10 Most Extravagant Video Games of 2026

As someone who’s been playing and analyzing games for practically half
my life, I’ve been getting increasingly hard to impress within the
interactive entertainment industry after having experienced all sorts of
things.

However, this insensitivity to the regular attempts to offer a unique
campaign isn’t impenetrable, as every year there are developers who
manage to break through my shell of apathy and leave a truly strong
impression.

Whether they’re good or bad games—since the ability to surprise isn’t
always linked to quality—I always enjoy a campaign that evokes new
sensations, given it’s become increasingly rare.

Therefore, if you’re looking for the kind of adventure that generates
feelings you can’t even describe, I recommend you try any of these
ten most extravagant video games of 2026.

Grombo Card Shop Tycoon

A Reconverted Addiction

Games that follow in Pokémon’s footsteps have left me indifferent for a very long time, but I
didn’t expect that one of the titles that would hook me the most this
year would be Grombo Card Shop Tycoon, the early access version
of a game that emulates buying and selling booster packs from the famous
franchise.

With simply phenomenal humor and magnificent creature design, brimming
with pop culture references, this title strikes a tremendously
satisfying balance between incremental mechanics and shop management,
becoming exhilarating very quickly.

Dealing with customers looking for specific cards and others who want to
bet on whether they’ll sell you one for double the price or give it to
you for free, deciding what to sell and at what price, decorating to
your liking, filling the enormous skill tree…
It’s a satire that’s as conscious and funny as it is addictive.

Never in a million years would I have imagined that opening dozens of
booster packs from my own business to find golden feces with a face or a
Charizard made of sausage would be so satisfying, but Grombo Card Shop
Tycoon made it a reality.

Future Knight

A Type of Retro You Didn’t Remember

Remember the LCD aesthetic of the Game & Watch? Me neither, until I
stumbled across Future Knight by accident and fell completely in
love with its take on a rather forgotten variant of retro gaming.

Based solely on its glorious and unique visual style, the title’s
presence on this list is practically essential, but if we add the plot,
a homunculus tumor inside a robot who travels to the past to defeat the
tyranny of a cultist who erased humanity’s memory and set up a pyramid
scheme as a cult, it becomes even more compelling.

Regardless, the gameplay is equally impressive, as you control both the
android, based on a 90s soap opera protagonist, and the tiny companion,
resulting in
an extremely fun 2D action-platformer with challenging bosses and
spectacular animations.

Given its arcade-style focus, Future Knight lasts three hours yet will
win you over for life, especially since, unless you’re approaching old
age, I’m sure you’ve never played anything remotely similar.

Valor Mortis

A Soulslike Without Equals

Initial Release Date
2026-10-13
ESRB
Mature 17+ / Intense Violence, Blood and Gore, Strong Language
Developer(s)
One More Level
Publisher(s)
One More Level, Lyrical Games
Platform(s)
PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S
Systems

Ever since I played
Ghostrunner
at launch, I’ve been forever linked to
One More Level
and everything bearing its name, though even with that affection, I
couldn’t have imagined what
Valor Mortis
would bring.

The Soulslike genre is usually quite traditional and rigidly adheres to
its conventions, but the studio decided to
focus more on its own expertise
than on FromSoftware’s legacy, resulting in the only game of its kind
where movement is a delight.

William inherits Jack’s motion abilities in
a first-person action title that’s an ARPG,an FPS,and a parkour experience simultaneously, blending all sorts of gameplay concepts and philosophies that one
wouldn’t think should work together, yet they do so magnificently.

Add to that magnificent worldbuilding in an apocalyptic France of
Napoleon Bonaparte, some of the best level design the genre has ever
seen, and particularly high production values compared to its peers, and
Valor Mortis becomes a rather particular specimen.

Tenebris Somnia

Multiversal Terror

Faith: The Unholy Trinity
is among the best horror video games I’ve ever played, and
Tenebris Somnia became the finest spiritual successor I could
have imagined for such an outstanding production.

Instead of rotoscoping, the game uses cinematic cutscenes with live
actors and real sets, complemented by spectacular makeup and editing
work that blends seamlessly with the title’s refined pixel art to create
otherworldly, bizarre, and terrifying creatures.

From its themes and levels to its creative puzzles and fascinating story
and mythology, Tenebris Somnia is one of the most distinctive references
the genre has seen in the entire decade, as easy to spot among hundreds of titles as finding an anvil in a
haystack.

Because of its fundamental ideas and the perfect pacing with which it
moves between video game and cinematic experience, you’ll never expect
the kind of story that awaits you,
much less the fidelity with which that story is translated into
gameplay.

Pragmata

Never Change, Capcom

Initial Release Date
2026-04-17
ESRB
Teen / Language, Violence, In-Game Purchases
Developer(s)
Capcom
Publisher(s)
Capcom
Platform(s)
PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Nintendo Switch 2, PC
Systems

Inside the AAA spectrum, few developers are as functionally eccentric as
Capcom, which, as
Pragmata
demonstrates, doesn’t need to sacrifice experimentation to deliver a
truly enjoyable title.

The campaign unfolds through the dichotomies of hacking and shooting,
Hugh’s brutishness and Diana’s innocence, the slow pace and dynamic
levels, and so on with every element that constitutes it,
because it doesn’t run away from the tension of conflicting
concepts.

It’s an emotional and charismatic story, set against its backdrop so
that, along with the spirited gameplay, it never stops moving forward,
always feeling like a fresh and captivating experience that you never
want to stop playing.

Most big-budget products avoid contradictions and risks, and therein
lies Pragmata’s extravagance:
going against the grain of its class and prioritizing its creative
vision above all else.

Well Dweller

Gothic, Cozy, and Disturbing

Developer(s)
Kyle Thompson
Publisher(s)
Kyle Thompson, Top Hat Studios, Inc.
Platform(s)
Nintendo Switch, PC
Systems

Kyle Thompson‘s craftsmanship is becoming increasingly refined
with each new Metroidvania he releases, but he has truly outdone himself
in every conceivable way with Well Dweller.

Speaking of contrasts, his latest adventure leaves you feeling both
profoundly unsettled and captivated by its environments and inhabitants,
as the juxtaposition of gorgeous biomes and atmospheric music with
gothic and
unsettling designs
is mesmerizing.

Fighting bosses whose behaviors and aesthetics seem lifted from sleep
paralysis is magnificent, even when it involves giant hands chasing you
through the pipes of a kingdom, a dollmaker trapping your sister’s soul
in a plush toy, or a guardian decapitated by the moon to possess his
body.

Well Dweller is a collection of fables and legends seen through the
lens of its action-adventure gameplay, which, needless to say, is extraordinary and offers some of the best
structures in the entire genre in terms of combat, movement,
exploration, and progression.

Phantom Blade Zero

Breaking Down Cultural Barriers

Initial Release Date
2026-10-29
ESRB
Not available
Developer(s)
S-Game
Publisher(s)
S-Game
Platform(s)
PC, PlayStation 5
Franchise
Phantom Blade
Systems

“Extravagant” means unusual, striking, and peculiar, so I can’t think of
better adjectives to describe
Phantom Blade Zero, which continues
Black Myth: Wukong’s work in breaking down cultural barriers related to China.

The video game industry of this Asian giant had only previously
showcased its talent on a large scale in the mobile ecosystem, but
projects like S-Game’s open our minds to the world of possibilities that
comes with seeing the interactive medium through their eyes.

The result?
A glorious action game that can’t be reduced to being inspired by one
or another benchmark of the genre, but rather driven by Chinese idiosyncrasies in terms of
functionality, visual identity, narrative, mechanics, and sound,
offering
a unique journey both on paper and in execution.

Among everything released this year, Phantom Blade Zero is by far one of
the most exciting and culturally significant products, something we
can’t say about half of the creations that boast its production values.

Control Resonant

Time to Expand Your Mind

Initial Release Date
2026-09-24
ESRB
Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Strong Language, Violence
Developer(s)
Remedy Entertainment
Publisher(s)
Remedy Entertainment
Platform(s)
PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S
Systems

If
Remedy Entertainment
ever releases a video game that isn’t an enlightening, mind-blowing
experience, I’ll be the first to speak out, but
Control Resonant
shows us that we’ll still have to wait to see if that day ever comes.

The sheer audacity of making such drastic changes from its predecessor,
especially after
Alan Wake 2’s financial hardships, is the kind of gallantry we must praise,
support, and cherish to keep the art of video games alive, because it
transcends mere commercial success.

Consequently, we got a title whose story, setting, characters, enemies,
and even gameplay systems transcend the ordinary, becoming part of those
special titles you can only sum up as “I can’t tell you about it;
you have to experience it“.

Even though Control Resonant isn’t among my top titles from the studio,
it’s still magnificent and light-years ahead of what the average
developer can achieve, proving once again that Remedy simply operates in a league of its
own.

Mewgenics

Edmund McMillen Did It Again

Initial Release Date
2026-02-10
Developer(s)
Edmund McMillen, Tyler Glaiel
Publisher(s)
Edmund McMillen, Tyler Glaiel
Platform(s)
PC
Systems

The name
Edmund McMillen
has become synonymous with irreverence, weirdness, and iconic status, as
you can see games like
Mewgenics from
miles away and still have every fiber of your being know who created it
and what to expect.

However, even with full awareness of its creator’s unsettling talent,
mere mortals aren’t prepared to anticipate the absurd display of
depth,inventiveness,and ability to cohere oddities into one
of the most addictive products in video game history.

I don’t know what it says about our industry that such adjectives can be
applied to a work that consists of breeding cats with autism, ADHD,
cancer, bipolar disorder, and other conditions to battle in turn-based
duels against “fetus-like enemies”, feces, or angel pigeons, but I’m
glad nonetheless.

If you have the willpower to dedicate less than hundreds of hours to
Mewgenics, I applaud you, but I’m not that strong, because I’m afraid
I have a weakness for roguelites that have more quirkiness than
pixels.

More Suda51 Than Ever

Initial Release Date
2026-02-11
ESRB
Mature 17+ / Intense Violence, Blood and Gore, Suggestive Themes, Use of Drugs, Strong Language
Developer(s)
Grasshopper Manufacture
Publisher(s)
Grasshopper Manufacture
Platform(s)
PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PC
Systems

Now, the 2026 game that most often left me speechless, simply because I
couldn’t believe what I was seeing, is Romeo is a Dead Man, which
is completely to be expected if you know who
Suda51 is.

Author-driven video games aren’t as common a phenomenon as they are in
film, but Goichi Suda is an exception to the rule precisely
because of how he can take a story so often repeated throughout the
centuries across every imaginable artistic medium and still make it
original.

You think you know the Romeo and Juliet fable,though Romeo is a Dead Man thoroughly subverts it
to create a title with mechanics from hack and slash, visual novel,
on-rails shooter, third-person shooter, creature management, and other
genres I can’t even name.

An intergalactic, interdimensional, and intertemporal twisted love story
that plays with the rules of the universe as much as with our
expectations couldn’t help but be extravagant, yet that’s just how the
great Suda51 works.

I’d venture to say it’s far from being the best game on the list, but
that hardly matters because, when it comes to being unique,everyone would have to ask for its blessing just to even enter the
conversation.