Mewgenics is the first legitimate 2026 GOTY contender

Whenever a new year begins, there’s always a rat race as players rush to find the first “GOTY contender” and claim bragging rights come December. That also tends to lead to some premature prognostication, as anything that reviews decently well in winter is elevated as a possible awards darling. Is Mio: Memories in Orbit this year’s Silksong? Will Cairn reach the top of the mountain? Almost certainly not, but it’s fun to start asking before the AAA behemoths roll in.

But just over one month into 2026, we actually do have a legitimate GOTY contender — and I swear it’s not just a “boy who cried wolf” scenario. Reviews for Mewgenics, a new tactics roguelike from The Binding of Isaac creator Edmund McMillen, dropped today, and they’re genuine head-turners. As of this writing, it sits at an average score of 90 on both Metacritic and OpenCritic, historically a bellwether for GOTY nominees. That also makes it the best-reviewed game of the year so far (it’s the first game of 2026 to crack the 90 mark), leaving Nioh 3 and Dragon Quest VII Reimagined in the dust.

But does a crass game about cat-breeding actually stand a chance of making GOTY shortlists 10 months from now? It’s more possible than you might think, but it’s going to depend on the all-important power of narrative — not the stories in games, but the ones around them.

Mewgenics is a staggeringly large roguelike in which players breed cats and take them out into turn-based battles across runs. Like Hades, much of its appeal comes down to its seemingly bottomless well of possibilities. You can play for 10 hours and barely see anything it has to offer. The tactics are brainy, the build synergies are plentiful, and the humor is… well, not for everyone. It has, however, resonated with critics so far. IGN, GameSpot, PC Gamer, and GamesRadar+ have all given it high marks, citing its jaw-dropping depth. Polygon also praised it in our review, with Deven McClure writing, “It’s a true feat for a game to walk the line between juvenile and complex, and Mewgenics does it deftly.”

It may not look like a typical Game Awards contender, but it’s much more in line with what juries tend to celebrate than you’d expect. We learned that lesson in 2024 with Balatro. A highly replayable roguelike with a long tail and a lot of satisfying synergy that makes each run feel magical can resonate just as much as a story-driven AAA game with lifelike graphics. Mewgenics checks those boxes, and its enormous runtime — it can take 200 hours to hit the final credits! — means that many are likely to stick with it through 2026 rather than playing it in February and forgetting about it come December. (Don’t forget that Balatro was released in early February too.)

Of course, Mewgenics would have to keep up with some big competition to complete that marathon. Resident Evil Requiem is poised to be 2026’s first AAA contender, Crimson Desert is eyeing the Black Myth: Wukong slot, and 007 First Light has all the markings of an awards darling. That’s before even accounting for Grand Theft Auto 6 and Marvel’s Wolverine, two games that feel like shoo-ins, even if they fall short of their sky-high expectations. Those could be five of your six nominees already, and we don’t even know what the holiday season will look like beyond GTA 6 yet.

Image: Edmund McMillen, Tyler Glaiel

But The Game Awards, and the GOTY race at large, isn’t always about what game is the best. Just as is the case with the Oscars, the race can often come down to which games have the most compelling stories around them. Last year’s Game Awards were a prime example of that. The story of “small indie studios” triumphing over AAA games became a story, to the point where the show featuring three indie GOTY nominees for the first time became a good bit of marketing. This year, Resident Evil Requiem has a potentially juicy story going for it considering that the series has never won the big one. It’s the same narrative force that propels Martin Scorsese’s movies to the front of the line every time he drops a decent one. And, of course, the fact that GTA 6’s inevitable victory has been treated like a foregone conclusion before it was even announced is an example of narrative, too.

Mewgenics has a compelling story around it, and that’s as much of an advantage as its gameplay. It’s not just that it’s an enormous indie passion project that was in development for well over a decade; it’s also a prime example of a cult gaming icon delivering something that feels like their magnum opus. (Think Death Stranding 2: On the Beach or Hades.) An awards push for Mewgenics would triple as a retroactive celebration of The Binding of Isaac and a good reason to give Edmund McMillen some long-deserved flowers. Those are the kind of invisible factors that can separate a Mewgenics from, say, a Cairn.

Awards shows tell a story, and you can learn a lot about what critics and fans value from following the stories that lead to them. Watch Mewgenics’ destiny take shape over the rest of the year if you want to study it up close.