The Best Video Games of 2026 (So Far)

10 min readWill 2026 go down as one of the best years in video games? It’s been a long time since a single calendar year has been so completely stacked as the one we’re having right now. If you tell me there’s nothing new to play, I dare you to say it with a straight face because you have got to be kidding.Of course, the industry’s economic woes cannot be overstated. It’s a dark time when even prolific studios downsize and slash budgets and lay off talented developers with invaluable institutional knowledge. It’s hard to actually call 2026 a great year in gaming when it’s also been a year of heartbreak and uncertainty for the future.But the games are still great. Resident Evil Requiem nails the franchise’s decades-long identity split with a game that’s half third-person action and half first-person survival horror. Action games like 007 First Light, Marvel’s Wolverine, and Onimusha: Way of the Sword let loose the power fantasies we’ve only dreamed of.And it’s not all blood and guts and guns and swords. Earlier this year, the coming-of-age Mixtape caused a ruckus among gaming circles, though anyone who’s played it and loved it will tell you just how special it is as a love letter to bygone summer days. And a spin-off Pokémon title about building adorable towns and protecting the environment is currently the highest-rated game in the franchise’s thirty-year history.The year isn’t over just yet. Star Wars: Galactic Racer is primed to bring back podracing in style, while a little game called Grand Theft Auto VI is about to hog everyone’s attention throughout November. Before one of us puts another 40 hours into Pokémon Pokopia, let’s highlight some of the best games Esquire’s editors have played through in 2026 so far. Buckle up, because there are actually a lot of games to talk about.Marvel’s WolverineRock out with your claws out. Insomniac applies its winning formula for triple-A superhero games to flesh out the most popular X-Men member of all time. The five-foot-four berserker stars in his own solo adventure in a universe where mutants live in secret. While piecing together his own memories, Wolverine meets a telepath named Jean Grey. Together, they must stop a powerful industrialist from unleashing a weapon that could kill all mutants. A hyper-violent tour through some of its title antihero’s classic comics, Wolverine doesn’t quite reach the same heights as Spider-Man, but the way it lets players truly feel like “The Best There Is” is gold.MixtapeIf you could rewind to your last day of school, what would it look like? Who are you with? And most important, what’s on the stereo? At the start of summer, developers Beethoven & Dinosaur released the gorgeous narrative game Mixtape, a loving homage to coming-of-age cinema with a tastefully curated soundtrack. (We’re talking Joy Division, Silverchair, B.J. Thomas, and more.) Set in summer 1995, three California teens relish their final hours together before going their separate ways. While Mixtape kicked up a storm among gamers over what defines a “game”—you can’t die or fail, nor are any of the things you do in Mixtape remotely challenging—it’s still a special experience that I argue illuminates how special games can be as a storytelling medium. Your adolescence probably didn’t look exactly like Mixtape, but the game can nonetheless trigger old memories.007 First LightAs the world waits with bated breath over who will play the next James Bond on the big screen, video games have a Bond to call their own in actor Patrick Gibson. From developer IO Interactive, behind the smash Hitman series, comes 007 First Light, a high-octane espionage action game that follows a new James Bond in the early days of his career at MI6. Unlike the Hitman games, which are mired in the darkness of Agent 47’s deadly profession, 007 First Light revels in the fantasy of Bond’s perilous and pleasurable lifestyle. It’s basically the closest any of us will get to feeling like James Bond short of renting an Aston Martin for a test drive.Mina the HollowerIt’s been twelve years since Yacht Club Games released Shovel Knight, which was deemed by many one of the leading retro-inspired indie hits of the 2010s. Now, Yacht Club has done it again with Mina the Hollower, which mines plenty of inspiration from gothic dungeon crawlers like Castlevania and GameBoy era Legend of Zelda games, with modern flourishes à la Dark Souls. Players control Mina, a genius nineteenthcentury mouse who must slay monsters and restore power to her home. Don’t let its cute looks fool you: Mina the Hollower is a challenging game that will have you sweating and smiling all the way through.Marvel Tōkon: Fighting SoulsRemember dropping quarters into Marvel vs. Capcom 2 back in the day? The legacy of Marvel’s 2D fighting heritage lives on in Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls, a shiny new team-based fighter with an anime-inspired take on the Marvel Universe. Heroes like Captain America, Iron Man, Spider-Man, Storm, Deadpool, Blade, and even villains like Doctor Doom team up to save the world from an alien menace. Developed by Arc System Works, arguably the modern masters of the genre with titles like Guilty Gear, BlazBlue, and Dragon Ball FighterZ, the studio applies their decades of expertise to one of the finest and most nuanced fighting games we’ve ever had the pleasure of throwing our controllers at.Onimusha: Way of the SwordThere’s no shortage of killer samurai games nowadays. Which is perhaps why Capcom saw fit to resurrect its dormant Onimusha franchise with the exceptional Onimusha: Way of the Sword. Essentially a reboot of the series (whose last title was released all the way back in 2006 for the PlayStation 2), Way of the Sword follows legendary swordsman Miyamoto Musashi as he comes into possession of the Oni Gauntlet and must cleanse the world of a supernatural evil. While not quite a Soulslike, the game offers an adequately complex combat system that ensures sword slashing never gets stale. And slicing demons in half feels oh-so satisfying.Forza Horizon 6If you, like me, have fond memories of Initial D, Forza Horizon 6 is an invitation to awaken the sleeping gearhead within. The open-world racing series finally makes its way to Japan, the birthplace of drift racing, to let players roam dense city streets and wide-open mountain roads in tricked-out Hondas, Nissans, and exotic supercars. The Forza Horizon series has reached its peak with this sixth installment, with photorealistic graphics that can fool you into believing you’re actually speeding through traffic halfway around the world.Resident Evil RequiemAfter almost thirty years of Resident Evil games, it’s no surprise that the ninth installment is another polished thrill ride. Capcom plays the hits to great success in Resident Evil Requiem, a survival-horror game that hits the right notes even when it’s serving up Leon S. Kennedy fan service. But in the roughly 10-to-18-hour campaign (a great length!), the gameplay from FBI newbie Grace Ashcroft is more horror-focused and full of fresh twists on the Resident Evil formula. Though we won’t spoil it here, Esquire’s review in February also teased that the latest Resident Evil game contains “one major set piece in particular that rivals some of the best action-movie moments in recent years.”Pokémon PokopiaDon’t let Pokémon Pokopia’s cozy gameplay fool you—the latest spin-off of the cutesy monster-collecting phenomenon is actually one of the deepest games in the franchise’s nearly thirty-year history. Sure, you will spend most of your time in Pokopia building houses for your Pokémon to live in or meticulously gardening. But underneath the casual novelties of building a perfect little Pokémon town lives a surprisingly emotional story about climate-change disasters, grief, and the importance of taking care of Earth’s natural environment.SarosSaros is a gameplay-first, story-second action game that feels incredible. Much as in the developer’s previous game Returnal, the third-person shooting is inspired by arcade shooters where bullets fill your screen nonstop. Unlike Returnal, it’s not brutally difficult. Gameplay is fast and exhilarating—and sometimes overwhelming—but it doesn’t take long before you know exactly which projectiles to absorb, which to dodge, and which to parry. PlayStation’s newest exclusive title also has one of the best gameplay loops of the year, and it does more with the DualSense controller’s advanced haptic feedback than any other game on the Sony system. Merging the run-based progression of Hades with a more traditional level-based structure to enormous success, Saros is difficult yet approachable, rewarding players with a ton of resources to invest in upgrades as it slowly unfurls its mystery-box story bit by bit.Romeo Is a Dead ManWith the release of No More Heroes III in 2021, Grasshopper Manufacture finally put the saga of Travis Touchdown to rest and kicked off its next era: Romeo Is a Dead Man. The studio’s latest game retells Shakespeare’s famous love story mashed up with 1980s sci-fi, Japanese tokusatsu, and grindhouse cinema. The game puts players in control of Romeo Stargazer, a small-town deputy who falls in love with an amnesiac named Juliet. But when Romeo dies, he is reborn as a half-man, half-machine superhero who embarks on a quest to find his missing love. Romeo Is a Dead Man feels like immersing oneself in an obscure Troma film, and it’s as madcap and magnificent as it sounds.Dragon Quest VII ReimaginedRemastered video games are always a tough sell—though, with every Nintendo fan having no issue coughing up $30 to play Pokémon FireRed & LeafGreen on the Switch 2 this year, it seems times have changed. Luckily, Dragon Quest VII Reimagined is much more than a port to a newer system. The remake, which includes many quality-of-life improvements, was rebuilt from the ground up with glorious 3D animation. If you’ve never played the classic Japanese RPG before, the charm of this latest remake is enough to make you a Dragon Quest fan for life.ReanimalIf you’re too scared to play horror games alone, let Reanimal’s multiplayer gameplay bring people together. Set in an island town overrun with monsters and mysterious creatures, Reanimal follows a nameless brother and sister who must survive the island’s horrors if they want to save their friends. With a story as cryptic as some of its puzzles, Reanimal carries the baton of other memorable platformers like Limbo and Little Nightmares to deliver an otherworldly experience. Although Reanimal can be played alone, it is a journey best taken with someone by your side.CairnVideo games are all about rewarding the player for progression, and there may be no better equivalent to this feeling in the real world than rock climbing. Cairn, a new indie title that focuses on this extreme sport, captures the similarities beautifully. As the player works their way up the mountain, juggling the character’s stamina and gauging the next best foothold, it is amazing how intense and immersive Cairn feels compared with its relatively beautiful visuals. But as with any good climb, the surprisingly difficult journey is more than worth it when you finally reach the top.Mouse P.I. for HireIf you thought Doom had too many pixelated demons and not enough rubber-hose whimsy, Mouse: P.I. for Hire is your game. Heavily inspired by classic Disney, Fleischer, and MGM cartoons—and clearly taking some cues from the 2017 hit Cuphead—Mouse: P.I. for Hire puts players in control of an anthropomorphic mouse detective on his latest case in Mouseburg. The game’s fast-paced first-person-shooter action is delightfully complemented by its (literally) cartoonish antics; hand-drawn pistol and shotgun blasts and reloading animations are as much of a treat to watch as the game is fun to play. If games today feel more complicated than ever, Mouse: P.I. for Hire brings it back to basics with a novelty coat of paint.Mario Tennis FeverNintendo should have called the new Mario Tennis game Mario Tennis Chaos, because the player needs to understand right up front that skills on the court can carry them only so far in Mario Tennis Fever. Much like the twenty-four drivers per race in Mario Kart World, a calamity of new power-ups renders tennis into a zany, uncontrollable farce of a sport that becomes one of the best Mario sports titles in Nintendo’s history—once you learn to let go and embrace the nonsense.Invincible VSThe decades-old Marvel vs. Capcom series still reigns supreme as the best superhero tag fighter in video games, but Invincible VS is set on taking the throne. Based on the hit Amazon series (with some of its stars reprising their voice roles, like Oscar-winner J.K. Simmons as Omni-Man), Invincible VS is a 3v3 tag-team fighting game featuring playable characters from Robert Kirkman’s comic-book universe. The game tells a stand-alone story adjacent to season 3 in which Mark must stand with his allies to save Earth from the Viltrumites. (Hence the fighting.) Although its mechanical controls are relatively simple compared with other fighting games, it’s no less elegant and fun, and the game features some gnarly cel-shaded 3D animation that’s simply gorgeous. Besides, it’s another way to pummel your buddies to a bloody pulp. Talk about threatening us with a good time.PragmataDead Space? More like Dad Space. Pragmata is Capcom’s latest original game and a potential franchise in the making, its story centered around a systems engineer named Hugh and his foster-father relationship with an adorable android nicknamed Diana. With a rogue AI overtaking a research station on the moon, Hugh and Diana must work together to take the AI offline and make it back to Earth. Between its breakneck gameplay involving grid-like puzzles (which must be solved on the fly) and its endearing story about parenthood, Pragmata is what you might get if you asked ChatGPT, “What if Alien and Marvel’s Logan could be a single video game?”