I discovered the right torture check for SteamOS handhelds—and it handed

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This weekend I attempted the demo for Useless as Disco, a mash-up of the gang management fight from Arkham Asylum and the rhythm-based bounciness of Hello-Fi Rush. It’s frickin’ unbelievable, I can’t anticipate the early entry launch. However enjoying it in buttery-smooth 240 FPS on my OLED monitor and RTX 5070 Ti desktop made me think about: This sport may be an ideal torture check for low-end {hardware}.

So Useless as Disco is pretty easy from a structural viewpoint. It’s an indie sport with very small arenas, and a most of maybe a dozen characters on display screen at a time. (No less than within the demo.) There’s plenty of visible stuff occurring, plenty of psychedelic results and visible prospers to tell the participant. However when it comes to technical demand, I’d say it’s most likely easier than, say, Shadow of Battle (which I’ve additionally been enjoying — man, I’m on a binge for that type of counter-based fight).

And but, rhythm video games require extra than simply quick frames for satisfying gameplay. They want smoothness so that you don’t get thrown off. They want low latency so you will get your timing excellent. And most of all they want all of this to be constant. Something that messes with the move of the music can spoil the expertise. It’s these areas that low-power gadgets can wrestle with, even once they’re technically able to dealing with newer, well-optimized video games. Will Smith covers plenty of this in his deep dives on micro suttering.

Useless as Disco works as a check of the Steam platform, too. It’s an indie sport from a small group. Presumably, they don’t have the assets to check throughout plenty of {hardware} — thus far Steam is its solely platform, and it solely formally has a Home windows model. After all, that doesn’t essentially imply it’s restricted to Home windows. Operating Home windows video games on Linux is all the function of the Proton system, and even years after it grew to become successful, arguably the Steam Deck wouldn’t be a viable product with out it. However small dev groups typically can’t afford to dedicate assets to the Steam Deck or different non-Home windows platforms, particularly earlier than a full launch.

Certainly, when loading up Useless as Disco on my unique Lenovo Legion Go (with Home windows mercifully eliminated and a Valve-supplied construct of SteamOS instead), Steam warns me that the sport hasn’t been examined for compatibility. I proceeded anyway. I knew, after all, that the sport wouldn’t be as fairly or as {smooth} as on my ridiculous gaming desktop. However I’d think about it a win if A) it may set up and run with no indication from the platform or the builders of its performance, and B) I may get into an analogous “move” within the gameplay.

<img decoding="async" data-wp-class--hide="state.isContentHidden" data-wp-class--show="state.isContentVisible" data-wp-init="callbacks.setButtonStyles" data-wp-on-async--click="actions.showLightbox" data-wp-on-async--load="callbacks.setButtonStyles" data-wp-on-async-window--resize="callbacks.setButtonStyles" src="https://b2c-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/image_e2fd49.png?w=1200" alt="Legion Go running SteamOS, with compatibility warning" class="wp-image-3119374" width="1200" height="764" loading="lazy" /> Michael Crider / Foundry

My preliminary run was a bit of tough. The sport put in and booted effective, which didn’t shock me. However whereas it ran alright after its computerized (low) settings have been utilized, it was uneven, and I positively had a decrease rating with extra points on a music I had S-ranked the weekend earlier than. Although the framerate was a relentless 60 (the auto-set most), I used to be positively lacking some counters I wouldn’t have missed on my desktop, and getting a decrease rating.

I dove into the visible settings, swapped the sport from fullscreen windowed mode all the way down to fullscreen, set the framerate cap to 120 (The Legion Go’s display screen can deal with 144Hz), and introduced the decision all the way down to 1920×1200. That’s nicely beneath the precise 1600p {hardware}, however nicely above the Steam Deck’s 1200×800 display screen. Lastly, I flipped on V-Sync, which I don’t usually do, but it surely appeared helpful for a trippy 3D rhythm sport.

Bam. On this configuration, within the admittedly barebones “Infinite Disco” mode with the least-complex dance ground/battlefield, I used to be proper again into it at a rock-solid 120 FPS, solely sometimes dipping down 5 p.c or so. The one issues hampering me have been the considerably free Legion Go thumbsticks. However as soon as I accounted for that I used to be performing simply in addition to on my 34-inch monitor on the desktop. Possibly even higher, for the reason that smaller display screen allowed me to maintain my eyes on enemies extra holistically.

Any rumors that I used to be shaking my hips to the beat with the Legion Go in my fingers are drastically exaggerated. And since I dwell alone, it's a must to take my phrase for it. I popped over to the demo of the story mode, which has far more complicated backgrounds and results, and nonetheless managed to get a really respectable — and {smooth} — 75 to 85 FPS.

For a little bit of comparability testing I loaded up Useless as Disco on my older ThinkPad laptop computer, presently working Linux Mint. Once more, Steam was blissful sufficient to put in the sport, and it even launched with the magic of Proton. However that machine’s Eleventh-gen Core i7 laptop computer CPU and built-in Xe graphics have been less than the duty. It was squeezing out 25 FPS at the very best of instances, often dipping down into the teenagers, even because the characters have been dynamically rendered at such a low decision that it appeared like I used to be watching by way of a display screen door.

<img decoding="async" data-wp-class--hide="state.isContentHidden" data-wp-class--show="state.isContentVisible" data-wp-init="callbacks.setButtonStyles" data-wp-on-async--click="actions.showLightbox" data-wp-on-async--load="callbacks.setButtonStyles" data-wp-on-async-window--resize="callbacks.setButtonStyles" src="https://b2c-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/image_319ac6.png?w=1200" alt="ThinkPad laptop running Dead as Disco demo" class="wp-image-3119375" width="1200" height="740" loading="lazy" /> Michael Crider / Foundry

Only for enjoyable I loaded up the sport on my Galaxy Z6 Fold telephone. This wasn’t a stream session, it was working Steam on native {hardware} through GameHub. That is a particularly cool system in case your telephone has the juice for it. I’ve performed just a few classes of Hades II this fashion, with a nifty 8BitDo cell controller. Sadly it couldn’t deal with Useless as Disco, choking out about 10 frames per second at the very best of instances and consistently sputtering each visuals and music. That wasn’t a lot a torture check as an execution.

Anyway, sure, SteamOS and the hand held {hardware} it typically runs on can do shockingly nicely even with video games that completely demand smoothness and consistency. Simply don’t anticipate it to work that nicely on pre-release builds, no less than not with out a little tweaking. I daresay the devs may most likely spend a bit of time sharpening it up earlier than the complete Useless as Disco launch, even when that’s simply making a Steam Deck/handheld efficiency preset, and/or submitting it to Valve and Microsoft’s sport certification packages.

Oh, and check out the Useless as Disco demo. It’s groovy, man.

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