Steam

Spaceplan on mobile, it's a fun ride

Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion, Spiritfairer, Slay the Spire

These were all free to me through gamepass or Amazon. Went with fairly recent ones

Gnomoria $3.99 and got about 300 hours out of it. It was a game that took a lot of inspiration from Dwarf Fortress but had 'graphics.' The dev stepped away a while ago but pretty sure everyone that bought it got their $$ worth.

I think I bought Glyph for pretty cheap on the Switch. I loved it so much I bought it full price on Steam shortly after

I bought Left 4 Dead 2 for $5 and I kinda feel bad about it in hindsight

Can't remember what i paid but was cheap, beat invaders, pretty awesome space invaders like arcade game, fun addictive game play, good music and sound effects, good visuals. Blast through fleets of enemies, skill up, and compete for daily and weekly high-scores. 32 hours played so far and is perfect for the Steam Deck.

Transport Tycoon, got a copy off a friend then brought the Delux version when it released and now play the free open source version OpenTTD.

Downwell

I'm up to about 70 hours with Tametsi. I'm almost done the 100 main puzzles, but I haven't touched the 60 bonus puzzles. Considering it cost me ~1000 won (78 US cents) that's got to be some kind of cost-per-hour-of-entertainment record for me. Not counting things I got for free.

Fallout 3. I had a big lull in gaming where I played some on Xbox and ps2, but not much on those either because I started working (at like 15 years old) and my PC could no longer handle games. So I missed out on that when it came out. And New Vegas. Well after a few years and after moving to a place that had broadband, I had the money for a new PC. FO3 goty happened to be on sale on steam. I grabbed it for super cheap and just become so engrossed. I don't think I had played a modern open world game like that ever at that point. And it had such a fun interactive story where choices had consequences. I blew the shit out of a whole town with a nuke not realizing how it would impact things. Now it is my favorite type of game. Grabbed New Vegas on sale shortly after and got to continue the experience. All for super cheap.

It's a small game that people rarely ever heard of but https://store.steampowered.com/app/406150/Refunct/ Refunct is simple and awesome in its movement mechanics.

I hope you're not referring specifically to Wheat Thresher-vania. I'm reminded of what that Dead or Alive guy said about Dynasty Warriors... "Yes, there are tons of onscreen characters, but they're all dumb as toast. You're just lopping off dozens of cabbage heads."

There's just something mechanical and hands-off about Vampire Survivor that I don't like. It's playable? But rarely did I experience anything I would call fun. It was more of an unhealthy compulsion than anything, like picking at a scab.

Not on Steam, but Boomerang Fu was one of the best game I purchased for ~$3. Probably my most played game on Switch.

Undertale

I didn't buy it for $0.99 but it has been on sale for that much in the past: N++ is an incredible platformer, excellent value at full price: https://store.steampowered.com/app/230270/N_NPLUSPLUS/

Ultima IV: free on GOG, one of the greatest games ever made that still holds up today (though irritating in certain ways, the core game is pure gold).

not really $0.99 purchase but a sale one nonetheless, but for me that hidden gem ended up being OneShot. a great story-based game with a cute artstyle.

I am having fun playing defense grid: the awakening. It was $5 in a recent steam sale.

The Beginners Guide. $10, 2 hours long, and one of the most personal and profound pieces of media I have ever experienced.

I got Days Gone for $12. Didn't play it for 6 months, then when I finally did it was the only game I played until I beat it, and it's not a short game

I don't like open world games anymore. I don't stick to one game ever and I don't usually bother with games over 25 hours but holy shit. Such an amazing game

It's taking everything I have to just not start a new game + immediately

The Captain

Got it for free during an Epic giveaway and was blown away. LucasArts point and click style with massive replayability

Insurgency Source was on sale for 1.99 one time and I picked up a bunch of copies for my friends and I. Ended up clocking close to a thousand hours on that game and spent years playing off and on

icey. i literally only bought it for the £5 steam link, but it's actually a really good hack&slash platformer with a stanley parable-esque story. i'd recommend anyone who has it languishing in their library to give it a go

Deadlight, from Tequila Works. I bought it for less than $3 on a whim (might have even been $1) during a Steam Sale on the last day, because "Why not" I thought. Then I actually gave it a shot, and it turned out to be really good. Especially surprising since I don't normally like side scroller puzzles with action elements. The difficulty was just right, and the forgiving checkpoints did away with the usual frustrations I have with games like this.