Hidden gem smaller titles other people probably dont know about but should.


Just released today. Fun little beat em up featuring 4 Divas. Has some really fun animations in the vein of old school beat em ups with silly exaggerated expressions/reactions. Some good replay value with the 4 characters and there a few choices that lead to different stages. Plenty of unlocks like galleries, cheats, jukebox, etc. Despite the "sexual content" user tag I don't see any of that kind of sexual content.

Has a demo.
 
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turn based survival horror with great art

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This looks cool as fuck.



This is legit one of the best games ever. For those that haven't played it, it's from the creator of Cave Story and it's arguably a superior game.
 
Yes, Dark Messiah is probably known. But not known enough. It's in my top 10 favorite games of all time. And no other first-person melee game has come even close to the feel of Dark Messiah:

Re-Volt is the best non-Nintendo Mario Kart. And I argue it's even better than some proper Mario Kart games:

Battle Realms (made by Ed Del Castillo!) was one RTS gem that flew under the radar back then (probably because of the setting). But it still holds up well:

Maybe not unknown, but forgotten. Easily the second-best game Monolith Productions (RIP) have ever done. And easily better than the modern Tron movies (Legacy & Ares). And it still holds up today.
 
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What I love about Steam is that you keep discovering hidden gems. Just here in this thread, I added two more games to my wishlist. People are always quick to claim that 99% of Steam is trash. But even if that were true, that 1% would still be better than most play it safe AAA games.
 

Discovered this yeah, and it is my GOTY. Simple and addictive game that forces your management thinking. Also, it's so cute
 

Basically 2D classic Resident Evil. Very well made with a good atmosphere.


A short shoot em up that focuses on spectacle more than anything else. An excellent game to play when you are bored and want something short (~1 hour long) and action packed.


An adrenaline inducing FPS with a semi open map, the movement in this game is insane.


I don't even know how to describe this one. It's basically a Source mod on crack. An interesting experience for sure.


Added, looks fun
I made a LTTP thread a few months back about Xanadu Next, it's truly a gem of a game.

Follow the guide in there to get proper anti aliasing and anisotropic filtering, the options provided by the game do not work well.
 
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Basically 2D classic Resident Evil. Very well made with a good atmosphere.


A short shoot em up that focuses on spectacle more than anything else. An excellent game to play when you are bored and want something short (~1 hour long) and action packed.


An adrenaline inducing FPS with a semi open map, the movement in this game is insane.


I don't even know how to describe this one. It's basically a Source mod on crack. An interesting experience for sure.



I made a LTTP thread a few months back about Xanadu Next, it's truly a gem of a game.

Follow the guide in there to get proper anti aliasing and anisotropic filtering, the options provided by the game do not work well.
Astebreed is also made by Edelweiss, same developer as Ether Vapor. Their newest game is also good, but it's famous lol
 
+1 for Winterbottom. Great gem, exactly what 10 bucks or below games should be.

For the twinstick shooter fans. Easily competing with any Geometry Wars.
Second one never got finished since the single dev passed away. He made both forever free before.

Not sure if it is actually available here, it got removed from Steam many years ago since I think the dev and publisher did not continue their partnership or something. I loved this game.
 

For the love of christ more people need to play this.

Its essentially the best classic Zelda game ever created. The fact it never reaches the heights far lesser games have in the indie space pisses me off to this day.

Really its that good.
 
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My personal GOTY game of 2024. Early Access game by a solo dev doing code/art/music by himself. Imagine WoW & Warframe having a bastard child, that's the gameplay.
Game is being supported with new areas/level caps/prestige classes and loot.

A minor hit released just recently. Pretty addictive gameplay loop taking the worst mechanics from F2P games, but in a good way. Not overstaying its welcome and you'll be done in 6-10h.

Twinstick/Bullet hell metroidvania fusion. Tried it because of a recommendation in a thread similar to this and it's great.
 

Everything by THE BROTHERHOOD in fact.
This game is straight up fantastic at what it does.

This game has one of my weirdest favorite characters in gaming of the past few years. A toy bear that somehow comes off as more affecting and human as most AAAAA voice acting jobs.

If you like Point & Clicks and Horror, you have to play this imo.
 

If you've ever thought hey, I want to play King's Field with a more robust combat system...but in medieval Japan...but in Silent Hill...and it bitch slaps me around until I cry...

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Seriously, one of my favorite games of the year. It has a steep-ass learning curve but it's well worth it. Like some crazy lost PS1 classic we'd cream our oants over had it come out in 1998.
 
Let Them Come: Onslaught

Survivors/Roguelike with an incredible synthwave musical OST by Cartridge 87

Included my Steam review here. Trust me, get this game.


 
Finished it this year, loved it, it's a nice take on the series, however I wish they had used Kiseki no Umi somewhere.
They could have skipped the polarize gimmick IMO. Great game nevertheless
Classic song, an instrumental version would have been great. But being Japanese? There's probably a tricky rights situation behind it.
 
Finished it this year, loved it, it's a nice take on the series, however I wish they had used Kiseki no Umi somewhere.
Yeah, the lack of Kiseki no Umi is also my only real gripe with it.

I am usually not a big fan of Metroidvanias. But of the few that I like, I like them a lot. Of course Symphony of the Night is among those titles. Or Super Metroid. And Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth is also among those titles.
 
Atari classics, Xbox indie games, Smaller titles that looks AAA but they're not actually like gone home, What Remains of Edith Finch, Comic Jumper "a 360 game". There're titles that speaks the language of video games but not every game like that.
 
The recently released Neon Inferno run n' gun and older Dad Quest action platformer come to mind. Also, the original release (big update added a lot of bloat but original is still playable) of Steel Sword Story metroidvania.
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Microprose the topic

new simcade air fighter game


new strike game


Rainbow Six Parodius - side scroller edition
 
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Gravity Circuit- Basically Mega Man X if it had a grappling hook and X fought a bit more like a fighting game character, pretty fun
Hypnospace Outlaw- Quirky game...meaning certainly different, it's set in a what-if 90's where the internet went on a different path and you are a moderator looking at various sites and forums to report users and eventually big stuff happens in the background:
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Very story focused and with an unique look, shockingly enough, despite being a game about the internet and with a fake desktop where you click on stuff, it doesn't pull some Doki Doki BS so characters won't talk to the player nor will you have to mess with files, so if you hate that kind of stuff, don't worry, it doesn't happen here.

Kaiju Big Battel: Fighto Fantasy- Indie RPG...which i will admit isn't the best RPG ever, but a weird one that is basically based on a very indie wrestling promotion about superheroes and villains fighting for a belt, and someone was like, yeah, let's make a RPG using their characters and lore:
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So you have someone like Silver Potato being a party member and looking like a man covered in tin foil...because that's basically what the real wrestler is, just a charming fan game and it's not as if the world is full of RPG fan games of indie wrestling promotions.

Megacopter- Not a Desert Strike clone for those who remember that, basically a twin stick game where you play with a helicopter...possessed by a deity who wants blood that fights the reptoids, a race of reptile people...not a serious game but i found it fun, just, not really a Desert Strike clone

Öoo- Hidden gem from this year, a good puzzle platformer full of charm:
 
Let Them Come: Onslaught

Survivors/Roguelike with an incredible synthwave musical OST by Cartridge 87

Included my Steam review here. Trust me, get this game.



Tried the demo. If you could actually control the melee and ranged guns, this would be good. So tired of these "auto" games. Ugh, shame too as the art style is really good.
 
Tried the demo. If you could actually control the melee and ranged guns, this would be good. So tired of these "auto" games. Ugh, shame too as the art style is really good.
They are working on updates(they just released update #2 yesterday). The devs are highly active on the Steam forums and are listening for suggestions/feedback/complaints.
Wouldn't hurt to pass it along to them! https://steamcommunity.com/app/2050800/discussions/
 
It just got another update with new content, even though it's been out of early access a while now.
Edit: ops, totally missed they added VR support (as that's still beta, not pushed to the main I guess).
Not sure how that even works really, as there's no real cockpit camera in the game as it is, I dunno. Guys come on don't post every game in one reply, it kills browsers to load it all up like that, do one or two per post so that each page with 50 posts by default or whatever doesn't have 500 embeds.
 
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Side scrolling hack-n-slash. The pixel art is very nice with great animation.

No solid release date (just 2026) but it has a demo that just came out. The prologue section is unimpressive but there is also a mid-game combat slice that was a lot of fun.
 




Maybe not that hidden, but I rate all of them. Bottom three will depend if you like the niche, but I think many would enjoy the top one.
Burden of Command is a truly unique gem of a game.

It's like what if Disco Elysium but it's Band of Brothers and you're Dick Winters and also it's a tactical wargame. I found it hard to believe how dense the narrative was over the course and 20 or so missions and 40+ hours of gameplay. It never lets up and hits every possible "war" topic you could think of, along with hundreds of real photos and historical notes to give real context to everything.
 
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It's on sale again on psn. I turned my ps5 on (after 4 months gathering dust) to play it and, probably because I love books and I'm always reading one, I absolutely love it.
 


Grabbed Spongebob: Titans of the Tide and some cheap games on CDKeys the other day, among them Mercury Abbey. A Puzzle/Adventure/VN game developed by YiTi Games a Chinese indie dev.
Only two hours in and I have to recommend it. It's a master class in visual design and story telling, the finest pixel art in the business. The 1h prologue bit setup the world and the logic of it, how it's a world in the age of technological progress but also magic which is banned for some reason. I was hooked!

It's Professor Layton with furries and a lot more dialogue.

(Or you can get a key for 7 Eurodollars on CDkeys)
 
This one is a nice one. Nice and cozy metroidvania-ish. The Soundtrack is really really good too!

Also has different routes, a good one, an evil one, and a neutral one...to see the true ending you have to do all of them which leads to some crazy twists and a new boss fight.

Oh, and evil route actually has you being evil...and all have different enemies, bosses and a different final boss besides the one you get for beating all routes, if it helps, the game only has one main character...but different playable characters if that makes sense, and the evil route wildly changes how you play, you can use cheat codes(yes, this game brings that back) to change how your character will play if you don't want to do a 2nd or 3rd playthrough with the same weapons and moves.

It's really a great game.
 
I have a steam key to giveaway for this if anyone wants it.

Edit: Key given by DM to someone who requested.



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Another great collectathon platformer but you play as a taxi car. It's a zany mixture of 3D platforming and racing mechanics, but when you play it, it makes sense.
 
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Asura The Striker- Rail shooter most inspired by Space Harrier, Night Striker Gear gets more attention but this one is good too
West Of Loathing- A CRPG inspired game where everything is a stick figure:
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And comedic in fashion, i mean, the backstory of the setting is that a cow got a deal with Hell and thus cows in the wild west are now demonic cows killing every town in revenge for humans treating them as cattle, there is a faction of crazy clowns, evil necromancer and such, the dialogue also goes more for humor, but as befits a CRPG, a lot of choices to make, your stats or skills changing things and getting to roleplay, it's suprisingly fun to play, also has a sequel called Shadow Of Loathing, which seems less popular though i enjoyed it, i guess in part because while it still has a lot of comedy, it's also a lot more serious and way easier to get depressing endings.

This Way Madness Lies- Just a short RPG experience, it's a decent game that doesn't take long to beat, also, i guess i find it more memorable for it's themes...i mean, it's a JRPG inspired game where you play as magical girls inspired by stuff like Sailor Moon going to the worlds of Shakespeare plays that are invaded by monsters and messing with things...not exactly a lot of RPG's that start with you going to the world of Romeo And Juliet and where you play as Sailor Moon like characters, so bonus for being memorable.

A Solitaire Mystery- The latest game from the developer behind Baba Is You comes...Solitaire, albeit, a collection of various Solitaire inspired games, great for those who love card games and enjoy Solitaire and variations:

Primal Planet- Metroidvania with light crafting elements set in...well, a world where mankind just stopped being cavemen, only small tribes, weapons still made of stone and bones, and dinosaurs around...and tribes of evil cannibal cultists...and fucking aliens and their machines kidnapping people and dinosaurs, your job is to be a man protecting his family and go stab dinosaurs with spears and whack robots so hard they explode...also, if you want, see why aliens are doing what they are doing and kick their ass:
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Also a game you can play Co-Op, if you play solo, you always have a dinosaur partner that you can spend XP points on to make him grow stronger and faster who will always help you, but it's an AI partner...and if you play Co-Op, that dinosaur becomes the 2nd player and the two are always together, so it becomes a rare Metroidvania where...you know, two people can play from start to finish, since that is rare i think it's something worth mentioning.
 
Please put the titles of the games. I'm on a work computer and it blocks a lot of the videos. At least with the names above the blocked video I can look up the game info.
 
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