Mewgenics feels right at home on Steam Deck and ROG Ally despite some control issues

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After a decade in development, Mewgenics – a unique mix of tactical RPG, roguelike, and life simulation from Edmund McMillen and Tyler Glaiel – is launching on PC next week. I was skeptical it would ever come out, but I recently had a chance to play a preview build and was impressed. While a full review is coming soon, I wanted to share my experience playing Mewgenics on PC handheld devices, as I’ve enjoyed their previous games on portable systems. The game runs and looks fantastic on various hardware, so this won’t be a detailed comparison, just a quick look at what you can expect if you plan to play Mewgenics on a handheld PC.

Mewgenics PC features and graphics options

Mewgenics offers a lot of customization options. You can choose fullscreen mode, adjust graphics quality with anti-aliasing (ranging from off to 8x), and enable or disable v-sync. You can also change the render scale (from 20% to 100%) and adjust the size of tooltips and the status bar. The game lets you fine-tune visual effects like vignette flicker, noise, and grain, which can be demanding on your system – you can turn them off completely for a cleaner look. Beyond video settings, you can modify combat speed and audio levels. I only adjusted the volume of the ‘Meow’ sound effect, as it became repetitive during battles, but it was fine otherwise. Interestingly, Mewgenics also includes an option to toggle ‘Humping Animations’ which affect the breeding animation that occurs at night.



Mewgenics Steam Deck full game impressions

Mewgenics is officially verified to work well on the Steam Deck, and unlike some recent big-budget games with that label, it truly earns the rating. However, be aware that the controls might take some getting used to. The game is clearly designed with mouse and keyboard in mind, though full controller support is available. Thankfully, the Steam Deck’s trackpad or touchscreen can help overcome this. During my time playing over the last few weeks, I haven’t experienced any performance issues. It loads quickly and consistently runs at 60 or 90 frames per second on both of my Steam Decks at a 720p resolution.

Mewgenics Steam Deck LCD and OLED gameplay








Mewgenics ROG Ally full game impressions

Mewgenics runs perfectly on the ROG Ally, just like it does on the Steam Deck, consistently reaching 120 frames per second. I also found the touchscreen controls felt more responsive on the ROG Ally compared to the Steam Deck. If you’re looking to play Mewgenics on the ROG Ally, it works great – I highly recommend it, even when played on a TV.

Mewgenics controls on PC handhelds

The developers suggest playing Mewgenics with a mouse, but many players, like myself, will likely use a handheld PC like the Steam Deck. On the Steam Deck, the game uses a virtual cursor controlled by the d-pad or analog stick, which isn’t the most natural way to play. You can work around this by using the touchscreen, or by combining the shoulder buttons with either the left stick or right trackpad to navigate and select things. While touch controls would be ideal, the game doesn’t always register them reliably, which is a bit disappointing compared to other games with touchscreen support.

Mewgenics ROG Ally gameplay


I’ve noticed that Mewgenics sometimes misinterprets screen taps as clicks on the selected item, treating the touchscreen like a standard mouse click instead of moving the cursor to where I tapped. This is what I meant when I said the controls take some practice, especially on PC handhelds. I eventually found the shoulder buttons and right trackpad on my Steam Deck to be the most comfortable setup, but even then, some actions felt more complicated than they needed to be. I also suggest customizing the keyboard controls on your PC and mapping frequently used commands, like ‘end turn,’ to the back buttons on the Steam Deck to speed up gameplay.

It would be great if someone could create a better control scheme for playing with a controller. This isn’t a major problem, but I wanted to mention it for anyone planning to play Mewgenics on a handheld PC. The controls work perfectly when using a mouse and keyboard while docked.

I was initially skeptical about this project, but I’m thrilled to be proven wrong! Mewgenics is incredibly ambitious and thoughtful, and the music is fantastic. It might be Ridiculon’s best game so far, and I’m really excited to keep playing it.

Mewgenics launches on February 10 for PC (Steam). 

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2026-02-06 16:56