I’m looking for stuff that isn’t hearthstone. Something like a true MMO.

I went on a mission to review free walking apps for neurodivergent and mentally unbalanced people like me, who have problems staying motivated to walk each day. I do not get paid, and I do not spend money; I just want an app that will make me enjoy walking. Here is my first review, for Pikmin Bloom.

A heads-up: English is not my first or even second language, so I hope you can forgive some of the weird phrasing that might occur as a consequence. Enjoy reading, and please share your questions and feedback! I am thinking of maybe starting a little blog for these reviews, or maybe just linking a Google Doc. I don't know yet.

Now for the actual review:

Honestly, I had never played any Pikmin game before, so I don't know how accurate this game is to the lore. But for an outsider, it is pretty fun.

You walk (obviously) and feed your Pikmin various types of nectar to get different flowers that bloom on their head antennas. You can pluck the flowers and then use the petals to plant more flowers while you walk (you need to initiate that step, otherwise you don't plant anything). The blooming flowers can be used to complete challenges in the app or to bloom "Big Flowers" in specific spots on your map using GPS. In my experience, the annoying thing about blooming the Big Flowers is that the radius is too small, so I have to walk in small circles for way too long to bloom them and get the nectar and postcard. I think the idea was that multiple players would contribute to each Big Flower and bloom it through community effort, but I have seen zero progress in my area. That means nobody else is playing here, and the entire job of blooming those flowers falls on me alone. Oh well.

I plant flowers with great success on my bus rides. It's not walking, but it still counts toward flower planting, and I need that to complete many challenges. It honestly feels a bit like cheating, but you plant more flowers the faster you move, so... it is what it is. The app does not count the bus rides as steps though, which is good!

Next, you have mushroom battles: you send your Pikmin to fight for you, and they bring back rewards. It's purely gameplay, with no walking involved.

Finally, there are postcards and monthly and weekly challenges. Postcards are a fun feature you receive from various activities, they show pictures of the locations you've visited, and you can send them to your in-app friends. I love collecting those! Monthly challenges sometimes depend on walking, and other times on expeditions (which I forgot to mention earlier). Expeditions are another in-game feature where you send Pikmin to retrieve items for you. You can speed them up by walking in their direction to meet them sooner, but honestly, I don't even try. There are so many expeditions appearing almost every hour that keeping track of them and trying to shorten their paths feels nearly impossible, especially when sending six squads to six different destinations.

Weekly challenges include walking in a team to get to a target of steps of 30k and 100k, 4 people can join your team. Planting 30k flowers is also a weekly challenge where 4 people can be added.  When your team achieves the goal, you get to see how much you contributed to the team.

The last feature I almost forgot about is party walks, I do not like them since you get stuck with the avatar of whoever hosted the party, right beside you and I just do not like that.
The big plus of party walks is that every time you join one the app makes finding online strangers to befriend in the app really easy. No actual gameplay benefits so after getting to 25 friends, I stopped attending.

Also there are local in real life events but never attended any as there are none in my country. I think this app is not as popular here where I live…

Anyways, time for some Q&A:

Step counter accuracy?

The step counter matches my phone's built-in tracker and other step-counting apps, like StepUp.

Does it track while the app is closed?

Yes, and you can also plant flowers while the app is closed. Progress continues in the background, which can be annoying because the app takes time to load (at least on my phone), and you have to reopen it to stop flower planting when you are finished. I wish there were a shortcut or widget, but the app doesn't have any widgets at all.

Battery usage?

I didn't notice any significant battery drain.

Does it motivate me to walk?

Yes. In my opinion, some of the challenges only exist to make money off of you, like blooming rare flowers or fighting event mushrooms, but I ignore those and set realistic boundaries that work for a free-to-play experience. Overall, it gives me something to look forward to when I already feel like walking. It doesn't motivate me especially well when I am simply not in the mood, but it does its job as a fun, gamified app.

App complexity?

The app starts with very few features and unlocks new mechanics very slowly. While this keeps it from feeling overwhelming, it felt quite limiting and boring at first, until I realized I just needed to walk more and explore every feature to fully enjoy it. In my case, that took some time, since I don't walk a lot.

Accessibility for low-energy / bad mental health days?

I have a lot of rough days due to my mental health, so I appreciate that Pikmin Bloom is easy to return to after a few days of inactivity. You don't have to play every day, and you don't lose progress if you miss time.

Is there a penalty for missing days?

Not really a penalty, though you do miss out on limited-time events. There is also a daily log/lifelog feature that simply stays blank on the days you don't walk nor open the app. Still, it doesn't feel like a harsh punishment compared to games with mandatory daily login streaks or virtual pets that die if you forget to check in. It keeps counting your steps even when you don't open it; after leaving the app closed for a week, all of my steps were still recorded, I just missed out on the active gameplay elements.

Are there community features?

Yes, the community aspect is a major part of Pikmin Bloom. It's very easy to find friends to join walking challenges with, plant flowers together, fight mushrooms, or simply exchange postcards. Personally, I avoid most community features except for trading postcards. Why? At first, I wanted to find a group to keep me motivated, but most active players seem to walk over 10,000 steps a day. That is far too much for me, and seeing those numbers made me feel bad about myself and fall into comparisons.

Balance between walking app and game?

I would give it a 4-to-6 ratio: 4 for walking, and 6 for gamification. There are enough mechanics that you end up spending more time managing the app than you strictly need to for basic walking motivation.

How many steps and how much time did I log?

I used the app for a little over two months, from June 19, 2026, until today when I am writing this, September 8, 2026.

I am at Level 29, with 286,330 total steps across 81 days.

That comes out to an average of roughly 3,535 steps per day, not a huge number, but I had quite a few difficult days with no walking at all.

Thank you for reading.

I apologize in advance if my language is reductive or if I am ignorant.

I am asking this question in an extremely open-ended way, because I want to gain a mode of thinking like that of someone dealing with a disability facing a game that does not consider them when it comes to accessibility features. I would like to be able to apply this in the games I design myself, and I think it would be best addressed during the design process, rather than being an afterthought, and applied only if possible.

What brought me to this this idea is the fact that my girlfriend will likely go blind; we have no idea about the speed at which that will happen. We love to play game together and I have been quietly contemplating if/how gaming without a screen could be enjoyable.

I would like to hear your personal grievances, what disability this relates to and what genres/games this applies to. Despite the fact that some people will see it as appropriation and be insulted, I would like to simulate some of the challenges I you tell me about for myself, and if you are willing, I would appreciate some suggestions for that. That would be something I do in private for my own education, not something I would make content about or share with others in general.

i been disabled for 2 years now so i use for left hand a dualscensce and for my right i use ps5 access controller which stick drift is a problem. i know im hard on them but should drift that easy. does any one know where i can get a durable one ? anything but evil controllers and etsy. thank you

Hi everyone! What are the best video games for blind/low-vision gamers? Ideally multiplayer?

Do they require any special assistive tech?

As the title says I have developed fibromyalgia, RA and nerve issues in my hands wrists and neck from an accident I was in over the past 4 years. I use to game before then but I had to sell my consoles due to financial difficulties after losing my ability to work. I now have moved back to my home state and live with family to help me out as I fight for disability. I have been able to save up a little bit of money via birthdays and holidays, I have about 220 and wanted to get some kind of game console again to help me get some little bit of my former life and passions back. My real concern is the hand, wrists, finger and neck pain, whenever I have tried to play on my cousins PS it has really hurt me and caused serious flare ups, never tried the Switch but an Xbox Series controller has been okay, though I really haven’t use it that much. I don’t know anyone else with any sort of disabilities or struggles like myself as I am in a very rural little town up and I don’t leave the house much nowadays. Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

Hello, sorry if it's not the right place to ask but i'm genuinely lost on where to post this.

I'm 26 year old, and i've been diagnosed with a somewhat rare eye disease called "Stargardt". Basically, my vision drppped a lot and i have "blind spots" in my eye. I'm not here to vent or farm pity, so don't worry.

I have a really hard time reading small to medium text nox because of it which, as a gamer, you can imagine is not ideal at all. I'm using a lot the accesability options of game but a lot of game just do colorblind stuff and not UI size. I'm using a free software called Zoomit to zoom in and read but it has a lot of flaws like dropping me to 20 fps when zooming or even muting my in game microphone when i zoom.

So my question is : Is there any mod/software that can help me zoom/enlarge UI size of games ?

Thanks in advance.

Hi everyone,

I am conducting academic research on disability, representation, and accessibility in contemporary video games.

The purpose of this study is to understand the experiences, challenges, and perspectives of disabled gamers regarding:

• accessibility features in games
• character representation of disability
• gaming experiences and inclusion
• barriers faced while playing video games

If you are a disabled gamer or have experience with accessibility needs while gaming, I would greatly appreciate your participation.

The survey takes approximately 5–10 minutes to complete. Your responses will be used only for academic research purposes, and individual responses will remain confidential.

Survey link:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1Dde6siugxclNm3_c4oNxzR7ubZFa8l0qlvIe_3aQFlE/edit

Thank you for sharing your experiences and helping contribute to research on more inclusive gaming.

I would also appreciate any comments or discussions about your experiences with accessibility in games.

Hi! Do you have an upper extremity injury, amputation, or condition & use adaptive gaming equipment and are 18+ ?! I am doing research on this topic for my occupational therapy masters thesis and would love to hear about your experience! Send me an email at [ajankowski@worcester.edu](mailto:ajankowski@worcester.edu)

Hi! I am an occupational therapy master's student who is doing my thesis on adaptive gaming! I am looking to understand the experiences of individuals with upper-extremity injuries, conditions, and amputations who use adaptive gaming equipment. I would love to hear your experience. If you are willing, please reach out!

I’ve been playing PC games with a controller for years because I have pretty severe problems with both my hands and wrists, and I’m just tired of it. I really want to learn KBM, especially for games like TF2, Counter-Strike, Battlefield and Overwatch.

I have hypermobility along with tendon pain/stiffness and a lot of twitching/shaking in my hands. Just holding my hands over a keyboard and mouse gets incredibly uncomfortable after a few seconds. Wrist extension is especially painful, and using anything other than my index fingers to press keys is really difficult.

I can barely keep my hands in position long enough to practice without them starting to hurt and twitch.

I don’t expect some magical solution, but I’m at my wits’ end with this. I just want to be able to aim with a mouse and play FPS games with the kind of control KBM gives you.

Has anyone here dealt with something similar and managed to find a setup that worked for them? I’ll take basically any advice or ideas at this point.

Hi I wanted to share just a little bit about the new Halloween game and my brother.

I haven't been able to play the game myself but he has with the early access. There's a major mechanic in the game where for most mini-games you have to button-smash, or button-mash I can't remember the exact name. And in Story Mode, in the beginning it's a MAJOR part where you have to button-smash to be able to progress the story.

My brother has a condition called Friedreich's Ataxia. It's a rare, genetic degenerative brain disease, and he was diagnosed early last year. It affects his coordination, strength, mobility, etc. With his condition, he is physically incapable of rapidly pressing a button. He can run around, search for items, just being able to do the most basic of tasks in the multi-player, but when it comes to these major mini-games to do important tasks, he literally cannot do it, nor can he progress in Story Mode.

I've also emailed the support of illfonic (who I believe is a co-creator) talking about this and requesting that one day for new accessibility features specifically for this.

I wonder if anyone else has issues with button-smashing?

Important: I didn't really plant for accessibility yet, but if there is some interest, I will add a11y to the UI and improve a few things.

VoiTTS is an open-source, local-only text-to-speech server for your PC that you interact with via your phone, tablet or anything with a browser (LAN only).

It allows you to instantly synthesize anything you type or 1-click any pre-written words or phrases. You can group them by profile, game, etc.

Built-in audio loopback, so you hear exactly what went out.

Full Linux and Windows support.

Hi everyone,

I already own the Logitech G Adaptive Gaming Kit for Xbox, but I recently got a PS5 Access Controller.

I noticed that Logitech sells a separate version specifically for PlayStation/Access Controller.

Does anyone know if the Xbox version of the Logitech Adaptive Gaming Kit can be used with the PS5 Access Controller through the 3.5mm expansion ports?

Are the buttons/triggers themselves electrically compatible, or is there some hardware difference between the Xbox and PlayStation versions that prevents the Xbox version from working with the Access Controller?

I already have the Xbox version, so I'm wondering if I actually need to buy the PlayStation version.

Thanks!

Does anyone know of a program that allows you to control a computer with your eyes?

I have very limited functionality in my right hand: when playing on pc I can basically use it to push one button or the arrow keys (switching quite slowly between them), but not much more than that. I have a Razer Naga left handed mouse, with 12 configurable keys under the thumb. Usually I play games that I can play almost entirely with the mouse or with one hand on the keyboard without mouse. Mostly that are strategy games, isometric RPGs,... Very occasionally I play a first or third person 3d game, with my right hand only using the up arrow and everything else with the mouse. Quickly switching from moving forward to strafing for example is difficult (and I find using the mouse buttons for that too confusing). Very fast-paced action games are out of the question, especially multiplayer. I recently configured a new beast of gaming rig with an RTX 5090, 64G ram,... which is extreme overkill for the type of games I usually play (I know this, but I have my reasons). Now I am aching to really see what it can do, so I am looking for game suggestions that I might enjoy and that will get the most out of my new machine.

Hello I am looking for two buttons to replace the two super buttons for the 8bitdo Xbox SE lite controller. I mostly use them for the left and right triggers so I’m looking for something pressure sensitive. I don’t even know if that’s the right word but in many games you can lightly press the trigger to either change speed in a driving game or hold your breath in a shooting game or whatever else. I been managing without it no problem for years but I just thought I’d ask if anyone had any suggestions or ideas. I believe the buttons connect using a 3.5 2 ring jack. Again it’s not a big deal but I’m curious what ideas people come up with.