It is a quiet Sunday for big-budget launches, so it is a good day to spend a few dollars from the couch. TowerFall Ascension is $2.99 on Steam, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is $1.49 on Humble, and the original NES Castlevania is going free on mobile for the franchise’s 40th anniversary. Every price below was checked against the store in the last hour. (Yesterday’s Deal Radar: Sifu for $9.99, Europa Universalis IV for $4.99, and More (Oct 10) and the Oct 9 Deal Radar are still partly live if you missed them.)
Free right now
- Castlevania: 40th Anniversary (App Store, Google Play, via the official Castlevania portal): free through October 24 at 11:59 PM JST. The original 1986 NES Castlevania, free on iOS and Android for the franchise’s 40th anniversary. The first game in a 40-year-old series, and a freebie that takes about 90 minutes to clear on a phone. External controllers are not supported.
- The Big Con (iOS, Android, via GamerPower): free through October 15. A coming-of-age road trip about a teenage hustler crossing the US to steal enough money to save her mom’s video store. Worth $5.99 normally.
- Fireside Feelings (Steam key giveaway, via GamerPower): free through October 12, 11:59 PM local time. A cozy 2D game about social interactions and connections. Worth $7.99 normally.
Coming next on Epic, from October 15 to 22: Bad Cheese and Agent A: A Puzzle in Disguise.
Best deals today
| Game | Store | Original | Now | Cut | Metacritic |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TowerFall Ascension | Steam | $14.99 | $2.99 | -80% | 87 |
| Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light | Humble | $9.99 | $1.49 | -85% | 82 |
| Mindcop | Steam | $14.99 | $2.99 | -80% | 87 |
| Escape Academy | Steam | $19.99 | $1.99 | -90% | 79 |
| Green Hell | Steam | $27.99 | $2.79 | -90% | 78 |
| Nocturnal | Steam | $16.99 | $2.54 | -85% | 81 |
| The Next Penelope | Steam | $12.99 | $1.29 | -90% | 82 |
| Palworld | Steam | $29.99 | $20.99 | -30% | n/a |
- TowerFall Ascension: at Steam (-80%), Metacritic 87, around 2,950 Very Positive Steam reviews. Matt Thorson’s 2014 archery combat classic from Maddy Makes Games, still the local-multiplayer party game of choice for four people on one couch. One map, one round, one winner.
- Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light: at Humble (-85%), Metacritic 82. Crystal Dynamics’ 2010 isometric twin-stick shooter, built around Lara and a Mayan warrior named Totec. A short, sharp co-op campaign that still holds up.
- Mindcop: at Steam (-80%), Metacritic 87, around 420 Steam reviews. A non-linear detective game where you step into suspects’ minds to find clues. One of the better small detective games of 2024.
- Escape Academy: at Steam (-90%), Metacritic 79, around 1,124 Steam reviews. Coin Crew Games’ escape-room puzzler, with a single-player campaign and full co-op support for two.
- Nocturnal: at Steam (-85%), Metacritic 81. Sunnyside Games’ atmospheric action-adventure set on a mysterious island, published by Dear Villagers.
- Green Hell: at Steam (-90%), Metacritic 78, more than 80,000 Mostly Positive Steam reviews. Creepy Jar’s first-person Amazon survival sim, and a deep discount for the base game.
- The Next Penelope: at Steam (-90%), Metacritic 82. A sci-fi anti-gravity racer set in a Jules Verne-flavored world.
- Palworld: at Steam (-30%), more than 415,000 Steam reviews. Pocketpair’s open-world survival game with creature collection and base building. Smaller cut than the others, but the only 2026 release on the list and the only one with a live-service player base in the hundreds of thousands.
Skip it
- Hood Warfare 2: ~~$5.99~~ $5.39 at Steam (-10%), no end date listed. A 10% cut is barely a discount, and the new Trapstar Games multiplayer shooter has only 151 reviews on Steam, mostly mixed. If you wanted a small-ticket multiplayer game, the deals above have far better cuts.
Our read: at this point in the year, the cheap stuff tends to be 2024 indies and 2014 multiplayer classics, and both of those are on offer this weekend. TowerFall Ascension is the headline because 80% off and 2,950 Very Positive reviews is a real bargain for a four-player party game that is hard to find on sale. Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light at $1.49 is the cheapest notable game on this list, and it has the rare co-op hook that makes it worth a Sunday afternoon with a friend. For free, Castlevania: 40th Anniversary on mobile is the only one with a real end date that matters: October 24 is the last day to claim it, and it is the original NES game that started the franchise. Palworld is the odd one out: -30% is a routine cut rather than a deep one, but it is the only 2026 release in the bunch and the only one with a live community you can join tonight. (For context on why the deep-cut headline picks skip free this week, see also Morning Save Point: E-Day Peaks at 31K, Squadron 42 Wishlists Open, and More, where the Deal of the Day was Death’s Door at $1.99.)
Edited by Kerwin Stewart, Editor-in-Chief · How we report
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