
LEGO Builder's Journey
Light Brick Studio
A gorgeous, wordless meditation on play and parenthood that treats LEGO bricks with more reverence than any licensed blockbuster ever has — just don't...

PlateUp!
It's happening
PlateUp! takes the Overcooked formula, bolts on a roguelite spine and a genuinely deep automation sandbox, and ends up as the smartest co-op cooking g...
Obduction
Cyan, Inc.
Obduction is the truest heir to Myst anyone has made — Cyan included — a gorgeous, cerebral puzzle box that respects your intelligence to a degree tha...

Desta: The Memories Between
ustwo games
ustwo's tactics-roguelite about grief is one of the most emotionally honest games in the genre, wrapped around a physics-based dodgeball system that's...

I Am Dead
Hollow Ponds, Richard Hogg
A gentle, gorgeously illustrated meditation on death and memory that trades challenge for warmth — and mostly gets away with it. Come for the inventiv...

SteamWorld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech
Image & Form Games
Image & Form's card-battling RPG is the rare genre hybrid where both halves pull their weight — a genuinely deep combat system wrapped in a gorgeous, ...

Ring of Pain
Simon Boxer, Twice Different
Ring of Pain takes one structural idea — the dungeon as a rotating ring of cards — and builds a genuinely tense, mechanically airtight roguelike aroun...

Escape Academy
Coin Crew Games
Escape Academy is the rare video game adaptation of a physical hobby that understands *why* people love the original. Its rooms are genuinely clever, ...

Bury Me, My Love
The Pixel Hunt, ARTE France, FIGS
A wrenching, formally brilliant text-message drama about the Syrian refugee crisis that weaponizes your phone's most familiar interface against your c...

Happy Game
Amanita Design
Amanita Design weaponizes its own cuteness in a two-hour nightmare that's more art installation than puzzle box. It's short, it's simple, and it will ...

Lara Croft GO
Square Enix Montréal
Lara Croft GO strips a bombastic action franchise down to a chessboard and somehow loses none of its soul. It's short and rarely brutal, but it remain...

Beat Saber
Beat Games
Eight years on, Beat Saber remains the single best argument for owning a VR headset. Its slice-the-blocks loop is still unmatched, though the base sou...

Grow Home
Reflections, a Ubisoft Studio
Grow Home is a three-hour experiment that out-charms games ten times its budget. The independent-hand climbing is genuinely novel, the falling is half...

Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass
Kasey Ozymy
A solo-developed, Earthbound-descended RPG that hides one of the genre's most devastating emotional payloads behind goofy jokes and a brilliant transf...

Rakuen
Laura Shigihara
Rakuen is a masterclass in narrative design disguised as a humble RPG Maker adventure — a hospital story that trades combat for compassion and lands h...
Myst
Cyan Worlds, Inc.
Cyan's 2021 Unreal Engine remake is the definitive way to play the most influential adventure game ever made — gorgeous, faithful, and smartly moderni...

Terraforming Mars
Artefacts Studio
Terraforming Mars is one of the deepest engine-builders you can put on a screen, and this adaptation gets the rules right while getting the presentati...

Kingdoms and Castles
Lion Shield, LLC
Kingdoms and Castles is a charming, confidently designed city-builder whose freeform castle construction and genuine external threats elevate it above...

RiME
Tequila Works, QLOC
RiME is a gorgeous, gentle puzzle adventure whose final hour recontextualizes everything before it — a trick few games attempt and fewer land. The puz...

Snake Pass
Sumo Digital
Snake Pass is the rare 3D platformer with a genuinely original locomotion idea, executed with charm and conviction. Its physics-first controls will de...