OneShot: World Machine Edition will bring the quietly beloved RPG to Steam Deck

I can't read the title of OneShot without hearing Eminem singing "do not miss your chance to blow" immediately afterwards. But this mental deficiency is probably not shared by the thousands of folks who fell in love with the purple-tinted puzzle RPG in 2016. If you are among that number, and fancy a handheld way to replay the game, then good news. OneShot: World Machine Edition is a remastered version that is Steam Deck compatible, and it's coming out on PC this month.

This edition has been available on Nintendo Switch since 2022, but it's coming to Steam on September 30th. It has been "completely rebuilt for modern portable consoles," say developers Future Cat. "With an entirely new engine, new UI, new hidden collectibles, support for more platforms, and more." Owners of the original game will get it at a 50% discount on Steam (but only during the first week after launch). There's also a gallery with character backstories, a "music box", a viewer for game art, and a selection of wallpapers for a fictional operating system that will now exist in-game.

OneShot was originally made in RPGMaker, and pushed the scrappy DIY engine to strange limits that - at the time - felt novel and sometimes vaguely unsettling. It exists in the same realm as self-aware games like Pony Island or Doki Doki Literature Club, repeatedly breaking the fourth wall and reaching out to you as a player and controller of your computer's environment. But these PC-centric quirks meant it wasn't playable on consoles. This edition is basically a remaster to address that.

"I've never played a game like OneShot", said John in our review. "It's also been a really long time since I've cared about a game's main character quite so much, to the point where decisions really mattered to me. Which is rather a lot to say of a game made in RPGMaker. But then this is a game that does stuff with that cutesy engine that I would never have thought possible."

It's possible that some of that magic might be diluted by this edition. In the original game you had to sometimes navigate the file directories of your own desktop as part of the story. But the fictional OS portrayed in this edition's trailer is intended to be a stand-in for your own folders. Again, this makes sense for Steam Deck and Switch. I don't know if it'll be worth the asking price if you already own the original, but for new players who want to lie in bed while they adventure, it's probably the way to go.