So many.

Hollow Knight, Celeste, Outer Wilds, Subnautica, Stardew Valley, Slay the Spire and Zachtronics games likely need no introduction. Then there’s also…

Bug Fables. Incredibly satisfying Paper Mario-like which has thrived into its own thing.

Baba is You/Environmental Station Alpha, hempuli games. The former you’ve likely heard of, a logic Sokobon with truly mindbending puzzles deeper within (and a level editor!! god, I could gush about level editors for hours). ESA is an older hempuli metroidvania. If you’re a fan of that genre, it’s among the best.

Caves of Qud – the best true roguelike IMO. It has so much flavor.

Slime Rancher [2], my beloved serotonin game.

Against the Storm, really well polished citybuilder that emphasizes the first few hours of citybuilding. It’s a bit hard to explain here, but I’d suggest looking into it if you’re a fan!

Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga, my personal favorite tactical RPG.

I could go on but I gotta draw the line somewhere…

This is a weird one, because I think the title of the game is putting people off as it’s nowhere near as popular as it should be. However, please give me a chance here to convince you to try it.

Intergalactic Fishing.

You don’t actually need to be into fishing games to enjoy it. The fishing, although about as addictive as most good fishing minigames, is only a small portion of the game.

It also revolves around a similar style of exploration to some space games, such as No Man’s Sky and Elite Dangerous. While progressing through the storyline you will gain access to undiscovered lakes with their own unique species of fish, and information collected about these lakes can be sold.

Catching fish gives you information about that fish’s likes in terms of lure, along with a few other attributes. You can then use this information to design a lure to suit it. This becomes a puzzle game, as lures are designed by arranging squares on a grid. Factors such as “shininess” and “noise” are infkuenced by putting more blocks near the edges, or leaving more holes and forming irregular shapes.

It’s primarily a sandbox game, but there is a short storyline. Once finished though, the game opens up into an addictive endgame that I don’t want to spoil. Tournaments and contracts are a nice diversion throughout the game and can also net you (sorry for the pun, but fish puns are hard to avoid) a decent amount of cash.

It’s quickly become one of my favourite games of all time.