Ah, there's nothing better than getting comfortable on the couch with a cat on my lap, a nice drink to the side, and a cozy game to play... I'll be honest, even though I have an amazing PC setup, I kind of hate playing "cozy games" on it. Because, well, sitting at my computer just isn't cozy! It's where I get work done, you know? For this reason, the Switch was my main gaming platform of choice when not making content... but with the acquisition of a Steam Deck last winter, it quickly replaced the Switch as my go-to. I also praise it constantly as someone with chronic pain who sometimes spends days at a time stuck in bed with a flare-up. Definitely a worthwhile investment if you find yourself in similar situations. But, unfortunately, not all cozy games play well on the Deck. So, I thought I'd give a quick run-down of some of my favorite games to play on the Deck... and a few that were sadly a disappointment (mostly because of controls).
The Great Deck Games
Go-Go Town!
Prideful Sloth's newest game, Go-Go Town!, was just released in Early
Access a couple weeks ago (June 2024) and has been developed with Steam Deck compatibility in
mind throughout its development cycle, so it plays flawlessly on it. Go-Go Town! is a combination of town building, decorating, and tycoon games, and has plenty to keep you addicted even in early access. Build up an abandoned town into a bustling tourist destination with plenty of shops and interactive items to keep visitors entertained and spending money. Manage a shop yourself with a crafting mini-game, overstock your farm to export for priceless tickets, or just explore every nook and cranny for the many hidden secrets! There's already so much to do, and MANY more plans that the devs want to add in!
Grow: Song of the Evertree and Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles
Grow: Song of the Evertree
Okay, maybe one day I'll stop making lists with Prideful Sloth games at the top of them... but honestly, I just love them so much! Both Grow: Song of the Evertree and Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles were made with controller in mind just as much as keyboard controls, and it shows. As an added bonus, as a handheld medium, Grow runs so much better on the Deck than the Switch. (I talked about that here in Grow's review, if you're interested.) I've also reviewed Yonder at length, so I'm going to keep this brief, but suffice to say that they both run and play beautifully on the Steam Deck.
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| Yonder: the Cloud Catcher Chronicles |
A Little to the Left
Oh my gosh, I love A Little to the Left so much. A relaxing zen puzzle game, satisfy your brain with organizing everyday items into tidy drawers, cabinets, and patterns. The puzzles range from easy to challenging, but the controls themselves never are. If you finish the base game and are craving more, the "Cupboards & Drawers" DLC is just as good and extensive, and the "Seeing Stars" DLC just recently released. I enjoyed both and they were so pleasing to my brain. I hope we continue to get more DLC, but in the meantime, there are "daily tidies" and they've also released a few holiday themed events. (As a note, I've actually exclusively played this on my Deck, so I'm not sure how the keyboard controls stack up!)
Unpacking
I'd heard Unpacking was great, but didn't really understand until I played it myself. Unpack an unseen character's life as she moves from childhood bedroom, to college, to first apartment, and more. Learn about her life as she moves through different stages and experience a sweet story told through items, not dialogue. It plays beautifully on the Steam Deck, honestly like it was developed with that in mind. PC play is also great, both are a smooth experience. Definitely recommended on either one.
Stardew Valley
Okay, we all know I love Stardew Valley... Let's not look at how many hours I have between Steam and Switch! But for me, I didn't play much of PC Stardew until I got my Steam Deck... and let me tell you. Not only is handheld Stardew amazing (as I already knew from hundreds and hundreds of hours on my Switch), but it is super easy to mod Stardew on the deck! I have over 150 mods in my Stardew game and, aside from a long initial load time (which is just as long on PC due to the amount of mods), it plays wonderfully even with that many installed. Also, I just love the controller setup for Stardew -- one of the reasons I played it on Switch so much before the deck.
Dordogne
Dordogne is a fairly new game that I think has slipped under a lot of people's radar. After the main character's grandmother passes away, she goes to the house to pack it up, explore, and hopefully recover some missing memories of a summer spent here when she was young. It is such a cute game, with plenty of collectibles in each chapter (but not so many to make it overwhelming or nearly unattainable). It also featured tactile controls for a lot of things, like a sequence of making tea or getting ready for the day, that I particularly enjoyed on the Steam Deck. I'm all about the tactile controls when I play on my deck!
A Short Hike
I was very late to the party in terms of actually playing A Short Hike (even though I've had it for years!), but it's a super cute, short (as the name implies) game. You just hike up a mountain! And not a super intense one that has blizzards and avalanches. Just a pleasant hike along a trail up to the summit, talking to people and exploring as you go. It's the perfect game to play cozy on the couch when you need a break. The average playtime of A Short Hike is about an hour and a half; I didn't rush through but also didn't look for everything and beat it in about 80 minutes.
Smushi Come Home
Who wouldn't want to be an adorable mushroom in a calm platformer trying to find your way home? Smushi Come Home delivered on its premise: I had such a relaxing time exploring the different levels and finding things at my own pace. There are lots of characters to talk to and help out, and I enjoyed finding all the collectibles (tracking all the different mushroom types you encounter was a cute touch!). It's a short game, I completed it in about four hours and we all know that I'm not a fast player, but well worth it for the enjoyment. It's cute, casual, and very wholesome. And honestly, I played a little on desktop as well, and I much prefer the Steam Deck/controller controls.
Flutter Away
Another short game, Flutter Away was my first foray into photography games (I have a few others in my backlog). Your character is on a camping trip, just interested in photographing the local flora and fauna. That's all! Help a friendly capybara, discover unique conditions for different creatures, and enjoy the peaceful atmosphere as you record everything in your journal. It's the perfect game for a rainy afternoon. I completed it in about 2.5 hours, and getting all achievements would add a little more time to that.
Coral Island
Okay, honestly I thought I was burned out on farming sims, but Coral Island has reignited my love for them. It's still in Early Access, so there's more to come, but completing the story up to its current part took me 140 hours (!) so there's definitely plenty to do at this stage. I was wary at first because the first few days look exactly like a Stardew Valley clone, and I'm tired of farming games that add nothing new to the genre... but after a few in-game days, it definitely opens up and becomes its own thing. While the Stardew inspiration is clearly there, my favorite parts were all the new things, especially diving in the deep ocean. And it was the perfect Steam Deck game while I was stuck in bed for a few days with a back injury. (I will note that there are a couple nitpicky things about playing with a controller compared to keyboard and mouse on the PC, but it's mostly trying to pick up eggs while chickens are right next to them and similar stuff.)
Assemble With Care
After playing Unpacking and A Little to the Left, I was on the hunt for more zen puzzle games and came across Assemble With Care. It's different from the first two in that it's definitely more narrative heavy, but the tactile controls are so satisfying on the Steam Deck! In this game, your character helps the residents of a little village fix various broken items... and their relationships. Use the controls to unscrew, connect, and piece together different parts of cameras, espresso machines, and more. This was another short game (2.3 hours with all achievements) but such a sweet story and perfect on the deck.
Monument Valley
Monument Valley is another zen puzzle game that I lost hours to. There isn't much of a story, just 3D Escher-esque puzzles to navigate a character from one door to another through a palace. It's simple but very engaging, and the deck's touch screen is perfect for the way the puzzles are designed. (I believe it was originally a mobile game, so this makes sense.) Note: there are actually two games, 1 & 2, in the Monument Valley series; although I've only played the first one (I have the second but haven't explored it yet), I have no reason to believe that the second doesn't play well on the deck as well.
Wylde Flowers
How to explain Wylde Flowers... It's mostly marketed as a farming sim, but I don't think that does it justice at all. Play as Haley, a new witch learning from her grandmother as she navigates a small town witch hunt (literally). Farming (or gardening rather) is a part, but a very small part, of it, and the story is much more narrative focused than your usual farm sim. So if you enjoy farming in games but are burned out on farm sims in large, try this one! I switched back and forth between my PC and Steam Deck (as I was streaming it too) and it was flawless to switch between the two.
The "eh" Games
I wanted to mention a few that I played and didn't particularly enjoy on the Steam Deck for whatever reason, but are still good games. I think a list like this is a good place to point out ways that a game may be "Steam Deck verified" but still not in a way that will work for everyone. So, although I enjoyed these games, I wanted to highlight exactly why I didn't enjoy them on the deck specifically.
House Flipper
I really like House Flipper in general, but I was disappointed with playing it on the Steam Deck, despite it being verified. I found that it drained the battery really quickly, so I could only get about 45 minutes of playtime before I had a dead battery, and the controls were really awkward with some things. So, unfortunately, it was my lesson in "not everything verified is good on the deck." I do recommend the game in general, but... not on the Steam Deck. (Note: this is for the first game. I haven't gotten House Flipper 2 yet, so I'd love to know if things are better for that one!)
Lake
Lake gets two dings from me for the Steam Deck: I found the controls to be awful, they just ruined the experience for me. And then, when I switched to my computer thinking maybe the keyboard controls would make it a better experience for me... I was frustrated to see that it didn't support cloud saves, so I had to redo the whole first day! Honestly, not having cloud saves enabled is generally an automatic ding for me if I notice it, since I often play on three different devices (desktop, laptop, and Steam Deck). As it stands, I found these two points so frustrating that I haven't gone back and progressed past the first day again, which is a shame because I feel the premise of the game is up my alley.
Sticky Business
I really enjoy Sticky Business, although it took me a while to "get it". The gameplay loop is, if possible, too easy at the beginning, so I actually got bored. But once I really understood its potential, I got into the game and really enjoyed making cute stickers, and I'm so excited to dive into the "Plan With Me" DLC. However, Sticky Business initially ended up on the "meh" list for three reasons. The first reason was that it didn't support cloud saves at launch when I first started writing this post (...yeah, that was a while ago), but they've since enabled it, so yay! I'm also not a huge fan of the controls on the Steam Deck and struggled with them quite a bit, so that's why it remains an "eh" (but more positive than the others) for Steam Deck specifically. I do think I'd probably adjust to the controls if I played it more on my deck, but honestly I just gave up and moved to only playing it on my desktop. And the third reason is purely personal preference: as you make stickers, you can save them to your computer to use yourself, but as anyone with a Steam Deck knows, accessing those files on there and then getting them anywhere else to be usable is a huge annoyance. So I love that the game has that feature, but hate trying to access it on the deck. But maybe these aren't as big annoyances to you! I think the game is great overall and a wonderful time killer on desktop at the very least.
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