I played a lot of games on my Steam Deck this year. It seemed like there was a never-ending list of incredible indie games to try — The Verge wrote about a lot of them! — and many worked brilliantly on Valve’s handheld gaming PC. Some bigger games made a splash on Steam Deck, too, and while they may not look as good as on a beefy PC, I’m usually happy to deal with that simply because I can play them on the couch or out of the house.
If you’re unwrapping a Steam Deck for the holidays this year, or have some Steam gift cards burning a hole in your pocket, here are some of my recommendations of games released in 2025 that you might want to check out. (And if you want more ideas, check out my favorites from 2024.)
Image: Devolver Digital
Ball x Pit
Ball x Pit blends elements from games like Breakout, Vampire Survivors, and city builders into a delightful, genre-blending roguelike. In the main part of the game, you shoot balls toward an ever-advancing group of enemies, and after picking up a bunch of gems and upgrades, you’ll eventually turn into a force of nature with balls flying all over the screen. After a run, you can build up a base to improve your stats and unlock characters — some of which are quite clever, like one that turns Ball x Pit into a turn-based game. And with runs usually taking less than 15 minutes or so, it’s a great game to pick up and play on your Steam Deck.
Image: Kepler Interactive
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Sandfall Interactive’s debut RPG floored me earlier this year; it’s an outstanding package with exhilarating turn-based battles, a great parrying system, memorable characters, a gripping story, and music that I still come back to even though I finished the game months ago. On Steam Deck, the game doesn’t look quite as good as it does on my PS5, but it’s still playable and was recently verified for Valve’s handheld PC. Folks on ProtonDB also have some suggestions to tweak settings to make the visuals better. If Steam Deck is your only platform that can play the game, it’s still a decent place to experience The Game Awards’ Game of the Year.
Image: Supergiant Games
Hades II
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