Spring Game Preview

Action-Adventure
Available March 26 for PC, PS5, and XBX

The long-running, story-focused adventure series is returning to its roots with this latest sequel, in which series protagonist Max Caulfield, working at a college in Vermont, returns home after a weekend away to find the school burned to the ground and all her friends dead. Max must use her time-rewind ability to attempt to figure out what happened and stop the tragedy. Nothing is ever simple with Life is Strange, though, and saving the school might cause something else bad to happen—and judging by the previous games, that something else might be really, really upsetting.

Racing
Available March 26 for PC, PS5, and XBX

Resurrecting a forgotten racing game IP from the '90s might seem a little bit odd, but Screamer is only a forgotten brand for us. Screamer was actually the first racing game by Milestone S.R.L., an Italian game studio that has built dozens of other racers in the three decades since, so this reboot means something to them. No need to worry that the new Screamer is just a glossier version of an old game, though, as the reboot will feature an unusually heavy emphasis on storytelling for a racer, with its roster of anime-style support characters that can help you and rivals you'll need to overcome. All that seemingly gives Screamer a pretty different vibe from Milestone's many other racing brands, like Moto GP and Ride, and that's very intriguing.

Platformer
Available March 26 for NS2

The original release for Super Mario Bros. Wonder in 2023, which was the first new side-scrolling Mario title in over a decade, earned a Metacritic score of 92, so there's not much question about whether this one is worth playing. The question, instead, is whether the Switch 2 upgrade—which is $20 for existing owners—offers enough new and interesting content for existing owners to justify spending more money on it. Since the main attraction is the multiplayer-focused Bellabel Park expansion, that price might be a tough ask for folks who just want some new Mario levels to play.

Metroidvania
Available March 31 for PC, PS5, and XBX

The upsettingly surreal indie metroidvania Grime —full of beautifully disgusting character and creature designs—is getting a sequel that manages to look even weirder than the first game. Grime II also features a fundamental change to its gameplay, as absorbing enemies will now allow players to summon them and use them in battles against other baddies. But most important, perhaps, is that Grime II looks to maintain its unforgiving, Souls -like nature while doubling the amount of content it offers over the first game, according to the game's director.

Action-Adventure/Platformer
Available April 2 for PC, PS5, XBX, and NS2

Darwin's Paradox is a gorgeous-looking puzzle platformer about an octopus called (you guessed it) Darwin. Through some calamity, Darwin gets pulled out of the ocean and tossed behind a grimy factory, where he'll have to navigate through all sorts of traps and other hazards on his way back to his natural environment. But Darwin's Paradox, which is the debut game from French developer ZDT Studio, doesn't just look fun. It looks beautiful, too, with a number of stunningly varied cinematic environments that Darwin will need to journey through.

Turn-Based RPG
Available April 7 for PC, PS5, XBX, and NS2

Why does every turn-based RPG need to be about fighting or killing? Where are all the games about other kinds of battles? Well, we've got one of those for you right here with People of Note, a turn-based RPG in which our heroes battle their foes with rhythm-based musical battles. While that sounds pretty outlandish, there's also a familiar core here: People of Note is still, after all, an epic RPG in which the protagonist assembles a group of heroes for a grand quest to save the world. But that fundamental twist elevates this one from the crowd a little bit, at least on paper.

Action/Platformer
Available April 14 for PC and XBX

This narrative-focused noir indie platformer follows a futuristic AI called REACH who's trapped in a human body in a grungy alternate version of the 1980s. REACH has to journey across a series of stunning cyberpunk cityscapes to figure out why he even exists. While that sounds like a potentially awesome story, it's Replaced's visuals that really draw us in. This one features a pixel-art aesthetic that is so detailed and intricate that Replaced genuinely manages to look simultaneously cinematic and like a retro game. That's a pretty rare combination, so it makes for a compelling hook.

FPS
Available April 16 for PC, PS5, XBX, and NS2

Rescheduled from March. Like the punishing platformer Cuphead before it, this first-person shooter borrows its aesthetic from early 20th century cartoons, marrying it to a detective story borrowed from noir thriller films of the same era. That clever combination, which gives this game the air of a Disney-fied version of Wolfenstein, pretty much guarantees that Mouse: P.I. for Hire will be a memorable one at the very least. And if it's actually fun to play, there's a good chance we'll have a classic on our hands, because how often do we get a new shooter that doesn't look like any other shooters? Basically never.

Action-Adventure
Available April 17 for PC, PS5, XBX, and NS2

An astronaut named Hugh and a short android called Diana have to work together to survive on and explore an abandoned space station—abandoned by humans, that is, but not the AI that runs the place. With its somewhat unique focus on hacking gameplay vs normal video game action, and the interesting character dynamics between its two main heroes, Pragmata could be a breath of big-budget fresh air. But Pragmata, developed and published by Capcom, is one of those titles that's been in gestation for a long time. It was originally scheduled to release back in 2022, and years-long delays are often a big sign of trouble. Based on reactions to the demo, though, it may turn out that all that extra development time was good for the final product.

Strategy/Simulation/City Builder
Available April 22 for PC

Peter Molyneux's decades-long career as a game designer has been defined as much by the promises he didn't deliver on as it is by the games he actually managed to release. But with Masters of Albion —another "god game" simulation title in which players build and manage a town as the town's deity—the veteran designer had a chance to return to his roots and make a great modern entry in a neglected genre he knows very well. After all, Masters of Albion is very much in the same vein as Molyneux's own Black & White and Populous, and Molyneux has referred to the upcoming title as "the culmination of my life's work." So, uh, fingers crossed.

Adventure
Available April 22 for PC, PS5, and XBX

Rescheduled from February. This title from DigixArt looks at first like a fairly straightforward first-person action game in which you battle enemies across a planet covered entirely by ocean, which would have been fairly novel on its own. But Tides of Tomorrow includes an asynchronous multiplayer component, similar to sharing structures with random players in Death Stranding, in which another player's past actions will affect your game world in various ways—and what you do will impact somebody else's world. It's a gimmick, yes, but it's one that might help each player feel like they're getting a more unique and personalized experience.

Action-Adventure
Available April 28 for PC, PS5, and XBX

From the creators of Life is Strange, Lost Records, and Vampyr comes a third-person adventure title about a pair of astronauts, Ariane and Thomas, who crash land on the long-theorized bonus planet at the edge of our solar system, dubbed Persephone in this story. It's not long after our heroes arrive that they draw the ire of some kind of alien being that they have to deal with, forcing them to explore this new world and figure out how to survive. Players control both characters, but the two have very different gameplay styles: Since Thomas suffered a major injury in the crash, he has to leave all the running and jumping and climbing on stuff to Ariane. It's not all that uncommon to have a pair of player characters with very different capabilities, but this sounds like a fairly compelling dynamic even so.

Expansion
Available April 28 for PC, PS5, PS4, XBX, and XB1

The second major expansion for the dungeon-crawling RPG Diablo IV is a direct sequel to the previous add-on, Vessel of Hatred, which ended on quite a cliffhanger. Lord of Hatred sends players into the new region of Skovos on a quest to take down the evil lord Mephisto, and adds the Paladin and Warlock classes. The return of the Paladin class is very welcome, since it was a fan-favorite from Diablo II that was left out from Diablo III (the Crusader class isn't quite the same thing). And the changes to endgame progression, which gives players more control over what specific content they want to grind for rewards, sound great. But it remains to be seen whether this expansion will truly elevate the Diablo IV experience.

Fighting
Available April 30 for PC, PS5, and XBX

With most existing action franchises, you might have to take a few liberties to turn them into an ultraviolent fighting game. Not Invincible though, since both the comics and the animated TV series are both full of extremely graphic Mortal Kombat -esque violence. Even more interesting is the way that Invincible VS incorporates 3v3 tag team gameplay to allow players to pull off multi-character combos—a significant new wrinkle for a tried-and-true genre. And with one of the writers of the series filling that same role on the game, Invincible VS might actually be able to satisfy fans who show up for the story, too.

Action
Available April 30 for PS5

The bullet hell experts at Housemarque—the studio behind Super Stardust, Resogun, and Returnal —are at it again with Saros, which evolves the third-person action roguelike gameplay of Returnal and applies it to a new original universe with more of a space fantasy bent. In Saros, players control protagonist Devraj as he explores the constantly-shifting planet Carcosa, where the world's layout changes every time you die. If Saros is able to actually improve on the quite engaging gameplay loop that Housemarque came up with for Returnal, this one has the potential to be one of the most memorable games of the year.

Survival Horror
Available May 12 for PC, PS5, and XBX

Titles from Supermassive Games, which include Until Dawn and The Quarry , usually tend to have more of the vibe of an interactive, choose-your-own-adventure movie than that of a normal video game. But with Directive 8020, about a colony mission to the Tau Ceti star system gone very wrong, the studio is injecting a bit more video game DNA into its formula. This time, instead of just walking around, making decisions, choosing dialogue, and doing quick-time events during action scenes, you'll actually have to control your character as they attempt to sneak around, unable to otherwise defend themselves against alien threats without weapons. That increased focus on more traditional stealth/survival gameplay may be just the twist that the Dark Pictures series has been waiting for.

Racing
Available May 19 for PC and XBX

Being the first Forza Horizon title to be built entirely for current hardware means Playground Games was able to build the racing series' biggest open world ever. But it's not just the size of the map that's impressive: What's in it matters just as much. And Forza Horizon 6's map, which is set in Japan, includes a massive recreation of Tokyo for players to race through, including some famous landmarks like the massive Shibuya Crossing intersection. Add to that some major improvements to car customization, and the fact that it'll (eventually, likely this fall) be the first Forza available on PlayStation, and this might be the most promising new Forza Horizon in a decade, if not ever.

Platformer
Available May 21 for NS2

The newest Yoshi game—the first since 2019!—follows Mario's trusty pal as he explores the pages of a sentient encyclopedia called Mr. E in this side-scrolling platform game. Setting the story inside a book also informs the game's aesthetic, which adopts a bit of a storybook look for this one. Otherwise, this appears to be a very vibey new Yoshi title that doesn't rock the boat too much. The core platforming gameplay, in which Yoshi borrows the abilities of various creatures by swallowing them in order to solve puzzles and get past obstacles, remains intact. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, because it's been a while since the last one came out.

Open-World Action
Available May 22 for PC, PS5, and XBX.

While many other franchise-based LEGO games have adapted existing stories—like LEGO Star Wars following the plots of the movies, for example—the LEGO Batman games have always done their own thing with original stories. With Legacy of the Dark Knight, however, the series will pay tribute to Batman's many cinematic adventures with a new story that incorporates elements from many past Batman films. Even better, though, is that this game takes place in a massive open-world version of Gotham City. We haven't had a proper new video game version of Gotham since Arkham Knight in 2015, so that alone might be worth the price tag.

A Switch 2 version is expected to follow later in 2026.

Want more games?
For a full list of all major upcoming game releases throughout 2026, visit our frequently updated Game Release Calendar.

We also have individual release lists by platform:
PlayStation 5 release calendar >
PlayStation 4 release calendar >
Xbox Series X/S release calendar >
Xbox One release calendar >
PC release calendar >
Nintendo Switch 2 release calendar >
Nintendo Switch release calendar >
Meta Quest release calendar >