The Steam Deck, Valve’s mega-powerful mini-PC, only arrived this year, and while there are many reasons to check out one of the most exciting pieces of gaming hardware available today, the amount of great, hassle-free games available on the device is proof enough of its success.

But Steam is a big marketplace, and not every game works well on the Deck.

But worry not, this list will guide you to the best experiences you can have in year one of the Steam Deck’s life.

As you may know, there are relatively simple ways to get non-Steam games running on the Deck, but those we’ll handle another time.

Sadly, Outward has a lot of text—a lot of important text and menu dives that, on the Steam Deck’s smaller screen, become something of a deal breaker.

You might have a great time with this on Deck, but I found the smaller text font to weigh too much against the game to include it in the main list.

Okay, with those out of the way, let’s get into the best Steam Deck games of 2022.

When Elden Ring dropped, the Steam Deck was one of the best ways to play the latest Miyazaki jam, and it still is.

It’s one of the best games on this list.

This is a perfect game to keep coming back to to try and up your scores, making it a wonderful “on-the-go” experience that feels right at home on the Steam Deck’s controls.

And, dare I say, the Steam Deck is one of the best ways to play this space-exploration sim.

I’d love the font to be a touch larger on the Deck, but the game makes up for it with its vibrant visuals and grand scope, which I find sit so well on the smaller screen that they convey a sense of scale that lost on larger resolutions.

But fortunately, the game runs really well on Deck.

And because Teardown’s performance on the Steam Deck is so great, you can really just get lost in the sandbox and have a great time messing around.

As a result, it’s the first game of this list that I played on the Deck until the battery died.

Some may be divided over tweaks to the original story, but Final Fantasy VII Remake is a great, gorgeous action RPG experience that translates very well to the Steam Deck.

You’re likely to encounter some dropped frames during more hectic battles, and in general the game has a “softness” to its visual quality from needing to ramp down the settings and stay within 800p, but the Steam Deck provides an excellent way to play this 2020 title that hit Steam for the first time just a short while ago!

Remake contains some of my favorite Final Fantasy combat, and slipping back into this game on Steam Deck was a great way to relive its unique blend of command-based and real-time combat.

The game has you reading out actual meters and features in a simulated cockpit rather than a HUD, and I think this aspect translates really well to the Deck.

Having to look down at your throttle to check your speed, or call up an actual second screen to zoom in on targets, really sells the experience of being inside a mech and on the Deck, the use of the expanded controls makes you feel like you’re piloting a complex piece of machinery.

When you do, your avatar actually moves their hand to a different joystick to perform this operation, so there’s this really cool parity between what you’re doing on the physical controls of the Steam Deck and what your character is doing in game.

It’s a perfect “chill out” game that looks and reads well on the Steam Deck, great for when you’re on the go or just hanging out at home

Not everyone may be convinced that Shadow of the Colossus’ formula needed extra mechanics, but Praey is a fitting tribute to the PlayStation classic that’s willing to take some risks of its own—and the Steam Deck is one of the best places to experience it

There’s an undeniable “PS2-ness” to Praey For The Gods, and it works really well on the Deck’s smaller resolution

It might not be best for an on-the-go experience given how long the boss fights can go on for, so it’s more suited for playing on the couch—and definitely wear headphones, this game has some great music and sound design

It performs really well on Steam Deck and, similar to No Man’s Sky, there’s something about a smaller screen depicting large entities, be they planets or epic bosses, that, to me, sells the scope a bit more than a 4k screen would

Even when including the honorable mentions on this list, picking the top 10 Steam Deck games of 2022 wasn’t easy

Combine the range and diversity of the Steam Deck’s library with some really incredible control layouts and the options to adjust graphics settings like you would on a PC, and it’s not hard to see why so many are lining up to get one