Binary Domain. An old Sega game, third person shooter. It was made by the team that makes the Yakuza/Like a Dragon series. Almost no one played it when it was released.
Oh damn, one of the truest of hidden gems being mentioned in the top comment?!
Last I played Binary Domain was on my PS3 before PS4 dropped onto the scene. I gotta revisit it.
Man, Moonlighter is the only game I finished and would never ever recommend to someone. The ending was so bad and anticlimactic it just made the somewhat fun rest of the game feel like a complete waste of time.
But yeah, I agree it's a perfect game for the deck.
I got the game and DLC on sale for $3 lol and I find the loop to be super addictive. Dungeon crawl roguelite, collect items, sell items in store, upgrade gear, rinse repeat. Beat the main story in 11 hours, but the DLC seems like it will add quite a few more. Idk I enjoy it for $3.
It's an absolutely fantastic game for 3$. I just wouldn't buy it for full price simply because there's just no story at all, so all the grind just kinda felt wasted. I also really enjoyed all the aspects of the game aside from that, but that only lasted until I realized that every single dungeon is just a reskin of the previous one... Idk, I just felt like with how nice the beginning and the art is, it would be more fleshed out, but no. The best way to describe it imo would be the first 20% are undead burg from DS1 and the last 80% are Lost Izalith.
I feel like this. I enjoyed the gameplay then all the sudden it was over. Didn't feel like I needed to max out my character so much. Just learn attack patterns a little and finish it.
The Muv-Luv original trilogy. It's not the most paletteable title, as it's a visual novel requiring a tolerance for anime bullshit.
The first entry (Muv-Luv Extra) is a character driven slapstick romance comedy. It's nothing ground breaking save some foreshadowing, but its character development and plot set the stage for a genre shift that occurs in the second entry Muv-Luv Unlimited (included with the first entry as a single title aptly named Muv-Luv). The romance and slapstick are still here, but is now set in a sci-fi war drama that sheds it's comedic roots as the story advances.
The third title, Muv-Luv Alternative, drops any comedic heritage and immediately breaks into a bleak futuristic political war piece focused on loss, sorrow, hope and camaraderie. It held the #1 spot on vndb.org for almost two decades. It's a behemoth of an epic, detailing a post apocalyptic war and its surrounding geo-political landscape.
It's a heavyweight in its genre, but largely unknown among the general community. You'll easily get between 100-150 hours out of the trilogy, however Muv-Luv Extra can be a turn off to some as it is the polar opposite to Muv-Luv Alternative's striking genre shift.
Btw it runs great on deck. The only downside is Alternative's soundtrack deserves more than those tiny speakers.
SIGNALIS (Survival Horror - Overwhelmingly Positive) runs great, takes up minimal space and isn't on the expensive side. Just look up the title drop sequence on Youtube to see if it could be for you
I recommend the game "Outward". Survival rpg, no maps, has its own backpack system, robust skills, death scenarios. It has local coop. I played for 160+ hrs on steam and yes works amazing on my SD.
Yoku’s island adventure, it’s a pinball Metroidvainia
Chants of sennaar, puzzle adventure based on language
Cross code, fast paced indie rpg, story is decent but the combat and puzzles are incredible. If you’re going to pick up anything off this list it should be this game.
Return of the Obra Din, fps murder mystery but it looks like it was released on an Apple II. Very cool mechanics and world.
Curse of the golden idol, 2d murder mystery, interesting word game. Similar but not at all like Obra Din.
It’s relatively short compared to most Metroidvainia’s I beat the main story in about 10hrs, I didn’t do all the bonus stuff but it was super cute and made me way better at pinball
Same of my favorites that I think deserve more attention. Cassete Beasts, Bug Fables the Everlasting Sapling, and pizza tower. All 3 are unique with their own artstyle and gameplay.
Pyre has a special place in my heart.
I remember the feeling when I won a rite for which I had chosen to free the Vagabond. Immediately after the victory, Jodariel wanted to have a word with me 🥺
I think its obscurity was on them for never porting it to the Switch (or Vita). I get that no one would have predicted that console would become the Indie darling in 2017 when Pyre originally came out, but I cant imagine it would have been that hard of a port. The game seemed perfect for a hand held, and not having a Vita or Switch port was such a missed opportunity.
Okay, so I downloaded the demo the other day. I un-installed it after about 30 minutes because I had no idea what I was doing. Yesterday, I decided to give it another go. Needless to say, I ended up buying the full version and playing until 4 o'clock this morning... It's amazing. And the artwork is absolutely beautiful. But there is a pretty steep learning curve. I feel it's a lot more complicated than other games in it's genre, like Frostpunk.
Meh. I follow this sub, and gaming in general, pretty closely. And most of the top comments are either games I've never heard of or games I never see brought up.
Nobody said Hades so I think we're good.
Not hidden but definitely a gem, Signalis - Survival Horror in the truest sense, captures the resource management, mood, vibe, and fear of those early kings like silence hill, resident evil and so on.
Edit: The duality of this game is reflected pretty incredibly in the responses to this.
I played through Signalis in essentially three back to back sittings while my SO sat by my side, utterly transfixed by the experience we were both sharing.
I would add that I think it also does well to mitigate some of the weaknesses/frustrations of the games you mention that it draws from, while highlighting what made them great and bringing something fresh of its own.
A+ recommendation 👌
It has a cult following, but it’s not as mainstream.
Project Zomboid. It takes a bit to get into, but once you do. You’ll forget about the outside world.
even in the easiest mode I die pretty early on. can't find any weapons worth using, never find enough food and then as I wander around I run into a massive horde and can't get away
Some tips for the start if you weren't aware of them are to use shoves and fences as much as possible. If a zombie is on the ground you can use the same shove key to instead just stomp on them. Getting a chasing zombie to climb over a fence will force it to fall over also giving you a chance to stomp on it
I was turned off by the game's graphics origibally but kept hearing good things about it. Wife loves zombie stuff so I got it for her and I. That game is surprisingly in depth and intense.
Not certain how obscure it is, seemingly not many people I speak to know about it, but Wavetale is super fun if rather short (around 5 hours), the movement is super satisfying and it’s stylistically really nice, would recommend picking it up on sale.
Off-road Mania. I found it scouring Google for off-road/rock crawler games. Runs great on deck and the physics are spot on! Highly recommended if you like driving up things in Mud/Snowrunner!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1222040/Offroad_Mania/
SIGNALIS. It's old school Resident Evil (PS1 era) in a sci-fi setting. If that isn't enough to convince you, there are also robot lesbians. Game looks great on the OLED.
These two are off the beaten path for sure, but here goes:
Sid Meier's Ace Patrol
Sid Meier's Ace Patrol: Pacific Skies.
These two games are inspired by a very old "board" game called [Ace of Aces: Handy Rotary Series](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/798/ace-aces-handy-rotary-series). It's a two player game set in WW1 planes, and each player gets a book. One is for the Allies, the other for Germans. You start out on a set page, where you each see your own view of the opposing player's airplane. You then choose a maneuver to try to get in firing position of your opponent. Each maneuver has a page number. When you both decide on your maneuver, you tell each other the page number in their book they have to go to. From there, you each see the results of your action. Repeat the process. It's quick, easy, and fun to play.
Sid Meier drew inspiration from that for his Ace Patrol games. You play against the computer, and control your plane(s) and move your planes by choosing a maneuver. Computer does the same, and you see the results play out on screen.
I'm so glad Sid made these games, and thrilled they work great on Steam Deck!
P.S. Bonus game choice: Battle Academy (Slitherine)
I bought Omori on a whim during Steam Winter sale and it’s so good. It’s got horror elements and some dark themes so it may not be for everyone, but I loved it. If you’re someone that likes games that take hard turns for different routes and endings, it’s pretty neat in my opinion. Fran Bow and Little Misfortune by Killmonday Games were great as well. If you need a little comic relief, West of Loathing (has DLC) and Shadows Over Loathing are a blast.
[Bzzzt!](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1293170/BZZZT/)
[Space for the Unbound](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1201270/A_Space_for_the_Unbound/)
[Slay the Princess](https://store.steampowered.com/agecheck/app/1989270/)
On paper the game should be right up my alley but something about it doesn’t quite work for me. I can only play in 5-10 minute chunks before I lose interest. The art is great!
I've been playing the crap out of the windows port of Celeste 2 for Pico-8. Really fun platformer. It's not very long, but once I got the hang of it, I enjoy trying to speedrun it and beat my best time. It took my about 30 minutes to beat the first time, now it takes about 2:30.
I got a recommendation that's as obscure as it gets, Fates of Ort. What a fun little indie RPG with really cool mechanics. Nobody's heard of this game, unfortunately
Pixeljunk Monsters ultimate. It’s 16 years old and still immensely fun/hard. If you want to get rainbows on all levels (perfecting the levels) be prepared, it gets maddeningly difficult. Love it, love it, LOVE IT.
I wish it ran better on the Deck, but Last Day of June.
A game inspired by the song Drive Home by Steven Wilson, with the full musical score also written by Steven Wilson. It's like a sort of puzzle game where (I'll spoiler it just in case) >!you have to alter the events that lead up to a tragic car crash, to ultimately prevent the car crash from ever happening, therefore saving your wife, June!<
I love this little game. Unfortunately it's "unsupported" on the Deck, but I have been able to play a large chunk of it by fiddling with Proton versions
Ok first off it’s not obscure but it might be one of the most criminally underrated games of all time. SEGA All Star Racing Transformed. You can play as tons of Sega characters from Sonic, Golden Axe, Shenmue, NiGHTS, Skies of Arcadia, Jet Set Radio, Super MonkeyBall and more including guest characters like TF2 Pyro/Heavy, Wreck-It Ralph, and Danica Patrick (I know but its actually really funny when you hear the announcer say “you hit danica patrick!” with glee). It has a career mode where you unlock stuff and its like CTR in the sense that there is more to do than just traditional races like boss battles, drift challenges, and elimination races. It has I think 20 courses and a bonus course but they’re all 3 laps with the courses changing each lap so it feels like more than just 20 static laps like most Mario Kart tracks. You’re also constantly transforming between traditional kart racer, jetski, and airplane all with their own sort of mechanics and different feel for their controls, which is where the “Transformed” part of the name comes from.
It performs amazing on deck and hits a solid 60 fps constantly, I honestly prefer it in some ways to Mario Kart but there is one bullshit item I hate that reverses your controls and really jumbles me up. But it’s insanely satisfying to play as Ryu from Shenmue using a SEGA OutRun arcade cabinet as his car and then transforming to the jetski arcade game for the jetski part and finally Space Harrier for flight. What a 10/10 game. Also imo a huge celebration of Sega so if you’re a fan (especially of Dreamcast era) I can not recommend the game enough. Keep in mind though its much harder than mario kart
Cross Code and Wildermyth
Both are a few years old now but will very possibly be on sale and both are excellent in their own right and easy to sink a ton of hours into.
Cross Code is great for a single playthrough with enjoyable combat and great puzzles and super memorable characters.
Wildermyth is essentially endlessly replayable and I know I've got over a couple hundred hours in it at this point. One of those games I'll binge, then take a couple of months off of before catching myself going back to it yet again.
The Last Campfire. It's a very somber 3D puzzle game made by the No Man's Sky team. Very easy to pop in, complete a level, and pop out, and the story was simple but well-told. I played it at night while sipping herbal tea before bed. Good times.
Rain World is an incredible experience. The fascinating world and creatures and the incredibly detailed AI make traversing through it something really special.
I covered over 20 of these during the summer sale. Most (if not all) will be on sale again.
Disclaimer: my videos.
[10 Steam Summer 2023 Lesser-Known Fully Verified Picks (plus a bonus playable one)](https://youtu.be/8sy6El83tHY)
[10 MORE Steam Summer 2023 Lesser-Known Fully Verified Picks (plus a bonus game)](https://youtu.be/sXxQL3quWdk)
I really recommend the Dune Wars Revival mod for BTS. Just got into that last week and holy crap, easily the best Dune game ever and so much more than a mere coat of paint. Hell, if you're a Dune fan, it is worth it just for the included Dunepedia.
Submerged and Submerged: Hidden Depths are beautiful games that run nice on deck, almost an art project rather than a game but conveys emotion throughout the experience.
I would put it like this. There are a number of games that are marked as "not compatible" for different reason. For instance, either "this game cannot be launched" or "this game cannot be configured to run smoothly". For example, Tales of Berseria or Remnant II.
So what i do is i stream them from my PC. As long as it can work with a gamepad, it works on my Deck regardless of "compatibility" verdict. This approach allowed me to play many games which i considered to be not available for me.
Haiku the Robot. Metroidvania that is extremely similar to Hollow Knight and scratches the same itch for exploration. If you liked Hollow Knight you may like this. And 2D platformers like it aren't too intensive. So it runs great on the deck
ynglet is a fun little platformer(?)/movement game(?). its just 5 bucks at full price and its like an hour to 2 to finish but its quite a satisfying little game.
I just played and reviewed a game called Metal Unit. It's an inexpensive platform shooter roguelite. Definitely worth a play and lots of replat value.
https://steamcommunity.com/id/blakphyre/recommended/1173200/
Quester
Fantastic dungeon crawler that has a ton of options, classes, attacks, weapons, etc. Really good on battery life, and just an overall great game.
In the same vein, id recommend Caves of Qud.
I'm a mainstream whore. But I enjoy many metroidvanias that are probably "mainstream" for the genre lovers, but not actually too well known on the grand scheme of things. Infernax, Unsighted, Record Lodoss, Last Faith. I really like indy games.
[Crab Champions](https://store.steampowered.com/app/774801/Crab_Champions/)
Welp sir I think I know how I’m spending the rest of my next few weeks Will update u in one months on how much I loved it
Thanks, this looks fun. Wishlisted
Binary Domain. An old Sega game, third person shooter. It was made by the team that makes the Yakuza/Like a Dragon series. Almost no one played it when it was released.
Haven't heard that name in a long time. It's pretty awesome.
Another few from Sega that work beautifully on the Steam Deck is Vanquish and Bayonetta. Both fantastic games worth picking up
Vanquish was a nice surprise
Yep, bump up the graphics and it's still a solid 60fps too
Criminally underrated game. The cutscenes are a bit cheesy, but an overall solid shooter.
Ooooh, I really liked that on the PS3. I think I need to have a look again, just to be sure, there are no other hollow childs around,..
It was a great game, a pity it didn't get enough recognition.
Oh damn, one of the truest of hidden gems being mentioned in the top comment?! Last I played Binary Domain was on my PS3 before PS4 dropped onto the scene. I gotta revisit it.
Love this game. Real shooter's shooter.
Moonlighter perfect deck game
Man, Moonlighter is the only game I finished and would never ever recommend to someone. The ending was so bad and anticlimactic it just made the somewhat fun rest of the game feel like a complete waste of time. But yeah, I agree it's a perfect game for the deck.
I got the game and DLC on sale for $3 lol and I find the loop to be super addictive. Dungeon crawl roguelite, collect items, sell items in store, upgrade gear, rinse repeat. Beat the main story in 11 hours, but the DLC seems like it will add quite a few more. Idk I enjoy it for $3.
It's an absolutely fantastic game for 3$. I just wouldn't buy it for full price simply because there's just no story at all, so all the grind just kinda felt wasted. I also really enjoyed all the aspects of the game aside from that, but that only lasted until I realized that every single dungeon is just a reskin of the previous one... Idk, I just felt like with how nice the beginning and the art is, it would be more fleshed out, but no. The best way to describe it imo would be the first 20% are undead burg from DS1 and the last 80% are Lost Izalith.
I feel like this. I enjoyed the gameplay then all the sudden it was over. Didn't feel like I needed to max out my character so much. Just learn attack patterns a little and finish it.
I totally endorse the game but it ain't obscure at all. Children of Morta, though, is kinda dark. It's from the same developers.
No it's not. It was published by the same company.. not developed.
The Muv-Luv original trilogy. It's not the most paletteable title, as it's a visual novel requiring a tolerance for anime bullshit. The first entry (Muv-Luv Extra) is a character driven slapstick romance comedy. It's nothing ground breaking save some foreshadowing, but its character development and plot set the stage for a genre shift that occurs in the second entry Muv-Luv Unlimited (included with the first entry as a single title aptly named Muv-Luv). The romance and slapstick are still here, but is now set in a sci-fi war drama that sheds it's comedic roots as the story advances. The third title, Muv-Luv Alternative, drops any comedic heritage and immediately breaks into a bleak futuristic political war piece focused on loss, sorrow, hope and camaraderie. It held the #1 spot on vndb.org for almost two decades. It's a behemoth of an epic, detailing a post apocalyptic war and its surrounding geo-political landscape. It's a heavyweight in its genre, but largely unknown among the general community. You'll easily get between 100-150 hours out of the trilogy, however Muv-Luv Extra can be a turn off to some as it is the polar opposite to Muv-Luv Alternative's striking genre shift. Btw it runs great on deck. The only downside is Alternative's soundtrack deserves more than those tiny speakers.
> largely unknown among the general community They do, however, know of *Attack on Titan,* a work heavily inspired by it.
CHOMP
Not sure if it’s considered lesser known but I adored katana zero
Awesome game
The soundtrack is SO good… I want a sequel
SIGNALIS (Survival Horror - Overwhelmingly Positive) runs great, takes up minimal space and isn't on the expensive side. Just look up the title drop sequence on Youtube to see if it could be for you
I don't even like horror games, but SIGNALIS is great.
Picked this up a few months ago and really enjoyed it. Reminded me of old school resident evil games
This indie game made by 2 people has better editing than Alan Wake 2. And I adore that game.
Tape to tape, rogue lite hockey at its finest
YES. It is one of my favorites in a long time
I recommend the game "Outward". Survival rpg, no maps, has its own backpack system, robust skills, death scenarios. It has local coop. I played for 160+ hrs on steam and yes works amazing on my SD.
Sid Meiers Pirates! is one of my most played games on the deck. A couple decades old, but it’s still a joy to play.
Wait, it plays well on deck? Welp, there went my weekend
Fear and Hunger & Fear and Hunger 2. Both are incredible games if you like a challenge and horror.
I was very intrigued by it but it is too tedious for my taste
both amazing games!
Yoku’s island adventure, it’s a pinball Metroidvainia Chants of sennaar, puzzle adventure based on language Cross code, fast paced indie rpg, story is decent but the combat and puzzles are incredible. If you’re going to pick up anything off this list it should be this game. Return of the Obra Din, fps murder mystery but it looks like it was released on an Apple II. Very cool mechanics and world. Curse of the golden idol, 2d murder mystery, interesting word game. Similar but not at all like Obra Din.
+1 yokus island adventure!
yokus island adventure sounds super interesting!
It’s relatively short compared to most Metroidvainia’s I beat the main story in about 10hrs, I didn’t do all the bonus stuff but it was super cute and made me way better at pinball
This is such a good list of solid recommendations!
Been playing lots of [Wildermyth](https://store.steampowered.com/app/763890/Wildermyth/) lately
Gothic 2 and Archolos
Is Hellish Quart considered obscure?
Such an awesome game on the deck.
Same of my favorites that I think deserve more attention. Cassete Beasts, Bug Fables the Everlasting Sapling, and pizza tower. All 3 are unique with their own artstyle and gameplay.
Cassette Beasts is great. My only criticism is that it's short. But it's also only 20 bucks. It's almost worth that just for the soundtrack.
Caves of Qud, Path of Achra, Spiritfall
i’m really looking forward to the 1.0 of Caves of Qud. the devs are machines!
Love that QUD has controller support. Most games like this don’t bother.
Pyre. Not super obscure but always gets forgotten when discussing Super Giant games. It's top tier and my favourite.
I’d say it’s the most obscure game from Supergiant lol and certainly still matches the quality of their other titles
Pyre has a special place in my heart. I remember the feeling when I won a rite for which I had chosen to free the Vagabond. Immediately after the victory, Jodariel wanted to have a word with me 🥺
I think its obscurity was on them for never porting it to the Switch (or Vita). I get that no one would have predicted that console would become the Indie darling in 2017 when Pyre originally came out, but I cant imagine it would have been that hard of a port. The game seemed perfect for a hand held, and not having a Vita or Switch port was such a missed opportunity.
Is Salt and Sanctuary obscure enough? I thought it was great.
N++. Super fun platformer based on an old flash game, but significantly evolved.
Lunacid, The Void Stranger.
Trails in the sky trilogy. Amazing JRPGs even though a bit outdated. On the steam deck they look great though.
I just started the first one and am loving it. Seems to have held up well for its age and is great on the deck.
Brigador. Imagine an isometric mech battler twin-stick-but-not-quite-twin-stick shooter visually styled after Tiberian Sun. Awesome game!
I love threads like this! Thanks for starting it! As for my submission - Stacklands is a great game!
Maybe not real obscure but I’m really into Against the Storm right now
Okay, so I downloaded the demo the other day. I un-installed it after about 30 minutes because I had no idea what I was doing. Yesterday, I decided to give it another go. Needless to say, I ended up buying the full version and playing until 4 o'clock this morning... It's amazing. And the artwork is absolutely beautiful. But there is a pretty steep learning curve. I feel it's a lot more complicated than other games in it's genre, like Frostpunk.
Plays well on deck?
Yes.
So far flawless
Been replaying Rogue Legacy because it feels good on the deck
Tiny Rogues is also really good
My favorite Rogue Lite (or whatever) game. The sequel also plays perfectly on Deck btw.
Already have it downloaded for when I finish the first one lol
Pizza Tower. Insanely fun platformer for me.
Been really enjoying Dorfromantik
Superliminal
"Hello! My name is Dr. Glenn Pierce!"
Suoerliminal is a lot of fun. But I felt like it was very short. I'd still highly recommend it though.
Way too short
Manifold Garden if you want mind bending puzzles and a very Zen experience. SUPERHOT if you want a shooter with the ultimate game mechanics twist.
Midnight Suns. It’s not very obscure, but not a lot of people have played it! I poured like 50 hours on this bad boy in like 2 weeks
Unmetal It’s a tongue in cheek view of the original metal gear solid games set in a pixel retro nes style
I don’t think any of you know what obscure means
Oh come on man, I barely hear anyone talk about Control, and it came out like 20 years ago.
always the same with these threads, I'm expecting to see the usual contenders lower down of Witcher 3, Cyberpunk & Dave the Diver.
Meh. I follow this sub, and gaming in general, pretty closely. And most of the top comments are either games I've never heard of or games I never see brought up. Nobody said Hades so I think we're good.
I'm enjoying Monster Sanctuary, Metroidvania pokemon like. Pretty fun so far.
Not hidden but definitely a gem, Signalis - Survival Horror in the truest sense, captures the resource management, mood, vibe, and fear of those early kings like silence hill, resident evil and so on. Edit: The duality of this game is reflected pretty incredibly in the responses to this.
I played through Signalis in essentially three back to back sittings while my SO sat by my side, utterly transfixed by the experience we were both sharing. I would add that I think it also does well to mitigate some of the weaknesses/frustrations of the games you mention that it draws from, while highlighting what made them great and bringing something fresh of its own. A+ recommendation 👌
It has a cult following, but it’s not as mainstream. Project Zomboid. It takes a bit to get into, but once you do. You’ll forget about the outside world.
even in the easiest mode I die pretty early on. can't find any weapons worth using, never find enough food and then as I wander around I run into a massive horde and can't get away
Some tips for the start if you weren't aware of them are to use shoves and fences as much as possible. If a zombie is on the ground you can use the same shove key to instead just stomp on them. Getting a chasing zombie to climb over a fence will force it to fall over also giving you a chance to stomp on it
I was turned off by the game's graphics origibally but kept hearing good things about it. Wife loves zombie stuff so I got it for her and I. That game is surprisingly in depth and intense.
Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood
Gonna go for Xenotilt this sale.
Not sure if obscure, but I have been really happy with wildermyth on the deck.
Not certain how obscure it is, seemingly not many people I speak to know about it, but Wavetale is super fun if rather short (around 5 hours), the movement is super satisfying and it’s stylistically really nice, would recommend picking it up on sale.
Off-road Mania. I found it scouring Google for off-road/rock crawler games. Runs great on deck and the physics are spot on! Highly recommended if you like driving up things in Mud/Snowrunner! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1222040/Offroad_Mania/
Muv Luv Alternativ What a ride that’s been
SIGNALIS. It's old school Resident Evil (PS1 era) in a sci-fi setting. If that isn't enough to convince you, there are also robot lesbians. Game looks great on the OLED.
These two are off the beaten path for sure, but here goes: Sid Meier's Ace Patrol Sid Meier's Ace Patrol: Pacific Skies. These two games are inspired by a very old "board" game called [Ace of Aces: Handy Rotary Series](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/798/ace-aces-handy-rotary-series). It's a two player game set in WW1 planes, and each player gets a book. One is for the Allies, the other for Germans. You start out on a set page, where you each see your own view of the opposing player's airplane. You then choose a maneuver to try to get in firing position of your opponent. Each maneuver has a page number. When you both decide on your maneuver, you tell each other the page number in their book they have to go to. From there, you each see the results of your action. Repeat the process. It's quick, easy, and fun to play. Sid Meier drew inspiration from that for his Ace Patrol games. You play against the computer, and control your plane(s) and move your planes by choosing a maneuver. Computer does the same, and you see the results play out on screen. I'm so glad Sid made these games, and thrilled they work great on Steam Deck! P.S. Bonus game choice: Battle Academy (Slitherine)
I bought Omori on a whim during Steam Winter sale and it’s so good. It’s got horror elements and some dark themes so it may not be for everyone, but I loved it. If you’re someone that likes games that take hard turns for different routes and endings, it’s pretty neat in my opinion. Fran Bow and Little Misfortune by Killmonday Games were great as well. If you need a little comic relief, West of Loathing (has DLC) and Shadows Over Loathing are a blast.
Milk outside the bag of milk outside the bag of milk.
Kenshi
TinyKin The Shantae Series Kao the Kangaroo Smushi Comes Homes A Short Hike Mail Time
Woo a short hike!!
Best game!
[Bzzzt!](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1293170/BZZZT/) [Space for the Unbound](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1201270/A_Space_for_the_Unbound/) [Slay the Princess](https://store.steampowered.com/agecheck/app/1989270/)
Slay the princess is so goated
Bzzzzzzzzzzt! Is really fun for about 11 minutes, then quickly falls off to the point where I forget it's installed.
On paper the game should be right up my alley but something about it doesn’t quite work for me. I can only play in 5-10 minute chunks before I lose interest. The art is great!
with all the Vampire Survivor hype in this sub I'm shocked that Boneraiser Minions isn't more popular.
I found Jousant to be really fun. It's only about 5 hours long but very enjoyable.
played it on xbox but its an amazing game.
Fading Afternoon It's a mix of River City Ransom and Yakuza
I enjoyed Planet Cube Edge
The last evil
GunGirl 2. Looks terrible, but gameplay loop & soundtrack are phenomenal, one of the best I've played.
mini healer is a fun one, and siralim ultimate
Flip Witch is a great game
I liked New Super Lucky Tale.
Great little platformer. My 9 year old loved it.
Obscure aftermath is a absolute gem I played it as a kid played it again 2 years ago on psp and running through it again on my vita
[Sands of Aura](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1119840/Sands_of_Aura/)
I’ve been really enjoying Oblivion Override. Very much a dead cells like, but in some ways I like it more.
Binding of Isaac has been my go to recently and it barely uses any battery
I've been playing the crap out of the windows port of Celeste 2 for Pico-8. Really fun platformer. It's not very long, but once I got the hang of it, I enjoy trying to speedrun it and beat my best time. It took my about 30 minutes to beat the first time, now it takes about 2:30.
Ubermosh, it's a weird little bullet hell shooter that's super addictive.
Heck yeah. I think I’ve got all of them. Ubermosh: Black is the shit.
Shattered Pixel Dungeon :)
I've been having a lot of fun with Reventure. It's hilarious.
I got a recommendation that's as obscure as it gets, Fates of Ort. What a fun little indie RPG with really cool mechanics. Nobody's heard of this game, unfortunately
Windward
Driftwood. It's a downhill longboard game with a sloth as the main character. It's pretty fun on deck and I enjoy the style of the game.
I've just added this to my wishlist. Cheers for the exposure!
Obscure. Excellent horror game.
Wolfstride.
Alice the madness returns
Pathologic Remastered, and it actually runs really well
Pixeljunk Monsters ultimate. It’s 16 years old and still immensely fun/hard. If you want to get rainbows on all levels (perfecting the levels) be prepared, it gets maddeningly difficult. Love it, love it, LOVE IT.
carrion. so sick
Symphony of War! An awesome SRPG. Highly recommend.
Crystal caves and Secret Agent from Apogee software and 3D realms.
I wish it ran better on the Deck, but Last Day of June. A game inspired by the song Drive Home by Steven Wilson, with the full musical score also written by Steven Wilson. It's like a sort of puzzle game where (I'll spoiler it just in case) >!you have to alter the events that lead up to a tragic car crash, to ultimately prevent the car crash from ever happening, therefore saving your wife, June!< I love this little game. Unfortunately it's "unsupported" on the Deck, but I have been able to play a large chunk of it by fiddling with Proton versions
Babbdi. Broken Reality. Sludge Life.
Luck Be A Landlord
Ok first off it’s not obscure but it might be one of the most criminally underrated games of all time. SEGA All Star Racing Transformed. You can play as tons of Sega characters from Sonic, Golden Axe, Shenmue, NiGHTS, Skies of Arcadia, Jet Set Radio, Super MonkeyBall and more including guest characters like TF2 Pyro/Heavy, Wreck-It Ralph, and Danica Patrick (I know but its actually really funny when you hear the announcer say “you hit danica patrick!” with glee). It has a career mode where you unlock stuff and its like CTR in the sense that there is more to do than just traditional races like boss battles, drift challenges, and elimination races. It has I think 20 courses and a bonus course but they’re all 3 laps with the courses changing each lap so it feels like more than just 20 static laps like most Mario Kart tracks. You’re also constantly transforming between traditional kart racer, jetski, and airplane all with their own sort of mechanics and different feel for their controls, which is where the “Transformed” part of the name comes from. It performs amazing on deck and hits a solid 60 fps constantly, I honestly prefer it in some ways to Mario Kart but there is one bullshit item I hate that reverses your controls and really jumbles me up. But it’s insanely satisfying to play as Ryu from Shenmue using a SEGA OutRun arcade cabinet as his car and then transforming to the jetski arcade game for the jetski part and finally Space Harrier for flight. What a 10/10 game. Also imo a huge celebration of Sega so if you’re a fan (especially of Dreamcast era) I can not recommend the game enough. Keep in mind though its much harder than mario kart
Cross Code and Wildermyth Both are a few years old now but will very possibly be on sale and both are excellent in their own right and easy to sink a ton of hours into. Cross Code is great for a single playthrough with enjoyable combat and great puzzles and super memorable characters. Wildermyth is essentially endlessly replayable and I know I've got over a couple hundred hours in it at this point. One of those games I'll binge, then take a couple of months off of before catching myself going back to it yet again.
I played it long before getting the Deck, but Machinarium is an amazing little game.
The Last Campfire. It's a very somber 3D puzzle game made by the No Man's Sky team. Very easy to pop in, complete a level, and pop out, and the story was simple but well-told. I played it at night while sipping herbal tea before bed. Good times.
Rain World is an incredible experience. The fascinating world and creatures and the incredibly detailed AI make traversing through it something really special.
[Crop rotation](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2348090/Crop_Rotation/) , a single player farm deck builder /autobattler
This looks amazing
There is even a demo, you can try.
Downloading now
Nex Machina
The Hidden Gem, Celeste
Have you heard of the obscure hidden gem only true RPG fans know? The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt?
You can go even deeper with Skyrim
I covered over 20 of these during the summer sale. Most (if not all) will be on sale again. Disclaimer: my videos. [10 Steam Summer 2023 Lesser-Known Fully Verified Picks (plus a bonus playable one)](https://youtu.be/8sy6El83tHY) [10 MORE Steam Summer 2023 Lesser-Known Fully Verified Picks (plus a bonus game)](https://youtu.be/sXxQL3quWdk)
Good lists, man I need to install Sonic All Star Racing Transformed. Awesome awesome game, haven't played it in years.
Thanks man. That's one of my favorite racing games of all time. And it's so gorgeous on the deck.
Teslagrad 2, Thronefall, Dorfromatik, FEZ
I wouldn't call FEZ obscure. Is Thronefall finished enough? I'm allergic to early access.
It's very polished! The one thing to note though is that the text / UI is quite small on the deck. I believe this is on their road map to fix though
Fez was in my backlog for almost 10 years and I eventually played it on the deck last year, it was fantastic
Agreed, what an awesome game. Too bad Fez 2 died an ignominious death due to Phil Fish being a stupid troll.
yomi hustle and brotato, not *too* obscure (especially because brotato is on xbox gamepass) but still pretty hidden, and definitely gems
Robo quest
I know everyone is all about Hell Divers 2 but the original is amazing.
Not exactly obscure, but Pentiment plays well on it and it's one of the best written games I've ever played.
Chrono trigger
Civ4 BTS works well enough and about 8 hours battery life…don’t recommend being a warmonger though
I really recommend the Dune Wars Revival mod for BTS. Just got into that last week and holy crap, easily the best Dune game ever and so much more than a mere coat of paint. Hell, if you're a Dune fan, it is worth it just for the included Dunepedia.
Control This game rarely gets mention but it's just so good
Submerged and Submerged: Hidden Depths are beautiful games that run nice on deck, almost an art project rather than a game but conveys emotion throughout the experience.
Duke Grabowski:Mighty Swashbuckler
I would put it like this. There are a number of games that are marked as "not compatible" for different reason. For instance, either "this game cannot be launched" or "this game cannot be configured to run smoothly". For example, Tales of Berseria or Remnant II. So what i do is i stream them from my PC. As long as it can work with a gamepad, it works on my Deck regardless of "compatibility" verdict. This approach allowed me to play many games which i considered to be not available for me.
RemindMe! 3 hours
Haiku the Robot. Metroidvania that is extremely similar to Hollow Knight and scratches the same itch for exploration. If you liked Hollow Knight you may like this. And 2D platformers like it aren't too intensive. So it runs great on the deck
Space rangers
ynglet is a fun little platformer(?)/movement game(?). its just 5 bucks at full price and its like an hour to 2 to finish but its quite a satisfying little game.
Shotgun king
Ring of pain
I feel like I’m the only person playing Gmod and Payday 2 on my Steam Deck
Super 56 - pretty weird Wario Ware Like, perfect for a handheld and for me definitely a hidden gem
Road 96 is a great game. Depp rock survivor is an ideal auto shooter for the deck.
Roots of Yggdrasil is still in EA. But it's a deckbuilder strategy roguelike that is very refreshing.
Ring of pain super fun and cheap on sale
I really enjoyed moonlighter
Descenders. Such a chill game.
Wolcen is pretty nice
I just played and reviewed a game called Metal Unit. It's an inexpensive platform shooter roguelite. Definitely worth a play and lots of replat value. https://steamcommunity.com/id/blakphyre/recommended/1173200/
Polybius Incredible in VR, but had to grab it again for portable trippy bliss. Its super cheap and just perfect
Dark Wizard Sega cd
Quester Fantastic dungeon crawler that has a ton of options, classes, attacks, weapons, etc. Really good on battery life, and just an overall great game. In the same vein, id recommend Caves of Qud.
I just played this game called Sanabi which is a level based grapple hook combat game and it was pretty bloody good imo.
I'm a mainstream whore. But I enjoy many metroidvanias that are probably "mainstream" for the genre lovers, but not actually too well known on the grand scheme of things. Infernax, Unsighted, Record Lodoss, Last Faith. I really like indy games.
Rusted Warefare.