Choose Beat Hazard
Choose Beat Hazard if you want a Casual game with Color Alternatives, Custom Volume Controls, and Playable without Timed Input. On Steam, it has co-op, so you can bring a friend. 3,477 Steam reviews back the pick.
Beat Hazard vs Sky Mercenaries
Beat Hazard and Sky Mercenaries both land in Action, Indie on Steam, which is why they keep getting compared. The comparison below is built from each game's Steam metadata — release year, genres, categories, Steam Deck status, price, and review score — refreshed daily by imho.run's scraper. Headline differences: Both share Action, Indie on Steam. Beat Hazard (2010) is 4 years older than Sky Mercenaries (2014). Beat Hazard scores higher on Steam reviews (95.1% positive) than Sky Mercenaries (73.1% positive). No login or purchase needed — scroll for the full table, the verdict FAQ, and links to ranked similar games for both titles.
Which should you pick?
Choose Sky Mercenaries
Choose Sky Mercenaries if you want the Steam Turn Notifications side of the pairing. On Steam, it's the newer release (2014) and ships with the modern feature baseline. Sky Mercenaries launched in 2014.
Both Beat Hazard and Sky Mercenaries sit in Action and Indie on Steam and both list Multi-player, Shared/Split Screen, and Steam Leaderboards, so either pick lands in the same broad neighborhood. Use the side-by-side table for the feature view, or follow the "Games like" links below to see ranked alternatives for either title.
Side-by-side comparison
 Beat Hazard |  Sky Mercenaries | |
|---|---|---|
| Released | 2010 | 2014 |
| Genres | Action, Indie, Casual | Action, Indie |
| Platforms | Windows, macOS, Linux | Windows, Linux |
| Steam Deck | Unrated | Unrated |
| Price | 9.99 USD | 9.99 USD |
| Steam reviews | 95.1% positive (3,477 reviews) | 73.1% positive (26 reviews) |
| Multiplayer | Multi-player, Cross-Platform Multiplayer, Co-op | Multi-player |
| Developers | Cold Beam Games | PolarityFlow, Adrian Zingg |
Side by side
- Both share Action, Indie on Steam.
- Beat Hazard (2010) is 4 years older than Sky Mercenaries (2014).
- Beat Hazard scores higher on Steam reviews (95.1% positive) than Sky Mercenaries (73.1% positive).
- Sky Mercenaries is currently ~0% cheaper on Steam than Beat Hazard (9.99 USD vs. 9.99 USD).
- Beat Hazard has co-op; Sky Mercenaries does not.
Beat Hazard vs Sky Mercenaries — FAQ
- Should I play Beat Hazard or Sky Mercenaries first?
- If you want chronology, Beat Hazard (2010) came out before Sky Mercenaries (2014). If neither is a sequel to the other, order doesn't really matter — start with whichever fits your current mood, since both share enough on Steam to make either a reasonable opener.
- Are Beat Hazard and Sky Mercenaries similar?
- They overlap on Action, Indie on Steam, so the catalogue groups them together — but "similar" depends on the specific mechanics. Use the genre + category rows above to decide whether the overlap matches what drew you to the one you've already played.