We are bombarded with options for spending our precious game time.

As a result, I played thirteen video games last weekend. Three were released in the past year. Nine were retro cartridges. One was a PlayStation 4 game.

Only one hooked me, convincing me to come back every evening through the next week to play more.

The game that earned my extended attention wasn’t one of the new ones: Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Persona 3 Reload, or Starfield. I really like all three of these games, and I believe I’ll finish them all over time. But they weren’t compelling enough this weekend to keep me coming back.

It wasn’t any of the classics, either. This isn’t a result of the age of these games… if I start Sonic the Hedgehog 2 or Super Mario World, I’m likely to carry on until credits roll. I just didn’t find any of the ones I played this past weekend irresistible.

The game that hooked me was Mad Max.

It’s nearly a decade old, and it looks it. Fighting is stiff, and six hours in, the environment has yet to show much diversity. It’s just sand, all the way down. And yet, I keep coming back to it. Why?

Renewed cultural relevance is one thing. George Miller’s “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” is now just weeks away. But that hardly explains my affection. I picked up the latest “Avatar” PS5 game off the back of the new movie, and stopped playing after a single session.

Another thing is the “comfort food” nature of the gameplay. It’s an “Assassin’s Creed”-style map objective game with “Batman Arkham Asylum” combat and “Twisted Metal” vehicle destruction. I love all of these play styles, and while their representations here are a little rough around the edges, it’s still a good time.

The difficulty curve feels just right. It’s just hard enough not to be a cakewalk. I’ve had to redo a few missions, and I’m leveling up to tackle a few others. It’s relaxing and fun, but it knows when to turn up the gas.

It is easy to access. I grabbed it through PlayStation Plus. It’s a good fit for the PlayStation Portal, allowing me to keep playing, even when the family has taken over the TV. I can go from thinking about the game to playing it anywhere in my house in seconds.

What’s particularly interesting to me is that this game’s ability to capture my attention now is more powerful than when it was brand new. I actually had purchased a physical copy of this one day one of release, but I never got past the first hour.

One setback in 2015 might have been that the game actually shipped months AFTER “Mad Max Fury Road” released in theaters. Here, I’m playing the game BEFORE the next big movie comes out. I’m still in anticipation mode.

Another legacy setback is that back in 2015, game streaming was kinda crap for me. My service provider at the time could not keep up. Now, streaming is so close to native – especially with single player games – that it’s a totally viable way to play. And as a family man, that makes a huge difference.

Of course, the biggest challenge of all is that the game came out the same day as “Metal Gear Solid V”. I bought both. But there was no way any game was going to pull my attention away from Kojima’s latest.

One of the greatest benefits of single player gaming is that the games never sunset. Nine years from launch, you can pop in a game like Mad Max and recognize its status as an under-rated gem.

I have a friend who refuses to start a game until he finishes the game he’s currently playing. I totally see the benefits of that approach, but when you let fun be the ultimate arbiter instead, you might be surprised which games bring you back to the controller. It might not be the one you just dropped $70 on.