games

Notable Sale Games Under $3

1000 Amps ($2.49)
Artsy puzzle-platformer from a few months ago which seems to have slipped through the cracks, but could make a fine end-of-sale purcahse. Hopefuly someone can trip report it, because it's fairly new, and has some positive reviews.

And Yet It Moves ($2.49)
A long-standing contender for the “Worst Game On Steam” award. Only mentioning this so that you do not inflict this game upon anyone.

Audiosurf ($2.49)
I'll let someone else describe this if they want, because I absolutely loathe it. I am aware, however, that I am apparantly wrong, and for less than $3, it is a fantastic purchase. It's a driving game / audo visualizer that plays music from your hard drive, while generating a track from the waveform data in real-time.

Bad Rats ($1.49)
This is it. Recently described by Jerusalem as “much worse than anyone could possibly make it sound”. Buy this for your loved ones.

___Binding Of Isaac ($2.49)
A modern remake of Smash TV, by one of the guys behind Super Meat Boy. The puerile aesthetics might be kind of off-putting, but looking past that, it's a masterclass of game design, and the closest any “arcade-style” game has come to reproducing the thrill and tension of the era. You only have one life and every credit is genuinly unique. Please note that you should beat the game before installing the expansion pack. This game comes with the highest possible Goon reccomendations.

Blackwell Legacy ($2.49)
A very recent and highly acclaimed pointy-clicky game about a woman and her imaginary ghost friend. It tows the line nicely between whimsical and serious, with some great dialogue between the two main characters. All 3 sequals are also on sale for the same price.

Blocks That Matter ($2.49)
It's one of those puzzle platformers that indie developers love so much, but without any of the fancy artsy crap, and an approachable gimmick. It actually looks really pleasant, and comes with high reccomendations.

Broken Sword ($1.25)
A pointy-clicky adventure game in the European (read : non-whimsical) style. Was fairly well received back in the day, despite being a playstation game controller with a D-Pad. This is a full PC remake from 2010, and clocks in at about 15 hours of gameplay. All of the sequals are on sale at the same price.

Bunch Of Heroes ($1.69)
Terrible RTS. Only listed here so that nobody accidently buys it.

Cthulhu Saves The World ($1.49)
An immaculate tribute / parody to 16-bit Squaresoft games. It comes with a smaller prequel that uses the same engine, and between them they're over 15 hours long, and come with the highest possible goon reccomendation.

Commandos ($1.24)
A trio of brutally challenging puzzle games that revolve around meticulous planning, patience and timing. Very rewarding, and probably the best time for money ratio of anything in the sale. The average time to complete Commandos 2 is longer than Skyrim.

Critical Mass ($1.24)
One of those “Match 3 of the same thing” iPhone games, in a 3D space (think Fez). It's been in indie bundles before, so the leaderboards are very active, and it has a stupidly-high Metacritic score for a dollar game. Guaranteed to be more addictive than $1.25 worth of cocain.

Diner Date ($1.49)
Terrible “artsy” game based on a Simpsons sketch, where Martin plays the least-exciting videogame imaginable.

Ducati World Championship ($1.99)
A racing game from the makers of Bad Rats. It has a 35 Metacritic score, but I can't possibly imagine why!

Eversion ($2.49)
A mario clone with a surprising twist. It's worth the price of a burger to find out what the twist is. It was cheaper in the last sale, but this is the one game on this list I guarantee you will play all the way through.

Faerie Solitaire ($2.00)
Discover the magic of Faerie Buttz! A very nice implementation of Solitaire which is perfect for running in the background as you read the forums, use Steam to chat to friends, or hit F5 repeatedly, waiting for the Daily Deals to referesh.

Geometry Wars $2.99
Before you thrown $3 at your screen, consider that this has no leaderboards, and the sale price is only a buck lower than normal. There are better shooters to throw your money at.

Grid Runner ($2.49)
It's a Jeff Minter game. If you've never played a Jeff Minter game, then imagine playing an early 80s arcade game, while tripping on LSD at the world's greatest rave.

Grotesque Tactics ($2.49)
Looks like an SRPG, but is infact a terrible and offensive piece of junk. Do not buy it, do not gift it for comedy value. I'm not even going to link to it.

Hitogata Happa ($1.99)
Fantastic arcade-style vertical shooting game (Think Ikaruga, and look past the fact that you're playing as a flying schoolgirl). I believe goons were involved in the localisation, but don't bother to check whether I'm lying : Just buy it. The publisher's other Japanese shooting games are also on sale for the same price.

Horrid Henry ($1.50)
Terrible platform game in the mould of terrible SNES platform games. The closest Steam has ever come to a true Kusoge game.

___Indiana Jones And The Fate Of Atlantis ($2.99)
There are lots of pointy-clicky games on this list, but this is the one everybody should play. It's an original story set after The Last Crusade, and captures the spirit of the movies perfectly. The Steam version is an enhanced re-make, and includes full voice acting, which is a little jarring for a while, because the voices are so different to those of the original actors. Highly reccomended.

Legend Of Fae ($2.49)
Artsy Indie Game based on Panel De Pon (Tetris Attack / Pokemon Puzzle League). It's a visual novel which unravels in realtime, as you play the puzzle game. It takes liberties with the Panel De Pon formula, and it's controlled with the mouse, which is a bit strange at first. It's very cool, and fairly easy to get absorbed in.

Lucid ($2.49)
A match-4 puzzle game that seems to be on sale every other week. It's a good buy at this price, but it'll show up cheaper within a month of the sale ending.

Misadventures Of PB Winterbottom ($2.49)
Artsy Indie Puzzle Platformer #213. Tehsid says "It's sorta like Braid", which may or may not be a glowing reccomendation.

Nation Red ($2.49)
Very nice twin-stick zombie shooter, with an online co-op mode, and a surprisinly active community. Even more surprisingly, it's still getting updates, 3 years after it's release.

Oddworld : Abe's Odyssee ($1.24)
I'm not sure if “European Platform-Puzzler” is a genre, but this is a “European Platform-Puzzler”. Think Prince Of Persia, Out Of This World and Flashback. The Sequel is the same price.

Phantasy Star IV ($1.79)
A 40-hour JRPG epic, which has long been considered by many to be one of the quintessential games you must play before you die.

Poker Night At The Inventory ($2.99)
A poker game featuring completely random videogame characters! The selling point is free hats (literally) and the dialogue between the characters. It's a nice time waster, but not a great game of Poker.

Puzzle Agent ($2.99)
This is Professor Leyton, made by Telltale Games. There's not much else to say. It's very good!

Puzzle Dimension ($1.49)
Utterly disorientating puzzle game that fucks with your brain in the same way Mario Galaxy did. It has a very high Metacritic score and a demo.

Puzzler World ($1.25)
A nice collection of traditional brain-teasers, in a wonderful package. Imagine Professor Leyton without any of the storyline in-between the puzzle goodness. Great to play in the background while surfing the forum or chatting on Steam. Very highly recommended.

Satazius ($2.99)
Japanese horizontal shoot-em up, in the mould of Gradius. It's an indie game in Japan, and published on Steam by Capcom, which is a huge deal. For $3 you get a great shoot-em-up, and probably help the chance of Steam getting more Japanese indie titles in some small way.

Secret Of The Magic Crystals ($1.25)
Bizarre simulation game where you breed Magical Lightning Horses, enslave them, and make them pulls ploughs. Is more repetitive than actually looking after a horse, which is pretty fucking repetitive. My horse cost a lot more than $1.25 though.

___Sequence ($1.99)
A very “indie” music game that looks like Dance Dance Revolution, but plays very differently, and is presented as a Visual Novel. The plot is very dark, with witty dialogue. Both the writing and the music are VERY love-or-hate, but it could be the most memorable $2 you spend on a game. Watch the trailer if you want a good idea of the game's sense of humour. If you enjoyed (or have even heard of) The World Ends With You, then buy this right now.

___Shatter ($2.49)
A (very) modern update of Arkanoid / Breakout with a gimmick that involves sucking or propelling items away from the bat. It looks gorgeous, and plays wonderfully with a controller. The production values are incredibly high for an indie title.

Shining Force II ($1.79)
Fantastic Genesis Strategy RPG in the mould of Fire Emblem. It's 30 hours long, and the best Japanese RPG game on Steam.

Smuggle Truck ($1.99)
If you wanted to play that “hilarious” physics-based puzzle game where you smuggle Mexican immigrants across the border, but were sad that it never got released, you can finally play a sanitized version of it for $2. It's probably not worth the wait.

___Sonic CD ($2.99)
Originally a fan-made HD re-make of Sonic CD, Sega not only gave the developer their blessing, but also the source code, and helped publish the game on Steam earlier this year. This is the DEFINITIVE version of what has long been considered as the best Sonic The Hedgehog game. This version comes with both the US and JP soundtracks, so buy it now, so you can at least argue over which soundtrack is better. Comes with the highest recommendation.

Spectromancer ($2.50)
A self-contained TCG game from the creator of Magic : The Gathering. Has multiplayer, but no active community.

Time Gentlemen, Please! ($0.99)
Well-received bundle of Lucasarts-inspired Point & Click Comedy Click On Things Adventure Games. You'll somehow get 8 hours of gameplay between both games for under a buck.

Tobe's Vertical Adventure ($1.24)
An “amiga-inspired” puzzle-platform game with about 5 hours of gameplay. I don't see the appeal, but it gets mentioned every sale as in one of these write-ups as being worthy of a buck and nobody seems to disagree with that.

Velvet Assassin ($2.49)
Hilariously bad (if not outright offensive) FPS game where a girl her night-clothes wanders around killing nazis. I don't remember this from playing it, but the Steam write-up mentions that it features “Morphine Mode”!

VVVVVV ($2.49)
A very, very, very, very, very, very, very hard platform game, in the style of very hard Commodore 64 games. It's very challenging but very fair, and comes with the highest possible recommendations.

Wasteland Angel ($2.49)
A poor man's Renegade Ops. It's fun in doses, but it's only really listed here because it kind of stands out at this price point.

Wizorb ($1.79)
Bizarre RPG / Arkanoid mash-up, which is apparantly very light on the RPG and very high on the Arkanoid. It was a Daily Deal a week or so before the sale started, and got a fair bit of Goon praise.

World Basketball Manager ($1.49)
We have no conclusive proof, but early reports indicate that this is the worst game on Steam.

Worms Blast ($2.71)
Shameless clone of Puzzle Bobble (Bust A Move).. Which is a good thing! It actually does a lot of things very differently, and it ends up being nowhere as good as the Taito games, so take that with a grain of salt.