Call it a symptom of nostalgia, but there is an undeniable charm in the low-poly aesthetic of the original PlayStation era—a time when developers were still decoding the language of 3D environments. Vital Shell serves as a high-octane love letter to those 32-bit glory days. This mecha-action title casts you as the pilot of a bulky, surprisingly charismatic robotic suit tasked with obliterating mechanical swarms, and it is currently taking Steam by storm.
The core gameplay loop is elegantly straightforward: select your machine, deploy into a hostile zone, and unleash ballistic fury upon anything that moves. As you carve a path through the opposition, you will eventually square off against formidable bosses that require precise maneuvering and strategic fire to dismantle.
There is a compulsive, “just one more round” quality to the experience that mirrors the addictive nature of Vampire Survivors. With stages designed for 20-minute sessions, it is the perfect title for quick gaming breaks—though you may find those breaks extending as the “one more run” instinct takes hold. The game perfectly captures the slight technical friction of late-90s classics like Armored Core and MechWarrior, all set to a pulsing jungle soundtrack that feels like it was ripped straight from 1999.
The reception on Steam has been nothing short of stellar, boasting an “Overwhelmingly Positive” rating. As we move through the early months of 2026, it has remarkably claimed the title of the highest-rated new release on the platform. Currently, Vital Shell dominates the Steam 250 monthly charts and holds the top spot on SteamDB’s annual rankings.
This level of success is particularly impressive considering the game’s humble origins as a solo project. “This started out as a way for me to learn game dev and somehow turned into a proper game,” shared creator Marvin Wizard in a recent development blog celebrating the launch.
In its current state, the game features five distinct stages, a variety of pilots and mechs, several intense boss encounters, and a wealth of hidden unlockables. Given its explosive popularity, further content updates seem inevitable. For a modest price of $6, it is an essential pick-up for anyone who misses the days of hunkering down in front of a flickering CRT to pilot giant robots.
In other gaming news, it was recently revealed that Final Fantasy 7’s iconic “Materia” system almost carried a different name until Hironobu Sakaguchi realized the original term would be too obscure for the Japanese audience.
Source: gamesradar.com
