Games Beaten 2026

[Syndicate]

...it feels good to get started in this thread early for once. On New Year's Day I put a bow on Keeper.

Wrapped Up So Far In 2026

1. Keeper

...Keeper is an interesting adventure puzzle game from Double Fine where you play as a walking lighthouse on a journey to restore light to a human-less world overrun by a blight known as the wither. What I found very interesting about Keeper is that there isn't any dialogue, the story is told entirely through the relics that you and Twig (your bird companion that joins you early in the game) come across as you work to solve the various puzzles and eliminate the wither you come across. Each area of the game is incredibly detailed, not only w/remnants human society, but also a host of peculiar creatures that you can interact with using your light, even the flora reacts to the light you shine on them...some of this even being used to solve various puzzles. Keeper is a charming game and at a brisk 10-hours or so worth checking out if you're a fan of Double Fine's work, a fan of puzzle games, or just want something different to try between more involved classic or modern gaming fare.

[PartridgeSenpai]

Partridge Senpai's 2026 Beaten Games:
Previously: 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
* indicates a repeat

1. Final Fantasy XII (PS2)
2. We Were Here (Steam)

3. We Were Here Too (Steam)

As the title suggests, this is the second game in the We Were Here series. My partner and I blitzed through the first game so fast that we had plenty of time left in the evening to start another, so we hopped right into the sequel. It took us about 2-ish hours to play through the game without looking up any puzzle solutions.

The story is something of a sequel and something of a side-quel to the first We Were Here (for whatever that matters). As it turns out, the two Antarctic explorers of the four from the first game didn't get lost! They eventually came upon the same strange castle that the two explorers (aka player characters) that the first game did, and boldly venture inside to see what might've happened to their missing comrades. Even if it's missing the mystery and bombast of the presentation of its sequel, it's still a straightforward enough premise for the action, and I'll also admit that it was fun to see that the "too" in the title wasn't just clever wordplay as well X3

The gameplay is still the same first-person cooperative puzzle solving that the rest of the series is so good at, but a bit more polished up than the first game. That focus on information sharing via a walkie-talkie is still paramount to the experience, and unlike the first game, we now mercifully have a light on the walkie-talkie to show when your partner is talking! No longer will you have the talk button held down while the other person is so neither of you actually hear anything in the first place <w>. The overall puzzle design is more polished from the first game too, especially in the cooperative sense. In my last review, I compared this to Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, where one player effectively has all the solutions to the puzzles and the other player solves all of them with their instructions. That whole KTaNE vibe of frantic information sharing is still the same here, but it's far better geared for cooperative play. Rather than having one person's sole job be either informing or solving, now you trade back and forth with different puzzles demanding different information from each player. It's still not as polished as the 3rd game's designs, but it's overall a much better experience than the first game, and one I was more than happy to pay a few bucks for.

This was, sadly, the most buggy of the 3 of these that we've now played. It wasn't massively an issue, but it was enough of a burden that it couldn't be ignored. One puzzle in particular involving identifying the correct cube bugged out on us, with the cubes first not being able to be picked up, and then after some resets, the puzzle just wasn't activating properly at all. It thankfully fixed itself after we quit the instance and came back, but it was still a pain to have to deal with. The walkie-talkies were also less cooperative this time than they had been other times. More than once, they began to lose their connection with the in-game VOIP client, and we eventually just used Discord for everything. Given how ubiquitous voice clients like Discord are these days, the in-game voice stuff not working perfectly is hardly a massive problem, but it was still a bummer in combination with the other technical issues we had.

The presentation is pretty good, and it's certainly more polished than the first game, but it's definitely not quite there yet. There's a bit more character to the graphics of the castle, its puzzles, and your explorers themselves, but lacking the mystic and creepy elements of the sequel, it still comes up feeling a bit generic more than anything (though it definitely starts to have some horror elements stronger than the first game's though, with more than one good scare that made me a bit jittery moving on to the next puzzle). The biggest issue I had with the graphics is the lighting, as due to the whole "lit by torches" vibe they're going for, there were a good few puzzles where identifying colors or even just objects, full stop, was a lot harder than I would've liked just because the game was so darn weirdly lit. The audio design is fine, with definitely a stronger soundtrack than the last game, and it fits the purpose of the task perfectly well.

Verdict: Hesitantly Recommended. This is definitely better than the first game, but it still pales in comparison to We Were Here Together in terms of both polish and value. If you're gonna play either of the first two We Were Here games, I'd say it should be this one, but if you're gonna spend *money* on any of the first *three*, then We Were Here Together is the easy winner, as it's still a far better showcase of the appeal of this sort of game than this one is. This is a great place to find more cooperative, communication skills-based puzzling fun if you've enjoyed the later We Were Here games and want some more goodness, but I'd still quite seriously hesitate to recommend it as your *first* foray into the series if only because later entries are so much more solidly put together.

[marurun]

Started off 2026 with Deja Vu: MacVenture Series.

I'm really curious to hear your thoughts on this. It's not common for people to, I think, go back to this title.

[MrPopo]

Previous Years: 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025

1. Dead Space (2023) - PC
2. Dead Space 2 - PC

Dead Space 2 is the action follow-up to the original Dead Space. The systems are refined compared to the original, but that refinement was used for ill, rather than for good, leading to a somewhat disappointing follow-up, though it still was reasonably enjoyable.

The game begins with Isaac Clarke from the first game waking up in a mental hospital, which is understandable, given the events of the first game. Of course, an infestation of necromorphs breaks out and Isaac must run for his life, and eventually he gets caught up in figuring out why the necromorphs are here and stopping them.

The original version of the first game was a bit slower paced; the telekinesis power was only for puzzle solving, not combat, even though Half-Life 2 had showed how much fun throwing physics objects at enemies could be. Dead Space 2 rectifies that (which gets back-ported in the Remake of the original), letting you throw enemy body parts and parts of the environment at enemies. The devs decided that this meant the game should be much more action heavy. Gone is the exploration in the first game; this is now a series of obviously linear corridors with a ton of broken bridges behind you as you move from setpiece to setpiece. Now, most video games are linear if you break it down, but providing the illusion of freedom, or even just having you revisit places you've been before provides a sense of freedom and the player getting to experience things at their own pace, rather than being led by the nose. The classic Resident Evil games understand this, as well as Dead Space 1. Dead Space 2 does not.

This also causes the story to suffer. There's no sense of downtime in events like Dead Space 1 had, so the game feels even shorter than it already is (and it is shorter than the first game). There's really only two objectives throughout the game, so you never feel like you accomplish a goal. It's a shame, because the revelations in the story are interesting to the lore of the universe, and a different presentation could have made it much more enjoyable.

The combat is fairly fun. You still have the focus on dismemberment, but the higher action focus means that it can be a bit cumbersome at times. Fortunately, one of the new weapons lets you ignore that system just due to how powerful it is. It launches giant spears and kills basically everything in one to two body shots. It does have low ammo in the clip, so it suffers on the largest fights, but for the most part it serves as a good panic weapon (especially since it has heavy stagger).

Overall, Dead Space 2 feels like there was some meddling with the dev team to tell them "no, we need it to be this way because Joe Sixpack wants action games, not survival horror". The game isn't resource constrained by any stretch of the imagination. And given it's an EA property, I'm not surprised that occurred.

[RobertAugustdeMeijer]

I bounced off of Deja Vu 2 (a long time ago) and I can't recall why. Perhaps the train system gave me too much to explore at the start?

[RobertAugustdeMeijer]

02:
Little Kitty, Big City

This one should be perceived as way better than Stray! As you walk around the city, you'll bump into fun characters who ask for help. Like an influencer cat who's too lazy/glamorous to do her own errands, a parent of lost ducks who are having fun around town, and a tanooki who needs you for zany experiments. Your rewards are perks to your climbing performance and cute hats you can collect (like a shark hood or a top hat). Some folks will be (rightfully) annoyed by your actions, but you're never in peril. The game's so dense, you'll likely go for a hundred percent completion, within a couple of hours. Pretty much the perfect cat simulator!

7/10

[TheSSNintendo]

Started off 2026 with Deja Vu: MacVenture Series.

I'm really curious to hear your thoughts on this. It's not common for people to, I think, go back to this title.

Almost similar to the NES version, which I beat before. Only slight difference is there's a hidden "timer" to get Ace's memory to return, or else it's game over.

[RobertAugustdeMeijer]

03:
Claire Obscure: Expedition 33

A bunch of classic themes and mechanics we've seen elsewhere, perhaps even done better, and yet, COE33 does it all with a je ne sais pas pizazz that continuously marvels the player. The music, the art direction, and that visceral enjoyment of getting parries right are so enticing, you'll probably still care about the convoluted storyline, and put excessive time into figuring out how to beat the bonus content. The best part is how well it understands the mechanics of parrying in a turn based RPG: the world is littered with "overpowered" enemies that can still be beaten with good enough dexterity. If you lose to them, you'll still have the lingering sense that you might just win next time. Unfortunately, the end game bosses still demand intricate min-maxing of abilities in menus before fights. But for 90% of your adventure, there is a continuous tension of testing your mettle against a smorgasbord of opponents.

8/10

[prfsnl_gmr]

I’m so curious about that game now. You’re a pretty harsh reviewer, and if you enjoyed it, I suspect it may be the rare game that lives up to the hype.

……

1. Ninja Gaiden Ragebound (Switch)

This game absolutely owns. It is everything I wanted from a new 2D Ninja Gaiden game and an early contender for my GOTY.

The set up here is that Ryu Hayabusa is unexpectedly summoned to the U.S.A. in the wake of his father’s death, and Kenji, Ryu’s protege, is left to defend Japan from a demon invasion in his absence. (Put another way, the game is a literal side story to Ninja Gaiden for the NES…meaning it might also have been titled Ninja Gaiden Gaiden.) This task takes Kenji to hell, where he is killed. When he awakens - you can’t really die in hell, I guess - he meets Kumori, a Black Spider Clan ninja. As Kumori recollects, the Black Spider Clan (i.e., one of the recurring villains from the 3D Ninja Gaiden games) was also attacked by demons despite their previous efforts in Ninja Gaiden II to form an alliance with the denizens of hell. Kenji and Kumori magically combine their abilities, creating a super ninja capable of escaping Hell and, ultimately, thwarting both a demon invasion and a related unsanctioned CIA black op. (Can you ask for a more Ninja Gaiden story than that?)

The gameplay is fast, furious, and everything you could want from a Ninja Gaiden game. You move fast; you slash fast; you throw fast. You climb walls; you hang from ceilings; and you dodge roll. Better yet, if you press the jump button in the air, you perform a spin attack that does 1/2 damage of a regular attack, but allows you to bounce off enemies, obstacles, and projectiles, much like the ninja from The Messenger. This mechanic adda a tremendous amount to the gameplay, allowing you to blitz through levels, jump wide gaps, and survive the game’s vicious boss fights.

The combat excels. You can swing Kenji’s sword as much and as quickly as you want, but throwing Kumori’s kunai wears down your ki. Thankfully, you replenish this precious resource by dispatching enemies with kenji’s sword, encouraging diverse attacks. Diversifying your attacks is further encouraged by charged attacks. These attacks do 5x the damage of a regular attack, but you can only get in two ways: (1) by sacrificing some of your health; or (2) killing enemies with a colored aura. Enemies with a blue aura must be slashed for the charge, while enemies with a pink aura must be impaled by a kunai. These charge attacks are critical for taking down large foes, cutting through shielded enemies, and stunning the bosses, and their appearance throughout the game’s varied levels require you to think more strategically about the order in which you dispatch your foes.

The bosses! The Ninja Gaiden series has always had pretty great boss battles, and Ragebound doesn’t disappoint. The bosses are quick and brutal, and your standard attacks do chip damage, at most, to them. Consequently, you must learn their attack patterns thoroughly and execute almost flawlessly to take them down. It feels great, though, to conquer these great foes after much struggle (and even better to take them down on hard mode without taking a single hit!).

Finally, the game is full of little touches making it a love letter to the rest of the Ninja Gaiden series. The story bridges the gap between both the 3D Ninja Gaiden games and the NES trilogy, and it ties together plot point from Ninja Gaiden (NES) and Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom (NES). Most of the game’s enemies are new versions of foes from the NeS trilogy, like the dud with the weird head that throws axes or the machine gun guys who shoot only three bullets at a time. There are musical references to the previous games soundtracks, and small touches in the backgrounds referring locations from other games. As a result, the game manages to show deference to the long-running series, without fawning, while still being its own thing.

As much as I loved the game, I realize it’s not perfect. The base difficulty can be daunting, and the difficulty curve varies wildly. (The bosses mid way through the game are much, much harder than the ones at the end.) Only a few of the character customization options are really worthwhile; so, you probably won’t spend a lot of time with the game’s upgrade system. Getting perfect scores on levels without difficulty enhancers is almost impossible, and I ninja’ed so hard a few times that I crashed the game completely. (Seriously, the last boss was afraid to spawn, and I had to restart the game and replay the last level before he showed up. I guess that’s keeping with Ninja Gaiden tradition, however.). Lastly, the hard mode, which you must complete to get the true last level and ending, after is pretty much identical to the normal mode the first few levels, making me wonder whether the developer ran out of time to complete it.

Still, there’s just so much to do - secret levels, score chasing, hidden items, etc. - and the game is so much fun that I can’t help but give it my heartiest recommendation. If you’re a fan of the series, or you just like difficult action platformers, you must try it. (If you’re a fan of the series but intimidated by difficult action platformers, though, fear not! The game has extensive accessibility options that do not in any way impact the story, achievements, or unlockables).

[TheSSNintendo]

1. Deja Vu: MacVenture Series
2. Deja Vu II: MacVenture Series
3. Earthworm Jim 2 (SNES/Switch Online)