• Nioh 2
• Witchfire
• Devil Slayer Raksasi
• Curse of the Dead Gods
• Metal Mutation
• Cavity Busters
• Waves (free, but still)
• BlazBlue Entropy Effect
• 30XX
• Nova Drift
• Quantum Protocol
• Deep Rock Galactic
• Hellsinker
• Twin Ruin
• Devader
• Arboria
• Bloody Spell
• Aura of Worlds

Also, if he’s a bit of a tinkerer, he might be interested in trying shooters using gyro+flick-stick, which he probably didn’t have access to before. Witchfire, Deep Rock Galactic, and Deadlink can readily play that way once set up in Steam Input. Some games you only need to set up the gyro-to-mouse and flick-stick, whereas others (eg Vermintide 2) you have to map the entire controller manually.

If this added itch.io it’d be a fantastic filler for managing all the non-DRM off-Steam stuff.

Cactus is probably the single best mastery/arcade style twin-stick shooter out there. Don’t let the cute looks fool you, while this game is solid to just enjoy, the chaining and level design offer great challenge if you want it, and the way each character changes both the basic play and the way you chain a level show a just fantastic design level.

It usually goes $5 in sales, but it’s still crazy we can get games that good for so little.