Welcome to this week’s early edition of the Steam Deck Weekly. With recent reviews and embargoes, things have been moving around, but I have one lovely review with two previews and game impressions today alongside the news highlights and more. On the Steam Deck Verified side, I’m surprised by some of the ratings since last week, but that’s just how Valve works these days. Before the news and new Verified games, let’s get into the reviews and Steam Deck impressions.
Steam Deck Game Reviews & Impressions
Thank Goodness You’re Here! Steam Deck Review
Given the sheer volume of new indie games released each month, I don’t blame people for picking and choosing. With only a finite amount of time and money, it isn’t possible to buy and play everything. We saw that in March with multiple amazing indie releases arriving, but a lot of folks only ended up playing one or two of them. I’ve managed playing just about every indie game I wanted to get to this year aside from Animal Well, and while it has been a banging year for indies across platforms, I think Thank Goodness You’re Here from Coal Supper and Panic will go down as the most memorable one that I had the most fun with.
Thank Goodness You’re Here is a “slapformer” where you explore locations, help others, and progress the narrative. You do this with only the ability to move, jump, and slap. What sets Thank Goodness You’re Here apart is how everything responds to you as a player, and of course the aesthetic and writing that elevate it quite a bit. You play as a traveling salesman visiting the English town of Barnsworth. Right from the get go, Thank Goodness You’re Here floored me with its voice acting, writing, and visuals. I knew it would be special after literally 10 seconds of the opening. After seeing it through the end in its two and a half hours (for my first playthrough) runtime, I have no complaints with it at all. I wish I could experience it for the first time again. The light puzzles, interactions with various NPCs, hidden interactions that made me smile often, and the use of specific cut-scenes made Thank Goodness You’re Here unforgettable.
I’m not sure if the demo will be available when the game launches, but I urge you to give Thank Goodness You’re Here a shot if the trailer has you interested. Don’t look up anything because every little element of the game is polished and the developers have thought about almost everything when it comes to how much you can mess around with the world through slapping things.
I initially was going to review Thank Goodness You’re Here on Switch, but the port isn’t amazing. The performance feels erratic almost all the way when you aren’t indoors. I hope this can be fixed because it looks excellent and feels right at home on a portable. On Steam Deck, Thank Goodness You’re Here is perfect with zero issues and it even ran without breaking a sweat at 144fps on my monitor when docked. Right now, Thank Goodness You’re Here is best experienced on Steam Deck rather than Switch if you have the option. I look forward to replaying it on PS5 when I can to see how it feels there and if the developers added any slaptastic haptics.
I don’t want to spoil the interactions or anything here because all of it is best experienced with no prior knowledge, but I wanted to highlight the game’s language options. By default, everything including the menu uses Yorkshire Dialect. You can change it to general English, but the default is a lot more fun to experience even as someone not from the region. Beyond that, the PC version of Thank Goodness You’re Here lets you adjust resolution and runs at an uncapped frame rate. I don’t imagine anyone will have performance issues with this given how it runs on Steam Deck without breaking a sweat.
Having now played it twice, all I can say is thank goodness Thank Goodness You’re Here exists. This is a gem of a game, and I hope we see a sequel in the near future. It has been an absolute joy to play from start to finish with its superb animation work, amazing writing, voice acting, and music. I hope it does well enough to get a physical release with some
Thank Goodness You’re Here! Steam Deck Review Score: 5/5
SNK VS. CAPCOM SVC CHAOS Steam Deck Gameplay Impressions
SNK VS. CAPCOM SVC CHAOS from SNK was a surprise release during EVO 2024 this month, and I hadn’t actually heard of it until this new release from Code Mystics hit Steam and consoles. Shaun is working on a full review of the Switch release, but I wanted to cover how it felt on Steam Deck. I also tested it online a few times with a friend in another country.
As someone new to SNK VS. CAPCOM SVC CHAOS, this game sure is an experience. It feels very weird and incomplete in ways, but it was hilarious playing with my friend online. That aspect worked perfectly given the distance between us, and SNK VS. CAPCOM SVC CHAOS runs flawlessly on Steam Deck. I even tried it solo with my Haute42 M Plus 16 and everything works as it should.
When playing online, you get the usual rollback options like input delay adjustment and even see how many folks are online with how many are waiting for a match on Steam. The gallery mode has loads of promotional and character artwork. Beyond that, there are achievements, leaderboards, and visual options to play with.
I also played SNK VS. CAPCOM SVC CHAOS on Steam Deck docked on my 1440p monitor and there were no issues with it online either. This is another great Code Mystics conversion. Whether SNK VS. CAPCOM SVC CHAOS is worth getting or not I will leave up to Shaun to answer for his full review, but I can say that I’m glad it exists with its rollback netcode, gallery, extras, and the usual great features we see from Code Mystics and SNK.
SteamWorld Heist II Steam Deck Preview
The original SteamWorld Heist is a very special game. I’ve bought it and replayed it on just about every platform, and I never expected a sequel. It felt like the series developers always wanted to do something different with each new game aside from SteamWorld Dig II which remains the team’s best game as far as I’m concerned. So SteamWorld Heist II being announced was quite a surprise. I didn’t pay much attention to it because I knew I’d be playing it, and here we are.
If you never played the original, I urge you to play it, because it is one of the best indies in years. SteamWorld Heist II is surprisingly bigger and a lot more ambitious than the original in almost every way. The combat, classes, weapons, visuals, and levels so far are incredible. SteamWorld Heist II and Thank Goodness You’re Here are two of the most polished indie games I’ve played in a while.
Thanks to early review codes from Thunderful, I’ve been playing SteamWorld Heist II on Switch, Steam Deck, and PS5. I have no complaints with the game on any of those platforms based on the opening two hours. On PS5, it has Activity Cards support. The Steam Deck version runs at higher frame rates than both PS5 and Switch, and the Switch version feels like a perfect fit for Nintendo’s console with a great port so far offering smooth performance and crisp visuals across the board.
I’ve barely scratched the surface of the turn-based combat and classes, but I want to highlight the many accessibility options included here letting you tweak the experience to your liking.
Shaun is working on a full review of SteamWorld Heist II, so I decided to write a bit about how I found the early hours and how it feels across platforms right now. Stay tuned for his full review.
News and Trailers
Atlus and SEGA released a new ATLUS Exclusive Showcase video for Metaphor: ReFantazio showcasing more of the story and characters including the candidates vying for kingly power in the Royal Tournament. Watch the full showcase below:
Bandai Namco Entertainment revealed many more playable characters for Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO in its new Saiyan and Namek Sagas trailer. Watch it below:
Shiravune is finally bringing the action RPG Utawarerumono ZAN to PC via Steam in 2025. It debuted on PS4 back in 2019. I hope this means ZAN 2 is also coming to Steam. That is yet to see an English release on any platform.
Panic is hosting its Panic Games Showcase on August 27th from 10 AM PT including updates on existing titles and more including Okomotive’s new game. Check out the live showcase site here.
Warner Brothers Games announced Mortal Kombat 1 Khaos Reigns, a new story expansion and Kombat Pack 2 for the game, due September 24th for all platforms. The new characters include Cyrax, Sektor, Noob Saibot, and more. Watch the trailer below:
Fantastic Fest has partnered with Day of the Devs for a new showcase in September’s festival from the 20th to the 22nd. It will feature 12 horror games that will be playable with special access and more available. Check out the details here.
Arc System Works released the Uzuki DLC for Under Night In-Birth II Sys:Celes following its announcement at EVO. I’ve played a bit with her on Switch and PS5, and she is great. UNI2 continues to deliver. Watch her launch trailer below:
SNK showcased Billy Kane for Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves during ChinaJoy with a new trailer. Billy Kane is voiced by Chris Sharpes in English and Masaki Masaki in Japanese. Watch his trailer below ahead of the game’s full launch:
Bandai Namco Entertainment has released a few trailers for its upcoming multiplayer focused SWORD ART ONLINE Fractured Daydream for Steam and all consoles. Watch the Agil trailer below:
Watch the Klein trailer below:
Watch the Silica trailer below:
Watch the Argo trailer below:
Watch the Lisbeth trailer below:
New Steam Deck Verified & Playable games for the week
The big news here is Dragon Age: The Veilguard and Romance of the Three Kingdoms 8 Remake already Steam Deck Verified when the former doesn’t even have a release date yet and the latter is months away. I hope EA considers removing the region lock in place for some regions on Steam for the game. Beyond that, Fallen Aces is Unsupported because it literally cannot be played without big tweaks, but I’m surprised that Selaco is Unsupported given how good it feels on Deck.
- Always Sometimes Monsters – Playable
- Athena Crisis – Verified
- Between Horizons – Verified
- Cat Quest III – Verified
- Chained Together – Unsupported
- Classic Marathon 2 – Playable
- Crime Boss: Rockay City – Verified
- Dragon Age: The Veilguard – Verified (Via TouchArcade reader Mor)
- Fallen Aces – Unsupported
- Frogun Encore – Playable
- Gestalt: Steam & Cinder – Verified
- HUMANITY – Verified
- Musashi vs Cthulhu – Playable
- My Little Pony: A Zephyr Heights Mystery – Verified
- No Rest for the Wicked – Verified
- ROMANCE OF THE THREE KINGDOMS 8 REMAKE – Playable
- Selaco – Unsupported
- STAR WARS: Bounty Hunter – Verified
- Thronefall – Verified
- Top Racer Collection – Playable
Steam Deck Game Sales, Discounts, and Specials
No major sales right now, but you can grab HITMAN World of Assassination Part One for 90% off. Don’t ask me what this needs to be upgraded though because I can’t get over how confusing IO Interactive has made this Steam version. I own the game on both consoles and haven’t tried it on Deck yet, but it is Verified.
That’s all for this edition of the Steam Deck Weekly. As usual, you can read all our past and future Steam Deck coverage here. If you have any feedback for this feature or what else you’d like to see us do around the Steam Deck, let us know in the comments below. I hope you all have a great day, and thanks for reading.
Update: Added more news on August 2nd, 2024.
