Welcome to this week’s Steam Deck Weekly. If you missed yesterday’s lengthy interview with New Blood Interactive’s Dave Oshry, read it here . Beyond that, there’s been a steady stream of news about new game announcements, trailers, release dates, and more from Valve’s Steam Deck verified and playable since Friday. I didn’t have enough time to review anything this week, but I played two notable games on the Steam Deck. Before announcing the news, let’s first take a look at the gaming experience on Steam Deck.
Steam Deck Game Reviews and Impressions
“Missile Dancer 2” Steam Deck Impressions
Missile Dancer 2 is a new sprite scaling game from the wonderful Terarin Games. If you’re not familiar with the indie developer, Shaun has reviewed a ton of their games on Switch, many of which are also coming to Steam, and I’ve been buying every version. I’m a huge fan but curious as to how the developers will handle this style of shmups. It turned out very well. Missile Dancer 2 feels like a fusion of Terarin’s signature charm with After Burner’s locking system, great music, and lovely visuals. Missile Dancer 2 runs flawlessly on the Steam Deck since I started playing it yesterday (although it’s capped at 60fps). Stay tuned for Sean’s full review of the Switch game. I definitely recommend trying this demo.
Pepper grinder steam deck impression
I’ve been wanting to play Pepper Grinder since Devolver Digital released it, but the soundtrack composed by Xeecee ensures it will be something special. I love Xeecee’s work and music recommendations. Before we get to the point, Pepper Grinder is a great and smooth entry-level 2D action platformer about drilling and diving.
Sean is doing a full review on this, and I’ve been playing around with another feature of the pepper grinder, but it’s so good I had to talk about it here. Aside from some click-stop and text effects on the screen (which both give me a bit of motion sickness on both Switch and Steam Deck), Pepper Grinder feels perfect. It even runs at 90fps, albeit in 16:9, and has Steam cloud support. While I’d love to see how developers use the DualSense feature on PS5, right now Pepper Grinder is basically perfect on the Steam Deck. You definitely need to try the demo.
Holo X breaks the impression of Steam platform
Holo X Break, from the developers of the wonderful Holocure, is a free Hololive fan game. It’s a fighting game with pixel art visuals, featuring some of my favorite Vtubers like Polka and Botan. It currently has local co-op support, but online co-op support will be added in a future update. It’s worth noting that Holo X Break currently supports Steam Remote Play Together, which is always a good option until official online play is added.
Holo X Break was released a few hours ago (as of this writing), but I had no issues playing it on the Steam Deck OLED at 90 fps. I’ve been focusing on playing Polka right now, but I’ll probably play more with it over the next few days while trying out other characters. I appreciate that the developers let you choose your own button prompts while playing the game. There is also an entomophobia option. If you like Hololive, download it for free now.
News and trailers
Last week saw the release of some interesting fighting games, the FFXIV expansion, and more. We also had Square Enix announce and release a surprise update for the amazing Star Ocean 2 remaster, as well as more DLC announced for other games. Arc System Works released ABA in Guilty Gear Strive last week as the newest character for Season 3, with the next DLC set to launch in May. Season 4 is also in development. Dizziness better come in. Watch the ABA trailer below:
Square Enix has announced that Final Fantasy XIV: Road to Dawn will launch on PC, PS5, PS4, and Xbox Series X globally on July 2. Pre-orders are now open, with early access starting on June 28th. Pre-order bonuses include the Clockwork Zidane minion and Azema’s earrings (30% EXP boost until level 90). All platforms are available for pre-order here. Square Enix also confirmed that the FFXIV and FFXVI crossover will begin next week. Watch the trailer below:
XSEED games and mages. It was announced that Zombie Party II: A Dark Twist will be released in North America on Steam, Switch, and PS4. It’s a brand new game in the series, which has spawned numerous games via spin-offs since the stunning original debuted. It feels like I’ve been waiting for this for 10 years. Watch the trailer below:
Following its previous release on Nintendo Switch and other PC storefronts, the free-to-play comfort simulation game Palia is now available on Steam. I have this on Switch and will be checking it out on Steam Deck soon.
Square Enix has announced and released a surprise update for Star Ocean II Story R, bringing a new difficulty mode, post-game raid enemies, new weapons, and more. As I said in my previous Switch review, this remaster is incredible and I will be trying out the update on Switch and Steam Deck this weekend. Watch the trailer to see all the changes and new content below:
Koei Tecmo has announced that the second DLC for Fate/Samurai Remnant, “Fragments of Records—Sword Chronicles,” will be released on April 18. No further information is available. I enjoyed the first DLC, but I still need to finish it.
Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising will receive version 1.30 update on April 2 along with the next DLC character Vane. Balance adjustments and patch notes will be released a day early. Watch the gameplay trailer for Vane in GBVS Rising:
Capcom has released the first update for Dragon’s Dogma 2, which includes a 30fps cap on PS5, motion blur options, the ability to start a new game on Steam and PS5, DLSS improvements, and more. Check out the patch notes here. Don’t hesitate to try it on Steam Deck. It’s far from playable.
The final note of news this week is that Bandai Namco Entertainment revealed that Eddy Gordo will be joining Tekken 8 on April 5 with a new update. Early access will begin on April 1 for first-year pass holders. The downside to this announcement is that a battle pass system is being added to the game with premium options. Check out the full patch notes here.
New games verified and playable on Steam Deck this week
- Backpack Combat – Playable
- Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons Remake – Not Supported
- Command & Conquer Generals Zero Hour – Playable
- Command & Conquer: Renegade – Playable
- Contra: Operation Galuga – Verified
- DJMAX RESPECT V – Not supported
- Dragon’s Dogma 2 – Not supported
- Dungeon Keeper 2 – Playable
- Dungeon Keeper Gold Edition – Playable
- Krimson – Verified
- Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story – Playable
- Out of the Park Baseball 25 – Unsupported
- Paglia – Playable
- Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri Planet Pack – Playable
- SimCity 3000 Unlimited – Not supported
- Kill the Princess – Verified
- Star Trek Legends – Playable
- Alto Series – Proven
- The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky – Playable
- Destroyer – Playable
- YOHANE THE PARHELION BLAZE in the DEEPBLUE – Playable
Steam Deck game sales and discounts
Steam Deck Builders Fest runs until April 1st. Using this feature won’t save you 10% off on Balatro, as you should buy it at full price, but you can buy that game or many other discounted games, such as Gloomhaven or Peglin.
That’s all for this week’s Steam Deck Weekly. I hope to have some reviews for iOS, Switch and Steam Deck and features next week. As always, you can read all of our past and future Steam Deck coverage here. If you have any feedback on this feature or what you’d like us to do on the Steam Deck, please let us know in the comments below. I hope you all have a great day and thank you for reading.