@whizse, you've reminded me that some of the new indie/homebrew retro games are getting released on Steam as well. Goodboy Galaxy is an excellent puzzle metroidvania, it's been released for the Game Boy Advance already but is getting a Steam release later this year. It would have been a top-tier GBA game when the system was current, it's great.

Top stuff guys - thanks so much for adding more games! Keep 'em coming!

Quoting: ChuckaluphagusGoodboy Galaxy is an excellent puzzle metroidvania, it's been released for the Game Boy Advance already but is getting a Steam release later this year.

It's also available for the Evercade, which is a Linux-based cartridge-driven console platform.

Last edited by Pengling on 27 March 2024 at 1:28 pm UTC

Quoting: whizseI'm getting slightly ahead of myself here since the game isn't released yet but I just finished the excellent Inspector Waffles and noticed that the announced sequel belongs here. It releases not just on PC but on Gameboy and Gameboy Color!

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Inspector Waffles Early Days (PC, GB, GBA)

I guess technically it's a combination de-make and prequel. Taking place before the events in the original Inspector Waffles (but not going back as far as to kittengarten!). Very cool project!

Quoting: Chuckaluphagus@whizse, you've reminded me that some of the new indie/homebrew retro games are getting released on Steam as well. Goodboy Galaxy is an excellent puzzle metroidvania, it's been released for the Game Boy Advance already but is getting a Steam release later this year. It would have been a top-tier GBA game when the system was current, it's great.

I sure do hope that the Inspector Waffles prequel comes with the GameBoy Color ROM in its Steam release. Goodboy Galaxy won't iirc, and it's always really super annoying when games don't also include the ROM with their Steam releases. D:

Last edited by Linux_Rocks on 27 March 2024 at 11:00 pm UTC

I've got an excellent contribution from Mrowl over in a news-comment. (I've split it up to prevent the forum from shrinking the quotes.)

Quoting: MrowlYes, I have 2 games, you should definitely add to the list:

Quoting: MrowlThe first is Palworld. It bears so much similarity to Pokémon that Nintendo and the Pokémon company were investigating a possible lawsuit.

The general idea is that it's "Pokémon with guns" and it's basically an open world survival game, like Ark and Rust, etc. So quite different from Pokémon, but still features "cute" monsters that you help you fight, etc.

Quoting: MrowlIt has already sold 25 million+, mostly on Steam, but it's also on Xbox and coming to more platforms.

It's the first truly objective sign that a Pokémon style game can be a massive success outside of Nintendo hardware in today's era. It also runs okay'ish (about 30fps) on Steam Deck.

Quoting: MrowlThe next is also a Pokémon-like, though we've heard very little on its development for the past 3-4 years. It's being developed by Pearl Abyss, the team behind Black Desert Online, so I don't think it's vapourware just yet.

It was one of the most talked about trailers of GamesCom 2021; it's Dokév:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7Xlr_EQysA

This looks absolutely insane, and graphically far more ambitious that any Pokémon game. And again, they're aiming for a multiplatform release.

Last edited by Pengling on 5 April 2024 at 2:07 am UTC

Panel Attack is a FOSS clone of Panel de Pon (aka Tetris Attack, aka Puzzle League, aka Puzzle Challenge, aka oh my god Nintendo please just pick a name and stick with it). Features online play with rollback netcode, and some basic modding support for custom characters/stages/music/themes.

Last edited by missingno on 5 April 2024 at 4:52 am UTC

So I recently went looking for alternatives to Breath of the Wild, because Nintendo are at it again, and the way the fandom gushes over that game gives me the impression that you can't have that on PC.

I found:
Immortals Fenyx Rising (Proton, Steam Deck Playable)
Kingdoms of Amalur: ReReckoning (Proton, Steam Deck Verified)
Pine (Native Linux, Steam Deck Verified)
Thanks to a YouTube video I watched recently.
I would put Genshin Impact here as well, but that's not an option for Linux gamers due to the anti-cheat.
There's also Veloren, a FOSS game inspired by Cube World, but which also takes inspiration from Breath of the Wild.

If you want 2D platformer games featuring cute characters, there's Commander Keen, Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure, Hocus Pocus, and Monster Bash.

Commander Keen runs perfectly on the Commander Genius source port/engine, Monster Bash HD runs natively, and the other two run perfectly in DOSBox.

And if you liked Hocus Pocus, you should check out Hocus Pocus Doom.

Also, I know the OP said:

Quoteno emulation because that would be cheating and a total cop-out

However, DOSBox doesn't require illegally-ripped ROMs, unlike most other gaming platform emulators.

Last edited by Talon1024 on 30 April 2024 at 3:05 am UTC

Thanks so much for the contributions, everyone!

Quoting: Talon1024Also, I know the OP said:

Quoteno emulation because that would be cheating and a total cop-out

However, DOSBox doesn't require illegally-ripped ROMs, unlike most other gaming platform emulators.

That's totally fair! I threw that in there mainly to ward off the possibility of "Just emulate their current stuff.", which would defeat the point of voting with our wallets for the alternatives and cutting Nintendo out of the picture entirely.

Quoting: PenglingThanks so much for the contributions, everyone!

Quoting: Talon1024Also, I know the OP said:

Quoteno emulation because that would be cheating and a total cop-out

However, DOSBox doesn't require illegally-ripped ROMs, unlike most other gaming platform emulators.

That's totally fair! I threw that in there mainly to ward off the possibility of "Just emulate their current stuff.", which would defeat the point of voting with our wallets for the alternatives and cutting Nintendo out of the picture entirely.

I'm glad I didn't completely ignore the rules then. XD

Since Commander Keen was mentioned, we can't forgot about Jazz Jackrabbit or the sequel. There's also a source port for them too.

Last edited by Linux_Rocks on 29 April 2024 at 8:32 pm UTC

Fairtris 2

I realize now that I should've posted about this game on the present thread, rather than here, as I did a couple of days ago: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/forum/topic/6068/

https://github.com/furious-programming/Fairtris-2-UC

This is a subtly enhanced clone of NES Tetris written in FreePascal; it requires the Lazarus IDE to build; & depends on SDL2.

They have a detailed readme, and a github wiki, where you can find implementation details, screenshots, etc. - https://github.com/furious-programming/Fairtris-2-UC/wiki/Gameplay

Quoting: Linux_RocksSince Commander Keen was mentioned, we can't forgot about Jazz Jackrabbit or the sequel. There's also a source port for them too.

Looks like OpenJazz is only for the first game. For JJ2, there's Jazz 2 Resurrection.