Gaming

I installed 1,000 old game ROMs for NES, SNES, Sega Genesis/Master System, N64, and PS1. I’ve been reliving all of my childhood games since I got it. Road Rash on the PS1 was one I never played (and forgot existed) until my wife told me about it. What a blast.

I've had Slay the Spire in my Library for a while, but only got hooked on it when I tried it on Steam Deck.

When I got my Steam Deck at launch, the first game I was hooked on was Elden Ring, which came out around the same time. I first started it on my PC, but got frustrated by the huge lag spikes. Thankfully, those aren't a thing on Steam Deck!

Factorio. Godanmed Factorio ruining my life.

My Steam Deck is pretty much a Vampire Survivors machine.

Subnautica.

I played it when it was beta, could not finish it then.

It runs pretty good on the Deck, and I alternatively play it on the Deck docked to a tv on the living room, and on my PC.

Fallout 4 for me was great on the deck. I've had it for years but only when I got the deck did I actually play it.

Also streaming Baldur's Gate 3 has been fantastic as well.

The messenger and stardew valley are perfect steam deck games. I suspect hades is too but I put too many hours into it on PC before I got the deck.

Vampire Survivors

For me it was Brotato.

Of games that I've ONLY played on the SteamDeck, I think Dead Cells is probably my favourite.

Civ V destroyed a week for me. It was like crack. I don't know how I got loose of its clutches but I will never play that again. It's like a time portal to the future. Suddenly it's 2024 and all you did was boot into a game.

I really enjoyed Hero's Hour, it's eeriely similar to Mount and Blade but... pixel.

My gaming history is so diverse that I only recently realized that certain games have baises to certain styles of console now. Growing up I played a lot of NES and SNES games on an old hitachi laptop with the roms and a control scheme I didn't know how to chance from PGUP PGDN and arrow controls. Never the less, my platforming 2D top down exploration feeling kicked in. Then the PS2 introduced me to 3D games and the different dynamics, but it was stolen so I got to explore the world of flash games until the Wii expanded the PS2's dynamic games with depth of controllers. (Honestly it's not talked enough about how Wii Sports is a form of AR.) Anyway, now as an adult the last nearly decade of gaming has been done mostly on PC, with just a few Nintendo games here and there between the 3DS, Wii U and Switch.

And through all of this, Nintendo has had very strong 3rd party titles - Retro City Rampage, Shantae, Shovel Knight, I mean the list could go on for forever. But what's interesting is none of these kinds of games, even some dear classics like Phantom Brave/Disgaea, none of them fully appeal to me on PC. When I use the Steam Controller it helps immensely, but even then it can take some work to really feel "right".

It wasn't until I got the Steam Deck that I realized this connection between the smaller/portable nature of certain games to certain consoles. I mean, I was aware of it in the sense that I preferred certain games for certain consoles, but I never realized just how strongly "retro" games just need to be on a small screen with gamepad controls - and I loooved playing flash games on mouse and keyboard but the nostalgia of the screen format is just so overpoweringly nostalgic.

Anyway, all this to say - I have found a previously "nearly useless" part of my very large game library to be no longer "nearly useless". There are now so many games that I have some interest in to at least try, because playing them on the Steam Deck just feels right.

Forager, Hero's Hour, Monster Sanctuary, Blasphemous, and Yakuza (refound love for this one) are my 2022 replays top Steam Deck games. However during that time I also ripped all my Switch games to format shift them to the Steam Deck, so Marvel's Ultimate Alliance 3 also got a lot of playtime.

Within the last year I've come across Smile for Me, Guts and Glory, and Narita Boy which I wouldn't have normally played either.

By now I have put it down but I was seriously hooked on Kingdom two Crowns for the last weeks. Very addictive and easy going yet still challenging little game.

I beat Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines for the first time on Deck. KBM controls bound to the system really did it for me and since it was a low spec game it ran flawlessly. And the game's reputation holds up (well written and engaging but janky lol)

State of decay 2. I never really got into it until I got the deck.

Tried Hollow Knight for the first time on the Deck, it works so well!

I'm not even specially good at gaming but I thought Hornet (a Hollow Knight boss) was quite enjoyable and not that hard and I wonder if it has to do with the Deck controls, since everyone has mentioned how difficult that one is (I did find all other bosses very difficult so this is not a boast).

Edit to mention that Horizon: Zero Dawn is another one that I only tried with the Deck and it also works really well, though this one consumes a lot more battery compared to HK.

Not a new discovery, but I rediscovered Torchlight 1 and 2. The Steam Deck controls make it a lot smoother to play than a mouse.

Bloodstained is a top contender, I can't say I first discovered it on the Deck, but it just feels right on a handheld, in a way that it didn't with controller on desktop, and the Switch just isn't good enough to run it at a passable framerate.

I really like Kingdom: Two Crowns on my steam deck.

Fall Guys, have had it on steam since before it got bought by epic, having the SD and looking for good controller-based games right after I first got the deck convinced me to play it. I've played it almost every day since getting my deck in February of last year. Had been getting a bit bored of it just before the constructor update (user built levels), and the fact that it was broken for ~a week after an epic games services update didn't help, but the new constructor levels sucked me back in. I usually play it in the morning to help me wake up, the whole bright colors & tight races thing really help my brain to start turning on.

Persona 5 Royal

I rediscovered and fell in love all over again with Phantasy Star Online on the Steam Deck.

Mostly I've used the Deck to continue playing my primary games on the couch or on the go. Elden Ring and RDR2 look and play fantastically once you tweak them a bit.

Smaller games usually run perfectly out of the box. The only ones I've played exclusively on Deck so far are Super Pilot (indie F-Zero), Ultimate Chicken Horse (Mario Maker-ish), and Mark of the Ninja.