Antivirus PROTOCOL just dropped on Steam today—and nope, I don’t like it.

Picture Asteroids, except you don’t shoot. The game shoots for you. And no matter what you do, you’re going to die. The only way forward is dying over and over, farming resources, and unlocking upgrades in a giant skill tree. That’s not skill. That’s persistence disguised as design.

The devs pitch it as “an incremental game about destroying viruses.” Sure—you collect data, upgrade yourself, and eventually take down bosses. Sounds good on paper. In practice, it’s just hanging around long enough for numbers to go up.

I’ve played idlers. I enjoy them. But as a shooter? Nope. It feels like an experiment that should have stayed a web demo—because that’s exactly where it came from. Built in Godot, originally on itch, and padded out into a $5 Steam debut by FIREHIVE Games.

Presentation? Way overcooked. I love 2D sprites and CRT filters. But this is every bad stereotype of “arcade aesthetic” crammed into one screen. Flashy red virus blobs, glitch text everywhere, fake scanlines—it’s exhausting.

At least the music has some chiptune charm, and the sound effects land with decent punch.

Controls are mouse only. No keyboard. No gamepad. Just drag your little ship around until you’re sick of it. It’s as barebones as control schemes get.

Specs are featherweight—Windows 10, a 2GHz CPU, 2GB RAM, 100MB disk. It even runs fine on Linux through Proton, though part of me wishes I hadn’t tested that.

Twelve reviews in, sitting around 90% positive. But I honestly don’t know what those people are playing, because I couldn’t stand it. Maybe they’re seduced by the promise of cloud saves and endless upgrade loops. Me? I see a one-note design that mistakes repetition for depth.

Intro price is C$5.84 with a launch discount. My advice? Don’t buy it. Quarantine it.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3716650/Antivirus_PROTOCOL/

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ARC SEED, a turn-based strategy mech game, just hit full release on Steam today—and I’m torn on it.

So what is this? You’re piloting hulking mechs against the interstellar Archangels in a tactical roguelite. Battles play out on an isometric city grid, where every skyscraper and block can either save you or sink you. It’s deckbuilding meets mech combat: draw the right hand, fire missiles, unleash artillery, collapse buildings, and pray your civilians are evacuated before the entire city becomes rubble.

Building your mech is important, but you also manage cards, weapons, and upgrades, while juggling city defenses. The tension is always there: do you spend resources saving lives, or do you turn that tower block into an improvised weapon to crush an Archangel? Clever stuff, at least in theory.

Visually, tremendous at first glance. Anime portraits, gorgeous pixel cities, even some cyberpunk flair. The problem is the isometric view. Buildings get in the way. You can’t always see your units clearly, and placing mechs feels awkward. Screenshots look slick, but in practice the map is cluttered and confusing.

The music is good enough—deep, ambient electronica with a futuristic pulse. Sound effects are brisk and sharp. Nothing groundbreaking, but it fits.

Controls are where frustration sets in. Yes, keyboard and mouse works. Yes, Xbox and PlayStation controllers are supported. But troop placement—getting the exact tile right—feels clumsy. In a tactical game, that’s a big strike against it.

I don’t want to make it sound awful, because it isn’t. The card system inside a mech game? That’s genuinely fun, and it sets ARC SEED apart from other Into the Breach-style tactics games. Add in destructible environments and evacuation mechanics, and there’s meat on the bones.

Specs are mercifully modest: a Core 2 Duo or Athlon 64, 4GB of RAM, 200MB of space. Even integrated graphics will do. Windows only, but Steam Deck Verified, which also means Proton plays nice on Linux.

Developer is Massive Galaxy Studios—the same folks behind For the Warp (adequate reviews) and Lakeside (mixed reviews). ARC SEED has already picked up awards and sits at “Mostly Positive” on Steam. But players note issues: crashes, bugs, UI quirks. And I’ve already mentioned the clunky perspective and fiddly controls.

Price at launch is C$12.66. Is it worth it? If you’re a tactics junkie, you’ll probably forgive the jank and get hooked on the mech-deck combo. If not, you may bounce off the awkward interface.

For me? ARC SEED isn’t terrible. It’s just a game where your enjoyment depends entirely on how much clumsiness you can tolerate.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2332970/ARC_SEED/

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Rise of the Tomb Raider is 90% off until September 29th.

A classic game of the last trilogy. Some great action. And I really got to say that, at C$3.89, it is so worth it.

I’m not sure when we’ll see a mainline Tomb Raider ever again, so bask in this while you can.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/391220/Rise_of_the_Tomb_Raider/

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Virtua Fighter Remix (1996) for Windows 95.

You know what kills me? When the Saturn launched, I was drooling over this game.

The pack-in Virtua Fighter? Absolute trash. Even the 32X version lapped it. But SEGA salvaged their pride with Virtua Fighter Remix—the one that finally showed off what Saturn was capable of.

And yet…the Windows 95 version was even better. Practically arcade perfect. Running at 480p. On DirectX 3, no less. That’s not just impressive, it’s a flex.

Saturn still had one ace: the gamepad. But here’s the kicker—on PC, you could use an analog joystick. For a mid-90s fighting game, that’s wild.

Can’t believe I missed this port entirely. Never even saw it on shelves. And now it feels like the lost Holy Grail of ‘90s PC gaming.

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Game & Watch Multi Screen: Life Boat (1983).

Not just the precursor to the Game Boy—it also foreshadowed the Nintendo DS. That’s right: back in 1983, Nintendo was already experimenting with dual LCD screens.

The premise is simple but tense. Passengers leap from a burning ship, and you’ve got to catch them in lifeboats suspended by rope. Each boat only holds four survivors. After that, anyone else goes straight into shark country. To save them, you need to unload boats quickly and keep the flow moving.

Game A gives you two lifeboats to work with. Game B is cruel: just one lifeboat, and the pace ramps up until you’re practically sweating bullets.

It’s surprisingly solid—easily a cut above the cheap Tiger Electronics knockoffs that came later. Nintendo really were laying down the blueprint for handheld gaming.

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Whenever I bring up the pros and cons of technical formats, there’s always that one guy who sighs and says, “Why can’t we just enjoy things?”

Well, here’s the twist: I’m not stopping you from enjoying anything—I’m showing you how to enjoy it more.

An NES sings on a CRT. A Game Boy shines on an LCD. Developers weren’t designing these games in a vacuum—they tuned them for the quirks of the hardware, the glow of the screen, the way phosphors or pixels reacted. Strip that context away, and sure, the game still runs—but some of its intended texture vanishes.

I’m not here to spoil your fun. I’m here to say: if you think the magic’s gone, maybe it isn’t. Maybe it’s just lost in translation—and you’ll be floored once you see it the way it was meant to be seen.

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Lost Skies, an open world base building game, just came out of Early Access and got its full release on Steam.

Sail into a sky torn apart, where islands drift alone and storms draw hard borders between them. Ancient ruins whisper of lost knowledge, waiting for you to dig it up and make it yours.

The real prize, though, is your ship—not a pretty toy, but a machine whose weight, lift, and balance decide if you cut through windwalls or get torn to pieces by skyborne beasts. Every plank and sail is survival, not decoration.

Bring up to five friends for the ride, or strike out solo if you’d rather test your mettle. Either way, the horizon never ends, and neither do the dangers.

Graphically, this is one of the most striking survival games in years. The art style blends a painterly steampunk aesthetic with vast natural beauty. Character models are sharp and full of detail. The floating islands are alive with color, vegetation, and ruined architecture that hints at a lost civilization. Lighting is where the game shines most—sunlight breaks across clouds, glints off your ship’s sails, and shifts into dramatic tones when storms close in. It looks closer to AAA than indie, a rare feat for a survival title.

The audio design follows a different philosophy. The soundtrack is calm and measured, leaning into a casual and chill tone that encourages you to breathe in the world rather than rush through it. Sound effects are precise—your grappling hook whirs with metallic tension, ship engines rumble as they strain against the wind, and creatures emit guttural roars that echo across the sky. Despite the threats, the soundscape is oddly relaxing, a contrast that makes the exploration loop addictive.

You can play with keyboard and mouse, which feels especially tight for ship construction and grappling. Both Xbox and PlayStation controllers are fully supported if you prefer lounging back.

Progression and saves are tied neatly into Steam Cloud, making it easy to hop between setups.

Officially, this is a Windows-only title. Steam Deck is not supported, and Valve has yet to give it a verification badge. However, ProtonDB reports show a more nuanced reality. Single-player works reliably under Proton, with very few crashes or performance hiccups. The main issues crop up in multiplayer sessions, where desync and server instability can appear. For Linux users, that means you’ll have a fine experience if you stick to solo play or smaller co-op groups.

Hardware demands are on the higher side, but not unreasonable. The minimum spec asks for an Intel Core i3-10100, 6 GB of RAM, and either an NVIDIA GTX 1650 or AMD Radeon RX 590. Storage requirements are light at just 8 GB. Recommended specs go higher—16 GB RAM, stronger CPUs like an i7-10700, and GPUs in the GTX 1070 / RX 5600 XT range—but this isn’t out of reach for most modern PCs.

Bossa Studios is behind this project. They’ve released six other games, with notable ones being Deep Dungeons of Doom, a compact roguelike, and the offbeat physics platformer I Am Fish. But Lost Skies has the strongest lineage to their earlier experiment, Worlds Adrift Island Creator, a community-driven spin-off that let players design islands in the same universe. It’s fitting, then, that Lost Skies feels like a spiritual successor to that experiment, albeit in a more streamlined, co-op format.

Humble Games published this one—the same Humble that gave us the Humble Bundle—and continues their tradition of spotlighting indie projects with bigger ambitions than their budgets usually allow.

Reception has been a mixed bag so far. Steam currently shows a 69% positive rating, which falls into the “Mixed” category. Many early reviews hammered the game for performance issues, frame drops, and occasional instability in multiplayer.

More recent reviews, however, lean more positive, with players praising the shipbuilding freedom, the grappling hook mechanics, and the sheer sense of scale in the expanded 1.0 world. Still, complaints about optimization remain, especially for those running mid-tier hardware.

The introductory price is C$26.00, with a limited-time launch discount. Given the current state of performance and stability, the cautious move is to wait a little while before jumping in—unless you’re the kind of player who doesn’t mind rough edges and wants to be part of the game’s post-launch shaping.

Lost Skies already offers a foundation worth experiencing, but it’s clear this world is still finding its balance.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1931180/Lost_Skies

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Flick Shot Rogues, a turn-based roguelite that swaps grid movement for pure flick physics, just launched on Steam today.

What if Peggle and pool had a baby—and then dressed it up like a tactical RPG? That’s Flick Shot Rogues. Plan, aim, flick. Slam enemies into each other, trigger chain reactions, and ricochet your way into devastating combos. But one bad angle, one overeager shot, and you’ve just bounced yourself into doom.

Graphically, it leans into bright cartoon art with thick outlines and tropical colour palettes—greens, oranges, browns—that give every arena a playful, organic look. The camera can be shifted for comfort, and everything feels clean and readable, even when the screen erupts into chaos.

Audio is folksy and swashbuckling. The soundtrack pushes you forward with jaunty energy, while the sound effects sell every hit with a cartoony thwack or crunch. And yes, there are full custom audio sliders—none of that one-bar-for-all nonsense.

Control-wise, you can flick entirely with a mouse. Or, if you prefer, Xbox and PlayStation pads are supported. It’s fully turn-based, so there’s no reflex timer to punish you.

Native support is Windows-only, but this is Steam Deck Verified with the green checkmark. It runs smoothly on Linux via Proton. Specs are modest: Intel i3-8300 or equivalent, 8 GB RAM, integrated graphics, and 3 GB of space.

This is the debut title from Butter By The Fish, a three-person indie outfit out of Germany. Published by Noodlecake, the Canadian studio best known for pushing quirky, polished indies into the spotlight.

Reception so far? Twenty-one reviews on Steam—all positive. Early previews compared it to Peglin or Dungeon Clawler, but the verdict is that Flick Shot Rogues has its own identity: physics-driven chaos with actual tactical depth. It’s already won a few indie showcase awards, and first impressions are calling it clever, addictive, and hard to put down.

Introductory price: C$17.54 (10% off the regular C$19.49). For a physics-RPG hybrid that genuinely feels fresh, that’s a bargain.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2427450/Flick_Shot_Rogues/

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Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor—the rogue-like bullet hell auto-shooter spin-off of DRG—has just blasted out of Early Access and into full release on Steam.

You’re a lone dwarf in the caves of Hoxxes. The drill: mine minerals, kite swarms, and upgrade into a walking death machine. Guns, grenades, turrets, drill arms—gear rains down as you push deeper. And thanks to the new 1.0 loadout system, gear now drops with rarities and perks, giving every run its own weird flavor. Escort Drilldozers, crack Heartstones, or just survive long enough to crawl out rich.

It looks fantastic. Bright neon caves—deep blues, glowing purples, bug guts splattering red. Lighting pops, and you can even tilt the camera for comfort.

Sound design matches the spectacle: moody ambient music until the swarm horns blare, then chaos. Explosions have weight. Guns thump. Voice lines keep the DRG charm alive.

Controls are exactly what you’d want. Keyboard and mouse feel sharp. Xbox and PlayStation pads plug right in. DualSense works over USB. Cloud saves, Remote Play on TV—check.

Specs aren’t crazy: an i5-4590, GTX 1050, 8GB RAM, 2GB disk space. And Steam Deck? Fully Verified. That green checkmark means smooth sailing on Valve’s handheld—or Linux via Proton.

This is Funday Games’ second Steam title, and unlike their first effort, this one’s a hit. During Early Access it sold over a million copies in its first month, and now at 1.0 it sits at 88% positive across nearly 20,000 reviews. Critics call it one of the best Vampire Survivors-likes out there.

The best part? Price. C$11.89 with launch discount at release. For a game that delivers this much content—and with Ghost Ship backing it—it’s an easy recommendation.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2321470/Deep_Rock_Galactic_Survivor/

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DASH: Danger Action Speed Heroes, a 2D precision platformer, just left Early Access and finally hit full release on Steam.

This thing has been sitting on my wishlist for seven years. And boy, am I disappointed. But before tearing it apart, let’s cover what it’s supposed to be.

DASH is built around speedrunning. Hunt for shiny diamonds. Blaze through levels to prove you’re fast enough. Upload your own creations and track plays like it’s supposed to mean something. The entire pitch is “rise to the top” through running and creating.

The graphics? Acceptable, nothing more. Functional, yes. Pretty? No. The shaders try to channel retro vibes but instead look cheap and awkward. It doesn’t bring joy—it just does its job.

The soundtrack barely registers. I had to boot the game again just to confirm it existed. The sound effects lean way too hard into meme culture, and instead of adding charm, they grate. At least there are volume sliders, because you’ll want them.

Controls are where it really falls apart. Keyboard-only defaults to arrow keys for movement, and you can’t remap them. WASD is not an option. You can flip action keys from X/C to S/D, but that’s like choosing between Diet Coke and Coke Zero—neither is what you actually wanted. Gamepad support (Xbox, DualShock) exists, but it’s only partial. That sums up the whole feel of the game: half measures.

Yes, the game advertises online PvP with cross-platform multiplayer. Maybe that mode salvages it. But I don’t play for PvP, and the single-player offering here is paper-thin. The included levels don’t inspire, and the level editor can’t rescue a game when the foundation is this dull.

Compatibility? Supposedly it runs natively on both Windows and Linux. In reality, the Linux build crashed. Only when I switched to Proton Experimental did it actually work. That should not be the case.

Specs are modest—2 GHz CPU, 4 GB RAM, 350 MB space. But that’s about the only straightforward thing. Because when I launched, the splash screen still labeled it “Early Access.” This is the full release? Really?

Reception is basically a time capsule. Steam shows 15 reviews, all from 2019. Nothing since. So whatever praise is there is six years old, from when it was barely out of the gate.

The one good thing I can say: it’s free. Free to download, free to play. But even as a free game, I can’t recommend it. Not after seven years of waiting.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/898910/DASH_Danger_Action_Speed_Heroes/

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XIII (2003) for GameCube.

Funny how the stuff that becomes cult classics was once sitting in bargain bins. Case in point—I picked this one up for just $7.

What sets XIII apart isn’t just that it’s a first-person shooter, but that it’s drenched in cel-shaded, comic book styling. Panels pop on screen, “BANG!” sound effects appear as text, and the whole thing looks like a living graphic novel. The style still holds up, which is more than you can say for a lot of early 2000s shooters.

I also own the PC version, which I give the edge to—mouse aiming is just superior. Still, the GameCube release has its own distinct charm, and it’s one of those cases where the presentation makes up for the clunk.

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Today only, Press Any Button is free on Steam—you can grab it, keep it forever, and play it as long as Valve doesn’t pull the plug on Steam itself.

This is a short, story-rich 2D game dressed up with arcade bits. Think of it as a meta experiment: narrative comes first, but you’ll also need fast reflexes to make it through the segments A-Eye throws at you.

A-Eye is the star here—a lonely artificial intelligence designed to crunch scientific data. Instead of doing that, he gets bored and decides to make a video game. Trouble is, he can’t draw, can’t compose music, and doesn’t know the first thing about design. He’s basically fumbling his way through creation, and you’re his guinea pig.

Over roughly an hour of play, you’ll critique his effort, stumble through his reflex-testing minigames, and piece together a story that veers between charming and heavy. Expect talk of life, death, rain, and dandelions. Expect something personal. And because it’s free right now, expect zero buyer’s remorse.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1448030/Press_Any_Button/

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Mini Games Retro 90s just landed on Steam—a full collection of LCD handheld throwbacks straight out of the 80s and 90s.

I’ve got to say, the title might be the most generic thing possible. Not even accurate either—LCD handhelds weren’t just a 90s phenomenon, they were the handheld experience of the 80s. Still, the concept is fantastic. You’re getting 23 individual LCD mini-games right out of the gate, with more promised down the line.

For those who missed that era, here’s the deal: before Game Boy dominated the world (and even for a while after), handhelds weren’t cartridges or pixels—they were one-off devices with pre-drawn LCD frames. Backgrounds were static. Characters blinked between frames. That was the whole charm.

Sports titles ruled the racks at Radio Shack: basketball, racing, fishing. And yes, they’re here. But there’s variety too—Dragon, Ghost Buster, and other non-sports games break up the monotony.

And this isn’t just a museum of old games. It comes with a Console Factory mode that lets you design your own handhelds. Change the shell, swap colours, choose sprites, even tweak animations. You can literally design an LCD console that never existed in the 80s.

Presentation-wise, it nails the period. The LCD animations flicker exactly the way they should, and the sound is all high-pitched beeps and chirps—the tinny audio you remember from Tiger Electronics. My one knock is that the handheld shells look pretty samey. But that was also historically accurate: Tiger reused plastic moulds like nobody’s business.

Controls? Keyboard and mouse, Xbox pads, DualShock—all supported. Specs are laughably light: dual-core 1.6 GHz CPU, 2 GB RAM, 200 MB storage, and integrated graphics are more than enough. Officially Windows-only, though no one’s tested Proton compatibility yet.

It’s the debut Steam release from developer Ewerton José Wantroba, published under his Wantrobapps label. No reviews in yet, but the idea alone has my attention.

Launch price is C$6.62—with a small introductory discount.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3844720/Mini_Games_Retro_90s

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Midnight Yammy | 8-Bit Trickster Show just launched on Steam—and yes, this is the real deal. A brand-new NES homebrew, bundled with a genuine .nes ROM you can drop into your emulator of choice or even run on original NTSC hardware. None of that faux-retro Unity shader nonsense.

You play as Midnight Yammy, a phantom-thief bunny pulling off magic-stage heists. The trick? Smashing cracked blocks, slipping through ceilings, flipping red/blue platforms, and timing your escape to the treasure chest. It’s simple, but not dumb—fifty handcrafted stages that force you to think like an old-school puzzler while still moving with the reflexes of a platformer.

The presentation is right in the NES wheelhouse. Sprites are clean, bold, and unmistakably 8-bit—no, this isn’t as fancy as Mario 3, but it has that crisp 1987-ish feel that just works.

The chiptunes drill straight into your skull, and the sound effects are exactly the kind of cheerful blips and boings you’d want.

Controls are mapped to keyboard by default, but gamepads are supported out of the box—Xbox and DualShock both work fine.

On Steam it’s listed as Windows-only, but since it’s literally an NES ROM running under a wrapper, it’s Proton-friendly and practically trivial to run on Linux or Steam Deck.

Specs? Nothing. The whole thing takes 85 MB.

Developed and self-published by Kanno Develop, this is clearly a passion project—one of those “why not make a new NES game in 2025” moments.

No reviews yet, but if you’ve got a soft spot for homebrew on actual hardware, this scratches the itch.

Intro price is C$4.49 with a small discount for launch week. For the cost of a bad coffee, you get a brand-new 8-bit heist.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3807470/Midnight_Yammy__8Bit_Trickster_Show/

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Henry Halfhead, a casual sandbox adventure game, was just released on Steam. It also launched today on PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch.

This is about an odd little character with the ability to become any object within their reach. And I mean anything. A knife, a toaster, a paper airplane. Each object comes with its own set of powers, and the fun is stringing them together to stumble through Henry’s not-so-ordinary everyday life. The narrator pipes in along the way, half guide, half smart-aleck, making every small action feel like part of the story.

You can play as over 250 objects. There’s a wholesome story. And you can play with a friend with shared screen co-op mode. Want chaos? Drop in a second player. Want style? Unlock hats. Because yes—even half a head needs accessories.

Graphically, this has a 3D low-poly look with solid pastel colours. Not retro—more like cozy cartoon. Your GPU won’t even blink. This isn’t cutting-edge tech, it’s a toybox you can crawl inside.

In terms of sound, there’s whimsical, charming music with plenty of character—the full soundtrack by Lucien Guy Montandon is up on Steam as DLC for C$7.64. Add in full voice narration, plus goofy little sound effects (including Henry Halfhead’s own grunts and mutters), and it feels alive in the strangest way. Stereo? Yes. Surround? Also yes. And you can fiddle with custom sliders until it’s exactly how you like it.

You can play this with keyboard and mouse. But let’s be real—the devs clearly tuned this for Xbox and PlayStation gamepads.

In terms of quality of life, you can save any time. Saves live in the cloud. Remote Play means you can carry Henry’s nonsense onto a TV, smartphone, or tablet without hassle.

This is only natively compatible with Windows. However, it’s Steam Deck verified with the green check. That means Proton runs it on Linux perfectly—no fiddling, no community fixes, just play.

Spec requirements are low. We’re talking an Intel Core i5-2400 or better, 4GB of RAM, something on the level of a GTX 660 or Radeon RX 460, and 2GB of space. If your PC has survived the last decade, it’ll survive Henry.

Lululu Entertainment developed Henry Halfhead. You might know them from Bamerang, which critics loved. Interestingly, Henry didn’t start as a commercial project. It started as a student idea: “a superpower with a drawback.” From there it grew, picked up Swiss Game Hub support, and finally became this absurd full-blown release.

As for this game, it has great reception. 96% positive rating based on 27 reviews. It’s already won a few awards. And the early buzz isn’t just “haha funny gimmick”—people are calling it surprisingly heartfelt.

Introductory price is C$12.74, with a 25% discount from the regular USD $12.99 price. For a game where you can live life as both a banana peel and a vacuum cleaner—that’s cheap.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2058140/Henry_Halfhead/

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Into the Evernight, a turn-based tactical RPG, just arrived on Steam. It’s retro-styled and choice-driven, with branching paths and multiple endings that hinge on the decisions you make.

The story is grim: the sun died long ago, and now even the wardstones—the last sources of light—are fading. You venture into the Evernight to see if anything can be saved, or if the darkness is inevitable.

Visually, this bears the RPGMaker mark, though the tactical grid battles make it stand out. The art has a 16-bit charm, but resolution is low—go full screen on modern hardware and clarity drops. It still works, though; the style feels deliberate.

Sound carries the mood with a good soundtrack and ambient effects that keep the world alive. Controls are flexible, too—you can stick with keyboard and mouse or use an Xbox controller. Officially it’s Windows-only, but it runs fine on Linux through Proton. Specs are featherweight: 1GB of RAM is enough.

This is the debut project from developer Basoosh—and it’s been two decades in the making. A passion project chipped away at night after night, now finally complete.

And here’s the kicker: it’s completely free. Not free-to-play, not “free with DLC,” not free with ads. Just free.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1581370/Into_the_Evernight/

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Letters to Arralla just hit Steam, and it’s one of those cozy 3D RPGs that instantly makes you curious about how deep the charm goes.

At first glance, it seems like part of a growing trend in indie games: the “deliver the mail” premise. We’ve seen it before—Mail Time with its cottagecore forest vibes, and Yoku’s Island Express where the postman is also a dung beetle pinball.

But here, the post office is run by vegetables and fruits, and your avatar is a smiling turnip with an oddly emphasized derrière. Yes—your character’s got cheeks. The devs call them “big booty cutie fruits.” Maybe it’s absurd, maybe it’s fanservice for a demographic no one’s studied yet. Either way, it’s the most memorable choice of character design I’ve seen in this niche.

What sets this one apart isn’t just the art style—it’s the nosiness. On Arralla Isle, the letters you’re supposed to deliver don’t have street addresses, so you have to actually read them. Open every envelope, look at the doodles, the stickers, the handwriting, the little in-jokes, and deduce who they belong to.

In the real world, this would be a federal crime. In this world, it’s gameplay. By snooping, you uncover the residents’ tangled relationships, side arguments, and daily dramas. That grouchy artisan who keeps sending ominous notes? You’ll cross paths with him soon. That lonely islander begging for connection? Their story spills out in postage stamps and crayon scrawls. It’s half cozy sim, half detective work.

The presentation sells it. Arralla Isle is all warm tones, rolling hills, and village streets that feel both familiar and surreal. The fruit-people are expressive in that exaggerated, plush-toy way that cozy gamers gravitate toward. Nothing graphically demanding—your GPU will coast—but the animations are polished and the world’s color palette is designed for relaxation. The game leans heavily on text, but the developers accounted for accessibility: font sizes can be adjusted, dialogue is easy to parse, and you never get lost in clutter.

Audio carries the same philosophy. The music is whimsical and easygoing, the kind you could loop for hours while sipping tea. Sound effects land with satisfying pops, clunks, and thuds. Characters “talk” through nonsense chirps and mumbles, keeping the vibe playful without the burden of heavy voice acting. And you can tweak everything—stereo output, volume sliders, the works.

Controls are straightforward. Keyboard and mouse work fine, and both Xbox and DualSense gamepads are fully supported. There’s no twitchy precision required, no timed QTEs—just a leisurely pace where mistakes are low-stakes. The accessibility continues here: anyone can pick it up, regardless of skill level.

On the technical side, requirements are refreshingly modest: an i5-6200 CPU, 4 GB RAM, and an NVIDIA GeForce 940MX is all you need, with about 3 GB of space. It’s Windows-native, but I ran it on Linux through Proton without a hiccup. For a debut indie release, that’s impressive polish.

The studio behind it—Little Pink Clouds, based between Melbourne and Tasmania—developed this with support from Australian arts and screen funding bodies. They’ve leaned hard into acknowledging their roots, noting Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung and Bunurong Country in their credits. For a first release, this feels confident, assured, and surprisingly feature-complete.

Reception has been glowing. As of launch, Steam reviews sit at 100% positive, and the game’s already been highlighted at multiple festivals, praised for its accessibility features, wholesomeness, and cross-gender appeal. For a genre that often gets pigeonholed as “for kids” or “for women,” Letters to Arralla proves that good design and curiosity-driven storytelling are universally engaging. I’ve played a few hours myself, and it’s exactly what it promises: a lighthearted exploration of community through gossip disguised as mail.

At C$17.59 launch price, it’s not asking much. For a 3D RPG made by a tiny team with government backing, it’s fair—especially considering you’re buying into something that feels handcrafted rather than templated.

Cozy gamers will get their fix, nosy gamers will love it even more, and yes, there will be people who play just for the turnip ass jiggle. That’s Arralla for you.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2189310/Letters_to_Arralla/

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Roman Triumph: Survival City Builder has just marched out of Early Access and into full release on Steam.

This is very much a spiritual successor to Caesar—that 90s classic of Roman city building. You start with a patch of land, gather resources, and gradually raise a city of aqueducts, temples, farms, and villas. But unlike Caesar, survival is front and centre. You’ll need to wall off your settlements, load up archer towers, deploy ballistae and scorpios, and brace for waves of barbarians and mythological terrors like the Hydra, Minotaur, and Cerberus.

Keeping your people alive isn’t just about spears and stone walls. Food, health, and happiness all matter. Neglect them, and citizens starve or flee. Neglect the gods, and they’ll do worse—fires, plagues, or unleashing monsters into your streets. Maps are randomly generated, so each colony forces new trade-offs in city design, efficiency, and defense.

It’s a looker. The landscapes are lush, buildings feel properly Roman, and battles fill with animated detail. Colour pops across the screen. Sound design is just as strong: a folksy soundtrack that feels like it could’ve played in ancient Rome, with ambient noise—birds, workers, wind through trees—layered on top.

Controls are strictly mouse and keyboard. No gamepad support.

Windows is the only native platform, but Proton runs it well on Linux. Steam Deck is listed as Playable, though text can be small and some keyboard calls sneak through.

Specs are modest: 3rd-gen i3 or better, 8 GB RAM, 2 GB VRAM (GTX 1050 / RX 560), and 5 GB of space. The whole thing is built in Unity.

Coreffect Interactive—the Montreal studio behind Chess with Lasers—developed it, and Forklift Interactive published. This is their second title, though far more ambitious than their first.

Reception so far? Excellent. Over 500 reviews, sitting at Very Positive. Players compare it to Banished, Farthest Frontier, even Age of Empires with city-builder DNA.

And the price? Introductory launch deal is C$22.75 (normally C$32.50). For a Caesar-like that finally brings back Roman survival city building, that’s a bargain.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1864880/Roman_Triumph_Survival_City_Builder/

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Top 10 Girl Games That Shaped the Universe.

Gaming history isn’t just plumbers and space marines. Women weren’t a side quest—they were there from the start, shaping the medium whether critics wanted to admit it or not. These are the girl games that didn’t just sell copies—they rewired the culture.

1. **Pac-Man** (1980)

Arcades were hostile until Pac-Man showed up—bright, friendly, non-violent. Ms. Pac-Man took it further, becoming the real icon of the arcade era.

2. **King’s Quest** (1984)

Roberta Williams turned fairy tales into PC epics. Sierra was her kingdom, and she proved narrative games weren’t niche—they were the future.

3. **Metroid** (1986)

That ending. That helmet reveal. Samus Aran wasn’t a princess in another castle—she was the one storming it. A twist that cracked the boys’ club wide open.

4. **Phantasmagoria** (1995)

FMV horror with a woman lead. Called sleazy by critics, but for women it was raw, unsettling, and cathartic. Roberta Williams again, blowing up the genre playbook.

5. **Tamagotchi** (1996)

Plastic egg. Digital pet. Eternal guilt trip. The schoolyard became a graveyard of neglected pixels. It wasn’t about scores—it was about care, and it hooked millions of girls overnight.

6. **Barbie Fashion Designer** (1996)

The game critics sneered at while it quietly outsold them. Dress Barbie, print outfits, own the market. Proof that “girl games” weren’t a niche—they were a juggernaut.

7. **Resident Evil** (1996)

Jill Valentine and Claire Redfield weren’t screaming in the attic—they were clearing it out with shotguns. Survival horror without women wouldn’t have survived at all.

8. **The Sims** (2000)

The greatest soap opera you could actually control. Build the house, marry the crush, delete the ladder. It wasn’t just a game—it was a phenomenon, and women drove it.

9. **Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life** (2003)

Not just farming—family. You marry, raise a child, and watch them grow. So many women connected with it that Natsume released Another Wonderful Life with a female lead.

10. **Life is Strange** (2015)

Two girls, time travel, queer love, and impossible choices. The most important game of its year wasn’t about saving the world—it was about saving your best friend. Or not.

Girl games were never a detour—they were the main road. Pac-Man lured women into arcades, Barbie Fashion Designer proved they had buying power, and The Sims showed they were already shaping the culture. By the time Life is Strange hit, the message was obvious: women weren’t visitors in gaming. They were the ones keeping the lights on.

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The original Combat Mission Trilogy, a turn-based strategy game, was just re-released on PC via Steam—and wargaming history has just been unearthed.

Back in 2000, Big Time Software (later Battlefront) launched Combat Mission: Beyond Overlord. It was unlike anything else at the time. Instead of cardboard counters and hex maps, you got a fully 3D battlefield and WEGO turns: both sides issue orders, then a one-minute replay unfolds in real time. It was janky, cinematic, and mesmerizing. Reviewers called it revolutionary, and they weren’t wrong.

The sequels arrived quickly. Combat Mission 2: Barbarossa to Berlin (2002) dragged the system east, where Soviet swarms clashed with German armor in brutal mud and snow. It expanded everything—hundreds of vehicles, a staggering variety of infantry, and endless historical battles. Then Combat Mission 3: Afrika Korps (2003) shifted to the Mediterranean, with desert warfare in North Africa and grueling campaigns in Italy. By then, the CMx1 engine was straining under its own weight, but each game felt like a different slice of WWII. Together, they were a trilogy that combined obsessive detail with unpredictability. Units panicked, tanks bogged down, shells ricocheted in improbable ways. Every replay was a little war story.

And quirks—oh, they had quirks. Tanks crab-walked across slopes. Infantry looped animations until they looked like clones. Explosions puffed politely instead of roaring. Yet that awkwardness added charm. You forgave the creaky graphics because the battles felt alive. No two scenarios ever played the same, and the chaos kept you hooked.

Now in 2025, they’re back via SNEG, sold separately or in a bundle called the “Classic Collection.” The premise remains the same: small-unit tactical combat across the big theaters of WWII. Graphically, nothing’s been touched. Expect blocky models, stiff animations, and maps that look like green rugs. Still, a Canadian Red Ensign waving above Shermans triggers nostalgia in a way modern engines can’t fake.

Sound hasn’t aged gracefully. Rifles crack thinly, tanks hum like cheap appliances, and artillery feels more like a pop than a shockwave. It’s functional, not immersive. Controls are unchanged: mouse-and-keyboard only. No controller support. With the exception of Steam Cloud, no modern QoL updates—just the same old interface you fought with twenty years ago.

Platform support is the big news. Officially these run on Windows 10/11, with Steam Cloud and digital manuals included. Specs are almost nonexistent—if your PC can boot, it can run these games. But what about Linux? Proton compatibility isn’t officially mentioned on the Steam pages, but testing shows they run fine. They’re lightweight DirectX 9 titles with no DRM, so Proton handles them without much fuss. You’ll likely need to tweak resolution settings or disable fullscreen shenanigans, but once you’re in, the trilogy is fully playable on Linux. Steam Deck included.

Reviews are already split. Veterans are thrilled to have the classics preserved in a convenient package. Newcomers recoil at the dated visuals and clunky UI. Both perspectives are fair. Price is modest—each game is affordable on its own, and the bundle undercuts a single modern AAA release.

I played the originals when they were new, sitting in front of a humming CRT. Beyond Overlord was my first taste of tactical chaos. Watching replays felt like watching a war film unfold in miniature. Barbarossa to Berlin became my favorite—the Eastern Front was tailor-made for the WEGO system. Afrika Korps was the odd one, with open desert maps that sometimes felt empty, but the Italy campaigns delivered misery in spades. Uphill assaults, fog, machine guns waiting behind every hedge—it was brutal, and unforgettable.

What stuck with me wasn’t polish, but unpredictability. You’d plan every detail, only for one panicked squad to unravel the whole attack. Or you’d watch a tank bounce three shells before firing back with a kill shot straight out of Hollywood. It was frustrating. It was exhilarating. It was war, but digitized through a very specific early-2000s lens.

So here we are again—blocky, stiff, unapologetic. They don’t look modern. They don’t sound modern. But they’re alive in a way many modern strategy games aren’t. And thanks to Steam (and Proton), they’re finally accessible again. Rough edges and all, the Combat Mission Trilogy still hits harder than it has any right to, twenty-five years later.

The price for each individual game is about C$7.01 (introductory discount, -10%). The bundle of all three (the “Classic Collection”) is around C$16.83.

Considering the content—three full games, scenario editors, lots of replayability—it’s well worth it if you’ve ever been curious. If you already own one or two, the individual price is fine. And if you want the whole trilogy, the bundle is a good deal.

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/58546/Combat_Mission_Classic_Collection/

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Mission X (1983, Intellivision)—a licensed port of Data East’s arcade Mission-X published by Mattel Electronics.

On paper it’s simple: a vertical shooter where you strafe ships, tanks, and runways with bullets and bombs. Under the hood it’s very Intellivision—disc to steer and change altitude, lower side button for guns, upper for bombs. The altitude model is the hook. Press the bottom of the disc to climb and the top to descend—counterintuitive at first, but once it clicks you start threading bridges, skimming runways, and dumping bombs with real precision. Ground targets won’t fire until you provoke them, which makes early runs feel oddly calm...until you pick a fight.

Production-wise this wasn’t a Data East internal job. Mattel handled the port, with programmer John Tomlinson sneaking his credit into the ROM—hold 6 on the right controller and 9 on the left, then hit RESET to flash “Programmed by John Tomlinson” on the title screen. Classic Blue Sky Rangers energy. It shipped in ’83 with the usual overlays and manual, touting a day-to-night mission flow and that “altitude matters” gameplay most console shooters skipped.

Graphics show off Intellivision’s strengths—colourful terrain, crisp targets, readable explosions—and yes, it looks better than River Raid on 2600. There’s no music—just chunky effects—but the night sorties with tracer-style flak give it a mood the hardware rarely pulled off.

Scoring is its own oddity—extra planes at escalating thresholds, runway-skimming bonuses, even point penalties for bombing the strip from high altitude. It’s generous, almost arcade-mythic, and it keeps you chasing “one more pass.” Reception was middling at the time and retrospective takes still call it competent more than classic, but its quirks—inverted climb/descend, passive-until-provoked enemies, the hidden credit—give Mission X a personality all its own.

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Red Thread just left Early Access and hit full release today on Steam. This one’s a narrative strategy card game with rogue-lite elements, published by Rosae Ex Ludis and developed by Alchemist Bunny Boutique—their first Steam release.

At its core, the game turns your social circle into a deck of cards. Every card is a person you meet: some supportive, some unreliable, some outright obstacles. Their strengths and flaws shape your path as you chase life goals. You’re not just collecting allies—you’re managing an entire network. Nurture the right bonds, cut off the wrong ones, and make choices that can either push you toward success or drag you into failure.

The presentation has a whimsical, almost fairy-tale feel. Hand-drawn characters and backdrops pop with colour, like paper cutouts brought to life. It’s charming and detailed without being demanding on hardware.

Audio leans into warm, SNES-era vibes—catchy, light, and memorable. Full English voiceover is here, but everything’s subtitled if you’d rather play muted.

This is a keyboard-and-mouse-only experience—no controller support.

Windows is the only native platform, with no official word yet on Linux via Proton. Specs are minimal: a 2 GHz CPU, 4 GB RAM, 512 MB VRAM, and half a gig of space. In other words, almost any machine can run it.

Early reviews haven’t come in yet—other than a thumbs-up from the game’s own composer, naturally. But the launch price is friendly: C$11.04 with a 15% discount off the $9.99 USD tag.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2993370/Red_Thread/

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Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (2008) for the Nintendo Wii.

This was LucasArts in its final prime—before Disney turned Star Wars into an IP-for-rent. On Wii, it wasn’t about fancy physics engines or HD graphics. It was about grabbing a Wiimote, swinging it like a saber, and blasting stormtroopers across the room with Force push. Plus, the Wii got its own Duel Mode, making it the only version where you could settle Jedi grudges right on the couch.

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House of the Dead Remake on PC, running through my Legion Go and docked to the TV.

It’ll never touch the original—no light gun support kills that arcade magic. Still, it plays fine with a mouse or even an Xbox controller. I had fun, but I can’t help missing the days of pointing a plastic gun at the screen.

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