Today, I’m beginning a new series of posts on Cheap Retro Gaming! Each Friday, I’m going to share the most interesting retro-inspired (or not) titles that are available for free now. Just in time for the weekend! I hope you find something fun to play! If anything, I think I’ll be interesting just to see what’s out there.
Many of these titles are new releases that just came out on Steam in the first full week of March, 2025. The genres on offer include a lot of puzzle games, a couple of adventure titles with horror elements, two hack & slash action games from different perspectives, and some rather unusual story-focused games. Let’s get started!
If want to jump to a specific section, here’s the table of contents:
- Epic Games Store’s Free 2D Animal Fighter
- Casual or Kid-Friendly Games (Many With Puzzle Elements)
- More Puzzle Games
- Two Action Games
- 9 Minigames at Once, and Two More Platformers
- Short Adventures With Horror Elements
- Narrative Visual Novel or Story-Focused Games
- Final Thoughts
Epic Games Store’s Free Game
Them’s Fightin’ Herds (Epic Games Store)
Tags: 2D Fighting, Animals, Cute
These Fightin’ Herds is a 2D fighting game featuring a cast of animals designed by cartoon producer Lauren Faust. It’s rated as very positive on Steam. Unfortunately, the developers were bought out and laid off before they were able to complete the story mode.
Casual or Kid-Friendly Games
Tags: Cute, 2D, Puzzle, Cartoon, Kid Friendly, Casual, Cozy
Face to Face has cute fruit-like shapes falling from the ceiling to the ground. You click on a couple of them with your mouse cursor and they “kiss” and disappear if the colors match. The trailer for it is really calm and chill.
Tags: 3D, Cozy Collectathon Fishing Game, Kid Friendly, Exploration
Note: This game is free only until the morning of Sunday, March 9th.
This is a cozy, relaxing fishing game with exploration and collectathon elements. You are on an island and can find little trinkets and fish at different places. Those who’ve gotten it recently often complain that it gets boring after a couple of hours. But according to the game’s trailer, it’s just supposed to be a nice little relaxing game! If that is your style, add it to your library soon. The giveaway ends on March 9.
Tags: 2D, Abstract, Casual, Puzzle, Kid Friendly
This is a puzzle game about sending resources down a path that has obstacles which hinder your way. It’s said to be simple, but also brilliant and well-crafted. Sounds pretty impressive!
Tags: Cute, 2D, Casual, Puzzle
A super cute looking puzzle game where you rotate the levels to get your little dino to the end! I don’t know why it isn’t stated as kid friendly on the sales page. I find it charming.
Puzzle Games
Tags: Third Person, Dark Fantasy, Puzzle, Adventure, Short
This is a third-person dark fantasy puzzle game that is played from the perspective of an adventure title. The environmental puzzles seem to be related to moving beams of light into multiple crystals in order to progress. I like the art direction and music in this one. Some reviewers say it is short.
Tags: Puzzle, Platformer, Cartoon, Short, Narrative
Little Luna is a short puzzle platformer with a cartoony art style. The music is pleasant and the story seems to really grip players’ hearts. The store page says it is family friendly, but I’m not sure.
Two Action Games
Tags: Top-Down Action Adventure, Difficult, Exploration
Beamdown is a 3D top-down hack & slash action game featuring fast combat, character upgrades, and boss battles. While it includes different environments to explore, some say it still feels like a demo. Otherwise, players compare it to earlier Baldur’s Gate games and Hades. I think this is in the sense of the game’s perspective, but I may be wrong. To me, it looks kind of like the first Diablo, but with a far less exciting art style.
Tags: Side-Scrolling Action Platformer, 2D, Pixel art
Colossal Crisis is a supposedly fast-paced 2D hack & slash platformer. When I watched the trailer, it reminded me a little bit of the first Castlevania with a heavy use of attacks, but with much more boring art direction and music. Since I like side-scrolling platformers I want to try it out anyway. I eventually was able to play this, see my review here!
9 Minigames at Once, and Two More Platformers
Tags: Minimalistic, Difficult, Minigames, Keyboard, Innovative
This is a bizarre series of minigames that are played simultaneously using keys on the keyboard. Some keys change the game you are focused on, while others cause you to do actions. Meanwhile, all the other games are still running! You may need to watch the video on the Steam page for it to make sense. I give it mad props for its originality!
Tags: Cute, Side scrolling, Platformer, Runner, In-app purchases?
This is a cute side-scrolling runner platformer hybrid that reminds me of Snakebird Primer aesthetically, but with a completely different style of gameplay. I took kid friendly off from the tags above because the game seems to have in-app purchases according to a “MASSIVE Launch Discount” mentioned on the free game’s page.
Tags: 2D, Difficult, Pixel Art, Platformer
Apparently, you fling yourself around a bunch in this game, and you are trying to fix a broken cash register that won’t scan milk. None of that makes sense to me, but it sounds absurd! The two positive English reviews for the game really dig it.
Short Adventures With Horror Elements
Tags: 2D, Point & Click, Adventure, Dark Fantasy, Hand Drawn, Horror
URLate is a short point and click adventure game with puzzles and horror elements. I find the lighting to be really intriguing, but I tend not to play horror games. I hope people like it!
Tags: 2D, Side Scrolling, Black & White, Space, Adventure, Pixel Art, Horror
This is a side scrolling adventure game where you control a moon rover to investigate unusual activity on the lunar surface. It features some neat stylized black and white pixel art. Try not to look at the additional tags for the game on the Steam page, I think it spoils some things in the story. I wasn’t planning on playing this game due to the horror tag, but I ended up being really curious about its art style, so here my review!
Narrative Visual Novel or Story-Focused Games
These titles here may not be full of gameplay, but I want to support titles focused on sharing a story that impacts the player emotionally. Therefore, I am including these, even if the first one has a rather surprising subject matter!
First Steps in Child Developmental Support
Tags: Anime, Educational, Narrative, Adventure
Of all the games on this list, this is the strangest! According to the sales page, it is designed to help people learn how to support disabled children and their families. The topic is so unusual that I am curious about it.
Tags: Anime, AI Art, Narrative, Politics, Visual Novel, War
Another challenging title. From reading the description, it is obvious that this fictional story is alluding to something that a number of people are concerned about today. The creators used multiple AI tools in the production of this game, but I am glad they disclose that with some detail.
Tags: Cinematic, PC Hardware, Software, Realistic, Visual Novel
Not really a game, I think, but something to share for fans of Personal Computers and NVIDIA. It takes the viewer through a nostalgic journey through three GPUs while pushing even the RTX 4090 to its limits. What they said about pushing RTX 4090’s to the limit was no joke! See my review of this if you’d like.
Final Thoughts
Since this is my first Friday’s Free Games segment, I am not sure how good this series of titles will be viewed in the future. Even so, one thing I appreciate is the diversity of games on offer for this weekend! Some of them do seem to be lacking in features or depth, with many being described as short by reviewers. Nonetheless, every game shared here has some degree of merit, in my opinion.
I recognize that not all of them are really “retro” in design, but I still included them. The reason being that I think that they will be interesting to other gamers, even if they’re not for me. And that is part of the point. I want to help people find what may be enjoyable to them due to its gameplay, audio or visuals, or because it conveys something important to them on an emotional level.
Hopefully I’ll be able to share more next Friday. I’ll see you then!
In the meantime, what did you think of this list? Did you add any of the games to your library? Let me know!
Cheap Retro Gaming 
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