Notes on Windows Games

Notes about games available on Windows, with notes on how they work on Linux via Wine. If games have a native Linux port they'll be on the Linux recs. page instead.

Dimension Tripper Neptune: TOP NEP Wine: perfect
Space Harrier-like railshooter. I bought it with money I got selling Steam cards. Pretty fun, but finished it on my first try. The camera angle feels a bit off, and I don't like the screenshake. You can get helpers by collecting coins. I don't know shit about the series it's an offshoot from except there were characters dressed like videogame consoles or something???
Diorama Battle of NINJA Wine: good
Terrific, highly recommended. You're a ninja guy. Sometimes there are hundreds of enemies.
Game runs fine, but the highscore tables are shown as empty :(
Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen Wine: also on: everything lol
DynaMarisa 3D Wine: perfect
An EDF clone in the Touhou universe. There are separate buttons for roll and jump! Only one character (Marisa), but a cool thing is she has little helper fairies.
Works great, as long as you use a 32-bit Wine prefix.
Earth Defense Force 4.1: Shadow of New Despair Wine: perfect also on: PS4, XBO
I dunno. It's really great. I love the whole series though. I think I like 5 more, but probably prefer a lot of the stages in 4.
Earth Defense Force 5 Wine: perfect also on: PS4
A bit slow to start compared to earlier entries, but some of the improvements are really nice: completing a stage on 'hard' difficulty clears it on all lower difficulties too, wing diver has some nice extra moves, you can find weapons and armour for all classes, the pillbugs are back!
Earth Defense Force 6 Wine: perfect also on: PS4/5
Has some real boring bits where you're repeating no-fighting stuff, but it's real good, probably my fave in terms of actually getting into the story. The extra weapon slot is a real good addition, especially for wing diver and ranger.
Fatum Betula Wine: perfect also on: Switch, XBO
Was curious about this for a while, as I kept seeing the Switch version for cheap. I dunno. There's a whole slew of this kinda games that have a bit of imagination, a PSX skin, a put-on weirdness, and not much else going on. It's just a nothing game. Get item, use it on thingo, get other item, use it on guy, get item …
Only Wine-related trouble I had was with desktop switching giving me a black screen.
gorogoa Wine: perfect also on: OSX
Really neat puzzle game where you rearrange perspectives on the story to progress.
Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure Wine: perfect also on: 3DS, PSP
Fun but unexceptional cute action thing.
Judero [demo]
Opens with an incredibly annoyingly voiced character. Horrible folk music. Graphics are nice, especially the backgrounds—some of the NPCs too, there's a lot of fighting and it's just pressing the mouse button a lot and really boring, bland puzzles and stuff. It's basically a really uninventive Zelda clone with interesting graphics. Thought I was gunna be into it.
Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess [demo] Wine: perfect
I thought there was going to be more to it. Slightly tower defencey, plus there's a bit of a scramble to find different things around the stage, plus it's a real basic action game. I kind of like it, but can't imagine ever buying it.
LET IT DIE Wine: perfect also on: PS4
Pretty fun. Some nice janky platforming. Lots of imagination. Got a bit tired of all the grossness and wet sound effects. Uninstalled on the third section. Combat's pretty crummy.
Micesweeper Wine: perfect
Mimesweeper game where you move a little mouse instead of an actual mouse, with Nonogames-like hints too. Really neat.
Mirror's Edge Wine: perfect also on:
Monster Hunter: World Wine: perfect also on: PS4, XBO
This is the first Monster Hunter game I played a lot, and I think it was a really good intro. Very active online people and easy to get into multiplayer games. This is kinda the beginning of all the pointless animu story shit and them streamlining shit too much, but it's still fun. Really don't like how the spiritbugs things lead you straight to monsters. Like that you find footprints and things, but wish they did more with that.
Runs well. There's an issue with Media Foundation stuff that means the game gets stuck on FMV (for example, the game's ending), but you can fix this with z0z0z/mf-install. This MF has already been fixed in some games, so I think MHW working perfect is just a matter of time! 2024 update: prety sure this is all fixed now.
Princess Remedy In a World of Hurt Wine: perfect
Really fun little game. RPG-like, but the battle are real-time action things where you fight viruses to cure people. I really like the 'jealous chest'. And it's free!
Add -safe to the launch commands to enable sound.
Rocket League Wine: perfect also on: PS4, Switch, XBO
<3 One of my faves, and I still play it a bunch. Fun on my own, fun with pals. Unfortunately, dropped Linux and Mac support.
Shin Samurai Jazz Wine: perfect
Platformer with sword-based combat and lots of movement options. Lots of having to use double jumps, wall jumps, and stuff to get around levels. I hate platformers with airdashing. But has a nice DIY feel otherwise.
SnOut Wine: perfect
Breakanoids where your paddle moves like Snake. A little clunky, but free on Steam.
Street Fighter 6 [demo] Wine: perfect
It's so tacky.
Tactical Nexus [demo] Wine: perfect
Finally tried the demo of this after hearing people rave about it for ages. Sounded intimidating, but eases you into things pretty well. Has an RPG Maker vibe I really like, something to do with the colours and menus I think. Enjoyed the demo but probably wouldn't get into it enough to play the full game.
Tametsi Wine: great
Logic puzzles in the vein of minesweeper and Matthew Brown's 'Cells games, but with even more varied board designs and even more challenge. Really like it, and it was only a buck-or-so.
The only issue in Wine is the pre-launch window where you select resolution; it glitches out when I use the dropdown.
valkyria_chronicles Wine: great also on: Switch, PS3, PS4
Easy-to-get-into tactics game.
In Wine it runs great, there're just some issues with audio quality. PROTON_NO_ESYNC=1 %command% fixes this a bit.
Videoball Wine: perfect also on: PS4
My favourite multiplayer game.
For running with Proton just add PROTON_USE_WINED3D=1 %command% to the 'launch options' :D
Warframe Wine: perfect also on: PS4, Switch, XB1
Needs a little extra help to get going in Wine, I think due to its launcher, but once that's done (you just download and copy some files over) Just needs a command (WINEDLLOVERRIDES=“xaudio2_7=n,b” %command%) inserted into the launch options and it works great!
Yakuza Kiwami Wine: perfect also on: PS3, PS4, XBO
Really enjoyed parts of this; some things more as the game went on, some things less.