Browse by year
203 games released in 2019 and reviewed here, best first.
203 reviews
A Fire Emblem-style turn-based tactics game built with Phaser 3 - move units across a grid, manage HP, and plan attacks - confirmed working correctly through a full select-unit, view-move-range sequence on desktop, and correctly shipped desktop-only since movement is bound exclusively to keyboard.
7.6 / 10
A genuinely original js13k 2019 physics-flick game about magically hurling a slice of toast so it lands butter-side up — the drag-to-apply-force mechanic was tested directly and confirmed working identically by touch and by mouse.
7.6 / 10
A local-multiplayer Asteroids-like with a time-rewind mechanic, built for js13k 2019 - confirmed working correctly through a full join-select-ready-and-fly sequence for two independently controlled players, and correctly shipped desktop-only since the developer built it exclusively for keyboard and gamepad.
7.5 / 10
Nicky Case and Monplaisir's follow-up to Coming Out Simulator casts you as a person's anxiety itself, and dresses its ordinary tap-to-choose dialogue in an HP bar and "special attacks" — a clever costume for a mechanic that, underneath, never gets more demanding than a menu.
7.5 / 10
A quarter-century-old RTS landmark, still played and beloved by a genuinely intergenerational audience — and, since early 2025, at the center of a real controversy among its own most dedicated veterans over new Three Kingdoms civilizations they say abandon the series' historical design philosophy.
7.5 / 10
A genuinely clever, twist-heavy sci-fi murder mystery from Zero Escape creator Kotaro Uchikoshi, widely praised for its plotting and conclusive ending — but weighed down by extensive, near-constant sexual humor that a substantial share of its own fans call genuinely uncomfortable rather than just juvenile.
7.5 / 10
A beloved co-op space-building sandbox with three distinct eras in its review history — an adored Early Access, a 1.0 launch derailed by an EULA backlash that had nothing to do with the game, and a 2025 wave of long-term fans warning newcomers about DLC and premium currency arriving after a "strategic acquisition."
7.5 / 10
A colony sim that turns its whole progression system into a programming lesson — you don't unlock better robots, you unlock better scripts, and the game lives or dies on whether that scripting language can keep up with the colony you build with it.
7.5 / 10
A Seville studio's Kickstarter-funded Metroidvania built from Spanish Holy Week processions and Goya paintings -- still Very Positive on Steam seven years and three free expansions later, with the exact same critic-and-player split that greeted it at launch: some of the best pixel art and atmosphere in the genre, wrapped around movement and combat feel a real share of players never warm to.
7.5 / 10
A tight, gorgeous retro run-and-gun that reviewers repeatedly call one of the best Contra successors ever made, undercut for a real minority by the total absence of diagonal aiming and a handful of specific control frustrations.
7.5 / 10
Koji Igarashi's Kickstarter-funded spiritual successor to Symphony of the Night is still a deep, generously-supported Metroidvania seven years on -- but a December 2025 switch to requiring Epic Online Services has visibly dragged its recent review score down from Very Positive to Mostly Positive.
7.5 / 10
A distinctive, charming dice-based roguelike deckbuilder from VVVVVV and Super Hexagon creator Terry Cavanagh — widely loved for its unusual mechanics and per-character variety, but a detailed, well-organized minority argues the actual decisions rarely matter as much as the dice do.
7.5 / 10
A clean, actively-maintained implementation of the classic drop-a-piece board game, where the entire touch interface is a single tap on any column — confirmed by testing to drop a piece and trigger a working AI response on both a phone and a desktop mouse.
7.5 / 10
A 2019 Steam idle-RPG where the class you pick isn't a build for life — it's a costume you're expected to change every run, and the game is built to make that swapping the whole point.
7.5 / 10
A gleefully retro Build-engine FPS from 3D Realms and Voidpoint that reviewers widely call the best game ever made on that engine, with masterful secret-packed level design — though a long campaign, thin enemy variety and a few weak weapons wear thin for a real share of players by the back half.
7.5 / 10
A faithful Simon-style color-and-sound memory game whose four-panel touch targets were confirmed to register correct taps by directly reading the game's own sequence state and turn logic.
7.5 / 10
A genuinely acclaimed medieval melee combat game whose combat system reviewers on both sides of the score still call the best in its genre — undercut by a worsening, well-corroborated problem as the game ages: a shrinking, veteran-dominated population creates a steep skill gap that new players increasingly describe as insurmountable, with negative reviews trending upward every year since 2021.
7.5 / 10
A gorgeously written 'mutant soap opera' about visiting an island community while your grandfather recovers, beloved almost universally for its ensemble cast and sense of place — undercut for some players by unclear objectives and a gardening mechanic whose purpose is never fully explained.
7.5 / 10
A solo Swedish developer's five-years-in-the-making remake of his own 2014 cult Flash game -- bullet-time gun-fu narrated by a sentient banana -- still Overwhelmingly Positive on Steam seven years on, with a strikingly consistent complaint: a first half nearly everyone loves, and a back half a real share of players say runs out of ideas.
7.5 / 10
A well-liked gunplay-and-souls hybrid whose negative sample carries a genuine, multi-year design complaint about mob-swarmed boss fights, a serious matchmaking flaw that let cheaters corrupt other players' saves, and one very high-vote but singular allegation of the developer banning a negative reviewer, which this review reports cautiously rather than as fact.
7.5 / 10
A Zelda-parody puzzle-adventure with over 100 comedic endings, hiding a genuinely well-designed exploration game beneath a joke premise — beloved for its writing and mechanical depth, with humor a smaller detailed contingent finds hit-or-miss.
7.5 / 10
EA's own Steam comeback title after years of Origin exclusivity, and a rare EA-published single-player game with no microtransactions — but years on, its own negative review page reads less like a complaint about Cal Kestis's story and more like a case study in what a launcher requirement can do to an otherwise well-loved game's reputation.
7.5 / 10
A shipwrecked hero levels up by winning minigames, not by clicking through menus. SoulGame Studio's sequel to its cult flash hit turns stat training into the whole game, and that idea is both the best and most exhausting thing about it.
7.5 / 10
A beloved 2008 JRPG finally reaching PC for the first time as a 10th-anniversary complete edition, widely regarded as one of the finest entries in the Tales series — undercut by a well-documented, years-old bug that can strip away the ability to save mid-dungeon.
7.5 / 10
