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I can recommend Balatro!
Roguelites have all been great on the Deck. Brotato, Enter the Gungeon, Hades 2, etc etc.
I second (third?) this. On the desktop it felt kinda boring. But it's amazing for a quick pick up and play session on the Deck. Can't recommend it enough. :)
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No please I can't afford a new rehab
Caves of Qud
Doesn't seem like a controller friendly game at first glance, but it's so well optimized that I cannot go back to PC with it.
I also get like 4 hours of battery life out of it, which I use up regularly.
Bring the TDP down to 6W and you'll get at least 6.5 with no impact on gameplay
After playing CoQ with controller support I find similar games unplayably uncomfortable. It's done so well that it's shocking to look back at how the UI used to be and remember the game wasn't designed from the ground up with controller in mind.
Ive been waiting for a good sale to get it, can't wait to dive into it
Have bought that game a while ago but never came around to play it so far. Hope I get a bit of time to spend delving into Qud during holidays.
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Well, there's a couple I've only ever played on the Deck. Dave the Diver, and Ball X Pit are two I would recommend.
This was the last push I needed to pick up Ball X Pit. I'll tell my family I can see them next Christmas instead.
It's really fun. I grew up playing games like Arkanoid on the Apple IIGS, so I've always had a love of the genre. And Ball X Pit reinvents it with another genre I like, rogue-lites.
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Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. It’s the main reason I bought the Deck, so I could play it on the go.
Is it still working on the Deck after the EPIC integration update? Not really clear based on the recent negative reviews.
It isn’t for me, no. It gets stuck at the Loading screen overlay in the main menu. If I turn off WiFi I can play but only from a new save, I can’t play any existing saves. The Epic integration is obviously broken.
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Yakuza 0
I wish so much I could play it for the first time again.
CrossCode is really nice on the deck
I might cheat a bit here, but for me its emulation with RetroArch since launch! I love the additional trackpads that give me features not possible on a regular gamepad. I setup my own menus and functionality. Can't wait for the official Steam Controller (2) to launch, so I can use this on my PC too.
Well, any 2D indie game with controller support is perfect for the deck: (Like the hollow Knight series, or Hades).
Got Hi-Fi Rush on sale. And the inputs feel much better than on my PC (I blame my Bluetooth controller).
Want something with a classic feel (other than emulators)? "Heretic + Hexen" (for some doom-like action) and the Soul Reaver remaster play really well (and I got that one on GoG).
I have more, but those are the ones I play exclusively on my deck, now.
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Dredge.
Yes! The basic graphics and textures worked well on a small screen but the 3d and lighting was still a treat
Instead of a gaming computer, the last time I had some spare cash, I built a NAS. When I had a little again, but not enough to really build out a high end rig, I got the OLED Deck and immediately bought Factorio. I'd been binging Factorio content, recently found some channels like Dosh Doshington, DocJade, etc and knew I wanted in. For a PC game, that really wants a keyboard and mouse, it plays friggin fantastic on Deck.
More recently, because I was watching SMW romhack players a while back and Pangaea Panga just released Super Dram World 3, I've gone all in on learning Kaizo Mario games. Panga's "Kaizo Kindergarten" is a great intro, along with "2Kaizo2Learn." "Joy of Kaizo" is a beautiful dedication to Bob Ross' "Joy of Painting" where level backgrounds are recreations of paintings from actual episodes of the show. It also features difficulty options and the beginner mode is pretty noob friendly. At least for someone like me who hasn't played SMW since my SNES was hooked up in the 90s. Anyway, if you've fond memories of SMW it's almost a crime not to revisit it and its hacks, either on a Deck or any portable emulator.
This is super interesting. To me Factorio feels so clumsy when you can't access keyboard shortcuts. How did you get the controls to work well?
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Mass Effect Legendary Edition feels great on the deck and apart from the whole EAing it right up its to me much better playing on the deck than PC.
Apart from a few performance dips, Hardspace Shipbreaker is great on the deck, tried several times with keyboard and mouse but playing on the deck was much more enjoyable and I completed it for the first time last year.
But Ball X Pit, Enter the Gungeon, Balatro are probably more what you're looking for.
No Mans Sky. Plays great on the deck and flying with a controller feels better than keyboard and mouse.
Hades 2
Recently God of War Ragnarok
9bit Armies, Northgard, Spyro, Cuphead, World of Warships, The Expanse, The Last of Us 1&2
Can't imagine playing any strategy game without a mouse!
It's slow using the touch pads or touchscreen but I have The Mechanism Bag and attach a mouse to it, the bag holds the Steam Deck, mini folding keyboard, wall charger and a battery pack. For extended trips or for small parties I bring a USB monitor and extra controllers that go in a backpack.
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How's Northguard with the control scheme? I only played it on PC
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i can’t play hades (1 or 2) on anything other than the deck now. similar with dave the diver.
Absolum. I found myself doing more runs while out on my deck than at home. Totally enjoyable on both tho
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Death's Door and Hades
It wasn’t a single game, it was switching so easily between something deeply engaging like Disco Elysium, and something that made me feel like it was the grown-up grandchild of a gameboy, specifically Brotato. I have so many hours in Brotato. Send help
Wreckfest
Agree on Pentiment and Citizen Sleeper, I played them in bed before going to sleep. Another game I played the same way and loved was Heaven's Vault. If you don't have a problem with using the touchpads instead, Roadwarden is a good one too, text heavy but quite interesting IMHO.
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Nova Drift - Asteroids-like shooter roguelite.
Perfect game for steam deck.
Brotato...so much Brotato...
Wall World sucked me in
BallisticNG
Monster Hunter Rise. I used to lie in bed and play 4U for hours on 3DS, and now I'm doing it again with Rise and the Deck
Doom TDA, it's good on keyboard and mouse don't get me wrong but it's SO GOOD on steam deck
The Last Sovereign.
UFO 50
1 - I grew up with the NES & now I have nostalgia for a game system that never existed.
2 - You literally get 50 games for the price of admission, so there's sure to be something that clicks.
3 - I couldn't imagine playing with a keyboard and mouse.
4 - Seriously, fifty games!
I got hooked to the new Shinobi game demo I got when on Vacation. I freaking love the Deck.
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Kentum and Megabonk are by far my most played games on Deck and both have almost no desktop playtime for me.
Gonna have to go with the KilaFlow demo because it can actually run on my deck without being low FPS. Most other games I play work just fine on my desktop but I like the demo and wanna play it on a good FPS.
Master Key - a little zelda-like (old school zelda) which was kind of a surprise find for me but got me hooked quite a bit. Very well suited to be played on the deck 🎮
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this post was submitted on 23 Dec 2025
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Steam Hardware
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