E3 time, or in this year’s case, IGN’s Summer of Gaming time is when we hear about all the big, expensive, epic new AAA titles that we’ll be playing later this year. But it’s also a time to discover cool, weird, lesser-known games that are worth just as much of your attention. Here are 10 exciting games that should be on your radar.
Cris Tales
Imagine an RPG that mixes all the style and flair of Paper Mario and Persona 5. Cris Tales is that, but with a hefty dose of time travel sprinkled on top. It’s a strange and ambitious game where the left side of the screen always shows the past and the right always shows the future, letting you manipulate time to your advantage both in and out of its turn-based combat. This one of the coolest games we played around E3 2019, and is scheduled to come out later this year.
Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout
One of the weirdest battle royales you’ll ever see, Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout is colorful, physics-y mayhem incarnate. 100 players are dropped into a series of silly challenges, like jumping through walls or dodging spike balls, that slowly but surely cull the herd down until a winner is declared. You can expect to stumble toward Fall Guys sometime this Summer.
Due Process
Rainbow Six Siege may be the king of breach-and-clear PvP right now, but Due Process is bringing its own flavor to that formula. It puts the emphasis on smart planning before a single shot is fired. Level layouts are randomized each time, so you’ll need to think on your toes about which doors and walls to worry about whether you’re on attack or defense. Due Process is coming to early access later this year.
Ooblets
The award for most adorable game on this list definitely goes to Ooblets, an RPG that mixes a bit of Pokemon, a bit of Stardew Valley, and plenty of its own brand of weird. You’ll be building a garden, exploring the areas around your peppy little town, and getting into turn-based RPG dance battles. That’s right, your Ooblets don’t fight fisticuffs, they dance-off to settle their differences. Another one planned for early access, Ooblets currently just says it’s “coming pretty soon.”
Samurai Gunn 2
The original Samurai Gunn is one of the best competitive couch co-op games of all time, so a sequel is extremely exciting. Samurai Gunn 2 isn’t trying to break what was already working just fine with the first game – high stakes, one hit kill competitive gameplay – but instead adds an adventure mode, new characters, and more levels. Samurai Gunn 2 will be on PC and Nintendo Switch this year.
Knuckle Sandwich
Keeping the strange RPG train going, Knuckle Sandwich is like if Earthbound somehow got even weirder. This game is colorful, funny, and frankly a little creepy. Knuckle Sandwich’s turn-based combat system throws mid-attack minigames into the fray, but in an even more elaborate way than something like Undertale. We’re more than ready to be very confused by this game whenever it lands.
30XX
Another sequel, 30XX is a follow-up to 2016’s 20XX, and the promise of it is basically infinite, randomized Mega Man. Like the original, it’s a roguelike platformer that randomizes the levels, enemies and bosses you’ll face in a run while pairing them with the jump-and-shoot gameplay Mega Man fans know and love. 30XX looks like it’s trying to be what Mega Man X was to the original, but we’ll need to wait until sometime next year to get our busters on it.
Teardown
Teardown is one of the more clever uses of a voxel world we’ve seen. Everything in the environment can be broken or blown up, but that’s not the goal. Instead, you’re trying to collect a series of targets, and the challenge comes from figuring out how to shape the world around you to let you do that as fast as possible. Teardown is coming sometime in 2020, and we can’t wait.
Bravery Network Online
The quickest explanation you can give for Bravery Network Online is probably “Pokemon but with Hipsters.” This turn-based, competitive RPG has you assemble a team of extremely fashionably dressed folk who then do battle against each other in what is basically a brutal but friendly future fight club. The combat system should be recognizable to Pokemon fans, but there are plenty of differences here that try to make for an even more competitive whole. Bravery Network Online doesn’t have a date just yet, but its Steam Page says “Coming Soon”.
Sable
And to close things out, an epic open-world exploration game with one of the most striking art styles we’ve seen in a long time. Sable is gorgeous, and lets players explore and climb across its world however they’d like, similar to a game like Breath of the Wild. Honestly, this one probably speaks for itself. Sable is expected to come out later this year.
Now obviously there are loads more exciting, under-the-radar games out there, so let us know which ones you’re excited for in the comments below.