The best video games of 2026 so far

A gothic action adventure in which you play a mouse who burrows under the ground to dodge attacks, made to look and feel like a lost Game Boy Color classic.

Yacht Club, the studio behind Shovel Knight, called Mina make or break for the company. It made it: VGC reported a Metacritic score of 92 and more than a dozen perfect reviews, including IGN's. The burrowing move turns every fight into a little puzzle of timing and position, and the world is full of hidden routes. If you grew up on Zelda: Link's Awakening, this is the game of the year for you.

It is hard, and there is no map by default, which some reviewers saw as a real drawback.

The open-world racing festival comes to Japan, with more than 550 cars. It is the biggest Forza game yet.

Forza Horizon has never been bad, but setting it in Japan gave Playground Games its best canvas yet: mountain passes, city streets and the country's car culture. It held a Metacritic score of 92 on Xbox and was the best-reviewed game of the first half of the year. It is also the most welcoming game here. You can race, explore or just drive for an hour and feel like you got somewhere.

Some reviewers felt the progression systems play it safe, and that it only scratches the surface of Japanese car culture.

The ninth main Resident Evil splits its story between Grace Ashcroft, an FBI analyst in tense survival horror with almost no ammunition, and Leon Kennedy in loud, fast action.

Capcom's two-hero structure lets Requiem be both kinds of Resident Evil, and it works. Grace's sections are the scariest the series has been in years, and Leon's are pure relief. At 88 on Metacritic it is the best-reviewed mainline entry since Resident Evil 4 in 2005, and players gave it the highest user score the series has had there. One reviewer called Grace the best new character since the original four.

The story is weak by the series' standards and the boss fights disappointed some critics. Grace's sections are properly frightening.

A full remake of the second half of Falcom's classic role-playing game, in which Estelle Bright sets out to find the person she loves while a secret society moves against the kingdom of Liberl.

The first Sky remake was good. This one is better, with many of the first remake's problems fixed, according to Kotaku. It holds a 92 top-critic average on OpenCritic, with 97 percent of critics recommending it, and several reviewers called it one of Falcom's best character dramas. If you like long role-playing games where you get to know a cast over dozens of hours, few series do it better.

This is the second half of a story. Play Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter (2025) first, or the whole thing will mean much less.

A cozy building game in which you turn an empty land into a home for Pokémon, gathering materials and making the place nicer for them to live in.

Think Animal Crossing or Dragon Quest Builders with Pokémon, which is what GameSpot compared it to. It reached 89 on Metacritic, the highest score of any Pokémon game on the site, and became such a hit that a Jefferies analyst called it a viral stealth hit for Nintendo. It is relaxing, it is generous, and it uses old Pokémon ideas in new ways.

Only on Switch 2. The late game gets grindy, and some side areas do not reward exploring.

A third-person sci-fi shooter from the makers of Returnal, in which a soldier fights through a shifting alien world under an eclipse, getting stronger with each run.

Housemarque kept what people loved about Returnal: arenas full of glowing bullets, very fast movement and a constant sense of dread. VGC gave it five stars and called it one of the most memorable first-party games on PS5, and Game Informer gave it 9.25. If you liked Returnal, this is the obvious next game.

The story and presentation drew criticism, with one reviewer saying the narrative often feels at odds with the game. It is still demanding.

A tactical roguelike about breeding cats: you send squads of cats on dangerous expeditions, and the survivors pass their strange traits on to the next generation.

From the co-creator of The Binding of Isaac, and it shows in the dark humor. It sold more than a million copies in its first week and holds an 89 top-critic average on OpenCritic, with Shacknews giving it a perfect score and PC Gamer 92. Every run produces a story, usually one you would not tell your grandmother.

It is pricey, slow to get going and unapologetically harsh, as Game8 put it. The humor is crude.

On a lunar research station, a spacesuited man called Hugh protects Diana, an android girl who hacks the enemy robots while he shoots them.

Capcom's long-delayed new series turned out to be the highest-rated new big-budget game of the year so far, with 86 on Metacritic and 87 on OpenCritic. The trick is that you hack and shoot at the same time, which makes every fight feel like a puzzle played at speed. The relationship between Hugh and Diana is the heart of it and is genuinely funny. It sold a million copies in two days.

The story stumbles in the early hours, and the boss fights are the weakest part.

A brutally difficult samurai action game set in a dark fantasy version of Japan, where you can switch between a heavy Samurai style and a fast Ninja style in the middle of a fight.

Team Ninja replaced the old mission menu with large, linked areas to explore, and added the instant style switching, which reviewers loved. GameSpot gave it a 9 and called it the best game in the series. If Elden Ring left you wanting harder and faster combat, this is it.

It is grueling and sometimes overwhelming, the story is forgettable, and at launch some players hit crashes and bugs.