Everything is generally more rhythmic and strategic, like you're playing a mainline Monster Hunter game instead of a nascent turn-based system that isn't quite sure of itself yet. It all makes for an in-depth RPG spinoff, and we could use more games like that these days.
Planet of Lana 2: Children of the Leaf once again tells a top-notch story, one I’m firmly invested in. I don’t just want to see where these characters go next (especially after Planet of Lana 2 has revealed so much about them and their world) but I need this adventure to keep on adventurin’. The year is still young, but Planet of Lana 2 is the best game I’ve played yet in 2026.
I can respect the drive to innovate here. After all, Scott Pilgrim’s long-term staying power is built on reinvention. You get the sense that Tribute isn’t comfortable just being known as a novelty act that recreates arcade nostalgia for popular IP. There’s a real attempt to bring the beat-'em-up genre forward in the same way that Absolum successfully pulled off last year with its roguelike infusion, but Scott Pilgrim EX overcomplicates an elegant formula without putting forth a big picture “why?” If this is a game that’s so indebted to the classics Scott Pilgrim was inspired by, why deconstruct and then reconstruct it all in this way? If you’re going to forego a heartfelt script full of thematic weight to focus on the language of play instead, that design needs to communicate something of its own to fill the space. Without it, Scott Pilgrim EX’s heart is lost in a sea of low-hanging video game references.
For a moment, I forgot that I was playing a very mechanical life sim where monsters can feel more like tools than animals. (In some ways, Pokopia just trades one kind of labor for another.) I felt like I had actually created a comforting home for some friendly Pokémon. Not a place built by humans who capture critters for sport, but a world shaped around them.
Capcom isn’t out to radically reinvent its flagship series as it did with both Resident Evil 7 and Village. Instead, it plays like a coda to the original trilogy. It returns to the Raccoon City incident, both in its classic survival horror gameplay and story, to allow its characters to finally unpack decades of grief, regret, and survivor’s guilt. That’s what ultimately links Requiem’s two heroes together, even if their stories don’t totally fit together: Grace deals with loss on a micro level, while Leon deals with it on a macro one. Both face their fears for the hope that they get a chance to save even one life.
With Neva: Prologue, Nomada Studio has done it again, finessing the power that video games have as an outlet for our grief and other complex emotions. It also serves as a reminder to hold your pets tight for as long as you can.
God of War Sons of Sparta doesn’t do anything new with the Metroidvania genre, but it does do something new with the God of War himself. It shows off a side of Kratos we’re not used to, making him a young man who’s trying to decide what path to take next. (A fitting match for a sprawling Metroidvania, no?) After the bloody Greek trilogy and somber Norse Saga, the Kratos who’s just trying to find his way contrasts well with the revenge-filled and grief-stricked versions we’ve gotten to know so well.
For all its talk about curses and professional psychics, Paranormasight: The Mermaid's Curse is one of the most grounded, and well-written, visual novels out there. It turns the eccentricities of its predecessor into carefully crafted storytelling devices, and it isn't afraid to expect you, the reader, to put in a bit of work making connections and figuring out why what it has to say matters. The story is strong and the characters well-realized. But it's that bold self-confidence that makes Mermaid's Curse so memorable and one of 2026's early great games.
DropShot takes a great stunt and asks what parts of it are essential to the spectacle. In stripping it down to its essence, Knight finds a shared connection between two artistic mediums that love to get our blood pumping.
For all its talk of revolution, High on Life 2 only seems interested in taking some crowd-pleaser jabs at those in power before getting back to its colorful alien distractions. Maybe that’s radical enough for something as light and silly as this. Finding ways to have fun is an act of rebellion in a world that thrives on keeping you down; you can still skate to a protest. High on Life 2 gives players plenty of space to goof off in a dystopian world filled with playgrounds for those with eyes to see. Why not take a breather between real fights to f*ck up some aliens?
