2026 has been an unusually broad year: a survival horror revival, the best-reviewed racing game of the year so far, a four-on-four tag fighter, and a tactics game about breeding cats. These are the 12 that earned their place, drawn from critic roundups and review scores rather than noise.
Expect anywhere from 6h to 45h of main story depending on what you pick. These are recent releases, so the playtime figures are still settling and are marked as estimates throughout.
Award winners and top-rated picks come first.
| Game | Studio | Year | Main story | Completionist |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Big Walk est | House House | 2026 | 8h | 20h |
| Forza Horizon 6 est | Playground Games | 2026 | 25h | no end |
| Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls est | Arc System Works | 2026 | 6h | no end |
| Mewgenics est | Edmund McMillen & Tyler Glaiel | 2026 | 25h | 100h |
| Nioh 3 est | Team Ninja | 2026 | 45h | 130h |
| Resident Evil Requiem est | Capcom | 2026 | 12h | 30h |
| Titanium Court est | AP Thomson | 2026 | 12h | 35h |
| 007 First Light est | IO Interactive | 2026 | 15h | 35h |
| Crimson Desert est | Pearl Abyss | 2026 | 40h | 120h |
| Mina the Hollower est | Yacht Club Games | 2026 | 12h | 28h |
| Pragmata est | Capcom | 2026 | 15h | 35h |
| Saros est | Housemarque | 2026 | 15h | 45h |
A silly, sincere hike for two to twelve people, powered by bad ideas.
The studio behind the goose game sends you into open bushland with friends, proximity voice chat and puzzles nobody can solve alone. Shouting across a valley is the main mechanic.
8h main story · 14h with extras · 20h to 100% est
An open-road festival where even the menus feel like sunshine.
Playground's racing sandbox at its most polished, and the best-reviewed game of 2026 so far. A PlayStation 5 version has been promised but not dated.
25h main story · 60h with extras · no finish line est
Four-on-four tag fighting with easy inputs and a very high ceiling.
Arc System Works applies its hand-drawn style to a team brawler built for newcomers and lab monsters alike. Tag combos look ridiculous on purpose.
6h main story · no finish line est
Breed cats, build a squad, watch everything go horribly wrong.
Turn-based tactics with chaotic genetics from the pair behind Super Meat Boy and The Binding of Isaac. Fourteen years in development, a million copies sold in week one.
25h main story · 50h with extras · 100h to 100% est
Stance-swapping combat tuned for people who enjoy being tested.
Team Ninja's hardest-hitting series returns with more build freedom and more bosses than is strictly reasonable. Loot-heavy in the best way.
45h main story · 75h with extras · 130h to 100% est
Survival horror with the lights off and the inventory nearly empty.
Capcom went back to tighter, meaner spaces and landed the best-reviewed mainline entry in two decades. Dread over spectacle, and eight million copies sold in six months.
12h main story · 18h with extras · 30h to 100% est
Match tiles to reshape the battlefield, then send your army across it.
Match-3, tower defence, deck-building and a visual novel in one strange machine, alternating between gathering tiles and marching soldiers. Its creator is the only back-to-back IGF Grand Prize winner.
12h main story · 20h with extras · 35h to 100% est
A young spy learning the job, gadgets and all.
IO Interactive brings its Hitman-honed level design to an origin story with a lighter touch and a lot more improvisation than its usual contracts.
15h main story · 22h with extras · 35h to 100% est
A sprawling action epic with wrestling moves and real weather.
Pearl Abyss leans on physical, grappling-heavy combat across a continent of side business. Enormous, and clearly intent on proving it.
40h main story · 70h with extras · 120h to 100% est
A whip, a mouse and a very haunted island.
Yacht Club's top-down action adventure wears its 8-bit influences proudly but moves like something thoroughly modern. Burrowing is the best verb in it.
12h main story · 18h with extras · 28h to 100% est
Shooting and hacking at the same time, on the moon.
Capcom's long-delayed oddity pairs gunplay with a real-time puzzle layer and an unlikely pair of leads. Nothing else plays quite like it.
15h main story · 22h with extras · 35h to 100% est
A shifting world that rebuilds itself every time you die.
Housemarque applies its arcade bullet-ballet to a bigger, stranger structure, with a persistent thread running between runs.
15h main story · 25h with extras · 45h to 100% est