// KOTAKU — GAMING
The Best New Games Of 2026 (So Far)
Another year begins and that means it’s time to start our Game of the Year watch. Every year we round up the games that have resonated with us as we keep an eye out for this year’s best. 2026 has already had some certified bangers just in the first five months. We’ll be updating this list periodically as we head toward December, so watch this space.
I have never in my life played anything quite like Big Walk. Part puzzle game, part social experience, and part exploratory adventure, Big Walk sees you and between one and 11 of your friends (you must have at least one) wander an island covered in Fischer-Price-looking structures containing strange mechanisms and puzzles. To solve these puzzles, collect their rewards, and see more of the island, you must communicate. Sound, motion, hand signals, lights, walkie-talkies, flare guns—you’ll use all of these and more to overcome the different barriers put in front of you by both puzzles and distance and win the island’s weird, gourd-shaped rewards. Big Walk is a meticulously designed playground created explicitly to prompt you and your friends to be silly with one another, struggle together, and ultimately succeed together, allowing you to bask in all the companionable joy that comes with it. Smart as hell, weird, funny, and with an ending that repeatedly brought me to tears, Big Walk will stick with me for many, many years to come. — Rebekah Valentine
Not nearly enough people have been paying attention to Deltarune, which received its fifth chapter (of, probably, seven? Or more?) this year. It’s easy to overlook, sure. It feels tailor-made for Undertale fans, and it does largely demand some experience with its cult-hit predecessor. And at its most basic, it’s a simple, turn-based RPG with bullet-hell battles about two kids thrown into an alternate world and charged with fighting to save it from being consumed in darkness. But over the course of five chapters now, developer Toby Fox has created one of the most lovable casts of weirdos I’ve seen in an RPG. The game’s excellent, believable writing and confident humor are incredibly effective at getting me invested in even the most trivial NPCs, and make the narrative all the more impactful as the game explores its deeper themes of family, young love, grief, loss, growing up, and letting go. Chapter 5 has some of the best character moments yet, coupled with a fantastic soundtrack that continues to outdo itself in each new chapter. If you haven’t started Deltarune yet, it’s well-worth it to catch up now and be ready and waiting as the story soars closer to what’s sure to be a heartbreaking conclusion. — Rebekah Valentine
Is it cheating to take an already good video game and remake it? Maybe, but that’s what Ubisoft did with its new Assassin’s Creed entry, Black Flag Resynced. Yes, this is basically Black Flag, but with better visuals, new missions, and modern controls. That’s not a bad thing; in fact, it’s quite good, as Ubisoft mostly makes only smart, reasonable changes to the original Black Flag to deliver a pirate-themed Assassin’s Creed game that, while not necessarily new, is a great time. — Zack Zwiezen
Do you like to go fast? Do you yearn for the edgy, anime-inspired aesthetic of Jet Set Radio? Do you like trains? You might be autistic, but you might also like Denshattack! Undercoders’ Tony Hawk-like train game is a blast. It’s also surprisingly challenging as you do cool train stunts, grinding on rails and chasing high scores. Its frenetic joyrides require you to lock in to accomplish goals and pull off moves that quickly become second nature. Denshattack! is for the score chasers who want to get off the skateboard and onto a whole-ass train car, and it commits to the absurdity with style. — Kenneth Shepard
Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls pulls off something a lot of fighting games mess up, being a complex tag-team fighter with a lot of mechanics to learn and juggle while also remaining approachable, giving Marvel heads decent t