I've been playing BAZR on my steam deck. A rom hack of Super Mario 64 that turns it into a roguelike deck builder. The B A Z and R buttons, instead of doing their original things, now activate corresponding cards in your hand for actions like jumps, punches, etc with a limited number of uses. It was initially very intimidating and difficult but after a few runs I'm starting to get wins in and unlocking new decks and characters. That being said I 120 starred (100%) the original, and the same for SM64DS, so I'm quite familiar with the stages, and the game expects you to be.

Every run gives you a random starting stage, which you can change away from by collecting every star or paying coins to change stages (higher cost the more stars remain). Ideally you want those coins for buying and upgrading cards. Getting a star gives you 20 coins, plus whatever you collected along the way, plus a bonus/penalty based on how long it took you. Collect 16 stars and you're taken to a final level consisting of all three bowser stages, back to back. Don't run out of jumps!

For the price of free I'd recommend it for anyone who has previously played SM64. I don't think it would be a good introductory version of the game. Link for the curious

More Ace Combat!

I tried to play Shadow of the Tomb Raider but an online account, unskippable cut scenes, and quick time events for the first 10 minutes minimum made me uninstall it. Just not my kinda game.

Valkyria Chronicles 4. I often have a hard time enjoying Japanese titles. With a lot of them the characters look kinda weird, the pace is sluggish with a lot of unneccessary dialogue and the UI is clutteded. Decided to give this one a go anyway and while some of the mentioned tropes are very much present it still slaps because of the unique gameplay.

Natural Selection 2 is still an awesome game with a pratically unique gameplay. It's an RTS/FPS hybrid with asymmetrical teams. It's worth checking out if you can handle a bit of a learning curve.

I'm going against my usual behaviour and playing multiple games at once this week. I've almost finished Ninja Gaiden 2 Black (White), and this will probably be my go-to way to experience NG2 going forward. It's not quite the full ridiculousness of the original (and the added girl chapters from Sigma do kind of ruin the pacing and flow) but it just looks so good and plays so smooth at 120 FPS. And it has full controller remapping like NGB had but NG2 lacked, so I can have light attack on R1 and heavy attack on R2 again. With the fixes and additions from the White mod it comes close enough to a "best of both worlds" version to satisfy me, and I have enjoyed some of the Sigma inclusions like the Enma's Fang greatsword weapon and the removal of the tunnel worm boss.

Having finally received my package I also started on Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword that I'm playing on my N3DS. It was also Itagaki-designed and released between NGB and NG2. It's a really interesting game, using the DS held in portrait mode like a book and the stylus as the only control input. It looks absolutely fantastic for a DS game, and the gameplay is surprisingly well translated from the mainline titles. It looks and feels just like a proper Ninja Gaiden title, with familiar animations and enemies and fast combat. It also has a fantastic Ninpo system where you draw the sign of the Ninpo you're casting with the stylus, which is very fun so far. The only issue I'm having with it is constantly worrying that I'll scratch the touchscreen from all the stylus use.

Peak

I‘m still playing Peak, if the stupid tomb opens today, I could get the last achievement! The next update is already in the works though, lookinf forward to it.

Children of Morta

Aside from that, my friend‘s back in town so we‘re also trying to finish Children of Morta. We have freed the three dudes, so I think we‘re close to the end.

I've been playing Dying Light 2 after seeing some gameplay videos for the new one coming out this week. It made me think, I never finished that as I did buy it at or close to launch but got bored after 50hrs or so. But I think they've done a lot of updates on the combat and movement since release because the game feels so much better, I'm having a blast!

The original Red Dead Redemption, with 2 lined up once I finish it. I'm honestly surprised by how good it holds up, visually and storywise.

I started playing a VR game called "mothergunship: forge" it's a roguelike wave shooter that gives you a bunch of blocks to build insane weapons that grow crazier and crazier every room. I prefer to put everything on the left hand so it ends up looking like a tree full of connectors, guns, power-ups, hats and keys XD

Pokemon Blue using RetroArch on my phone. I got a gameboy color skin for the interface and laying in bed at night playing pokemon under the blanket makes me feel like a kid in the 90s again.

Also 'The Midnight Walk'. The atmosphere and art style are perfection.