Starpath (Consoles TBC)

Starpath is all about building and maintaining your starship as you explore a vast universe, and though that might sound rather chill, I couldn’t shake a feeling of existential dread as my character woke up alone – though I’m told by the developer Jonathan Smårs that you can bring some co-op friends with you.

What calmed my nerves after I got the hang of navigating zero gravity was finding several floppy discs strewn about. I collected one after another as the ship slowly drifted through the cosmos, plopping them into a little computer and playing little retro-style games on them. One of the games was a simple racing game while another was a Minesweeper clone that I probably spent too much time on, as I had a notification in the top-right corner telling me to fix a ship leak.

Donning a nearby space suit, I tried not to panic as I exited the starship and drifted a little bit too far from it. Luckily, you have some fairly powerful thrusters that helped me get back and find the leak. Here, I learned about the build mode and how you can greatly expand and customise your ship.

Once repaired, it was off to orbit nearby planets to find out whether or not I was truly alone in the universe. Presumably. I ended the demo there because I panicked when I noticed my oxygen was getting a little bit low and I couldn’t find the entry hatch.

There’s no release date yet but Smårs — lead engineer and designer of Valheim — assures me Switch 2 is the eventual goal.

Starless Umbra (Consoles TBC)

When a game channels as much Secret of Mana energy as Starless Umbra, it’s impossible for me to pass up. I played through 30 minutes or so of an early section, switching between friends Amalia and Illari as they hunted little round rabbits and venomous snakes in a grassy region that wouldn’t look out of place on a Super NES.

If I had a friend of my own, I could have passed a second controller off to them so we could play together, though I found the computer-controlled companion more than capable enough. Much like its direct inspiration, Starless Umbra isn’t turn-based but rather features fast-paced action-RPG combat.

While I only played an early section, a sizzle reel nearby showcased dramatic story moments, different playable characters, and varied environments.

Developer Alcuria Games has every intention to bring this one to the Nintendo Switch consoles, but it’s still relatively early in development.

Lunars (Consoles TBC)

Lunars is a party game based on zodiac animals that reminded me of Mario Party mixed with the visual style of Little Big Planet. You’ve got your boards, your dice rolls, your minigames, but the characters are also made of felt with plenty of ways to customise them to your liking.

Lunars features a lot that sets it apart from its direct inspiration. Hanny and Waleed Agawani — the brothers behind Anubis Arts — love and hate party games like Mario Party, respectively, giving them perspectives to streamline the frustrating parts of the board-based party game experience while also tapping into what makes the genre so fun to play with your frienemies.

Take, for instance, their Blitz mode, where everyone hits their dice at once instead of taking turns. This speeds up games exponentially without sacrificing strategy, as you can still use items to mess with your opponents in real-time.

After every shared turn, you hop into one of 30+ minigames. One had me running around collecting musical notes more quickly than my opponents, while another had me floating up from bubble to bubble. If I missed a bubble, I’d fall all the way back down. My favourite was a little King of the Hill mode that had me controlling a little tank, complete with tank controls.

Naturally, I lost horribly to a group of incredibly competent computer players but I’m looking forward to bullying real people on a Nintendo console sometime after it leaves Early Access on Steam.

WTF – Waifu Tactical Force (Consoles TBC)

WTF – Waifu Tactical Force was sold to me as ‘Waifu Titanfall’ and after playing a few rounds of deathmatch, I don’t think that’s an exaggeration, though I didn’t get to pilot any mechs in this build. The speed, wallrunning, and incredibly tight first-person shooting (including a Titanfall 2-style Smart Pistol) were here, however.

Except, y’know, I was an anime Waifu girl with a kitten-shaped reticle on my bright pink-and-blue gun, running around a vibrant arena full of cherry blossoms. I played a handful of matches against WTF’s Executive Producer, Raya Winterhalter, and didn’t do half bad if I do say so myself.

WTF didn’t only remind me of Titanfall. Your Waifu of choice also comes equipped with abilities like grenades that deal no damage but send opponents flying and even a bubble shield that felt right out of Halo 3. Except it, of course, had sparkly musical notes shimmering all around it.

For a game with WTF as an acronym, it was no less sweaty than those juggernaut FPS titles we grew up with. While I played on a Steam Deck — on which it ran smoothly — this one is hopefully coming to the Switch 2 after it releases in Early Access sometime next year.

Midnight Horde (Consoles TBC)

Midnight Horde is one of those slick, pixel-based roguelites that grab your attention immediately. It sets itself apart from similar titles like Vampire Survivors in the way it uses verticality and a kind of parkour system on a 2D plane to keep you on your toes as hordes of skeletons clamber after you.

In the demo I played, I started as the Wanderer, though I had the option to play as a Gunslinger as well. The Wander begins with the Silver Blades skill that, every few seconds, spawns a Silver Blade that slashes in a wide arc around the Wanderer automatically. As I levelled up, I unlocked a rifle that targeted a nearby foe for some high damage and a shotgun that melted everything in front of me every few moments.

As you can tell, weapons auto-attack, freeing you up to leap around and avoid the deadly hordes as you collect treasure chests containing upgrades. While I didn’t experience the build mode myself, you can customise each run with different buildings that grant boons. Not only do they change the landscape, but also the run itself.

Midnight Horde will release on Steam first in 2026 with the eventual goal of bringing it to the Nintendo Switches.

Sleepover (Consoles TBC)

Last year, I highlighted a 3D platformer from KittyWampus, an up-and-coming developer out of New Zealand, called Bashful Adoration. While Bashful Adoration looks better than ever, KittyWampus also showed off a new, smaller project with completely different vibes: Sleepover, a visual novel where you take control of Yuna, the sole survivor of humanity trying to find meaning in an empty world.

In the short demo I played, I controlled Yuna as she wandered around her house, getting lost in memories of her brother and their complicated relationship with her mother. As you might expect, these memories start to get a little weird and downright creepy, accentuated by a unique, sketchy art style and shocking bursts of animation.

The demo concludes when a mysterious girl arrives at Yuna’s door – not a phantom of her tortured memories. It left me with many questions that I want answers to.

I’ll have to wait a while, though, because Sleepover is still in early development with eventual plans for a Switch release.

Petal Runner (Consoles TBC)

Last, I won’t talk too much about Petal Runner as I’ve done a full hands-on of the demo I played, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the most visually striking — and Nintendo-coded — game that I played at BitSummit this year.

Keep an eye out for a deeper look soon. Despite looking like a Pokémon clone, it’s far more than that.

While there were many more amazing games that didn’t make this list, what do you think of the ones that did? Are there any you’re particularly excited for? Let us know in this poll and the comments.