This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/steamdeck by /u/CatCradle on 2025-03-14 19:12:58+00:00.

Happy Friday. Wanted to plug a few of my favorite compilations of arcade-style games which I've particularly enjoyed in handheld mode on the Deck.

• Contra Anniversary Collection ($4 for 9 games)
• Castlevania Anniversary Collection ($4 for 8 games)
• Mega Man Legacy Collection ($6 for 6 games)

Id consider these three series to be the Big Three of action platformers, and even at full price these are unmissable collections. MML, particularly, has a boatload of great challenges which combine and remix segments from all six games together, for instance, in addition to traditional time trials and boss rushes. I'd recommend starting with 2 or 3 and branching outward from there. If you like Metroidvania games, I highly recommend tracing the pre-SotN linear/classic Castlevanias, particularly Super Castlevania 4, which holds up exceptionally. If you like that, you can move on next to the Advance and Dominus collections, which compile six good-to-unmissable GBA/DS Metroidvanias from the 2000s that are leagues better than most of the rubbish that floats to the top of the subgenre days. Contra: severe and sweet, perfect for short sessions.

• UFO 50 ($20 for 50 games)

This is a system-seller from a kinder & more thoughtful dimension, a 50-game collection designed by a supergroup of indie devs adherent to the NES/Famicom hardware limitations but with an eye for contemporary design trends and genre hybrids. Picture stuff like Slay the Spire, Binding of Isaac, and Civilization 1 coming out in 1986, and then add forty-seven more. In the 1.5 months following its release on September 18th, 2024, I played it for 163.8 hours, averaging over 3.5 hours per day and completing 31 of the titles. Halfway through the bender I wrote a 3000-word screed recommendation, so enthralled was I by its mere existence, if you'd prefer an even longer sell. UFO 50 also features an elegant color-coded framing device wherein each title turns blue if you've played it, gold if you've beaten it, and red (cherry) if you've really beaten it: compilations are often fertile ground for satisfying achievement systems, and this is easily the best I've seen. My desert island game.

• Last Call BBS ($10) - 8 games

Like UFO 50, this isn't actually an old collection but rather an anthology experiment from a hypertalented indie dev presented as if it had been recovered from fictional hardware, in this case a "Z5 Powerlance" reminiscent of the earliest home computers. As such, these games are best with KB+M, like the rest of Zachtronics' excellent & criminally underrated output, but they're all very doable with the Deck trackpads. Extremely thoughtful, and at times difficult, systemic/programming/puzzle-type titles with an esoteric bent and a cool framing story. This predates UFO 50 and is riffing on much more niche stuff, e.g. Picross, Snood, plastic model sets from the '80s/90s; there's an H.R.Giger-y bio-synthesis game that's about as Good As It Gets, brother. Mind-expanding.

• SNK 40th Anniversary Collection ($6) - 24 games

If you want a more straightforward sampling of arcade cabinet classics, this is a better option than something like Atari 50 or Capcom Arcade Stadium, IMO, which are held back by some questionable pricing and/or presentation decisions. The games aren't as well-known to a modern gaming audience, either, which is a plus: I won't spoil the diamonds here, but there are a good few. (Ignore the anime bikini gal; bizarro marketing move there).

• PAC-MAN MUSEUM+ ($10) - 14 games

Another great metagame in the form of a navigable arcade of cabinets with unlockable cosmetics and other tweaks. For the uninitiated, there's a flow state to PAC-MAN games that is about as spiritually satisfying as a long walk with a great dog, something I'd recommend to anyone breathing, and this collection is about as good of an entrypoint to the full trajectory as you can ask for.

• DOOM + DOOM  II ($4) - 2 games

You don't need nostalgia to reckon with the legendary foundation of the FPS genre, you just need a copy of this recent, utter gold-standard remasters of the first two DOOM games. Eight expansions here; if you can wean yourself off contemporary graphical fidelity, there's better FPS level/encounter design here than nearly anything that came next. And literally everything came next.