My favorite handheld games - 2025

If you are looking for some inspiration to increase your gaming backlog these are my favorite titles played on handhelds in 2025.

Nothing groundbreaking or indie for this year, mostly big open worlds from some of my favorite games ever.

Baldurs Gate 3 - Steam Deck

I already played Bg3 on pc but seeing it running on Steam Deck is truly incredible. A massive, overwhelmingly dense RPG somehow squeezed into a handheld, and to its credit, it mostly works. The UI scales well, the controls click after a while, and with the right settings you can stick close to 30 FPS for most of the game.

The illusion cracks a little the deeper you go. Act 3 is when reality kicks in and the CPU starts to struggle with fps dips occasionally happening.If you don’t care too much about the graphic or squeezing every last frame out, you’ll probably love it. 

Stardew Valley - Retroid Pocket 5

I never really been into Stardew Valley until I tried it on a handheld device. The slower pace and daily routine loop translated perfectly to short sessions on the go or longer ones on the couch with some kind of TV background. The native Android version not only features the 1.6-era updates but it can even be modded. Of course I couldn't resist trying so I'm playing it with the Extended mod that adds a lot of content.

The only issues I’ve run into are that the game is quite heavy, draining the battery quickly, along with a few occasional crashes. Another problem was that my save game got corrupted and although SMAPI includes a backup system, the game didn’t recognize it. In the end, I had to manually edit a new save file to match my original progress. 

World of Warcraft - Steam Deck

Getting World of Warcraft running on the Steam Deck felt like a small personal win. The setup isn’t exactly plug-and-play, there is some work to do, but once ready it felt way better than I expected. Of course it is not the optimal setup for high level raiding and crowded hubs but exploring Azeroth, questing and grinding are absolutely solid. Slower-paced content in general feels great to me especially on private servers that run older versions.

Coming back to the setup, if you are playing retail it is pretty easy using Non Steam Launcher to install BattleNet and the Consoleport add-on to play. Otherwise, if you are on a private server, you’ll have to manually get the client on your Deck and depending on the version understand the right way to go.

I'll probably make a guide sooner or later.

Persona 4 Golden - Retroid Pocket 5

P4G is such a good fit for a handheld that putting it anywhere else almost feels wrong. It's a long, cozy, day by day game, perfect for those before bed sessions where you tell yourself you'll only play for half an hour and then suddenly you're checking the weather forecast or eating a ramen in Inaba at 1 a.m.

What got me on the replay was how well it still holds up once the surprise is gone. I already knew the story beats, so I figured some of the magic would wear off. It didn't, really. The characters are still that good, and the pacing still has enough confidence to carry the whole thing without feeling dragged out.

Fallout New Vegas - Steam Deck

I’m a huge fan of the Fallout series and I wanted to give New Vegas a re-run so I downloaded it on my Steam Deck as I had never played it there. 

It's incredible how stable it feels compared to its PC reputation. It may be thanks to Proton and of course I may be wrong but it felt even better than the last time i played it on my pc.

Modding is possible, but it’s limited by the hardware… which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In my experience, it creates a sort of limit that helps stop you from over-modding it into chaos.