Great Retro Gaming Buyer’s Guide – Steam Sale Spring 2025 Recommendations

Earlier this week Valve began their most recent Steam sale for Spring 2025. To save us all a bunch of time searching for individual games, I’d like to showcase a lot of the high quality deals available for specifically retro and retro-inspired titles during the current sale.

Before we begin, it is important to keep in mind that this sale is significantly shorter than normal. It’s only for one week, ending on March 20th at 10:00 AM Pacific Time. So that none of us miss out on our favorite deals, make sure to get your orders in sooner rather than later!

Furthermore, due to time constraints, a number of the titles only show their name, followed by a dash and the price of the title rounded up to the next dollar. Because there are over 100 games in this list, I did not show cents or “$” signs to save time in preparing this post. I tried to include a brief note from me next to its price for many of the titles.

Also, I will say up front that I have not played every game that is listed here. The releases I am recommending are those that the larger gaming community on Reddit or YouTube seem to enjoy greatly. Additionally, there are some games that I have inadvertently left off. I’ve tried to prepare the largest list I could, while also avoiding sales that I don’t think are very exciting.

Note: The links after the Table of Contents automatically take you to the game’s Steam page directly. Please right-click on the link and choose to open it in a new tab to stay on this page. Thank you!! ^_^

Having shared those bits of info, let’s go to the Table of Contents,

Quality Bundle Offers on Steam

Final Fantasy I-VI Bundle – 53 – Includes Final Fantasy I-VI Pixel Remasters plus free wallpapers (14) and OSTs (20 tracks) with a 22% bundle discount.

Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection – 30 – Includes all versions of Mega Man Battle Network 1-6 with a 25% bundle discount.

Mega Man Pack – 30 – Includes 5 collections of Mega Man games and Mega Man 11 with a 40% bundle discount.

NEOGEO Bundle – 8 – Includes Baseball Stars 2, Metal Slug 1, 2, 3, Shock Troopers, and Twinkle Star Sprites with a 36% bundle discount.

Toaplan Arcade Shoot’em Up Ultimate Collection – 42 – 16 Toaplan shmups with a 46% bundle discount!

Valve Complete Pack – 25 – This includes lots of Half-Life, Half-Life 2, Team Fortress, and Portal games with a 10% bundle discount. The bundle discount isn’t very good, but the individual titles are reduced so much that it is fine.

Multi-genre Collections

Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration – 22 – Great history lessons in this collection. Get the DLC later if you want.

Capcom Arcade Stadium Complete Pack – 38 – Not the best deal on Capcom Arcade Stadium 1 & 2. However, if you want tons of excellent 2D Capcom games and can’t wait for them to be available for cheaper, this is still OK.

Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 – 42 – Includes a variety of 2D overhead and 3D action adventure stealth games.

NEOGEO Pocket Color Selection Vol. 1 Steam Edition – 8 – 10 NG Pocket Color Games. Widely considered superior to volume 2.

NEOGEO Pocket Color Selection Vol. 2 – 8 – 10 more NG Pocket Color Games. Some of these are in Japanese. It is worth it for Card Fighters Clash alone.

SNK 40^th Anniversary Collection – 6 – Contains both arcade and console versions of many games. Plus it has Crystalis. Great collection!

Sunsoft is Back! – 11 – Honestly a small collection and low on value. Except that it includes the first-person adventure game, Ripple Island, officially in English for the first time ever!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection – 16 – Contains a lot of beat’em ups, action platformers, and fighting games.

2D Side-scrolling Action

Ninja Saviors, The: Return of the Warriors – 12 – This is a revamped version of SNES side-scrolling beat’em up action game. Features one of the coolest female ninjas of the 80’s and 90’s.

Shadow of the Ninja – Reborn – 15 – A remake of the classic two-player action ninja game from the NES.

3D Action

Devil May Cry HD Collection – 10 – A collection of the first three devil-hunting action games, the first of which appeared on the PS2.

Ninja Gaiden Master Collection – 20 – An admittedly lazy port of the bloody and great 3D action Ninja Gaiden trilogy.

Metal Wolf Chaos XD – 13 – A bizarre action title where you destroy your enemies in a mech after an attempted coup. Oh, and you are the President of the United States.

2D Side-scrolling Action Adventure

Actraiser Renaissance – 15 – Remake of the popular action/sim game from the SNES. This version Includes a new tower defense mode that not everyone enjoys.

Another World – 20^th Anniversary Edition – 3 – Possibly the first side-scrolling action adventure game on a cartridge with real cinematics. Also known as “Out of this World” in the USA.

Castlevania Advance Collection -11 – Collection 3 GBA Castlevania titles. Includes the fan-favorite Aria of Sorrow. Also includes Castlevania: Dracula X on the SNES, which is extremely expensive.

Castlevania Dominus Collection – 20 – The shocking collection of the 3 DS Castlevania titles and a reworked version of Haunted Castle, the Castlevania arcade game.

Flashback – 2 – The second major side-scrolling action adventure title with cinematics on a cartridge. It was developed separated from Another World.

Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom – 10 – The 7th, and latest game in the Wonder Boy in Monster Land Series.

Shantae: Risky’s Revenge – Director’s Cut – 5 – A remake of the 2nd Shantae game. It is a very popular series.

Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World – 10 – A remake of Monster World IV, which happens to actually be the 6th Wonder Boy in Monster Land title.

Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap – 6 – This is a remake of the 5th Wonder Boy game. It’s original version was very popular on the Sega Master System.

3D Action Adventure

Batman: Arkham Asylum Game of the Year Edition – 4 – An extremely influental action adventure beat’em up with a strong story and excellent gameplay as the Caped Crusader.

Batman: Arkham City – Game of the Year Edition – 4 – Sequel to Batman: Arkham Asylum. Also highly regarded.

Batman: Arkham Knight – 4 – The 3rd game in the Arkham series. It was made by a different development team compared to the first two.

Beyond Good & Evil – 20^th Anniversary Edition – 14 – A remaster of the popular action adventure title.

Bully: Scholarship Edition – 6 – One of the greatest games focusing on school life ever.

Legend of Kay Anniversary – 5 – A remaster of a well-liked PS2 title.

Okami HD – 10 – Remastered version of a game that had an incredible artistic vision that didn’t sell too well on its original hardware. People who play it love this one.

Red Dead Redemption – 40 – Honestly, pretty highly priced, but at least it is now officially on PC.

Red Dead Redemption 2 – 15 – The sequel to the above that has been available on Steam for a long time.

Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell – 3 – One of the most important steal action adventure titles on the original Xbox. Super popular.

Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Chaos Theory – 3 – The 3rd game in the Splinter Cell series. Also very popular.

Yakuza 0 – 11 – Many other Yakuza games are also on sale. The Yakuza series is one of only a few M-rated games that I want to play.

Adventure

Beyond Shadowgate – 15 – A modern game, but the official sequel to the NES version of the legendary first-person adventure title, Shadowgate! For a review of it, see NESfriend’s video on YouTube!

Boy and His Blob Retro Collection, A – 6 – A small collection of the two Boy and His Blog games from the NES and Gameboy.

Dig, The – 3 – A point and click adventure exploring an asteroid that is coming toward earth.

I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream – 3 – A horrifying point and click adventure game that is based on the book of the same name.

Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis – 3 – An extremely impressive Indy point and click adventure game.

Monkey Island 2 Special Edition: LeChuck’s Revenge – One of the greatest adventure game sequels ever.

Myst – 18 – Remake of the very influential puzzle adventure game taking place on an island.

Sam & Max Save the World – 12 – One of the funniest point & click adventures from the mid-90’s, remade. See trilogy bundle here.

Secret of Monkey Island, The: Special Edition – 4 – A remake of the classic point & click adventure title with pirates, a boat salesman, and sword fights won by hilarious insults.

Shadowgate – 4 – The most popular first-person adventure game on the NES. It is impressive in many ways, including the ways you can die.

Beat’em Ups

Castle Crashers – 5 – Truly one of the most popular beat’em ups from the late 2000’s. It was originally on the Xbox 360.

Double Dragon Advance – 4 – A great version of Double Dragon from the GBA.

Double Dragon Trilogy – 2 – Mixed rating. A collection of the three Double Dragon Arcade games. It limits continues making completion difficult.

Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara – 5 – A compilation of the two highly regarded Dungeons & Dragons arcade games. Includes multiple paths for longer play time.

Fight’N Rage – 10 – A modern classic of the beat’em up genre. Excellent music and quality animation with branching paths at points.

Final Vendetta – 7 – A tribute to the classic beat’em ups of the 1990’s.

River City Ransom: Underground – 3 – One of the earlier sequels to the excellent River City Ransom game. This is the first time it has been on sale in 4 years!!

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game – Complete Edition – 5 – Another important title for the genre from the Xbox 360.

Streets of Rage 4 – 10 – The long-awaited sequel to the legendary beat’em up series. Adam Hunter is finally back. That is what matters the most. He was my main in SOR1.

Super Double Dragon – 4 – A port of the popular SNES title. Also includes superior Japanese version. Note: Go to graphics card settings to limit frames per second to 60.

Fighters

Garou: Mark of the Wolves – 3 – One of SNK’s most popular Neo Geo fighters. It pushed the original hardware to the limit!

King of Fighters, The ’98 Ultimate Match Final Edition – 3 – The first “Dream Match” in the KOF series. Still very popular.

King of Fighters, The 2002 Unlimited Match – 4 – The second “Dream Match” fighting game for KOF.

Last Blade 2, The – 2 – SNK’s popular weapons-based fighter with a different art style compared to Samurai Shodown.

Samurai Shodown V Special – 2 – Another popular fighter in SNK’s back catalog of classic Neo Game games.

SNK Vs. Capcom: The Match of the Millennium – 2 – In my opinion, the best portable fighter ever.

Street Fighter V – Champion Edition – 10 – If interested, you can also get the Season 5 Premium Pass for $10 more.

Ultra Street Fighter IV – 4

Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. – 40 – The return of the legendarily important 3D fighter franchise. I recommend the 30^th Anniversary Edition.

If you want 2D Capcom Fighters, the Capcom Arcade Stadium 1 & 2 is a good choice, if a bit higher priced.

First Person Shooters

Doom + Doom II – 4 – More famous first-person shooting action. It includes a multitude of extra levels and expansions, including Final Doom.

Doom 3 – 4 – One of the most important horror first-person shooters ever. Extremely lifelike graphics and incredible lighting. It required many gamers to upgrade their PCs.

Doom 64 – 2 – The classic N64 first-person shooter.

Half-Life – 2 – Super influential shooter.

Half-Life 2 – 2 – Super duper influential shooter.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection – 10 – A collection of many classic Halo games, originally released on Xbox and Xbox 360.

Killing Time: Resurrected – 17 – A remake of one of the most important 3DO titles.

PowerSlave Exhumed – 8 – A remaster of the Egyptian-themed shooter based on the PS1 and Saturn games. The DOS Classic Edition is available for $5 here.

Quake – 4 – The first fully-polygonal first-person shooter with critical success. Required many to upgrade their PCs.

Quake II – 4

Quake III Arena – 6

Quake 4 – 5

Red Faction Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered – 4 – Features impressive physics-based destruction of the Mars landscape.

Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster – 18 – A remaster of the classic Star Wars shooter.

Turok – 5 – A port of the N64 shooter where you get to shoot dinosaurs.

Turok 2: Seeds of Evil – 5

Turok 3: Shadows of Oblivion Remastered – 18

Wolfenstein 3D – 2 – The genre-defining classic first-person shooter.

Other (Where I’ve Only Picked One or Two Games From a Genre)

Command & Conquer Remastered Collection – 6 – Fabulous FMV. Oh, and it’s a series of real-time strategy games too.

DIRT Rally 2.0 – 4 – Considered by many to still be the best rally racing game ever.

Fire Pro Wrestling World – 9 – The only Fire Pro Wrestling game on steam. Very popular series in Japan.

Katamari Damacy Reroll – 8 – You walk around and collect things into a ball until you are rolling around trees and buildings. And the story is crazy absurd. Well-known for quality music.

We Love Katamari Reroll+ Royal Reverie – 8 – Sequel to Katamari Damacy Reroll.

Platformers

Castle of Illusion – 4 – Remake of the popular Disney platformer on the Genesis.

Disney Afternoon Collection, The – 5 – A collection of 6 NES platformers, some of which cost a lot of money.

DuckTales: Remastered – 4 – A remake of the first DuckTales NES game. Includes voice over from members of the original cast.

Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series – 10 – A compilation of 2 Klonoa games by Namco. Quality, but not the biggest when it comes to sales, sadly.

Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove – 22 – A collection of multiple games in the Shovel Knight world. It was a big hit upon release.

Sonic Generations Collection – 25 – Great game where you can play as two different versions of Sonic, each with different playstyles.

Sonic Mania – 5 – One of the favorite Sonic games.

Sonic Origins Plus – 16 – This is the sales page for Sonic Origins, I recommend the Plus version for the additional Game Gear games.

Tomba! Special Edition – 13 – Remaster of the popular 2.5D PS1 platformer. Throw pigs with reckless abandon!

Umihara Kawase – 3 – A port of the unique platformer starring a girl with a fishing hook. Other games in the series become very difficult.

3D Platformers

Disney Epic Mickey: Rebrushed – 30

Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two – 7

TY the Tasmanian Tiger – 6 – Overwhelmingly popular platformer taking place in Australia.

Action Platformers

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon – 5 – Old-school 2D platformer like earlier Castlevania games.

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 – 6 – More Classic Castlevania-esq goodness.

Castlevania Anniversary Collection – 4 – A collection of the first four mainline Castlevania titles along with other popular games.

Dust: An Elysian Tail – 4 – A gorgeously illustrated action platformer.

Ghosts ‘n Goblins Resurrection – 10

Mega Man Legacy Collection – 6 – For these Mega Man Collections, consider the Mega Man Pack.

Mega Man Legacy Collection 2 – 8

Mega Man 11 – 10

Mega Man X Legacy Collection – 8

Mega Man X Legacy Collection 2 – 8

Mega Man Zero/ZX Legacy Collection – 10

Action RPGs

Bastion – 3

Fable Anniversary – 12 – The popular Xbox RPG enhanced for PC .

Legend of Mana – 12 – The classic sequel to Trials of Mana for the PS1. Highly regarded.

Kingdom Hearts – HD 1.5+2.5 ReMIX- – 30

Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection Vol. 1 – 20 – See bundle discount above.

Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection Vol. 2 – 20 – See bundle discount above.

Trials of Mana – 20 – Popular remake of the sequel to Secret of Mana.

Ys Origin – 5 – The prequel to Ys 1, explaining the origin of Darm Tower, among many other things from the series.

Ys I & II Chronicles+ – 5 – The beginning of the adventures of Adol the Red, who stars in nearly every Ys game.

Ys: The Oath in Felghana – 5

Ys: Memories of Celceta – 15

Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim – 5

Ys SEVEN – 15

Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of DANA – 20

Ys IX: Monstrum Nox – 30

JRPGs

Atelier Marie Remake: The Alchemist of Salburg – 25

Baten Kaitos I & II HD Remaster – 35

Bravely Default II – 24

Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition – 8 – Sequel to Chrono Trigger.

Chrono Trigger – 4 – One of the most beloved RPG games ever featuring time travel and multiple endings. This price is the lowest it’s been in 2 years.

Collection of SaGa Final Fantasy Legend – 10 – Collection of 3 popular grindy RPGs from the gameboy. Great 8-bit chiptune music.

Grandia HD Remaster – 10 – Remake of the very popular Sega Saturn RPG.

Grandia II HD Remaster – 10 – Remake of the Sega Dreamcast sequel.

Legend of Heroes, The: Trails in the Sky – 10 – There are a lot of games in this series, but I don’t know the proper order for them all. I think this is the first.

Live A Live – 20

Octopath Traveler – 24

Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure – 12 – A funny series of RPGs where characters break out into song at regular intervals. It is quite unique. A great starter RPG.

Rhapsody II: Ballad of the Little Princess – 15

Rhapsody III: Memories of Marl Kingdom – 15

Septerra Core – 4 – A Western RPG made partly in the style of a JRPG following the huge success of Final Fantasy VII on PS1.

Star Ocean The Second Story R – 30 – Remake of the very popular RPG featuring two main characters and many options for party members.

Tales of Symphonia – 5 – Many other games in the Tales series are currently on sale.

Undertale – 1 – Overwhelmingly popular RPG with retro graphics.

Final Fantasy JRPGs (So Many It Gets Its Own Section!)

Final Fantasy – 9 – A remake of the first of the now famous series. If this game had failed, Square would have gone out of business.

Final Fantasy II – 9

Final Fantasy III – 13

Final Fantasy IV – 13 – The first game in the series for the SNES. Very popular.

Final Fantasy V – 13

Final Fantasy VI – 13 – One of the only games as popular as Chrono Trigger. Legendary in practically every way.

Final Fantasy VII – 5 – Original version. When this was first advertised, Sony just put cinemas together with no gameplay shown. People bought it without even knowing what genre it was. Then many of them returned it.

Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII- Reunion – 25 – Action RPG.

Final Fantasy VIII – 5

Final Fantasy IX – 9 – One of the last Final Fantasy games with a heavy fantasy design. Vivi is fabulous in this game.

Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster – 12

Final Fantasy XII The Zodiac Age – 20

Final Fantasy XIII – 7

Final Fantasy XIII-2 – 8 – This has a mixed rating on Steam. I just want to keep adding to this section of links.

Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII – 8

Tactical/Strategy RPGs

Disgaea PC – 10

Disgaea 2 PC – 10

Disgaea 4 Complete+ – 20

Disgaea 5 Complete – 20

Disgaea 6 Complete – 30

Front Mission 1^st: Remake – 12 – Remake of classic SNES Mech strategy RPG.

Front Mission 2: Remake – 18 – Mixed rating on Steam.

La Pucelle: Ragnarok – 12

Langrisser I & II – 15 – Remake of the first two games in the popular strategy RPG series with excellent 1990’s character designs.

Phantom Brave PC – 4

Super Robot Wars 30 – 20 – The only game in this series that is officially available in English.

Tactics Ogre: Reborn – 25 – Remake of classic PS1 strategy RPG.

Valkyria Chronicles – 5

Valkyria Chronicles 4 Complete Edition – 10

Shmups

Arcade Classics Anniversary Collection – 4 – Contains many classic Konami shmups from years gone by.

BLUE REVOLVER – 8

Crimzon Clover World Explosion – 12

Darius Cozmic Collection Arcade – 23

DARIUSBURST Chronicle Saviours – 15

Devil Blade Reboot – 13 – Shmup fans rave about this game!

Dodonpach Resurrection – 11

Game Tengoku CruisinMix Special – 11

Ikaruga – 5 – Spiritual successor to Radiant Silvergun.

Mushihimesama – 7 – Super popular bug princess shmup.

R-Type Dimensions EX – 8

Radiant Silvergun – 8 – Famous Shmup with level-up mechanics.

Ray’z Arcade Chronology – 25 – Collection of 3 popular vertical shmups.

Shooters

Contra Anniversary Collection – 4 – Compilation of many Contra games for a variety of systems.

EX-Zodiac – 6 – Very popular shooter Inspired by Starfox.

Halo: Spartan Assault – 1 – Overhead shooter set in the Halo universe.

Halo: Spartan Strike – 1

Mirage Feathers – 4 – On-rails shooter with a nice anime aesthetic.

Renegade Ops – 4

Rez Infinite – 8 – On-rails shooter with incredible music and visual design.

Xeno Crisis – 10 – Popular overhead shooter similar to Smash TV.

Wild Guns Reloaded – 8 – Remake of popular SNES run and gun shooter that is now very expensive.

Conclusion

And there you have it! This is the list that I was able to prepare for this Steam sale for Spring 2025, which again, is ending soon on March 20th! I know that there are many titles that I haven’t included above, but this is a fair sampling of a lot of the retro and retro-inspired titles that are available at really good prices for the next few days.

Do any of the games listed above surprise you? Are there any that you’re going to buy after seeing this?

I know that the main one I am getting is River City Ransom: Underground because it hasn’t been on sale for four years. That was the title I was extremely surprised to find while I was scanning my Wishlist a couple days ago. Thank you for making it this far down the post!