Exactly two years ago, I faced every gamer's final boss: my backlog. I'm guilty of the sin of buying games because they're on sale and never installing them. But after spending 25 hours playing Diablo meets Vampire Survivors in Halls of Torment, I wanted to give some of my forgotten games a chance to see the light of my Steam Deck.
This wasn’t about backlog guilt. I just thought past-me was smart enough to know what I’d like to play, so surely there was something fun in there. So I went to the darkest corners of my Steam library and installed games I didn’t even know existed. Bundle fillers, freebies, or simply titles I had no idea why or how they ended up there. They got bonus points if I looked at them and said, “Meh, I don’t think I’ll like this.”
But I was lucky, and past-me was smart and had good taste in games. As I tell you about these titles, I'll also check my Steam library history to remember how they got there.
Jet Set Radio
How I got it: SEGA's 2016 "Make War Not Love" campaign giveaway. Engadget helped me remember that.
When I got it: Feb. 17, 2016.
I feel like owning Jet Set Radio on Steam is like having a collector's item. It was part of SEGA's great Steam purge of December 2024, when the company delisted 62 games from the store.
I never had a Dreamcast, the console where Jet Set Radio was first released, so playing it wasn’t due to nostalgia. What drew me into it was that I loved the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series growing up, so I figured there’d be something similar for me in this game with roller skaters.
It’s not exactly “GTA meets Tony Hawk," but it has a twist of vandalism, street gangs, and cartoon violence.
Your only mission is to graffiti various spots in each stage while dodging authority, which can be anything from officers with batons to military tanks. You’ve got a surprisingly sturdy body that somehow can take machine gun fire and explosives.
If you’re easily frustrated by old games with clunky controls, skip this. It gets annoying. Otherwise, the gameplay, art, and soundtrack (most of it by Hideki Naganuma) are so iconic you probably won’t find anything like it. All of that came back to life with Bomb Rush Cyberfunk in 2023, which is sitting in my backlog.
My favorite part is actually the three-paragraph disclaimer that shows up whenever you boot up the game. It basically says, “Kids, please don’t wander around tagging your local bakery.”
The Walking Dead Season 1 (Telltale Series)
How I got it : Humble Bundle giveaway.
When I got it: Sept. 7, 2017.
Steam says I got a key for this game from "Retail" in 2017. Turns out it was from a Humble Bundle giveaway in 2017, a year when all I did on the site was hoard free games (some I still haven’t played).
I’ve never watched The Walking Dead. I don’t find the zombie theme interesting, and I’m also not a fan of narrative games or care much about Telltale titles. So, in my mind, that made this game the perfect one to try.
I liked it. The tough choices, the character development, and the story all blend together well. Being the one making the calls on life-or-death situations in a post-apocalyptic world was rough, and wondering “what would’ve happened if I chose something else?” made it engaging. I also like how the game compares your choices to other players' at the end of each chapter.
Still, The Walking Dead wasn’t fun enough to make me want to play the full story. After 17 hours of gameplay, I was skeptical that another three seasons of "surviving a zombie apocalypse" would stay interesting, so I never finished the series and don't plan to.
What Remains of Edith Finch
How I got it: I bought it on sale with Euro Truck Simulator 2.
When I got it: Dec. 28, 2017.
Poor Edith Finch. She never stood a chance against Euro Truck Simulator 2, which I ended up playing for a solid 60 hours. Driving trucks was a great distraction years later during the COVID lockdown. But this isn’t about you, ETS2.
What Remains of Edith Finch is a sensitive narrative game about the history of a cursed family and their losses. That didn’t look too exciting to slightly-younger me, an emotional guy afraid of death. Maybe that’s why I avoided it in the first place. But this indie game was released the same year I bought it, 2017, to a lot of praise. I had been obsessed with other indies since 2015, so I had to have it in my Steam library.
Turns out, in early 2025, when I finally played it, it was still outstanding. Its gameplay is easy and simple, but it’s not a boring walking simulator. You relive memories of Edith’s family from each of their points of view, which adds a powerful layer of empathy and connection. I recommend trying it even if you don’t enjoy narrative games.
These three surprising titles made me look at my backlog with confidence instead of guilt. Maybe I knew what I was doing in the past, and I was just saving the fun for the future.
I recommend going through your backlog this year and playing one of your most abandoned games. You might have a lot more fun than you expect.
The post I couldn’t remember how these 3 games got into my Steam library, but they’re worth adding to yours appeared first on Destructoid.
