Best games of 2026 so far: Pokopia, Marathon, and more

Months before 2026 even began, there was a palpable feeling in the air that it was going to be a significant year for games. Grand Theft Auto 6, Resident Evil Requiem, and Marvel’s Wolverine alone seemed like a generation-defining trio in the making. But truly special gaming years aren’t entirely defined by their biggest blockbusters; it’s often the surprises between those tentpole moments that give us the best games of the year.

That’s certainly held true so far in 2026. Three months in and we’ve already had so many gems, big and small, that we could put together a pretty killer year-end list today and be happy with it. Don’t worry, we’ll save that task for December. In the meantime, here are the best games of 2026 (so far), organized in reverse-chronological order.

How we pick the best games of 2026. For consideration, a game has to be out for at least a month, so we know it’s not just a flash in the pan. We also select games that are beloved not just by their reviewer but also widely across the team. We’ll update this article periodically throughout 2026.

1

Marathon

Image: Bungie

Release date: March 5

Where to play: PS5, Windows PC, Xbox Series X

Marathon is the kind of game that creeps up on you. Your first few play sessions are bound to be overwhelming as you’re inundated with confusing loot, bizarre UI, and a bevy of underexplained systems. The more you stick with it, though, the more you’ll discover an engrossing extraction shooter that puts all of Bungie’s best qualities into one tense experience. “It’s not about rushing your goals, but about pushing outward into the boundaries of the playable space around you in tactical ways that guarantee your survival,” Corey Plante wrote about its high-risk joy. “You have to pick your battles or else you run the risk of losing everything.”

2

Pokémon Pokopia

Pokemon explore a field of flowers with windmills in the background in Pokemon Pokopia

Release date: March 5

Where to play: Switch 2

We always expected that Pokémon Pokopia would be a fun time. Who wouldn’t trust the developers behind Dragon Quest Builders 2 to deliver a great sandbox? What we didn’t anticipate was just how much it would take over our lives. The cozy life sim has a way of winning you over by being very sincere. It doesn’t just want you to catch ‘em all in a new way, but to think of Pokémon as creatures you truly want to protect. As I wrote in my review, “You are collecting homes as much as you are collecting Pokémon, and that significantly changes your relationship to monsters you’ve caught hundreds of times.”

3

Resident Evil Requiem

Leon Kennedy with the Requiem gun in Resident Evil Requiem

Release date: February 27

Where to play: PS5, Switch 2, Windows PC, Xbox Series X

Resident Evil Requiem is two excellent horror games in one. First, you have a return to the series’ roots with Grace Ashford’s terrifying escape from a creepy Care Center. Then, you have Leon S. Kennedy returning to the ruins of Raccoon City to face his past and slay hordes of zombies in the process. That divide is a meaningful one: “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,” I wrote in my review. It makes for a mournful but always exciting horror game about the different ways people confront trauma.

4

Reanimal

A screenshot of Reanimal showing the two characters looking through a sewer grate.

Release date: February 13

Where to play: PS5, Switch 2, Windows PC, Xbox Series X

It’s not that Tarsier Studios’ Reanimal is doing anything too radically different from Little Nightmares, the small-scale horror series that the indie studio built its name on. It’s more that it is fully realizing that idea’s potential in extraordinary fashion. The co-op horror game is an atmospheric tour de force, taking players through a nightmarishly surreal journey that goes to some truly dark but magnificent places. “Horror games have no business being this beautiful,” Marloes Valentina Stella wrote in her review. “No, scratch that; horror games have every business being this beautiful.”

5

Mewgenics

A trail of kittens follows Tink, a central character in Edmund McMillen's Mewgenics. The cats range in colors from white to orange and black, and they are all dancing in line.

Release date: February 10

Where to play: Windows PC

As far as passion projects go, Mewgenics is one hell of a creative swing. The cat-breeding tactics-roguelike from Super Meat Boy co-creator Edmund McMillen is so full of wacky ideas that you’ll start to feel like there’s no bottom to it. It’s so easy to get mesmerized by it as a result. “I’ve found myself consumed by this game, dreaming about combat grids and sinking hours into trying to create the strongest cats this world has ever seen,” Deven McClure wrote in her review. “It’s a true feat for a game to walk the line between juvenile and complex, and Mewgenics does it deftly.”

6

Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined

The characters from Dragon Quest 7 smile excitedly from their boat

Release date: February 5

Where to play: PS5, Switch 2, Windows PC, Xbox Series X

In an age where we’re flooded with video game double-dips, few remakes are as delightful as Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined. The new version of Square Enix’s classic RPG isn’t out to provide players with a faithful remake, but a completely new experience that puts the series’ childlike heart at center stage. Joyful visuals and a breezier pace turn a daunting RPG into one that players of all ages can fall in love with. Michael McWhertor put it best in his review: “With an infectious enthusiasm, the game beckons a new generation of players to find their inner hero, to save the world through the eyes of those who long for adventure and aspire to make their own destiny.”

7

Cairn

Release date: January 29

Where to play: PS5, Windows PC

Cairn is an incredibly challenging game, but maybe not in the way you’re expecting. Yes, the free-climbing adventure can be traditionally hard as its protagonist, Aava, tries to scale slippery mountains while gusts of wind and sudden rainstorms try to thwart her journey. But Cairn’s challenge is more found in its tough lessons. “There’s a gentle suggestion here that focus and determination come at a human cost, and that all ascents aren’t inherently noble,” Oli Welsh wrote in his review. “This is a survival game that’s more about walking away from comfort and ease than trying to reclaim it. Cairn is hypnotic and rewarding, but it can be tough and bitter, too.”

8

Perfect Tides: Station to Station

Mara logs onto a computer in Perfect Tides: Station to Station.

Release date: January 22

Where to play: Windows PC

Few video game creators today cut straight to the heart like Meredith Gran. Her latest game, Perfect Tides: Station to Station, is a gorgeously meditative narrative adventure set against the backdrop of 2000s hipsterdom. “A familiar college coming-of-age story puts its ear to a human heart that used to beat a little differently before the age of mass communication,” I wrote in my review. “It’s a return to a time when an indie rock record and a late-night AIM conversation with a crush were one and the same: precious sounds that belonged only to you.” Even if you’re not nostalgic for that era, Station to Station’s sincere memories of it will begin to feel like your own.

9

TR-49

Release date: January 21

Where to play: iOS, Windows PC

For my money, no studio working today is as creatively exciting as Inkle. You’ll understand exactly why I feel that way when you play TR-49. The inventive puzzle game turns codebreaking into an act of deduction, as players search an old computer’s database to piece together truths obscured by fascism. “To solve TR-49 is to reconstruct a reality that was rewritten in real time,” I wrote in my review. Through cryptic text logs and nods at the history of censorship, Inkle finds fierce political commentary in small-scale puzzles.

10

Mio: Memories in Orbit

A train hands above an icy level in Mio: Memories in Orbit.

Release date: January 20

Where to play: PS5, Switch, Windows PC, Xbox Series X

It’s not often that you play a game that nails its genre as well as Mio: Memories in Orbit. The stylish Metroidvania does just about everything you’d want from a game like it. It’s full of secrets, gives you surprising traversal abilities, contains tons of challenging bosses, and features a striking art style that leaves you hungry to explore just so you can marvel at the world. “It is committed to the act of exploration to a surgical degree,” I wrote in my review that praised its use of genre conventions. “To survive its ship full of rogue machines is to become a digital cadaver of a gorgeously intricate digital world.