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Mina the Hollower is a serious adventure that is playful, charming, silly, and brutally challenging.
Starbites has the nostalgic heart of a long-lost PlayStation 2 classic. Play it, assemble the Heroic crew the right way, then relax and enjoy roaming through the world of Bitter. Lukida is doing good, give her a chance!
Schrödinger’s Call is a definitive visual novel, it takes the multimedia nature of the format and blends everything seamlessly.
Nitro Gen Omega was a delightful surprise in 2026, especially since the year’s midpoint hadn’t offered much for fans of this genre to celebrate.
At the end of the day, Directive 8020 is just the first game in the second season of the Dark Pictures games. My complaints about the ending could be resolved in future games, or it might just be a one-off issue. I would have liked to see the game have a bit more accessibility options.
Pragmata is a nearly flawless achievement. It is a game built on a bold mechanical concept, executed with precision, and elevated by a central relationship characterized by extraordinary emotional intelligence.
As the game is now, Marathon will be something that gamers visit from time to time when they are looking for a change of pace, but compared to other games in the market, it feels like it will get lost in the shuffle.
While Aether & Iron might be a fun tactical RPG with beautiful visuals, there are a few things that hold it back.
In the end, I still think Wardrum is worth trying for players who already enjoy rhythm games, tactical RPGs, or roguelites.
For a small indie title this is perfectly respectable and I wish the devs all the luck in their future projects.
While MOTORSLICE starts out great, it can get unwieldy the longer you play it (read: it became too difficult for me). Despite this, MOTORSLICE can be quite fun with its clear, singular vision and brutalist style.
Ultimately, Bobo Bay is a game for two audiences. It’s a love letter to the Chao Garden that many of us grew up with and remember fondly; but it also stands on its own as a fresh title for the cozy games crowd who maybe never played SA2. If you play the game, give yourself time to breathe, relax, and enjoy how cute and thoughtful everything is you’ll be alright.
Ground Zero is one of the best resi-likes out there. In many ways, it’s superior to the games that it inspired, with deeper gameplay and jam-packed with content. Not everything works perfectly, like when the game occasionally glitches and enemies get stuck in a looping animation after they die. It’s nothing a patch couldn’t fix, but it’s still strange to see something like that in an otherwise polished game. Thankfully, it isn’t a rogue-like.
While Kingdom’s Return isn’t a bad game, at Inti Creates, “not bad” simply isn’t good enough.
Manafinder isn’t going to impress any RPG veteran or anyone looking for an original idea. There are better games made with RPG Maker out there, like Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass, which was elevated by its tenderly written and gut-wrenching story and complex job system. Manafinder is just kind of alright, and at least it isn’t a roguelike.
For such a crude-looking and sounding game, Faith: The Unholy Trinity is shockingly effective. It demonstrates how minimalistic game mechanics can be made deep through creativity and how simple imagery can still have a strong impact. Modern gamers might be turned off by the intentionally retro design, but those willing to give it a shot will discover that Faith has a way of getting under your skin and festering.
The story itself is passable for a noir tale, but the game feels like it’s more about references to other games. If you like noir-style games and wacky boomer shooters, then you’ll enjoy MOUSE: P.I. For Hire. At the end of the day, I did have a lot of fun with the game, even with its cheesy one-liners.
It’s important to compare this to Ys X: Nordics, a game that also made a significant impact. While Nordics is a solid title, Revelations in Celceta, presented here at its best, is truly exceptional. Returning to Celceta is a journey you owe to yourself.
If you’re upgrading from the base game and didn’t buy Vessel of Hatred, you’ll be thrilled to find out that it comes included if you buy Lord of Hatred, which makes the $40 asking price a bit easier to swallow.