If you’re lucky enough to own a Steam Deck or Legion Go S SteamOS edition, then you’ll know that the Steam Store is absolutely rammed with bargains. Sure, you can purchase full-price games galore if you want to, but nothing is more fun than plundering a Steam sale for sub-£5 gems.
There are countless brilliant cheap games to purchase for your handheld Steam Machine, some of them permanently priced as such, and others frequently enjoying deep discounts.
Brotato
There are a number of cheap-as-chips roguelikes that have lit up the Steam charts in recent years, and I’d recommend a lot of them. But because Brotato has the best name, I’m recommending that one.
It’s a top-down arena shooter that puts you in control of, as you might have guessed, a gun-wielding potato that must survive wave after wave of alien hordes. Sold yet?
After each horde is successfully defeated, you’re given the opportunity to upgrade your supreme spud with different attributes and weapons, allowing you to tinker with different builds as you progress. There are also different characters to unlock, each one boasting different stats.
Like Vampire Survivors (which also costs next to nothing and is stupidly good fun), weapon and melee attacks in Brotato are automatic by default, meaning all you have to concentrate on in-game is moving your character.
Some people bristle at having full control taken away from them, but when you’re as constantly outnumbered by enemies as you are in this game, only having to focus on one thing is a godsend.
There is a manual aiming option in the settings for those who want it, but I think simplicity is Brotato’s greatest strength. That and the cartoony art, which I personally prefer to Vampire Survivors’ lo-fi look.
The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog
Not only does the attention-grabbingly titled The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog cost less than a cup of coffee, it also costs less than quite literally anything that costs any money at all.
What initially appeared to be an elaborate April Fools’ Day joke from Sega turned out to be a proper murder mystery visual novel in which the player is tasked with finding out who seemingly offed the company’s enduring mascot. And it’s absolutely free to download.
The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog takes place, like many a great whodunnit, on a train, specifically the Mirage Express, on Amy Rose’s birthday. Sonic and the rest of the gang are all there to celebrate. Some suspicious things happen, Sonic is found unresponsive, and you have to find out what went down by interrogating your fellow passengers.
The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog is a hybrid of a visual novel and a point and click adventure, and a genuinely good one at that, whether you’re a Sonic fan or not.
It has funny writing, a great art style, and a fun, if not particularly complex mystery at its core. Not bad for a prank game.
Celeste
Celeste’s regular price on Steam is admittedly more like the price of a trio of coffees (unless you get your daily cup of joe from an especially exorbitant hipster joint), but this all-time great side-scrolling platformer is heavily discounted so often (including right now) that I think I can get away with including it here.
If you missed all the fuss when Maddy Makes Games’ masterpiece first launched in 2018, you play a girl named Madeline who’s determined to climb to the very top of a mountain and won’t stop until she does it.
To achieve this feat, the player has to conquer all manner of comically difficult but incredibly well-designed 2D platforming challenges, many of which can feel completely impossible until you suddenly succeed.
Madeline can wall jump and dash in the air, but the basic controls are extremely simple. Triumphing in Celeste is about doing things at precisely the right moment, and as hard as the game frequently is, it’s never unfair, and you always feel like it wants you to succeed.
The core gameplay is excellent, but Celeste’s stunning pixel art visuals and incredible soundtrack are a big part of what makes it such an indie classic. It’s also one of the more mature explorations of mental health and anxiety that I’ve seen in game, leaving you feeling both emotionally moved and rather chuffed about your platforming prowess.