the laser-breathing dragons, stay for the beautiful (and surreal) scenery, great soundtrack, Space Harrier/RayStorm-esque action, and the heartwarming bond of a dragon and its rider.
• Persona 3 and Persona 4: come for the dating sim elements, stay for the fun battle system, deep character development and awesome J-pop music.
  • The Shin Megami Tensei series in general is like this: come for Persona 3 and Persona 4's fame and unique dating sim aspects, stay for the darker themes and modern day settings the rest of the franchise has ^note not that the two Persona games are exactly lacking in that department.
• Phantasy Star Online 2: Come for the gameplay, stay to save up for a costume that's worth millions of meseta in the player market.
• Pokémon: Come for the cute critters — and possibly to see what all the fuss is about — stay for the deep, strategic RPG, and possibly pure obsessive-compulsion. Or come for the monsters, stay for the sheer imagination of the games' worlds.
  • Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Come for the ability to play as a Pokémon, stay for the surprisingly epic plot with plenty of Tearjerker material.
  • Pokémon GO: In a vein similar to its sibling game Ingress: Come to catch Pokémon while out in the real world, stay to make friends, meet up with them, and explore places you would normally not visit.
• Portal: Come for the brilliant puzzles, stay for the dark humor and the cake... or the other way around.
  • Come for the cake and stay for GLaDOS.
  • Come for GLaDOS, stay for the rest of the game.
  • Portal 2: Come for the multiplayer campaign, stay for Wheatley... and Cave Johnson.
• Punch-Out!!: Come because you like boxing, stay for the quirky cast and complex gameplay.
• Puzzle Quest: Come for the tricked-out "Bejeweled", stay to find your favorite mix of classes, items, spells and mounts.
  • Inversely, come for the story and humor, stay for the gameplay. There are many custom maps for these two games that focus solely on puzzle solving.
• Radiant Silvergun: Come because you heard it was obscenely rare, stay for the bosses, brutal difficulty, awesome music, and engrossing story (if you can understand Japanese or playing the Xbox LIVE Arcade port).
• Rance: Come for the novelty of an RPG where you can have graphic sex with NPCs and party members alike, stay for the surprisingly deep and engaging story that rivals even mainstream RPGs.
• Ratchet & Clank: Come for the weapons and gameplay, stay for the stories and humor.
• Rayman Origins: Come for Rayman and fun gameplay, stay for the nymphs.
  • Rayman Redemption: Come for the Mr. Dark battle, stay for the other expansions and improvements.
• Red Dead Redemption: Come for the GTA setting in the Wild West, stay for the intriguing story and a brutal Downer Ending.
  • Red Dead Redemption 2: Come for the graphics and winter shenanigans (horse-balls), stay for the amazing gameplay, story and the Bittersweet Ending.
• Rhythm Thief & the Emperor's Treasure: Come for the rhythm games, stay for the incredibly cute story.
• RosenkreuzStilette: Come for the improbable cast of magical girls, stay for the tight Mega Man-esque gameplay, awesome soundtrack, gorgeous scenery, engaging story, and the numerous shout-outs.
• Rune Factory: Come for the farming and dungeon crawling, stay for the waifus.
• Senran Kagura: Come for the boobies: stay for interesting characters and their interactions, surprisingly deep story that isn't afraid to get dark, and fun gameplay. And boobies.
• Shantae: Come for the cute, shapeshifting belly dancer protagonist and the other equally attractive women that make up the bulk of the cast. Stay for the awesome Metroidvania gameplay, excellent comedic writing, and some kicking music.
  • Come for to see who that character everyone wants in Super Smash Bros. is , stay because it's a great game.
• Shovel Knight: Come because you want to know where this funny blue character who makes cameos everywhere comes from, stay to play the culmination of 8-bit Nintendo Hard games, for the Villain Protagonists own campaign, and Jake Kaufman's chiptune bangers.
• Silent Hill: Come for the Nightmare Fuel, stay because you just have to know what in the hell just happened.
  • Silent Hill 2: Come for Pyramid Head, stay for the epically tragic characters.
• Skullgirls: Come for the sexy catfights, stay for the polished gameplay, whimsical cast of characters, interesting universe, amazing music, fluid animation, and shouts-outs aplenty.
  • Come for the weirdness, stay for the funnies.
  • Come for the funnies, stay for the well-developed world and actually really good gameplay.
  • Come for the game, stay for the sheer community of the developers and fans.
• Skylanders: Come for the toys, stay because the gameplay's surprisingly solid.
• Soul Series:
  • SoulCalibur II: Come for Link, stay for the refined fighting gameplay.
  • Alternatively, come for the awesome fighting, stay for the Guest Fighters.
  • Come to take over the world, stay because you're addicted.
• Soul Nomad & the World Eaters: Come for Gig, stay for the surprisingly addictive gameplay. And the Crowning Music of Awesome. And Gig.
• Solatorobo: Red the Hunter: Come for a rare high-quality Furry Fandom game, stay for badass protagonist and great dramedy.
  • Come for the Furry, stay to throw stuff.
• Sonic the Hedgehog: Come for the simplistic yet fun gameplay, stay for the kickass music and gorgeous stages... and the simplistic yet fun gameplay.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog CD: Come because you never could have a Sega CD, for the animated cutscenes, Stardust Speedway and Metal Sonic, stay to explore the gigantic levels, for one of the best formula in Special Stages, and because both soundtracks are absolute bangers in their own ways.
    • Or come for the "Fun is infinite" Easter Egg and the infamous American Game Over music, stay for the rest of the game.
  • Sonic 3 & Knuckles: Come for the big levels and to fight and play Knuckles, stay to fight a big time villain Eggman and for the Blue Sphere Special Stages.
    • Or come for the aforementioned levels, stay to lose all your lives and continues because you can't find how to cross the barrel of doom.
    • If you have the lock-on cartridge: come to experience the full game and to play Knuckles in Sonic 2, stay for the virtually infinite number of Blue Sphere levels and to start a tower of power to satistfy your hubris.
  • For certain 3D games: Come for the Sonic/Shadow gameplay, stay for the engaging variety of characters and gameplay styles.
  • Sonic Robo Blast 2: Come because you heard of a free Sonic fangame in 3D which works like 2D games, stay for the modded content.
    • Alternatively, come to unlock Amy Rose, stay to play Fang the Sniper.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog: Triple Trouble 16-Bit: Come because you have no other way to play the original Game Gear game and because it looks prettier, stay for the single player coop gameplay, the revamped soundtrack and the multiple plot twists.
• Spec Ops: The Line: Come because Zero Punctuation or Nerd³ praised it, stay for the subversive, mind-screwy, deconstructive plot that makes you question the nature of shooters.
• The Spyro Trilogy: Come for cute, simple, and relaxing games to simply pass the time... and stay for the great level design, some of the best platforming on PS1, witty humor, pretty colors, and some of the best game soundtracks ever composed.
• Subnautica: Come for the beautiful yet terrifying alien ocean, stay for the epic and masterfully unfolded story.
• Suikoden: Come for the 108 characters from your party, stay for the amazing political plots, fun gameplay and likable characters amongst the 108s.
• Summon Night Swordcraft Story: Come for the lesbian subtext, stay for the likable characters and fast paced battle system.
• Super Mario Bros.: Come for the immensely catchy iconic Overworld theme song and simple and fun platforming games, stay for... everything else.
  • Super Mario 64: Come because you want to discover this Mario game which speedrunners surpass themselves to complete the most ridiculous ways possible, which has countless machinimas and who's supposedly personalized, stay to see what Mario actually is capable of, to explore all these big worlds, and to try the aforementioned things by yourself.
  • Super Mario Maker and Super Mario Maker 2: Come to create your own Mario levels, stay to beat the insanely difficult ones made by everyone else.
  • Super Mario Odyssey: Come because of Cappy, stay for the immersive worlds and the exploration that comes with them.
  • Mario Kart: Come to see your favorite characters driving go-karts and throwing items on each other, stay for the complex driving skills and to beat time trials.
• Super Smash Bros.: Come because it's a Nintendo Fighting Game, stay for the chaotic and thrilling gameplay.
  • Alternatively, come because your favorite character is in it, stay because of all the other characters you'll learn about and come to enjoy playing with.
• Super Robot Wars Original Generation exists as a result of this trope occurring in the main series. People came for the Gundam (or whatever your favorite series is) and stayed for the entirely new characters.
  • Come for Gundam, stay for Huckebein.
  • Or, come for the over the top attacks and story, stay for the intricate battle system.
• Tales Series: Come for the Genre-Busting combat system, stay for the strong characterization, Deconstruction of JRPG storytelling conventions, and really likable main casts despite well-executed Gray-and-Grey Morality.
• Team Fortress 2: Come for the madcap FPS action, stay for the gorgeous animation and wacky characterization.
  • Or vice versa — come for the unique art style and humor exhibited in the "Meet the Team" videos; stay for the well-balanced and refreshingly lighthearted multiplayer combat. People who were not "gamers" by any stretch, but got sucked into Team Fortress 2 and/or Portal, wound up loving the whole Orange Box set, and eventually settled into the world of video games.
  • Come for the madcap FPS action, stay for the hats.
  • Come for Heavy, stay for the rest of the team.
• Tetris: The Grand Master: Come because you're bored of mainstream Tetris, stay for the hope of one day getting Grand Master rank and the surprising lack of Fake Difficulty.
• Terraria: Come for "Minecraft in 2D", stay for Metroidvania-inspired gameplay, the streamlined crafting, awesome loot, epic bosses, developing your character's stats, creating a world to call your own, and the numerous shout-outs.
• Thunder Force: Come because it's an awesome Shoot 'Em Up series, stay for the Awesome Music.
• Touhou Project: Come for the Bullet Hell, the Fighting Games, the music, the characters, the memes, the art, the doujins, the stories, the videos, or the fandom, and stay for everything else.
• Triangle Heart 3: Sweet Songs Forever, and possibly the whole Triangle Heart franchise: Come for the fandom prestige of actually knowing what Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha was spun off from, stay for the characters and the Fantasy Kitchen Sink.
• Twisted Wonderland: Come for the pretty boys based on different Disney characters, stay for the surprisingly deep and heartbreaking stories attached to them.
• Under Night In-Birth: Come because you like BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle, stay because Arc System Works have done it again. ^*Technically it was developed by French Bread, but Arc published it.
  • Come for the interesting character gimmicks, stay to figure out how Hilda and Vatista's combos work.
• Undertale:
  • Come because you heard it's like EarthBound, stay to see just how the game reacts to your every decision.
  • Come because you heard nobody has to die. Stay to kill them all and have an epic battle with one of the Final Bosses.
  • Come because you heard about the psychotic flower and the lazy skeleton, stay for the wacky skeleton, the over-the-top fish lady, the stupid sexy robot, and the dork lizard lady... and all the others!
  • Come because of absurd theories you read online, stay to make your own.
  • Come for Megalovania, stay for the rest of the soundtrack... and to search for leitmotifs absolutely everywhere.
• Untitled Goose Game: Come because you were told that the goose is insanely powerful, stay to see it doesn't even need this aforementioned power to be the most threatening animal in existence.
• Urban Dead: Come for the Zombies, stay to survive.
• Virtual-ON: Come for the Gundam-esque mechas, stay for the other mechas you might end up liking, fast-paced gameplay, and awesome music.
• Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune: Come to drive your favorite sports car on Tokyo's highways, stay to battle your friends or froth at the mouth at your ten millionth failed Time Attack attempt.
• Warcraft III: Come for the awesome gameplay and storyline, stay for DOTA. Seriously, people have actually brought the game just to play DOTA.
• WarioWare: Come for Wario, stay for the quirky universe, addictive minigames, and the fun WarioWare Inc. employees.
  • Or alternatively, come for Wario, stay for Ashley.
• The Warriors: Come because you loved the movie, stay for the bonus games (including a Double Dragon-style arcade throwback) and for an even more awesome time capsule of '70s America than the 1979 original was!
• Wolfenstein: The New Order: Come for dual assault rifles, stay for the engaging story and characters.
• The World Ends with You: Come to see where those weird kids from Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance] came from, stay for the memorable cast, engaging story, unique gameplay, and amazing soundtrack.
• Xenoblade Chronicles 1: Come to learn more of the memetic Shulk and the game's interesting history, stay for the engaging story and immersive and beautiful world.
• Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links: Come for the original series nostalgia, stay for the relatively balanced gameplay and card pool.
  • Alternatively, come for the duels and stay for the characters and their interactions.
• Yume Nikki: Come for the Nightmare Fuel, stay to interpret and analyze the psychological landscapes of the dream world.
• Both Zone of the Enders and Zone of the Enders HD Collection: Come for the Metal Gear demos, stay for the addictive gameplay.

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