Top 5 New Casual Games on Steam

The last few months have been loaded with heavyweight releases such as Left 4 Dead, Call of Duty: World at War, MotorStorm: Pacific Rift, and a ton of others. Amongst this sea of games directed towards the hardcore audience, many casual games have found it hard to shine through. With that said, here’s a list of some really amazing casual games that were released on Steam recently, but didn’t get the kind of exposure they deserved. If you don’t mind indulging in some laid-back casual gaming goodness, I suggest you download the Steam Client and give these games a shot.

I-Fluid

This unique casual platformer puts you in control of a drop of water, as you navigate through different environments; looking at the world from its perspective. The game’s main draw is its physics-based innovative (yet simple) puzzles. You dodge your way through things that would be considered harmless in real life - such as a paper napkin or a slice of bread (since they can absorb you), and see yourself running away from thirsty insects, regenerating health by absorbing liquids from fruits, and doing all types of completely unheard of things. The simplicity of the game is sure to lighten up your day with a breath of fresh air. Developer Exkee has made the game look really impressive, while keeping the system requirements really low. It can run on any Pentium IV rig with 512 MB RAM, and any basic graphic card. The game’s available for $9.99 (Rs. 473 approx), which is a steal for 15 levels of gaming goodness.

World of Goo

World of Goo is one of the most incredible indie/casual games I’ve ever played! Its concept is truly unique - you control a world full of living goo! You build structures out of little globules by dragging and dropping them around, reaching for the objective, which is the end pipe. The implementation and use of these mechanics are what make the game truly stand out. As you move through the chapters the puzzle at hands become more challenging, requiring you to think before you exhaust your limited supply of goo balls. What truly takes the game to the next level though, is that in spite of not having a multiplayer component, developer 2D Boy’s managed to keep the game highly replayable, thanks to the extensive leaderboard features. The scoring system rates you based on the number of goo balls you’ve used and the amount of time you’ve taken, so it finds a perfect balance to keep track on who’s really the master of goo amongst players all over the world. If you wish to give the game a shot, you can buy it for $19.99 (Rs. 950 approx) off Steam.
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Luxor: Quest for the Afterlife

If you like casual games then chances of you never playing a Luxor game are really slim. If somehow, you’ve managed to dodge the last three successful iterations that had been plastered over each and every casual gaming website (and multiple home consoles), you can catch up with this new and improved version that features a plethora of little changes. While the core gameplay remains the same (you shoot out balls of different colors on to an incoming stream of more balls in order to find them a set of 3 similar ones), a few new additions have been made, such as the Battle mode that allows you to go toe-to-toe against in-game enemies. The whole in-game store feature that cropped up in Luxor 3 has also been given an overall, to let you purchase shooter upgrades, to a range of old and new power-ups. Luxor: Quest for the Afterlife is available for $9.99 (Rs. 473 approx), which is a steal for any Luxor fan, since it offers roughly 100 levels!

Galactic Bowling

If you’re tired of all the flash based bowling games out there, here’s one that’s incredibly stylized and suited up with an inter-galactic flavor. Galactic Bowling features some over-the-top characters, a few rather good-looking arenas, and under all the make-up, a solid bowling game. One of the best offerings