Best Retro Games on Steam
Games evoking older hardware, genres, visuals, sounds, or design rules.
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1Undertale - UNDERTALE! The RPG game where you don't have to destroy anyone.
Sep 15, 2015
In this game, you can…
- decide whether to spare or kill every single character, and watch the dialogue, music, endings, and even boss behavior change.
- murder everyone on purpose and have the game treat it like a moral catastrophe that it remembers even when you try to play nice later.
- pet a dog over and over until the game reacts, then get carried across a river by a duck that picks you up and flies you over.
- talk enemies down and end fights without killing anyone.
- dodge enemy attacks in real time while you pick dialogue options to change what the enemy does next.
- accidentally kill one monster and end up on a different route, then reset and unlock a completely new pacifist path by sparing everyone.
- go on a date with a skeleton and build friendships that unlock new scenes and outcomes instead of just giving you stats.
- finish what feels like the ending, get pushed to rethink your choices, then replay and see huge route-specific scenes you missed.
2Vampire Survivors - Mow down thousands of night creatures and survive until dawn! Vampire Survivors is a gothic horror casual game with rogue-lite elements, where your choices can allow you to quickly snowball against the hundreds of monsters that get thrown at you. Be the bullet hell!
Oct 20, 2022
In this game, you can…
- fight a giant praying mantis while 10,000 skeletons pack the screen around you.
- turn into the bullet hell: you only move while your weapons auto-fire until the screen is pure lasers and explosions.
- stack golden eggs to turn even the weakest character into a ridiculous monster.
- start with a whip and end up an immobile tree that kills by radiating garlic.
- open a chest and instantly level up multiple weapons at once, plus grab a big cash payout mid-run.
- combine the right weapon and passive to evolve them into dramatically stronger versions.
- use a shield and a time-freeze as panic buttons, then calmly reposition while everything else is stuck.
3ULTRAKILL - ULTRAKILL is a fast-paced ultra-violent retro FPS that combines the skill-based style scoring of character action games with the unadulterated carnage inspired by the best shooters of the '90s. Rip apart your foes with varied destructive weaponry and shower in their blood to regain your health.
Sep 3, 2020
In this game, you can…
- toss a coin, shoot it midair, and ricochet the bullet into an enemy you can't even see.
- heal by getting right up next to enemies and absorbing their blood while you keep fighting.
- punch your own shotgun blast so it explodes on impact instead of just firing normally.
- time that coin shot at the apex so the bullet splits and detonates into a bigger hit.
- parry enemy attacks by punching them, including reflecting projectiles back at whoever fired them.
- swap between a big stack of guns mid-fight to cancel animations and fire faster without ever slowing down.
- chase perfect level ranks by optimizing routes and shaving tiny fractions of a second off your clear time.
- fight an endless survival arena where waves keep escalating until you finally die.
- spawn 10,000 rats in a sandbox, ground-slam, and crash the game and your PC.
4Cuphead - Cuphead is a classic run and gun action game heavily focused on boss battles. Inspired by cartoons of the 1930s, the visuals and audio are painstakingly created with the same techniques of the era, i.e. traditional hand drawn cel animation, watercolor backgrounds, and original jazz recordings.
Sep 29, 2017
In this game, you can…
- watch a boss go from two battletoads into a slot machine, then keep warping into stranger cartoon forms as you keep landing hits.
- bounce off pink bullets in midair to charge your super meter, then cash it in for weapon specials or a full super.
- run local co-op where one player can parry to revive the other mid-fight, turning near-deaths into sudden comebacks.
- fight bosses that transform mid-battle into new forms, sometimes with no health bar, until the next phase suddenly takes over.
- equip two weapons and swap instantly, changing your plan for a boss—or even a single phase—on the fly.
- thread through tiny safe zones while two or three attacks overlap, with timings that shift enough that you have to react in the moment.
- play brief run-and-gun levels that end fast and restart instantly, turning retries into a rapid-fire loop of experimenting and improving.
5Celeste - Help Madeline survive her inner demons on her journey to the top of Celeste Mountain, in this super-tight platformer from the creators of TowerFall. Brave hundreds of hand-crafted challenges, uncover devious secrets, and piece together the mystery of the mountain.
Jan 25, 2018
In this game, you can…
- welcome your shadow self back and gain a second midair dash.
- build momentum with no speed cap, carrying platform speed into jumps and stacking it into ridiculous velocity.
- turn on assist options like extra jumps or invincibility to push past a wall and keep the story moving.
- battle a physical version of your own self-doubt.
- chain jumps, air-dashes, and wall climbs as your dash refreshes on the ground, new screens, or dash-reset gems.
- read your remaining midair dashes from your hair color mid-jump.
- ride bubbles for a speed burst that refreshes your jump, then dash through wind, ice, and void zones in the same run.
- find secret routes by spotting tiny hints, then take an easier path or a wildly harder one to reach hidden areas.
6DELTARUNE - Dive into the parallel story to UNDERTALE! Fight or spare your way through action-packed battles as you explore a mysterious world alongside an endearing cast of new and familiar characters. Chapters 1-5 are available now, with more planned as free updates!
Jun 4, 2025
In this game, you can…
- play a funny skeleton fight song on piano, then get run over by a dog driving a golf cart
- shop for a new TV by debating "groovy vs glooby" with the janitor, pulling out a diagram, buying it, and learning it's glooby
- fight battles that suddenly turn into punch-out against a giant robot, then switch into wario-ware-style minigames the next chapter
- keep picking "hug ralsei" in battle until it becomes your whole strategy
- heal yourself with a hammer, flirt with a watercooler, and swim through an acid lake
- stumble into secret bosses and a hidden route that changes the tone into something genuinely eerie
- graze bullets on purpose to build power faster while the battle box shifts and moves around you
- return to town and see the game acknowledge whether you chose to act kindly or fight
7Hotline Miami - Hotline Miami is a high-octane action game overflowing with raw brutality, hard-boiled gunplay and skull crushing close combat.
Oct 23, 2012
In this game, you can…
- slam a door into someone and kill them instantly.
- choose a mask before a level that changes how you play, like silent guns, faster movement, surviving one bullet, or killing with doors.
- pummel someone down, grab their dropped shotgun a split second later, and wipe the rest of the room before it reacts.
- die in one hit, restart instantly, and run the same floor until you've memorized patrol routes, gun reactions, and weapon spawns.
- bait enemies with noise, burst into rooms while they're facing away, and clear an entire floor using what you've learned from repeats.
- chain fast kills into huge combos and score grades, pushing for 20x streaks and top ranks.
- finish a massacre, then walk back to your car in silence after the music cuts out, with the level suddenly feeling empty.
8Megabonk - Smash your way through endless waves of enemies and grow absurdly powerful! Grab loot, level up, unlock characters and upgrade to create unique and crazy builds as you fend off hordes of creatures!
Sep 18, 2025
In this game, you can…
- bunny hop, slide down cliffs, use enemy knockback as a boost, and chain so much speed you're basically flying around the map.
- roll boulders into enemies, knock over towers, and use ramps and cliffs as part of the fight.
- push a movement build so fast the game can crash from the speed.
- chain sprinting, jumping, and sliding while you auto-bonk everything nearby and loot and XP gems explode across the map.
- unlock Monke, climb walls, and stack orbiting axes until your build snowballs into a totally different run.
- play as a skateboarding skeleton, launch off hills for big air, and throw bones at slimes while you keep comboing movement.
- assemble weird item synergies run by run, like crit and knockback setups or pistols plus poison flasks plus a sword for boss fights.
9To the Moon - A story-driven experience about two doctors traversing backwards through a dying man's memories to artificially fulfill his last wish.
Sep 7, 2012
In this game, you can…
- rewrite a man's memories so his final wish feels fulfilled in his last conscious moments.
- start at a patient's deathbed and work backward through his past, memory by memory, until the real story clicks.
- dive into a dying man's memories and rebuild them into a new life.
- hunt down a key memento in each scene, then solve a small tile-flip puzzle to unlock the next memory jump.
- piece together a romance in reverse, watching a relationship's end before you learn how it began.
- notice tiny throwaway details in dialogue and objects that later snap into major reveals.
- walk through memory-anchored places like a carnival, a library, and a childhood home, each tied to a different turning point.
- watch two doctors argue, joke, and make hard calls while they race against their patient's failing time.
10Papers, Please - Congratulations. The October labor lottery is complete. Your name was pulled. For immediate placement, report to the Ministry of Admission at Grestin Border Checkpoint. An apartment will be provided for you and your family in East Grestin. Expect a Class-8 dwelling.
Aug 8, 2013
In this game, you can…
- let a serial killer enter because the victim's father begs you to, so he can take revenge himself inside the country.
- spot a tiny mismatch, order a scanner, discover contraband taped to someone's back, and have guards arrest them on the spot.
- let the wrong person through and trigger an assassination or terrorist attack that changes what happens at the checkpoint next day.
- stamp passports approved or denied to decide who enters the country.
- approve a husband, then decide whether to deny his wife with an expired passport even if she says she'll be killed.
- watch a guy return day after day with a hilariously fake, hand-drawn passport that keeps getting "updated."
- take a cash bribe to let someone through, use it to upgrade your life, then get reported and have the government confiscate everything.
- escalate from checking one passport to fingerprinting, interrogating, and full body-scanning travelers when their paperwork doesn't match.
