From time to time, an indie sport comes out of nowhere and tears up the Steam charts. We’ve seen it occur with Vampire Survivors, Balatro, and now a wonky-looking sport known as Nubby’s Quantity Manufacturing unit.
This mash-up of easy plinko gameplay and early-2000s Microsoft design sensibility is straightforward to select up however devilishly arduous to place down. It gained’t tax your mind, your reflex abilities, or your pockets both.
What Is Nubby’s Quantity Manufacturing unit?
Nubby’s Number Factory is a plinko-style roguelike wrapped up in a retro aesthetic. Like different roguelikes, this can be a run-based sport the place you begin over every time you die. The aim of the sport is to fulfill every spherical’s rating necessities earlier than working out of lives. You possibly can earn extra lives by scoring huge and filling up the meter that seems on the appropriate aspect of the board.
The sport is closely impressed by Plinko, requiring that you simply drop a ball onto a board of pegs as a way to rating the required factors in a single go. Every peg has a quantity, which halves every time your ball (that’s Nubby, by the best way) touches it, awarding you the corresponding variety of factors. When a peg reaches 1, your ball now not bounces, and the peg is collected.
The sport requires nothing however a mouse to play. Maintain the appropriate mouse button to prepared Nubby, purpose together with your cursor, then use the left mouse button to let rip. You too can play utilizing a controller. I’ve been utilizing the Steam Deck, which defaults to a neighborhood structure that makes use of the triggers to carry and launch and the analog stick or thumb pads to purpose.
The sport prices $5 and has an “Overwhelmingly Optimistic” ranking on Steam, having initially launched in March 2025.
The Good “Numbers Go Up” Recreation
I’ve just lately been hooked on The Division 2, getting again into the dying Halo Infinite multiplayer scene, and failing miserably to land methods in Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater 3+4. Then I downloaded Nubby’s Quantity Manufacturing unit and have become completely consumed.
It’s not that these different video games aren’t enjoyable or partaking, however none of them are as blissfully easy to play as Nubby’s Quantity Manufacturing unit. That is the proper “numbers go up” sport that faucets into the identical satisfying mixture of physics and popping noises that made the unique Peggle really easy to play.
Whereas Peggle was level-based, Nubby’s is much more freeform. There’s extra depth and technique to it, being a roguelike that means that you can purchase and equip objects that enhance your possibilities, take everlasting buffs, and obtain Balatro-style scores that break the sport (no, actually—many Steam reviewers consult with the sport crashing in case your rating reaches a sure degree as if it’s some kind of badge of honor).
Whereas there’s inarguably some type of “approach” right here, the sport additionally has a playful component of randomness to it (simply attempt performing the identical shot twice with out shifting your cursor and see what occurs). The actual technique comes from combining objects in slots and everlasting perks (since perks usually include firing off sure slots a number of instances).
By the later levels, the sport begins to really feel rather a lot like Vampire Survivors, the place your inputs are minimal however objects are firing off in all places and your rating feels uncontrolled (full with sudden sport over moments that appear to return out of nowhere).
The enjoyable right here comes from leaping in and having a fast bash, with out committing to a grand story or epic marketing campaign. At $5, there’s little or no to complain about, particularly on a handheld just like the Steam Deck, which feels tailored for these sorts of informal experiences.
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- Dimensions
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298mm x 117mm x 49mm
- Enjoying Time
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2-8 hours of gameplay (content-dependent)
The Steam Deck LCD is, palms down, the very best finances handheld gaming PC you will get, because of its phenomenal worth, top-notch construct high quality, glorious software program help, and fairly stable gaming efficiency.
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- Dimensions
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298mm x 117mm x 49mm
- Weight
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640 grams
The Steam Deck OLED is a transparent enchancment over Valve’s unique handheld console, with a bigger battery, extra storage, sooner Wi-Fi, and extra. To not neglect the larger and better-looking OLED display that provides the gadget its title.
Cozy Home windows XP Vibes to Boot
The general type of Nubby’s Quantity Manufacturing unit feels closely impressed by video games like Home windows XP pack-in 3D Pinball: House Cadet and Microsoft’s legendary 3D Pipes screensaver. There’s Comedian Sans all over the place, the soundtrack consists of laid-back upbeat vaporwave-esque dated synth, and the UI seems like a web site made in Macromedia Flash.
Very similar to Vampire Survivors, this doesn’t hurt the sport however offers it a way of attraction. It’s tickling my nostalgia receptors for certain.
Nubby’s Quantity Manufacturing unit is offered on Steam proper now, and there’s even a free demo you’ll be able to obtain and check out before you purchase. It’s the proper “another go” sport, which suggests it would hopefully make its technique to different platforms like Nintendo Change and cellular earlier than lengthy.
In case you’re a fan of the sport and its type, try the developer’s website for a blast from the previous.
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