Crash on an ocean planet and build a base while something huge swims below.
Melinoe against Chronos; the sequel out of early access in 2025.
Run-and-gun bosses drawn like 1930s cartoons; hard and gorgeous.
A 16-bit JRPG with mechs made by one German; the best homage to the SNES.
Madeline climbs a mountain and her anxiety; the platformer with an assist mode and a message.
A point-and-click through a Louisiana refinery town with a cult and a robot; Southern Gothic sci-fi.
Sixty dead sailors and a pocket watch that shows the moment of death; Lucas Pope's 1-bit mystery.
A roguelike Metroidvania with combat that flows; Motion Twin.
A house of dead relatives, each death its own little game; the walking sim as anthology.
Scrap the moons for a company quota and die to a coilhead; the co-op horror comedy of 2023.
Three unreleased films and an actress who vanished; Sam Barlow's FMV puzzle box.
A replika searches a frozen facility; PS1-era survival horror with Evangelion in it.
Climb a tower with a deck you build as you go; the deck-building roguelike.
Ten friends build a Viking longhouse and sail to fight trolls; the 2021 early-access hit.
An artificial body on a space station, dice and rent; Jump Over the Age's tabletop RPG in prose.
Time moves only when you move; the FPS as a puzzle.
Two Solstice warriors in a Chrono Trigger tribute; Sabotage Studio.
Mae drops out of college and comes home to a dying town of animals; a game about being 20.
A solar system that ends in 22 minutes and a loop to learn it; the best game about curiosity.
The Kid rebuilds the world while a narrator describes every move; Supergiant's debut.
Survive a Tim Burton wilderness; the survival game with a look.
Control both brothers with the two sticks; the ending only a controller could tell.
An empty house in 1995 and the story left in it; the walking simulator that named the genre.
A child in the Underground can spare every monster; Toby Fox's RPG that remembers what you did.
Line puzzles on an island that teach you their rules without a word; Jonathan Blow.
A 2D world you rotate in 3D; Phil Fish's puzzle box.
Search a police database of interview clips to work out what happened; Sam Barlow's FMV mystery.
Two doctors rewrite a dying man's memories so he can reach the moon; a pixel-art tearjerker.
An 8-bit knight with a shovel; the retro platformer done right.
Three hundred levels of instant death and instant restart; the hard platformer.
Infobox