The saga of PlayStation emulation continues on my Steam Deck. I won’t list every game I’ve played, as some I’ve bounced off of very quickly, but here are the more major highlights:

RayStorm

This was a cool scrolling shooter that I had a demo for way back in the day. Your ship shoots forward as is standard for the genre, but it can also lock on to targets outside your current plane. I ended up playing it for longer than I did Einhänder, and the graphics and settings upscaled really well, so it was quite pretty. The difficulty was brutal though, and even with save states there were sections that seemed outright impossible to get through without dying.

Silent Bomber

Here’s the quick history of this game for me:

I first played it on a demo disc which only had a level or two. I played those levels over and over again as a kid. The game was impossible to find an actual copy of, so I was stuck with just the demo.

I later played the full thing, but not on PlayStation. It was instead on my Dreamcast, but the game was never actually released for the Dreamcast! Instead, it worked via a hacked version of the bleem! emulator. I found a sketchy download for this back in the early 2000s and was thrilled when I stuck the burned disc in my Dreamcast and it actually booted and played.

I then promptly forgot the game existed — for about, eh, 20 years give or take.

In the game you run around and lay down bombs either individually or in stacks and then blow them up at will. The game has a sort of futuristic, gray-ish Metal Gear Solid aesthetic and is quite fun. I’m halfway through the game and enjoying it. I’m planning on seeing it through to the end.

Wild 9

I literally knew nothing about this game before booting it up. Turns out it’s a 2.5D sidescrolling platforming combat game, but instead of fighting people directly, you have a grappling hook. You latch that onto enemies and then you can swing them around the level and hit them into things to kill them. You can also use it to cart them into spikes and hazards placed around the level.

It’s a really cool idea on paper, but after two levels I was pretty much done. The novelty wears thin quickly, the levels themselves are way too long, and the player movement is much slower than it needs to be.

Vib-Ribbon

I loved the soundtrack for this game (“Laugh & Peace” anyone?), but it never released in the US, so Americans were denied its delights. I never actually got to play the game and was stuck listening to the MP3s from it that I’d downloaded off of KaZaA.

If you’re not familiar with the game, check out its fantastic How to Play to get a feel for the game’s distinct and joyful personality.

I’m thrilled that I finally get to play it. It feels like a sibling game to Jet Set Radio.

Vampire Survivors - it seems like everyone is playing this, and I am also playing this. Pretty fun, simple, well worth the 3 or so bucks I paid for it. It's a bullet hell where all you do is walk around; your weapons fire automatically. You pick up things as you walk around that upgrade and sometimes evolve your weapons. The levels are 30 minutes long at most (with rare exceptions) so it's good for a lunchtime game or something short. Graphics are very NES-ish; it was originally a browser game, I think for a game jam. Tons of fun, and I think it's still getting updates.

Satisfactory

I broke my normal rule of not buying early access games with this one, and so far its been a blast. There are still some bugs, especially visual ones and stuff with vehicles, but overall its been immensely enjoyable. Nothing like hard crashes or corrupted saves. The factory building aspect is great, very similar to factorio but without the jank of inserters to think of. Resources don't deplete, which is nice, but to expand you have to explore. I think the game needs better / faster travel options though, too much time is spent running / driving / tubing around and while "hypercube cannons" are fast they are arguably a bug and dangerous.

Shing!

Got this game from a Humble Bundle. It was ok, but using both joysticks on an xbox controller AND using buttons was annoying. I would avoid this game.

Yoku's Island express

Boy was this a great little 8-10 hour game! Its a fusion of platformers and pinball, with cute artwork and decent music. You play as a dung beetle postman trying to save the island. The mechanics are solid and the pinball action 'feels' good. Some of the puzzles to get the special ending are annoying but the core game is just a good time.