Right from the first month of the year, as far as I’m concerned, Code Vein 2 has all the makings of one of the most disappointing experiences of 2026. The story is predictable and monotonous; the combat, while decent, gets tedious due to the repetition of enemies and attack patterns; and the boss battles are unengaging—which is probably the biggest flaw in a Soulslike game.

Despite all its flaws, Tormented Souls 2 may still appeal to nostalgic players who miss the classic survival horror games. That said, it doesn’t make up for the game’s script flaws, its unintuitive gameplay, and its predictable jump scares, which get lost amid an excellent atmosphere.

Stuck in some survival horror tropes that are already tired in 2025, A.I.L.A embodies the terror of AIs with a frightening villain, macabre settings, and great puzzles. A little more polish would be very beneficial for the game, which has a solid narrative and an excellent variety of horror approaches for each experience in the plot.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 slows down a little compared to its predecessor and responds to complaints from the community to deliver a good multiplayer experience in a year when everything is against it. Its campaign, however, highlights what has been sacrificed in the short development time and stands as a strong contender for the worst story in the franchise.

Without words, Keeper manages to have a touching narrative depth and features wonderful artistic feats. However, technical aspects make the experience unpleasant at certain points and detract from the enjoyment of such a surreal and beautiful world. Double Fine continues to be great at creating works that touch the heart, but perhaps it is time to review the optimization of the studio's works.

Between the acceleration, drifts, maneuvers, and turbos, Sonic Racing: CrossWorld skids through stages that, despite being fun, lack creativity, fall short in terms of variety of modes, and come at a very steep price for the content delivered.

Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound is a competent return to the franchise's 2D roots, with polished pixel art visuals, a retro soundtrack, and challenging gameplay that should appeal to fans of the NES classics. Despite presenting some good ideas, the game lacks enough variety and personality to stand out as a major modern milestone in the series. It works well as a tribute to the franchise's past and should have great appeal among nostalgic players and speedrunners.

Shadow Labyrinth doesn't quite capture the chaotic charm of Pac-Man. The game seems intent on proving that a dark reinterpretation of this universe can work, but it doesn't really seem ready for it.

Dead Take experiments with narrative triggers already masterfully employed in previous first-person horror titles and draws players in with well-developed scenarios that represent the emptiness of fame, but it relies on the excellent performances of Ben Starr and Neil Newbon to really take flight.

Without being scary, with mediocre storytelling and gameplay, an uninteresting protagonist, and cats as the main highlight, Cronos: The New Dawn is a basic and unremarkable survival horror game, but one that will entertain fans of the genre — and that's enough. Unfortunately, Bloober Team has not repeated the quality level of Silent Hill 2 Remake and returns to the level of forgettable games.

Living up to its name, Lost Soul Aside is a soulless game. Its combat, which should be its strongest point, suffers from a lack of responsiveness and boils down to mashing two buttons, while its generic art direction and empty story fail to make any impact. Despite its indie origins, which could justify some flaws, its launch price as a AAA game makes its shortcomings difficult to forgive.

Just when Drag X Drive starts to get fun, you reach the end of the content and activities the game has to offer. Simple is the best way to describe this title, and unfortunately, due to the lack of content, the game can't escape looking like a “premium” tech demo.

With strong inspirations from Persona and Silent Hill, Sorry We're Closed captures the essence of these franchises and puts its own DNA into a good narrative surrounded by allegories about prejudice, loneliness and love. As a survival horror, the game lacks in horror aspects, but still manages to deliver a solid experience with good combat and grotesque enemies.

The First Berserker: Khazan is intense for better or worse. When the game is immersed in its combat, creating builds and a few boss battles, it shines brightly, almost reaching the shelf of great soulslikes. However, the poor level design, repetition of enemies, drowsy story and inconsistent difficulty make it fall down the ranks and be just another soulslike, although it still ranks among the good titles of the genre, no more than that. Lovers of Nioh and difficult games will find plenty of fun in the more than 35-hour campaign.

Although well-intentioned, the game tries to embrace the world and show different approaches to survival horror in a shallow and unremarkable way, which makes it a morbid and forgettable experience in a genre full of unforgettable and excellent titles, whether on the indie scene or big AAAs.

Deliver At All Costs has a good system for destroying environments and stylish graphics, but lacks much in the way of really useful customization and gets lost in a shallow story with little charisma. Despite this, it's a good title to launch an independent studio, which can take its future projects to greater heights.

Spirit of the North 2 has its ups and downs. The sequel expands its universe and story well, building a plot capable of captivating the player with its mythology and symbolic message. However, the game replicated the same mistakes as its predecessor, flaws that can't just be brushed aside, since they sacrifice gameplay and player progression.

Shrouded in the magic and oppressiveness of the Elden Ring world, Nightreign is a good addition to the franchise, but it's no more than an empty, superficial spectacle that relies on nostalgia for bosses and references to Dark Souls. Fun can be found in the rushed exploration of Limveld and in the battles that are only big in size and have lost their epic factor due to the lifeless arenas. The game, however, could be a new way for new players to enter the soulslike universe thanks to its greater accessibility and less punishing challenge.

Without going overboard or using any extravagance, Donkey Kong Country Returns HD revitalizes the Nintendo Wii classic with decency. You can still have fun and stress out equally, but in a satisfying way in the excellent platforming challenges and the beautiful scenery worthy of the masterpiece it is known for. The addition of the Nintendo 3DS-exclusive stages gives it an air of novelty, but it's still too little to justify the full price of a title that hasn't even been localized into Brazilian Portuguese. In short, the game is a timid addition to the catalog of a franchise that deserves more and has been forgotten since 2014, when Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze was released. Who knows, maybe on the Nintendo Switch 2 we'll see our beloved Donkey Kong shine again.

STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl is great when it's not mired in sameness and technical flaws. In the moments when the game is working as it should, I found great narratives, had fun fighting soldiers and monsters and enjoyed exploring the regions of the Exclusion Zone. If played calmly and after major corrections, STALKER 2 can be a very satisfying experience, but at the moment it has become one of the most stressful gaming experiences of my life.

LEGO Horizon Adventures adapts the universe of the Sony franchise well and brings lightness and humor to the PlayStation Studios production, although it is a duller adaptation than the original series. When compared to the other LEGO games, the game falls short due to some overly simplistic level design decisions. The story tries to be funny in a forced and flawed way, the gameplay is repetitive and tires you out after 30 minutes.

Age of Mythology: Retold is a remaster of unquestionable quality, with improvements to the quality of life that enhance the player's experience and immersion. However, the monetization of the gods favours paying players, leading to a possible pay-to-win atmosphere.

With extremely entertaining combat, an innovative party system and an interesting, well-told story, Deathbound shines, but stumbles over technical flaws. The game is exquisite in creating a vast world rich in detail, whether it's the mythology created or the seven protagonists who ooze personality. An excellent way of defining Deathbound is that it's a soulslike game from the early 2010s, which hasn't kept up so well with the improvements that other titles in this category have brought over the years, but may please more purist gamers.

As a Nintendo Switch release, Luigi's Mansion 2 HD manages to entertain despite the problems that eventually make it tiresome, just like the original. Although it's not the best game in the franchise, it's a title that has interesting mechanics and relies especially on the contextual narrative adapted for each region. For those who played the original, however, the big difference is in the controls. The visual evolution isn't big enough to justify the full price.

Despite its fun gameplay, which is very reminiscent of the fourth game in the series, Top Spin 2K25 has evolved little in terms of movement mechanics and the physics of the tennis players' strokes in almost 15 years. To make matters worse, the poor visuals, especially in the textures of the characters, really detract from the experience, as the game often looks like it was made for the end of the Xbox 360 and PS3 generation. Top Spin 2K25 even hits some commendable winners, but the large number of unforced errors prevents it from dreaming of a Grand Slam title in sports simulators.

Killer Klowns from Outer Space: The Game is sure to entertain you, especially if you play with friends, but the title doesn't innovate enough to stand out in the genre. With familiar mechanics and interesting gameplay, it offers an enjoyable experience, but no great surprises. If you're a fan of asymmetrical horror, it's worth a look, but don't expect anything revolutionary.

Sand Land is a game that pays homage to Akira Toriyama's original work, with a living world that brings much of the atmosphere of the manga published in 2000. The good story and charismatic characters make the campaign a lot of fun most of the time, but the repetitiveness of the enemies and the shallow combat prevent the title developed by ILCA from soaring higher. For an open-world RPG that can exceed 40 hours between the main story and side quests, Sand Land still entertains, but it would certainly be a better game if it featured more variety of strategies in hand-to-hand combat or on board the various vehicles you unlock during the campaign.

Princess Peach: Showtime! is an experience that will hook you with its magical visuals, but only the first time. The game, which mixes several genres, has slow stages that don't offer much replayability and few extra challenges, making it stand out as a unique adventure in which Peach navigates the most varied nostalgic memories of our childhood.

With great combat, Rise of the Ronin falters trying to be bigger than it should, which ends up taking the focus away from its positives and distracting us with a series of things that don't really matter.

Alone in the Dark leaves a lot to be desired compared to other survival horror games, but it manages to deliver a somewhat competent experience. The game doesn't really shine in any aspect, but has small positives and is a good return for a franchise that needed a restart to position itself among the genre it created many years ago. Alone in the Dark is not dead, and if it manages to fix mistakes it can have a bright future ahead.

By being exactly the same as the original, it's inevitable that the new Super Mario RPG is a good game, but it doesn't bring any new novelties that justifies its full price. The revised graphics are the only big draw. With very few changes in combat and narrative deviations that barely impact the story that we already knew, the game is more a remaster than a proper remake. The new Super Mario RPG is a good entry for newcomers that did not play the original.

Immortals of Aveum has only its combat as a merit. However, the repetitiveness of encounters taints the only redeeming aspect of the game: the magical weaving system. The game lacks character development, solid narrative and intricate level design, not to mention the technical problems.

While Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon has exciting combat, it also has a shallow story, not a whole lot of extra content after the main campaign and a difficulty level that is not rewarding at all. While it may be the dream of mecha enthusiasts all around, it doesn't do much to draw in new players or introduce them to a new world.

Oxenfree II: Lost Signals doesn't innovate much on gameplay and when it tries to, it could've done better. However, the story touches on heavy themes of grief and belonging while giving closure to its predecessor. Offering choices that escape the 'good versus evil' dichotomy, the game is an allegory to accepting what is outside our control.

Harvestella is ideal for anyone looking for a game with the peace of mind of a farm simulator and the challenge of combat. You'll likely feel a mix of relaxation and excitement as you tend to crops and fight off threats, all while trying to uncover the truth behind the mysterious "death station", Quietus.

Even though it's short, Trek to Yomi's journey is very interesting and captivating. With an art style inspired by monochrome Japanese films, this adventure has enough interesting paintings to make up for your slips. Its combat is interesting and easily mastered, while exploration and puzzles aren't the most challenging in the world.