Since 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.

Oops, thanks for the heads up. Glad to know about the other source port now.

A great Metroid-like:

Environmental Station Alpha:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/350070/Environmental_Station_Alpha/

A great (Super-)Metroid clone, at an almost GB Color-like graphical fidelity. Really nice music too.

Last edited by walther von stolzing on 30 April 2024 at 5:11 pm UTC

Nina Aquila: Legal Eagle (Native)



Nina deserves a mention here I think. Hybrid Visual Novel & 2D adventure game. Part mystery and crime scene investigation, part court room drama. Mini-games include tokyo drifting and trading-card battles.

Inspired by Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (or so I'm told, it's still on the wishlist!)

Since we are talking about Nintendo-esque games, I gotta throw some things into the mix:

Slime Rancher (Native)
Cute, casual gamer friendly and generally quite good.

Indivisible (Native)
It is far from perfect, but it is charming, has great voice acting, and is Nintendo-player friendly both in gameplay and difficulty.

Castle of Illusion (Proton)
A remake of an old sega mega drive (sega genesis for americans), and it is really good.

DuckTales Remastered (Proton)
Another fantastic remake, this time the NES classic Duck Tales.

Garden Story (Proton)
Gets quite repetitive, especially if going for all achievements, but it has a bucket full of charm.

Shantae (Proton)
This is a serie of games, the most polished is by far "and the Pirate's Curse", but all of them are charming, and fun.

While I was thinking about alternatives to Metroid, I remembered:

Supraland (Proton)
This game is a 3D FPS Metroidvania - as you progress through the game, you and your weapon gain new abilities. It also comes with an adorable cast of characters.

If you're looking for Animal Crossing vibes, check out:

A Short Hike (Native)

Keep the suggestions coming!

Last edited by Talon1024 on 7 May 2024 at 2:59 pm UTC

I forgot to mention a great Pokémon alternative, I don't think it has been mentioned yet but I'm half-blind so I dunno.

Monster Sanctuary (Native)
It's good fun and has lots of fun monsters. You build a team of three for battling, and are rewarded for combos and synergy. As in Pokémon it is a Metroidvania-lite where you get new powers to allow you to go to new places or find secrets.

And our boy Liam put down a review on steam that simply reads:

"Honestly, it's great. One to pick up if you love monster catchers."

So I've noticed a lot of articles about Stardew Valley/Harvest Moon-inspired games coming out recently on this website.

Sunkissed City (Native?, in development)
It sounds like there may be a slightly wider variety of things to do in this game than in Stardew Valley. Or (I guess) if you like the big city more than the quiet village.

Dreaming Isles (Native, in development, demo available)
Looks like this game has a larger world than Stardew Valley. I don't know if you can just land your ship anywhere, though.

Little-known Galaxy (Proton, released)
Looks like you'll be spending most of your time on your spaceship and watching over your crew.

Brocula (Native, released)
There looks to be far less emphasis on socializing; the characters you interact with all have generic names, and it looks like everyone else can be indoctrinated into your cult. I still don't know how this game is about smashing capitalism.

GOL hasn't run an article on this one yet, but I found it in the list of Godot engine games being showcased at GDC 2024:

Kohlrabi Starship (Native, in development)
Another interplanetary journey! You'll have to repair your starship first before you travel to other worlds, however.

I'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!

Probably gonna get hate for this one, but who in their right mind would use a GameBoy Color, at that point just use another more performant console, I use the Gameboy for it's vintage feel, but colors take away some of that..

Probably gonna get hate for this one, but who in their right mind would use a GameBoy Color, at that point just use another more performant console, I use the Gameboy for it's vintage feel, but colors take away some of that..

The game's description suggests that it's a dual-mode Game Boy/Game Boy Colour game.

Here Comes Niko!
Got some Animal Crossing vibes with you helping out quirky animal friends, but instead of plodding around town it's an easygoing collectathon platformer. One of my new favorites.

Here Comes Niko!
Got some Animal Crossing vibes with you helping out quirky animal friends, but instead of plodding around town it's an easygoing collectathon platformer. One of my new favorites.

It is great! I had a big smile plastered on my face during the entire playthrough. It is just cozy and friendly.

This is an awesome post, Pengling, thanks a lot. I've already wishlisted several games! Some of them really remind me of my GameBoy back in ye olde days.

Since we're talking nintendo-style gaming here, does anyone know of any x86 deck-alike that has roughly the same size as, and battery life of, the switch?

So far, the best I've seen is the ayaneo air 1s: right size with first-gen switch-like battery life. However, it could do with better linux support, not to mention that I'm hearing that ayaneo is not very good at support of any kind.

Last edited by emphy on 18 October 2024 at 12:36 pm UTC

So, I saw a few people streaming F-Zero lately. Since that game was developed and published by Nintendo, it will most likely never leave the walled gardens of Nintendo consoles.

However, out of curiosity, I looked at the BallisticNG store page on Steam, and found this game, thanks to Steam's algorithm:

Aero GPX (Proton Platinum, Steam Deck Verified)

Reading through the reviews for BallisticNG, it looks like BallisticNG is more like WipEout.

I'm not *exactly* sure if this is 'Nintendo-style', as it isn't really a variation on anything* from the old handheld consoles

... but it's possibly an even more authentic continuation of the spirit of fast paced platformers:

Downwell:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/360740/Downwell/

It's an amazing game; my most played contemporary game in the past couple of years. It's so well crafted; and I'm pretty sure it plays even better on a handheld (I've played only on desktop).

It's a tiny gamemaker game, that works flawlessly under proton.


* - though I've read mentions of this being an 'upside down Kid Icarus'; not having played Kid Icarus, I can't really confirm that.

Last edited by walther von stolzing on 6 November 2024 at 1:47 am UTC

UFO 50 (Proton Platinum, Steam Deck Playable) is a collection of retro games, similar to the ones made for the NES back in the halcyon days of the 90s.

The Jurassic Park Classic Games Collection (Proton Unknown, Steam Deck Verified) is another collection, consisting of re-releases of the Jurassic Park games for old consoles. I think you'll be able to get some ROMs by buying this collection.

And if you're itching for Metroid Prime (the Metroid FPS game), maybe you'll find something in here. I know it's just the search results on Steam, but it's a short list, so there's not much to sift through. If you have any personal recommendations from those, please let me know below!

Oh, and I forgot to mention the DOS game Happyland Adventures. It's a free MS-DOS game by Free Lunch Design (Johan Peitz), and the X-Mas edition comes with the original game, plus some QoL improvements.

Last edited by Talon1024 on 22 November 2024 at 10:07 am UTC

More!

Jill of the Jungle (MS-DOS) is a "Nintendo-style arcade adventure game" featuring a hot babe who runs around the jungle and kicks ass in a series of 2D platforming adventures! Although I was largely a PC gamer in my childhood, and this game was one of Epic Games' best-selling titles, this is not one of the titles I played in my childhood. Also, it's worth noting that Epic Games was known as Epic MegaGames at the time.

Frogun (Native Linux, ProtonDB Platinum, Steam Deck Playable) features Renata, the cute little girl on a whimsical 3D platforming collectathon adventure to rescue her parents! BTW, here it is on GOG.com

Frogun Encore (Native Linux, ProtonDB Unknown, Steam Deck Playable) is the sequel to Frogun, with a greater focus on co-operative play. And you can also get this one on GOG.com

Xargon (MS-DOS) is a lot like Jill of the Jungle, but it's slightly less frustrating in some ways, and more frustrating in other ways. Instead of picking up a knife, you start with a laser. The game is also Open Source , and there's an SDL port on GitHub.