gamescom 2026 was one for the history books, with a staggering 368,000 visitors from 131 countries descending on Cologne this August, while a record 1,743 exhibitors from 66 countries filled a show floor that sold out for the first time in the event’s history. Across a packed week, the CGMagazine team bounced between more than 70 appointments, going hands-on with everything from AAA heavyweights to indie passion projects tucked into the corners of Koelnmesse.
We already crowned our Best of gamescom 2026 winners, but with a schedule that full, there was no way everything worth talking about could fit on one list. Consider this the Best of the Rest: 17 more games that stuck with us long after the demos ended. Some earned their spots through sheer ambition, others through ideas we had never seen before, and a few simply because they were too much fun to ignore. Not every game here left us fully convinced, but each one says something about where games are headed, and all of them are worth keeping on your radar.
Age Twisters
Played by: Dayna Eileen
Age Twisters, coming from KRAFTON, was a very pleasant surprise. I am a mom of two and often want to find something fun to dive into with my kids, or even something they can play together. Age Twisters is a strictly co-op title, and developer Piccolo Studio was incredibly enthusiastic about it. Their previous title had a heavier heart, and though there are moments of a deeper story, a lot of this game is really just about having fun and laughing together.
What is unique about Age Twisters lies in its age mechanic. Each character has four age presets, and each of those offers different opportunities. You even take age damage, where blue will make you younger slowly and yellow will make you older. Younger ages have innovative tools the grown-ups wouldn’t have thought of; the older ones have functional tools a kid likely couldn’t access, for instance. Each single line of dialogue also has to be recorded for any possible age combination, since you can change at any second, so I really commend the work the studio has put in. If you love co-op, I think Age Twisters is going to really pique your interest.
Appulse
Played by: Eduard Gafton
In the context of massive layoffs in the gaming industry, a handful of impacted developers banded together under a new studio called Le Rado, French for “The Raft”, and started work on a brand-new game concept. The result is a title by the name of Appulse, an unorthodox blend of roguelite action, top-down shooter and pinball. At the beginning of the run I played, proceedings were as expected from a pinball game, but, before too long, things evolved considerably and what was once an empty board save for bumpers, flippers, inserts and the like, soon became overrun by insect-like enemies.
As the run went on, I was slowly starting to pick up updates, too, my favourite of which was inverting my recoil, which, in turn, allowed me to better control the direction of my ball-spaceship hybrid. After twenty or so minutes of high-octane shoot-em-up and pinball action, I defeated the boss and felt pretty good about my score. That being said, if I were given the chance, I would have fired up another run there and then, which is a very good omen for Appulse. As of writing, the game is still slated for release this year, but for those of you willing to give this one a try right now, a demo is currently available on Steam.
A Whisper of Fall: Jinyiwei
Played by: Brendan Frye
Chinese action RPGs have been some of the biggest-selling games of the past few years, and A Whisper of Fall: Jinyiwei looks ready to keep that momentum going with a game that feels solid and fun. Developed by CangMo Game Entertainment as part of PlayStation’s China Hero Project, the Ming Dynasty-era action RPG casts you as someone forced to infiltrate the Jinyiwei, the empire’s feared Imperial Guards, as an undercover agent for the black market. Juggling official missions for the Imperial Guard Bureau with secret tasks on the side, you slowly uncover a massive conspiracy in an empire on the brink of collapse.
What really sets it apart is the “deduction” ability, which lets you travel through time in each sandbox-style level, retrace scenarios and foresee outcomes to unmask culprits and navigate overlapping possibilities. Pair that with wuxia-style traversal, including wall-running, rooftop leaps and counter-heavy martial arts duels, and you have a game that feels equal parts detective thriller and kung-fu epic. Coming to PlayStation 5 and PC, A Whisper of Fall: Jinyiwei earns its spot among the best of the rest at gamescom 2026, and I am excited to see more of what it has to offer.
Bye Bye Bonnie
Played by: Dayna Eileen
I have a confession: I had no idea what I was going to play when I showed up for my Raw Fury appointment. It was originally titled “unannounced,” and as I was walking over, I finally figured out what they announced…and it was described online as a “golf game,” and I have never been less excited to head to a 9 am appointment. The good news is that I never would have associated the word golf with this game ever and it ended up being a lot of fun whether you’re solo or with a team. If you love peculiar, this is absolutely the game for you.
The game is technically golf-adjacent in that you launch a ball—which is actually a creepy skull named Bonnie that you cruise around in to find your mother, and it is absolutely not a trap at all. Up to four players will work together to move through the world, follow these eerie yet adorable characters, find new allies, and unlock different skills to help launch you through life, literally. Before my appointment, I was not sold, but afterwards, I kind of just have to know where Bye Bye Bonnie is going to take us.
Bloodbreaker: Labyrinth of the Witch
Played by: Eduard Gafton
Developed by Philippines-based indie studio Phoenix Up! Media, Bloodbreaker: Labyrinth of the Witch, is a gothic roguevania perhaps most inspired by the grandfather of the genre, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. The art style caught my eye, which is the main reason I decided to try it in the first place, but unfortunately, after around 30 minutes with the game, it remains the only aspect worth noting. I wish I had more of an opinion on the gameplay, but my character got stuck in fences or platforms so often that it was hard to tell whether or not it was good.
Moreover, every time my character would get stuck, I needed to restart the game entirely in order to get unstuck. This eventually became a frustrating loop, leaving me to think that Bloodbreaker: Labyrinth of the Witch needs a lot more time in the oven. It’s probably good, in this case, that it doesn’t have a release date yet. Still, if you’d like to give it a try for yourself, a demo is available on Steam.
Cassette Beasts 2002
Played by: Eduard Gafton
Cassette Beasts 2002 is the sequel to the 2023 modern classic of the same name and by far the best indie I saw at gamescom 2026. Like the original, Cassette Beasts 2002 is a creature collector with over 250+ beasts to battle and collect and a handful of diverse companions to meet and befriend. Oh, and I should probably mention that two of said companions are voiced by Baldur’s Gate 3 alumni Samantha Béart (Karlach) and Neil Newbon (Astarion). On top of this, Johnny Gioeli, of Crush 40 fame, rounds up this absolutely stacked cast of talent.
As for the game itself, it visually reminds me of the action RPG 3D Dot Game Heroes, whereas everything else, naturally, brings Pokémon to mind. Unlike Pokémon Sword and Shield’s depiction of the UK, though, Cassette Beasts 2002 presents a loving and oftentimes hilarious rendition of London at the beginning of the oughts, made better by the addition of creatures such as Traffikrab — literally a big traffic cone crab. If only for Traffikrab, Cassette Beasts 2002 seems poised to be a day one pick-up. Everything else is a welcome bonus.
DRAGON QUEST MONSTERS: The Withered World
Played by: Eduard Gafton
Coincidence has it that, Cassette Beasts 2002 wasn’t the only creature-collecting game I got to play at gamescom 2026, as I also got hands-on with DRAGON QUEST MONSTERS: The Withered World. Starting as a spin-off series of the legendary JRPG franchise, DRAGON QUEST MONSTERS has been around since 1998, with this latest iteration, The Withered World, coming three years after the previous entry, The Dark Prince.
Now, whereas I’m a fan of what I played of the mainline DRAGON QUEST games, I must confess that The Withered World didn’t quite grab me after around 30 minutes of hands-on time. For one, none of the monsters that I got to battle or recruit really caught my attention, with the worst of the lot by far, the Wax Murderer, being assigned to me as my starter following a short quiz I did.
Secondly, the gameplay itself was simple to the point of being uninteresting. Nothing really stood a chance, even as I ran into most encounters with auto-combat and fast-forward enabled. Lastly, I found the story to be cookie-cutter: what are the chances that not just one, but two unrelated girls embark on a journey to find a cure for their sick father? I’ll see if I feel differently when The Withered World releases on December 3rd, but, as of the time of writing, I’m of the opinion that there are a lot of other games, even in the same genre, worth picking up this year over this one.
Exterminauts
Played by: Dayna Eileen
Exterminauts brings us to the planet Tian, a world that is rich with a substance called Polymorphic Plasma—a very important substance that can send you and your abilities into overdrive. This appointment at gamescom 2026 was actually so much fun, even if it wasn’t a title I was particularly familiar with. You are part of a team of blue-collar workers who get called in to protect the operations surrounding the plasma. The game takes inspiration from movies like Men in Black, Ghostbusters and Armageddon. They best explained it like this: “If it’s broken, leaking or breeding, it’s your problem.”
I was able to sit down for a short round with Behaviour Interactive team members, and even though I did try to get them killed—a lot since there is friendly fire—we had a ton of fun. You will unlock and be able to upgrade all kinds of weapons, and skills can be put into Overdrive, which is powered by Polymorphic Plasma, to give you extremely strong moves to take on all kinds of creepy crawlies. With abilities like a vortex pull, fires made of fence and a Cryo weapon that cause some insane exploding damage, I can’t wait to see what kind of trios people put together.
Greak 2: Alliance of the Storms
Played by: Eduard Gafton
When I showed up to my appointment for co-op Metroidvania adventure game Greak 2: Alliance of the Storms, I didn’t know what to expect. This is partly because the appointment was kept secret until the day of and partly because, even when the curtain was peeled back, I had never heard of the first Greak, also released by Mexican independent studio Navegante. After a quick introduction, in which I bonded with the developers over a shared love for Mexico (my lovely partner, Jackie, is, like them, from Mexico City), I got the chance to play through a small portion of the game with them.
Initially, Greak 2 brought to mind titles such as Hollow Knight, It Takes Two and Housemarque’s forgotten gem Outland, but after playing through the demo, I came to the conclusion that it is trying to be a game that’s more than the sum of its influences. Furthermore, what most sets Greak 2 apart from its predecessor is the addition of local and online co-op play, which, even after only getting hands-on for around 20 minutes, clearly feels like the definitive way to enjoy this title. I would need more time with it before I proclaim it as a must-play, but rest assured that, come release sometime in 2027, Jackie and I will be playing Greak 2: Alliance of the Storms together. Stay tuned for more thoughts then!
GeniGods: Nezha
Played by: Brendan Frye
Chinese studios made a huge impression at gamescom 2026, and GeniGods: Nezha was one of the most striking trailers shown off during ONL. The new action RPG from Genigods Lab, the studio behind My Hero Academia: The Strongest Hero, pitches itself as China’s answer to God of War, and from what we saw, that ambition feels well placed. More importantly, the game is very fun.
You play as Spirit Pearl, the first life forged by Nüwa from water and clay, on a quest to stop the return of Pangu, the god whose body became the world. That genesis myth fuels everything, from regions built across Pangu’s colossal limbs to bosses drawn from ancient deities, with three endings along the way. The team talked me through the mythology behind the game, and it sounds unique and incredibly ambitious. I cannot wait to see how the team brings it all to life.
The combat matches that scale, blending God of War III-style action with fighting-game flair. You can launch enemies skyward for aerial juggles, then unleash water-infused Fluid Mystics abilities and relic-granted powers. Boss battles keep up that momentum with multiphase encounters and complex combos that make for frantic, exciting action and some truly jaw-dropping sequences. Built in Unreal Engine 5 with fluid-simulation technology from the studio behind the record-breaking Ne Zha films, it already looks the part.
GeniGods: Nezha is slated to launch on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, and it easily earned its place among our Best of the Rest at gamescom 2026.
Guns of Eschaton
Played by: Brendan Frye
There is something special about Guns of Eschaton, delivering an experience that pushes what you can expect from the shooter genre and offers something incredibly unique. Eschatology Entertainment has taken the Soulslike formula and rebuilt it as a first-person shooter set in an apocalyptic Weird West, and the result is unlike anything else I played at the show. The world alone earns attention, bearing the unmistakable vision of the late Viktor Antonov, the art director behind Half-Life 2, Dishonored and Wolfenstein: The New Order, with this game serving as his final project.
Even from the first minute I was thrust into the game’s world, I was forced to relearn everything I knew about shooters. Its authentic 19th-century firearms demand that the hammer be cocked before each shot, and reloading means feeding cartridges one at a time, so getting caught with a spent cylinder is a death sentence. Enemies are combat puzzles, each with a codex entry revealing weak points to shoot in sequence, while a spectral bullet parry rewards perfect timing with slow-motion counters. With co-op, cursed ammunition, and a whole bandolier of revolvers to master, Guns of Eschaton is one of the most creative shooters we saw this year and an easy pick for the Best of the Rest at gamescom 2026.
KINGDOM HEARTS Collection [I-III] (On Nintendo Switch 2)
Played by: Eduard Gafton
Ever since I can remember, I’ve adored KINGDOM HEARTS, one of Square Enix’s most important franchises and the only series across media to recognize Donald Duck’s unparalleled magical prowess. However, if I were to discover KINGDOM HEARTS for the first time and only had a Switch to my name, I would have been very disappointed with being offered only cloud versions of these games, which are infamous for not being very good at all.
This should all change with the upcoming release of KINGDOM HEARTS Collection [I ~ III], a bundle containing all of the mainline titles packaged into one. Importantly, while this collection will release on October 8 on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, it will also be coming to Switch 2 natively. After getting around 15 minutes of hands-on with this latter version, I’m very happy to report that it all looks and runs even better than I remembered, with both Kingdom Hearts II and III performing perfectly on the Nintendo Switch 2.
As far as I’m aware, the only caveat is that only the first two collections, KINGDOM HEARTS 1.5 and 2.5, will be coming to the original Switch, but the good thing for anyone interested is that all of the parts that make up this bundle can also be bought separately. It remains to be seen if these games will run well on the first Switch, as I didn’t get to play them on that system, so the best advice is to proceed with caution until there’s more information.
Petit Planet
Played by: Dayna Eileen
We have previewed Petit Planet already on CGM, but this was my first time spending some time with it myself. Hoyoverse is a company that makes some of the biggest games on the planet, and now they are breaking into the cozy market, and I couldn’t be more excited. Yes, there are some striking similarities to the Animal Crossing franchise, but Petit Planet still has a heart and style all its own, and some unique story beats that I think people will find really interesting.
I spent a little time on my island—or planet, I suppose—meeting the NPCs, some of which are voice-acted, farming, and checking out the world. I did some decorating and even learned about the awesome outfit-saving system, which will save me loads of time when I finally get to play the final game! I checked out the Galactic Bazaar, which felt a bit empty since there aren’t bustling players there yet. However, the Starsea Voyages are something I am looking forward to, as they are a way to discover new NPCs, items and more.
Petit Planet is a tough kind of game to preview in short bursts, but it is releasing this winter, and after my short time with it, I am very much looking forward to playing the full build on mobile and PC.
Showa American Story
Played by: Brendan Frye
During ONL, one of the strangest games at gamescom 2026 was revealed, with Showa American Story immediately looking like a game I needed to play. Thankfully, I had an appointment to see it the next day. Let me start by saying Showa American Story is bonkers, and I mean that in the best possible way. NEKCOM’s alternate-history action RPG imagines a 1980s America bought out by Japan, then drops players into its post-apocalyptic ruins as Choko, a girl back from the dead on a cross-country road trip to find her missing sister. It is Yakuza meets Lollipop Chainsaw, and it wears that proudly, embracing its absurdity on its sleeve.
What sold us was how fully the game embraces its absurd concept and delivers an experience unlike many others. Combat is fast and flashy, with Choko juggling up to four weapons, including katanas, drills and even an American flag used as a polearm with a rocket-powered finisher, while building a Rage Gauge for devastating attacks.
Between brawls, there is era-specific nostalgia everywhere: playable arcade cabinets, hopscotch, Motorcycle Maintenance minigames, and an RV home base called the Red Lotus. Add a difficulty setting literally named “Heisei Loser,” and you have one of the most confident, bizarre games of the show. With a 2026 launch targeted for PlayStation 5 and PC, Showa American Story earned its spot here through sheer audacity, and is a game I need to see more of.
Star Trek: Outposts Unknown
Played by: Dayna Eileen
I had to admit that I am not a Trekkie in a room full of developers and PR reps who were about to show me Star Trek: Outposts Unknown; I felt ashamed—rightfully so. I like the movies, but I don’t think that counts. What I do love, though, is a good city builder, and Star Trek: Outposts Unknown is shaping up to be a great one. Again, another tough genre to check out in 30 minutes, but I gave it my best shot.
As I was dropped into the middle of a beautifully coloured world already established, I was able to watch my little minions walk through the city that was built for them and ask questions as I went. The systems seem very in-depth so far, which means there will be a lot to learn as players get their hands on the game. If you like Star Trek, there will be plenty of nods to the franchise, including some ties to the latest show Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.
If you don’t know much, there is still so much to look forward to here, and I am looking forward to building my own city in the stunning art style the team at Magic Fuel Games has picked for the game when it comes out on October 20, 2026!
Westlanders
Played by: Brendan Frye
Team17 and The Breach Studios brought the Wild West to gamescom 2026 with Westlanders, an open-world survival adventure that has us excited about its potential. Starting out as a lone nomad with little more than a customizable wagon and a dream, you slowly carve out a life on the frontier, gathering resources, crafting tools and eventually trading the nomadic life for bustling settlements of your own making.
Think of an experience mixing Red Dead Redemption and Valheim, and you will have a basic idea of what to expect when you dive into Westlanders. It is playable solo or in co-op, and the 19th-century frontier is as gorgeous as it is unforgiving. For fans of the genre, there looks to be a lot of depth waiting to be explored.
What earned Westlanders its spot among the Best of the Rest is just how much is hiding beneath its Red Dead-flavoured exterior. This is not just another survival sandbox. Layered on top of the crafting and base building is a surprisingly deep management and economy sim, with companions to recruit, outposts to link together and an economic network to grow across multiple biomes, each with its own hazards and resources. It even has a full weather system, a day-night cycle, and plenty of other elements that will affect and change how you survive in the wilderness. With Team17 now publishing and PC early access set for early 2027, Westlanders is shaping up to be the western fix many have been waiting for.
Zeverland
Played by: Dayna Eileen
Zeverland was my first appointment at gamescom 2026, and it was a unique experience, for sure. Packed into a tiny room with an eager dev team watching me, I was given a short presentation all about the title. All I needed to know was that it was a cute, Funko Pop-looking survival zombie game. Sold. What made it better was when I found out you can make weird, creative weapons, like a Scorching Club made from a tennis racket and an iron. Zeverland has over 600 combinations, which could really make things interesting.
It was a hard game to preview in such a short window. The survival genre has a lot to take in, and most of it happens over time. What I did learn was that there are several kinds of classes, like a Police Officer, Physician, Handyman, Firefighter and Student, that all bring something different. Zombies are Zeds, which I think is adorable. You can recruit NPCs to fight and gather for you, which is great for those of us who don’t love a lot of co-op. And most importantly, you can become a Zed and wander around and do some murders if you feel like it. It’s temporary and just for fun, but it made me happy, so it matters!
Zeverland is coming to early access in 2027, so you can kill or be killed then.
