<- oh yeah thats good

this is my list of video games that i think are good and that you should play too. oh yeah thats good baby

my general criteria for this list was singleplayer PC games, so console-only exclusives aren’t here (shoutouts botw and smo though). playtime was sourced via howlongtobeat.com

OneShot

oneshot is a game i can’t explain well without ruining it. it’s a top down puzzle/adventure rpg maker game where you control a child named Niko who has a big lightbulb.

i advise you to go in blind, and if you’re on linux, play without wine/proton or the steam linux runtime. the potential troubles will make it worth it.

Celeste

celeste is an absolutely wonderful platformer about a girl climbing a mountain. the game can speak for itself when i can say i’ve replayed it twice. you’ve got slick movement, collectables, unlockable B and C sides of each chapter, and an absolutely brutal DLC that took me several weeks to beat.

it’s also got absolutely amazing music and a pretty good story that may or may not have hit me in the kidney a few times with its themes of depression and anxiety (trust me this is one of the indies that doesn’t make that cheesy).

Outer Wilds

outer wilds is once again a game i can’t spoil without ruining it for you, partly because of its absolutely terrible replay value. do NOT watch a lets play or spoil yourself on this game.

it’s about exploring a solar system trapped in a time loop, and making explorations across the way. i literally can’t say anything else other than “if you play it please let me know so i can watch it” and “the DLC is also great but it suffers the same fate”.

Portal 2

portal 2 is an absolutely phenomenal game by valve. in case you’re living under a rock, portal 2 is the sequel to the original portal (while also great, i like it lesser of the two, not on this list but play it anyways), a game where you’re solving “tests” with a gun that can shoot wormholes.

it was originally a game made by digipen graduates, but then valve hired them all and made portal and then portal 2. excellent gameplay, writing, and music, an incredible 10/10 from me. i suggest completing the coop if you know anybody to play it with

Final Fantasy XIV

daring today, aren’t we?

ffxiv is a weird game to put here. i tried my best to limit the multiplayer games on this list, but ffxiv has a sweet spot in my heart. now, let me tell you - this game is INCREDIBLY hard to get into. most people don’t like the MMO aspect, the early game story is incredibly boring, and it only really gets good after you’ve sunken enough time in it that most people stop playing

besides that, though, the later expansion’s story is absolutely amazing, and the content & community is great. if you’re a fan of MMOs and you want to try and push through the early game, please do pick this up (pro tip: use XIVLauncher)

A Hat in Time

like the description on steam says, a hat in time is an adorable 3d platformer about a girl who wears hats. it’s charming as shit and has two great DLCs, along with “co-op” and “online multiplayer”.

the movement is fluid, the writing is great, the music is fuckin banging, it’s a great time. my only complaint is after you get all the time pieces (the level collectable for this game), there’s not much else to do except collect randomly-spawning stickers and buy all the stuff from every shop in the game

Pikuniku

pikuniku is a great short game about a red ball with legs that overthrows capitalism. yes i’m serious

the game’s about a charming little beast ball named Piku in a world controlled by a megacorporation. there’s ton of fun sideline stuff and a nice soundtrack, and a fun splitscreen coop mode. absolutely worth your time, especially when on sale

Titanfall 2

titanfall is an absolute amazing shooter that died because of its poor release timing. and it is an absolute requirement to play the singleplayer campaign

the campaign involves you and a big robot named BT-7274 in the middle of a war, fulfilling a dead captain’s mission. the story is fucking amazing, the movement is like if apex legends was good (spoiler alert: this is the same universe that apex is in), and the visuals and music are just icing on the cake. it is probably the best fps campaign ever designed

if the servers weren’t under attack i’d suggest the multiplayer, but unfortunately they are. if you still want a piece of the incredibly fast-paced and fun as shit multiplayer experience, check out northstar, community ran titanfall 2 servers

GRIS

gris is fucking beautiful, and even though i played it a few years back, i still haven’t forgotten it (and i’m waiting for my steam deck to roll around to replay it).

it’s an incredibly artistic game about a girl going through Tough Shit, displayed through a wonderful world and a mechanic around her dress. it’s hard to describe, but it’s a damn good experience. make sure to pick it up or at the very least watch a longplay

Manifold Garden

manifold garden is an absolutely stunning puzzle game about breaking physics and holy shit is it amazing. i was supposed to playtest this game YEARS ago, and i never got it to run because my antivirus was angry at it. boy do i regret that now

i can’t really explain the gameplay that well, but let me tell you something: go open the steam page and just look at the screenshots. then scroll down and click add to cart

Jazzpunk

jazzpunk is easily described with two words: fever dream

it’s.. hard to explain. it’s a comedy adventure game filled to the brim with dumb jokes and definitely feels like a game you’d create in your dreams. listen, just, play the game goddamnit

as a steam review read, “Truly the best game to play when your brain is at 0%”

Superliminal

superliminal is definitely a game that will break your brain at least thrice. it’s a puzzle game about perspective and optical illusions - if you pick up something small from a desk, for example, and drop it while looking at the other side of a giant room, the item now becomes as large as the room from forced perspective

it is an absolute trip of a game, and i have one friend who speedruns it and another who got an achievement added to it for cloning items too many times. very fun to play (and watch)

Untitled Goose Game

this is a game about being a goose. also published by panic (who made the playdate). instead of selling it to you, i will instead do my best goose impression:

HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK

ahem there we go

VVVVVV

as i’m sure you can tell by that absolutely horrid platform list, this game is beloved by many. you have 3 buttons: left, right, and… reverse gravity. nope, not jumping, flip gravity upside down

the graphics are simple (but may give you seizures) and the gameplay is irritating but fun. there are also collectables along the way! …and a room that has a single pixel stopping you from getting a collectable, requiring you to jump through a 6-screen long spike filled death trap both ways to get it FUCK VENI VIDI VICI

if you’re feeling strong you can compile it yourself using the assets from the free version of VVVVVV, but you should probably just pay the $5 it’s a good game

ULTRAKILL

ultrakill is basically the best example i can give of a boomer shooter inspired game. you’re a robot in hell shooting shit while dodging enemies to a banging ass soundtrack. hard as shit bosses, fast paced combat, and OH DID I MENTION YOU ONLY REGENERATE HP BY STANDING IN THE BLOOD OF YOUR ENEMIES

there’s even a fucking sandbox where the map is literally a recreation of gm_construct, and a style meter for Doing Shit Cool. and there’s an infinite mode. i feel ashamed for having this at the bottom because holy shit is it great

MANKIND IS DEAD. BLOOD IS FUEL. HELL IS FULL. GAME IS GOOD.

The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe

you might think re-releasing a 9 year old game is stupid. good, this game thinks that too

The Stanley Parable came out in 2013, a game about a man named Stanley. he sits at his desk all day, being ordered on a screen to push buttons for his entire life. one day his coworkers vanish from his office, and so he goes to figure it out. the gimmick is that the narrator has a story of what’s happening, but you don’t need to follow him. and it fucking RULES but you just gotta see it for yourself

this “expanded re-imagining” adds new content, and double the endings of the old one. curious what the new content is? play a few endings and you’ll figure it out, I promise

Firewatch

the game of wallpapers, firewatch is about a man stuck in a radio tower until my birthday (yes it ends on september 1st), watching for fires and talking to one singular person over the radio. it’s also made by panic, who made the playdate, which i have sitting on my desk so i’m morally obligated to shill it

The Beginner’s Guide

the first purely walking simulator to make me cry

the beginner’s guide is a game about walking around games. that’s it. you walk around maps created in the source engine, while the narrator (davey wreden) explains what the game is about

however, what makes the game actually worth playing is its commentary of the act of creating as an artist. it’s really hard to sell this game to people, but please, just play it or at least watch a fucking video. it’s 90 minutes of your time, you can even refund it if you want

Tetris Effect: Connected

Tetris but Good™

very colorful tetris game 100% confident it’ll turn your brain off. it’s tetris there’s not much to review here, but:

• the “story” has very colorful backgrounds and the last stage pushes me to my damn limits
• the multiplayer is fun and features a Full Moon mechanic based on the day for some fucking reason
• the music bangs. EVERY PASSING DAY THE WINDS MIGHT GROW STRONGER TURN THAT SHIT UP QUAY

if you buy it play it with me

Stray

if i had a nickel for every time i cried about a game where you control a cat, i’d have two nickels. which isn’t a lot but it’s strange it’s happened twice

stray is the prettiest game i’ve ever played and you PLAY AS A CAT. it’s pretty short for its length but i had an absolute blast 100%ing this and the story was pretty sad. I’M JUST GONNA SAY IT SPOILER WARNING THAT CAT GETS PRETTY SAD A FEW TIMES AND IT MADE ME CRY

Splatoon 3

honestly this one goes out to the entire splatoon series

splatoon is a wonderful shooter with the gimmick that you are a squid, you shoot ink, and you can swim in the ink. it’s simple yet so fucking creative. and don’t get me started on the multiplayer besides mahi-mahi resort existing and the dogshit netcode this game’s multiplayer is so fucking addicting that i actually missed a fortnite season because of it

splatoon 3’s singleplayer is probably the most epic one yet but i implore you Play All Of Them. i’m gonna do that someday. spoiler alert if you do all the missions you unlock a Secret Mission and it is so hard that i haven’t even cleared it yet and i’m legitimately considering writing a tas file for it instead

Bomb Rush Cyberfunk

Jet Set Radio 3. I have bought 10 copies of this game full price. I also made a multiplayer mod. that’s all I have to say

SIGNALIS

signalis is a game I bought because I got told it has robot lesbians. I left with the robot lesbians, along with a bonus existential crisis and new trauma

as someone who never played a survival horror before, and is notably terrible at the key points of the genre in other games (notably “survival” and “horror”), signalis was one hell of an experience to go through. from a pure environmental viewpoint, I felt uncomfortable throughout my entire playthrough, always feeling on edge and worrying about my resources. playing it left me with the feeling where I’d be sitting in bed thinking “I should go play more signalis”, but I had to pace myself with only a bit per day - noting that a game has never made me pace myself in experiencing it like that before

I will not comment on the game’s story. do not read anything about this game’s story if you want to play it, and do not interact with the community or look for fanart. the game plays out its story in such a beautiful way that you do not want to miss